Backlog - Metroid Prime 2 - Day 1

Day: 1
Play Time: 1:04
Progress: 8%




And so I start my first run of Metroid Prime 2: Echoes. Let's just get down to it then, alright?

First off, it's hard to not draw comparisons to the first Metroid Prime, mostly because the games are so similar and the first was such a landmark game. Metroid Prime was what could really be considered the game that really made me want to buy the system (that as Smash Bros Melee), and as such a landmark game it was extremely memorable. We hadn't had a Metroid game since the SNES, and when we heard it was a first person shooter a lot of people freaked out.

Luckily the game was fantastic, retaining the elements of Metroid like platforming, discovery, and upgrades while updating it for a new era. It was a great game, and most of the worried fans were sated.

Then we got Metroid Prime 2: Echoes.


First off, the subtitle. What does it mean? Where are the echoes? Why does it have to have a subtitle? Also, the "Metroid Prime" was actually the final boss of the first game, a Metroid infected with phazon and made to look like a black mutant...squid thing.

Or a giant crab. Attack it's weak point for massive damage!

So now that that thing is dead, why is the game still called Metroid Prime (besides maybe brand awareness)? And again, echoes? Echoes of what? WTF is going on?

Anyway, it is also worth noting that the menus in the game are totally awful. Basically, it presents you with a bunch of options at the end of strings. You can then spin these string...things around, and hope that the option you WANT is the one closest to the camera. The best (read: worst) part is that spinning the menu-string-whatevers gives them momentum,which means it's easy to just blow on past them when you finally think you can just select your damned save file.

Seriously, this is the most unfriendly UI ever. 

Well once you get past the awful menues and actually into the game guess what: it looks a hell of a lot like Metroid Prime. In fact, it's almost exactly the same. The developers played it reasonably safe and kept most everything here, including the same buttons and control schemes. Sure they tweaked a few hud/UI things to make it look a little better, but aside from that anyone playing Metroid Prime will feel right at home here.

Except for some reason they kept that stupid "danger" bar from the first game. Seriously, it is exactly what it sounds like: it goes up when you are close to enemies/danger, and goes down when you are safe. Why does this even exist? I'm pretty sure I know that stuff like fire and giant demon ants aren't exactly going to heal me. Why do we have this? And especially given the fact I'm supposed to be some badass bounty hunter. Does she really need a "danger" meter that lights up whenever she steps close to an open flame? Why? It's just a waste of hud space.

There it is, that bar on the left.
You can hardly see it because, guess what, it's currently at "no danger" level.
 I guess giant space pirates and a portal opening to hell doesn't classify as "danger,"
but heaven forbid you walk near fire!

Anyway, enough about this junk. What about the game?

Well first off it's a lot darker than the first one, and that's a good thing. Basically a bunch of galactic federation military dudes sent a distress call from a giant purple planet, so they send one person down (you) to go check it out. Brilliant! On the way down your ship gets zapped by purple lightning, and since spaceships are super fragile and can't survive a simple jolt of electricity you go down in flames and are trapped on the planet. And thus beings your adventure.

I say darker for a reason. The game starts with you walking through corridors, searching for dudes, you know, the usual metroid fare. And then THIS pops out.

Since the quality is terrible, I'll say what you are seeing. STRUNG UP DEAD PEOPLE WITH BUGS CRAWLING OVER THEIR CORPSES. 

Yes. Dead dangling federation guys, being eaten by the natural wildlife. Really. In a Nintendo game.

Holy cow.

Anyway, you keep seeing more dead guys strung up or eaten or just...dead. And then you realize your favorite feature from Metroid Prime 1 is back: Scanning random crap in the environment!

Yeah, I really missed this. 

For the uninformed, here is how scanning works. You press a button that makes it so you can't fight and puts a really small rectangle on your screen. You then can point to random environmental object (or the enemies attacking you), hold down the trigger for a few seconds, and "scan" them. Then you get a nice message like "Spitter Bug has been added to the log!" as well as a percent to let you know you'll never, ever get everything scanned. Then you can go back to fighting.

I can understand this feature, but at times it just feels awkward. For example, to power anything in the game - be it elevators, turrets, etc. - you have to scan the control panel. That requires going to that screen, holding down the trigger while pointing exactly at the object (and you can't be too far away, because future technology requires you to be right next to everything to scan it), wait a few seconds, and THEN the object will work.

Why the crap couldn't they just put a button? Like "press A to activate elevator"? While I admit it's "immersive" or whatever, it just makes things take longer.

Anyway, I've been complaining a lot about the game, but actually I really enjoy it (minus the few issues). The graphics, despite being old (and in SD thanks to my Gamecube) still look surprisingly good. It doesn't stop the fact that I still can't tell what things are sometimes, resulting in me getting stuck in the stupidest ways, but hey...whatever. The art is nice and the little effects on the hud (like dust and rain, etc.) are quite good.

Anyway I blasted and scanned my way through to the first boss, a little bastard that I remembered hating and still hate now.

Alpha Splinter, you suck. 

Basically by this point you haven't yet "opened up" to explore, so you'll always have one energy tank and five missiles. This boss actually reminds me of the one memorable thing I recalled from when I started this game way back when it was released (and it isn't a positive thing, either). The bosses in this game are way too long


This first boss, for example, takes a tedious amount of time. First you fight a bunch of dark baby splinters, sure, easy. Then you fight the regular Alpha Splinter. Then you find out it was for nothing, because he morphs into a Dark Alpha Splinter that actually has a health bar.

Alrighty then.

Then you have the most idiotic war of attrition with a "boss" ever. Basically he has two moves: spit a projectile at where you were three seconds ago, and jump to where you were three seconds ago. Basically, you are only going to get hit on accident (which is good, because he takes about 1/3 of your health). The problem is, every shot only takes a teeny tiny amount of health off his bar, even charged shots. So you spend about 5-7 minutes circle strafing, not getting hit and mashing the A button, just waiting for him to die.

This isn't a good boss fight, it's just tedious.

Oh, and before I move on, one last bad thing. The auto targeting. Yes, it's helpful, but it only works oh...80% of the time? IF an enemy gets too close, or too far, or too off to the side, it disengages. And unless you are pointed exactly at it (like with the scan), it won't work.

This would be fine, except the Prime games don't play like modern shooters, with two sticks an all that. It needs auto-aiming to be possible, because free aiming is nearly impossible to hit anything with. So when the targeting keeps disengaging, I get a bit frustrated.


Anyhoo...

However after that things get much better, because you actually are able to unlock stuff and go to a new area, a desert...place. There you fight the second boss, a big worm...guy, who when he becomes dark his name changes to "Bomb Guardian."

I wonder what item I'm going to get for killing him?

Again, this boss is more tedious than fun. You have to hit him at the end of his tail, but only when it is glowing and only if you are DIRECTLY behind it. As you'd expect, it takes far too many hits before it goes down. It also poops out bombs (and spits them out), but they are extremely easy to dodge. I only took one hit, and that's because I rammed into him out of sheer bordom.

I've been knocking on this game a lot, so let me say a few positive things, because I actually like the majority of this game (minus scanning and the boss fights thus far).

- As I said, the game is very pretty, even in standard def. It has a good art direction and sticks to it. All the hud stuff also looks really good.

- The music/ambiant sounds are fantastic, as is general sound effects. I found little metroidy tunes hidden in main songs, which made me smile. The atmosphere is great.

- It's still a Metroid game, which means it is big on exploration. It also has that whole "gotta keep playing to get the next item to unlock more stuff" thing that keeps you going, which is quite addicting.

- Again, the music. It's all really good.

- The Prime games are the only games that did first person platforming right. I actually feel like I can gauge jumps and not suck. All other first person platforming games (with maybe the exception of the little Mirrors Edge I've played) always make me feel like a clumsy idiot. Metroid doesn't do that.

That's it from me today. Two bosses down, two luminos...thingies have been...uh...luminosed? Whatever. I don't really care about the plot (dark world eating light world? sounds like Link to the Past or something), but I am enjoying the exploration. When it opens up more, I'm certain I'll like it even better.