Backlog - Metroid Prime 2 - Day 2

Day: 2
Play Time: 4:05
Progress: 24%
Items got today: Dark Gun, Light Gun, Double-Jump Boots, Dark Suit

Yay! I'm 1/4 of the way through the game! Wee!

On my continued adventures through the land of Metroid, I stumbled upon a conclusion. Those awful logs/scans that it makes me do are kind of like the precursers to the "audiologs" that are the new rage in games thanks to Bioshock.

Would you kindly read the logs? Also this is from Bioshock 2, not one. I know.

Basically the idea was to give you added immersion in the game world without actually having to do anything particularly jarring. In Bioshock it worked really well because the logs were the history of the places you were currently visiting, and the little "stories within the story" made it compelling to continue.

In Metroid Prime 2, it seems they were just there for self-indulgence. And to unlock concept art. Yep, I've scanned 40% of total Logs, and the game was pleased to let me know I unlocked some art that is probably on the internet. Yay.

There, I just saved you scanning like 200 things in MP2. 

The point is that it was a precursor, something that hadn't really been done before but was later adapted to be a near-staple in games. Borderlands did it for comedy and backstory on the weird characters in the world. Singularity explained about 70% of it's plot through the audio logs. Even Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas had audio snippets you can pick up, though they were few and far between.

Anyway, I actually went in and read a few, and they aren't bad. I just wish that Nintendo wasn't so voice-acting averse, or they could have had the actual soldiers be reading the logs as you solved puzzles. Can you imagine how much better the game would have been if that were the case? It would have added to the creepy ambiance too. But now, there isn't a lick of voice acting, even when watching the flashback videos of the soldiers. You have discs now, Nintendo. It's ok to put high quality sound clips on there.

Anyway, I was introduced to some of the new weapons in MP2, and they are quite...not very different from the ones in MP1.

Suck on some glorified flashlight! 

You get the Dark Beam, which is literally exactly the same as the Ice Beam from MP1, except...you know...dark, and the Light Beam, which is the same as the Plasma Beam except light. Way to go, Retro Studios, really branching out.

However, there is a rather major change to the Metroid formula here. If you look on the right of the screenshot above, you can see there is ammo meters now. Yeah, every time you shoot your gun it takes ammo. I remember when I first saw this I blew a gasket (as did half of the internet). Metroid games don't have ammo! Well, except missiles. And power bombs. And super missiles. BUT WHAT IS THIS AMMO?!


Actually, now that it's a while later, I'm actually really happy there is ammo, and here is why.

In Metroid Prime 1, once you got the side weapons you never switched back to the main one because...well, it sucked. The wave beam was awesome, the ice beam was awesome, and the plasma beam was the most overpowered thing ever. Why bother?

Pure, unadulterated HAX. 

Because of the ammo, you actually have to conserve the bullets. Especially since, unlike the missile doors, the dark/light doors don't revert to normal doors after you first shoot them. You need to have a cache saved up in order to actually progress in the game, aside from killing enemies. This means you stick to the regular beam and get good at it except in the most dire of situations (read: bosses). The specialty weapons are actually that: for specific parts. Because if I had infinite light beam, I'd be unstoppable.

So, I think the ammo works in this sense, also because it's technically still an FPS instead of a side-scroller. Lots of fans got butt-hurt about it when it was first revealed (myself included) but now I can see it actually makes a better game. It also doesn't "break the Metroid formula" because there were only like five Metroid games before this one came out (1, 2, Super, Prime 1, Fusion). So what's wrong with mixing it up? At least they didn't make it total crap like Ninja Theory did with Metroid: Other M.

Not only did it have a stupid name,
 it made tough-as-nails Samus "more feminine" (read: weak and wussy) and gave her a bigger rack.
Way to go, Japan. Very progressive. 

Anyway, I got both those guns. The way you get ammo is by killing enemies with the other gun (kill guys with dark, get light ammo, and vice versa). This is a great idea except it hardly ever works. I only get ammo about 50% of the time, which means I'm wasting the other type in an attempt to get more of the kind I want. Awesome.

I managed to find an ammo expansion, upping my limit from 50 to 100, which is great. I'm glad the expansions are so massive, because it reduces the ammo stress but still makes you conserve it. See? Ammo was a good idea.

At any rate I fought my way through the dark world, which is like our world only way crappier. You have to walk between safe "light bubbles," or else you'll take a crap-ton of damage. Some bubbles only last a few seconds, and they always go out right when you don't want them to.

It's actually a cool concept, and keeps you on your toes, though I had so much health I basically didn't give a crap. I managed to fight my way to a boss, though I think I killed Dark Samus (who is like Samus only...Darker) before. It's all a fuzzy blur in my memory, but she was so easy it didn't matter.

Pictured: Total Pushover

So anyway I got to a boss imaginatively titled "Jump Guardian." Seeing as the "Bomb Guardian" from yesterday had (wait for it...) bombs, I could only quiver with anticipatory delight as to what this boss might drop on death.

Maybe it's Power Bombs! 

Sure enough, I got the double jump, which meant I could jump twice. Awesome. This actually opened up a lot of the world, and made 90% of the jumps easier. So hooray for the Jump Guardian. You are a good person. Pity I had to murder you.

I got the rest of the temple keys (which I guess I needed. Since I ignored all the dialogue - excuse me, text - from earlier I had no idea what I was actually trying to accomplish aside from murdering innocent animals) and then...got stuck. The game didn't tell me what to do with them. So I ran back to the start, thinking I had to give them to the first guy I encountered. Nope. So I ran all the way back, really wishing Metroid games had a warp system, and finally found it where I was supposed to go. So account about an hour of that playtime to me wandering around like an idiot because I don't know how to read instructions.

Thanks for nothing, jerk. 

So I got to the dark temple and, BEHOLD! Another giant worm boss!

Yeah. He's pretty big. 

Unlike the other bosses, this one was actually pretty fun, if atrociously easy. Basically he jumps around like an idiot, and the game makes sure that your lock-on only works if you are pointed DIRECTLY AT HIS HEAD, so you miss him about 75% of the time because the game hates you. Yes, I'm still complaining about the lock on system, and I'll keep complaining until the damn thing works as advertised.

Anyway, you shoot him, then he attaches to a big ball in the middle for....reasons, and you can shoot the armor off his face. After that he starts sucking like a vacuum for another unknown reason, and you have to do the "stereotypical video game stupid thing that actually works:" get sucked into his mouth as a ball and drop bombs.

Why do video game characters think it's a good idea to go inside a boss to kill it? Aren't you avoiding being eaten all the way up until that point in the fight? The weird thing is I swear this applies to 90% of worm bosses. I mean the Stygian in Darksiders is the same way. You ride around, trying to not get eaten, until you hurt him enough that you jump in his mouth and slice him up. Brilliant plan, dude.

Yeah, just dive right in there, what's the worst that could happen?

So you do this three times and it dies, and it drops a spinning "Samus" logo on the ground. No, I'm not making that up. It seriously drops that.

Pictured: IMMERSION

So you get the dark suit, which looks totally badass, but also a bit like Dark Samus. AM I BECOMING THE MONSTER? Probably not, since the only Metroid game with a plot is Other M, and it (as mentioned above) is totally awful. But hey, I look cooler, minus the 80s shoulderpads.

Yeah! The Morph Ball looks cool, too. 

Now I'm tough and can survive the dark world without having to be in bubbles; I only lose a tiny amount of life. So that's great.

So I beat the desert world, went back to the main hub, and now I've unlocked Louisiana. Wait, it's just a marsh. Already I've discovered Samus walks like a snail underwater, and enemies here still take a billion hits to kill. Must be a theme.

Watch out for 'gaters. 

Let me actually bring that up: enemies in this game take so freaking long to kill, and not just the bosses. Regular enemies take a billion and a half shots. Dark Splinters, the most basic of enemies, take like 30 regular bullets. Which would be fine, except they took care to make sure you didn't use your sub-weapons all the time (see above), so instead it's just stupid.


It's like they had a great idea and forgot to balance it. You can either have 1. Really hard enemies but unlimited side weapons, or 2. Balanced enemies that die much faster with the side weapons. The current state means killing basic guys is a huge hassel with no reward, so 90% of the time I just run by and take the few hits. I do have like 500 life, so what does it matter anyway?

Anyway, I'm enjoying myself, despite my incessant whining. It's clear that, at the time, this game was a standout title. Now it's still pretty dang good, but when compared to the shooting of other games that utilize both sticks, it can come up short. I understand it isn't meant to be played as a shooter, not entirely, but it's still hard to not make the comparison.

Also the "free aiming" you can do is completely atrocious. The fact it is constantly trying to default you back to the basic "level" position makes precision aiming nearly impossible. Really, make the "tug" back down less powerful or something because dang. I have a feeling this would play loads better on the Wii, though.

Anyway, that's it from me today. Tune in tomorrow to for more Metroid Prime 2: Echoes.

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.