There are a lot of things about Axiom Verge 2 that I think I appreciate especially because I play a lot of video games.

The gamer-nerd term for these types of games is a “Metroidvania,” which is a portmanteau of the two most well-known entries in this particular subgenre. They are action-adventure games focused on exploration, where you slowly make your way to every corner of an open, sprawling map filled with danger and treasure.

Like its predecessor, the 2015 indie smash Axiom Verge (which you don’t have to play first), AV2 leans more Metroid than -Vania. You’re often alone, typically equipped with fewer weapons, and generally have more questions than answers—except you don’t have time to ask them because, at any given moment, you’re up to your hips in weird, angry robots.

It’s a difficult, questionably honest experience that nonetheless does a good job of slowly weaving you further into the world. It’s not as immediate as the first AV, which gives you half a dozen strange alien weapons and powers within the first 20 minutes or so, but it makes up for it with fluid movement, interesting environments, and a series of mysteries that reveal one tantalizing piece at a time.