User blog:Unatratnag/Axcend Review - Issue 1

I've had a long history in gaming, including competitively. I knew from reading the solicit synopsis I would check out ... but I admit I had my hesitations. Here's why: My wife and I recently finished watching the first season of Sword Art Online. We had heard great things about this show about people being stuck in a massive multi-player online game. The second part of the story suffered from lack of villain characterization and my wife had a hard time following some of the nerd lingo which I had to constantly explain. I was worried this first issue of Axcend would cater too much to a particular audience and lose the sense of wonderment of what it's like to be lost in games and the center of many of my wild imaginations.

Reading Axcend, you can throw away those concerns. The first issue hits hard on bullying. Many gamers can relate to this as they can be ostracized from the 'in-crowd' for going too deep on a subject. Many victims turn to games as a form of release. It's been a main study with autism and the sense that they're not afraid to interact with games in that they don't emotionally lash out at them. This issue really hits hard on the element of bullying without being too on-the-nose.

It's also great to get some motivation behind why Eric Morn feels disconnected from his fellow classmates. This issue teases you but doesn't go too far into it with heavy exposition. There's plenty of action that doesn't feel forced, and it has great pacing with the play between the real-world and fantasy world. You won't regret checking it out if you're into games!

Rating
Rating: Buy the issue!