Developed/Published By: Genesis Works
Released: September 2009
ESRB: N/A
Available on: PC
Price: $29.99
Single Player Only
Genre: Adventure
Strength: Phenomenal graphics, Biblically sound
Weaknesses: No information on the game including system requirements, walkthroughs, or an instruction manual; no widescreen (16:9, 16:10) support
Moral Warning: Axis is one sexy granny System Requirements
Windows XP/Vista/7
128MB RAM
5GB HDD Space
DVD-ROM
24 bit color

Thank you Genesis Works for sending us this game to review!

Have you ever wondered what Heaven looks like? Hollywood veteran artists Stephan Martinere and Dylan Cole (Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, I-Robot, The Chronicles of Narnia, Lord of The Rings) bring the book of Revelation to life. The game’s story is rather simple: a boy named Joshua loses his grandmother at a young age. Before she passes, she tells him about Jesus and gives him a toy spaceship. Twenty years later, Joshua is flying his NASA spaceship which experiences technical issues and he winds up in Heaven. There he is greeted by an attractive woman, who turns out to be his grandma, Axis She gives him a tour of Heaven but Joshua must solve many puzzles to explore further. At first Axis will guide you through some of the puzzles by dropping hints when you’re doing something correctly or not. Towards the end of the game you\'re pretty much on your own. The same can be said from a community standpoint since there are no game FAQs, walkthroughs or forums available. Not even an instruction manual in the CD sleeve! When the game starts you’re in your malfunctioning ship. After exploring the ship for close to ten minutes I realized that this is just an overly complicated game menu. The back of the ship has the "Create," "Load" and "Delete Game" menu options. There\'s a seperate game options program in the start menu.  In the options you can set the game to widescreen which makes it vertically taller.  The view point is third person and the controls are all mouse driven. When you can manipulate an object, the cursor will animate. If you hit the \'Esc\' key the game will save and take you back to the menu/ship. Hitting escape from there will bring you back to Windows. There are many puzzles to solve; most of them involve re-aligning objects and matching symbols together. The first area requires you to raise the crystal bridges by solving the angel ring mystery. You\'ll learn Hebrew so you may appropriately match the Hebrew character with the Apostle foundation pillars. I haven\'t read music since grade school, so I had to refresh my memory to correctly play a song riff with angel trumpets. The last area has you matching the symbols representing the six days of creation. There’s a lot to learn; just make sure you keep some paper handy to jot down notes to help you solve these puzzles. They’re definitely doable, though. Graphically, this is by far the most beautiful Christian (and possibly secular game) I have ever played. The 3D artwork is simply breathtaking. Just like Myst, you click to move and view another pre-rendered frame. My children were absolutely mesmerized whenever I was playing the game. The vibrant colors, animations and cut scenes are all spectacular. It really makes you want to go there. The 3D sound effects are good but not great. It\'s neat that the sounds will fade away if you\'re not facing the source. The background music is fitting but quite honestly forgettable. The same voice actress is used for the grandma and the ship navigation system. It’s a pretty voice, though. When it comes to appropriateness, this game certainly preaches the gospel and is promoting Heaven and how to get there. The tour guide is definitely attractive and is conservatively dressed from the waist down but her top shows her cleavage a little. The funny thing is that early pictures of the game showed her with a scarf, but I guess she must have lost it… If you like third person adventure style games such as Myst then you’ll be right at home with Heaven. There\'s not much re-playability unless you want to gaze at your computer monitor absorbing the luscious atmosphere, golden streets, sparkles everywhere, and other things of beauty. The graphics are absolutely stunning but everything else takes the back seat. The lack of community support or instructions is a bit disappointing. You can buy the game on Amazon for $30. There’s no demo, but you can watch a teaser video on the website heaventhegame.com

Game Play: 15/20
Graphics: 10/10
Sound: 8/10
Stability: 5/5
Interface: 4/5
Game Score: 42/50
Appropriateness: 48.5/50
-1.5 for cleavage showing