Fallout vet says his heavy metal open-world RPG is "5x the size of Skyrim," riffs on Todd Howard: "See that mountain there? You can go there"

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"I tried something smaller and it felt awful"

The Axis Unseen
(Image credit: Just Purkey Games)

Former and longtime Bethesda developer Nate Purkeypile says his new "heavy metal open world horror game" is five times as big as Skyrim, and in doing so riffs on an iconic Todd Howard moment.

The Axis Unseen first caught our attention back in 2022, in which Purkeypile revealed he was making it out of a camper trailer at the time. Not that it isn't receiving attention based on its own merits, but Purkeypile's name has definitely lent the project a fair bit of prestige. Purkeypile was an artist at Bethesda Game Studios from 2007 all the way to 2021, with his most recent credit being lead lighting artist on Starfield. He was also world artist on Fallout 3, Fallout 4, and The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim, as well as lead artist on Fallout 76.

"The world of my solo indie game is ~5x the size of Skyrim," Purkeypile said in a tweet. "See that mountain there? You can go there," he added, referencing a classic Todd Howard meme that originated from a Skyrim presentation at QuakeCon 2011 in which he said "you can walk to the top of that mountain."

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Explaining the need for such a large game world, Purkeypile said The Axis Unseen "is a hunting game with huge creatures, so it needs a lot of space. I tried something smaller and it felt awful."

While "heavy metal horror game" is undeniably a strong elevator pitch, it doesn't really sell the whole package in the case of The Axis Unseen. Here is something of an open-world hunting game in which you track down creatures from folklore, kill 'em, and absorb their powers and elemental arrows. The heavy metal part comes from a score composed by Clifford Meyer, previously of the legendary post-metal bands ISIS and Red Sparowes. "The music dynamically adjusts to what is going on in the game," reads the Steam description. "Sometimes it is atmospheric, other times it is intense metal."

The game just got a demo on Steam and it releases on PC October 22.

Only time will tell if it joins the ranks of the best open world games to play today.

Jordan Gerblick
Jordan Gerblick
Staff Writer

After earning an English degree from ASU, I worked as a corporate copy editor while freelancing for places like SFX Magazine, Screen Rant, Game Revolution, and MMORPG on the side. I got my big break here in 2019 with a freelance news gig, and I was hired on as GamesRadar's west coast Staff Writer in 2021. That means I'm responsible for managing the site's western regional executive branch, AKA my home office, and writing about whatever horror game I'm too afraid to finish.