The Steam Next Fest demo for ex-Skyrim dev's huge action game is a stealth archer’s dream - but trust me, skip the tutorial

gamesradar.com:

With so much on offer in Steam Next Fest, I figured it made sense to narrow down my choices with a game that I was at least passingly familiar with. Fortunately, it wasn't long before I stumbled on The Axis Unseen, a heavy metal horror game from former Skyrim developer Nate Purkeypile. Even more fortunately, it turned out that I was far more familiar with how this sprawling action game would play than I expected.

The Axis Unseen is played from the business end of a bow and arrow, which immediately appeals to that most iconic of Skyrim builds, the stealth archer. I lost uncountable hours to the archery skill tree in Bethesda's RPG, and it's fun to see Purkeypile resurrecting an immediately recognisable version of The Elder Scrolls 5's sneakiest combat strategy. Down to details as fine as the sound of a stretching bowstring, it brings me straight back to the plains of Whiterun.

But The Axis Unseen isn't resting on Bethesda's laurels, and Purkeypile is using his new setting to bring some entertaining archery tech to bear. Your bow is magical, and with the help of various runes etched into its limbs and tattooed on your hands, you get a much clearer picture of the world around you than anything Skyrim offered. The stealth indicator - the iconic opening eye that marked out your Dragonborn's visibility - can be found at one end of the bow. A sound monitor flares up if you make too much noise - running makes your footfall louder, of course, but so does walking over solid rock rather than soft mud - helping you keep an eye on how conspicuous you're being. Nearby enemies cause a symbol on your hand to flare up. Your bow might seem low-tech by modern Olympic standards - the use of a makeshift flag to track wind direction is particularly basic - but it's got some nifty tricks at hand.

Arguably my favorite of the bunch are your spirit arrows. These spectral missiles can be fired wherever you like, offering an eagle-eyed view of the surrounding area as they fly and hover in