The Axis Unseen is a new horror game where players hunt cryptid creatures from Just Purkey Games that has been known to the world for some time. We even got a full-length trailer more than a year ago. Given that it hails from former Bethesda developer Nate Purkeypile, known for his work on games like Skyrim and Fallout, It’s easy to understand why people are paying attention to this one. Well, now we have even more reason to pay attention because the game is, apparently, five times bigger than Skyrim. Yes, really.
Purkeypile recently spoke with PCGamesN about the game, with Nat Smith getting some hands-on time with it. She revealed that while fighting cryptic creatures in the massive wilds of the game, there is no map for her to pull up. That was daunting because Purkeypile told her that the game’s map is “five times bigger than Skyrim.” That is, in a word, insanity. But The Axis Unseen isn’t just big for the sake of being big. There’s a simple reason for the massive map.
“I needed a lot of space for hunting creatures. Honestly, I was not super concerned about doing a giant open-world game because I’ve done six.”
So yeah, it wasn’t just to do another big game. It’s about hunting creatures like Bigfoot in vast open spaces and having it feel real and dense, despite being a heightened experience. To that end, Purkeypile and his team added some interesting mechanics to the game. “There’s a whole heartbeat system,” he said. “Your vision starts to constrict, sounds are muffled – nobody hears birds chirping when you’re fighting a werewolf.”
This all sounds pretty wild. It’s a pure, first-person hunting game. The spawns of the creatures are random, and there are 24 unique creatures in the game, with 42 variants of those creatures. It’s going to be one hell of a ride. The official description of the game reads as follows:
“The Axis Unseen is a heavy metal horror game created by one of the developers of Skyrim, Starfield and Fallout. Hunt nightmarish monsters from ancient folklore in a mysterious open world, collecting their enhanced sense powers and discovering elemental arrows. Beware, the hunter is also the hunted. Hunt monsters from folklore. Follow their tracks and blood trails. Pay attention to the wind direction so they can’t smell you approaching.”
The Axis Unseen does not currently have a release date but it is set to arrive sometime in 2024.
