08-20-2007, 08:10 AM
A "LMX" Review
Continuing Metroid awesomeness of August, its time to review the sequel to the game that revived Metroid. Metroid Prime 2: Echoes. And after the brilliance that graced our Gamecubes in the first Metroid Prime, you’d be forgiven for coming into the sequel with some pretty high expectations. Whether or not those expectations are met varies from fan to fan.
Raindrops keep falling on my head.
Starting off with the visuals, and what more can be said besides the fact that they are beautiful. You come into this game still with those faithful memories of Metroid Prime 1’s locales, the ancient ruins of the Chozo, the fiery pits of Magmoor, the freezing shores of Phendrana and the haunting depths of the Mines. And suddenly they are all blown away by a collection of new areas, I wont’ spoil them for those who haven’t reached them yet. But will say my favourite is Sanctuary Fortress. Every new area has its own flair that you will respect it for, but you might be slightly disappointed when you feel certain similarities that you feel aren’t necessary. For example, the first area is called Agon Wastes, but it feels a lot like the Chozo Ruins as it based in desert like environments.
Some of the nice touches from the first game carry over into this game as well, such as water washing off of your screen as you leave a pool of water. But there are some new ones, for example when your standing in the rain that buckets down in Torvus Bog you will see the rain actually hitting Samus’ Power Beam and pattering off to the sides. Again, nothing major but still a nice little addition to the game’s detail.
As with a few aspects of the game, gameplay has not changed. It is a lot like Metroid Prime 1, combat and all. Although I will still detail the gameplay for those who haven’t played Metroid Prime 1 and are new to the franchise on the whole. Basically the Prime games take what is a 2D side scrolling adventure game and try to successfully give it life in 3D world whilst still maintaining its charm from the old days. And as with the first Prime game, the sequel does this successfully with a few new things. For example, when you obtain the grapple beam you find yourself able to use your power beam whilst swinging. A nice feature if you’ve just jumped straight into a grapple beam jump and just noticed enemies that you can blast away with your beams.
Use the power of sound to defeat invisible enemies!.
Speaking of beams, another addition to the gameplay that was met with criticism is the use of ammo. I was one who criticised because I didn’t’ like ammo being incorporated into this franchise, it moved it too much closer to the FPS genre which it doesn’t’ belong in. Both Light and Dark Beams will use 1 round per shot, 5 for a charged and God knows how many for a Super Missile attack. And the Annihilator uses 1 of each ammo type every time the weapon is used, and 5 of each for charged weaponry. When you first get the Dark Beam you are given 50 rounds of ammunition and by the end you have 250, it seems like enough but when you get into the boss fights where you’ll be relying heavily on ammo you soon find it becomes quite tiresome to recover them. Granted its easily done, defeat an enemy or blow up a crate with a Dark Beam to get Light ammunition, or with a Light Beam for Dark ammunition. It still becomes tiresome to go ammunition hunting mid-boss fight constantly.
Nicely worked into the game are various puzzles that will involve the use of almost all of Samus’ Power Suit features. You’ll be using the Dark Visor to lock onto Dark Space Pirate Commandos and allow easier combat as the jerks definitely teleport around the rooms constantly, making it hard to follow. You’ll be using the Echo Visor to unlock doors using the Power Beam to activate sound sensors and allow access deeper into various areas. You’ll be using the Dark Beam to freeze Metroids (yes, they are in there of course!) and finishing them with Missiles. But you also combine features, like when you put on the Dark Visor to multi-target 5 switches at once with your Multi-Missile Launcher (it allows you to fire 5 Missiles at once). Retro have done a great job of working these features into the game a lot more than usual. Of course, the Scan Visor is still as useful as it was in the first Prime game so make sure you keep it handy.
Why, hullo there Quadraxis. I hope I didn’t wake you.
Oh sweet Zombie Jesus, like in my review of Metroid Prime 1 I’m going to give a special section of gameplay to detail boss fights. Thought they were good in MP1? Well, multiply the size of those fights by 10 and you have the standards that Echoes will provide you with. From your first Dark Temple boss, Amorbis, right through the incredibly awesome Quadraxis, each major boss really throws down the gauntlet to all those bosses in Metroid Prime 1. Omega Pirate has got nothing on Quadraxis in terms of awesomeness, let me say that much. For those who are wondering, Quadraxis is a massive robotic device which is taken over by the Ing and basically used against Samus, I won’t say where or when but trust me when I say that it is one of the coolest boss fights I’ve ever experienced. This game also brings back the recurring boss feature, obviously in this game the recurring boss is a character your going to get to know quite well by the end of this game and deeply into Corruption. That is the mysterious Dark Samus, created at the end of Metroid Prime 1, I wont’ spoil her creation again in case some people are lazy and haven’t finished it.
In Echoes, we are graced with a new Metroid feature that would be expanded upon in Metroid Prime Hunters (and made good in that game also). This feature is multiplayer, that’s right. Multiplayer in Metroid, a single player game, and unfortunately it is about as second rate as you’d expect it. Granted it was a fair effort considering this had never been tried in a Metroid game before, it is clearly a feature that we can live without in this brilliant franchise. Consider it an optional extra of sorts, the multiplayer consists of two modes: Deathmatch and Bounty Hunters. In deathmatch you basically duke it out with two to four players in one of the various maps and compete to see whom is the last hunter standing. Bounty Hunter involves collecting tokens that your opponents drop as you shoot and damage them, the one who has the most tokens at the end of the match wins, quite simple. Of course, to add more insanity to the mix there are a select series of power-ups. You have the beams (Light, Dark and Annihilator), and a few other power-ups such as Death Ball, which basically involves you going into Morph Ball and you, are surrounded by a glow that means as soon as you come into contact with an opponent, they die instantly. I’ll let you discover the rest, the main problem is with the multiplayer that it all feels a bit shallow, it can be enjoyable for a few sessions but I personally soon got bored of it.
Everyone seems to have worn the same outfit, how embarrassing.
Jumping straight into this game will provide the same sort of experience learning the controls, and jumping into this game from Metroid Prime means you know pretty much everything there is to know. Nothing new here in terms of buttons being assigned what command, they keep the same layout as featured in Metroid Prime which is a very good thing. Those controls were easy for beginners, and worked well for the veterans of the game. So controls are the same, R-button allows free aim with the control stick, L-button locks on, Z-trigger brings up the map, C-stick changes beams, D-pad changes visors, ect. They work as well as they did in the first game, so if it ain’t broke then don’t’ fix it.
They have taken the flowing soundtrack of Metroid Prime and given it a more adrenaline pumped feel to it. A lot of action encouraged songs are featured in this game mostly because when you are in a fight, you are most likely not going to be standing still for too long due to the aggression of a lot of the enemies featured in Echoes. And the ambience that each area you enter is incredible, and really brings you into the world. The sound of machines working away in the Pirate’s base on Aether’s surface to the mysterious depths of Dark Torvus Bog where only the most twisted creatures dwell. You will be walking cautiously, I assure you of that much.
A very nice feature is that some of the classic Metroid themes return! Hidden amongst the music of MP2. The easiest to spot is the Brinstar remixed when you venture into the depths of Light Torvus Bog, it’s a very clever homage to the music of the older Metroid games and I salute Retro Studios for putting something like this in the game’s soundtrack, pure awesome.
I see you Space Pirate, no one hides from the Dark Visor.
Replay value in this game is important, because maybe it was just me but it all felt like it was over before the game itself had really began. Possibly because it was so fun that the time flew by, or that having four temples to find twenty-one keys to wasn’t really enough. Either way it felt like it was gone to fast if you just ran through the game, however as with the first game collecting all the expansions really stretches the game’s lifespan. Of course a new upgrade has been added due to the new beams featured in the game, there are now four beam ammo expansions, each one adding 50 ammunition rounds to your beams. Very nifty and gives you total of 250 rounds. Obviously, collecting and scanning to try and get 100% is where the replay value comes from in most Metroid games, and this game does not disappoint.
Dark Samus is a formidable opponent to face, no matter where it is. A room full of Phazon isn’t the best place to fight her.
Overall, great game if you can ignore certain Metroid Prime 1 elements still being present. And Samus vs. Dark Samus with 10 minutes til Dark Aether collapses is too much of an adrenaline rush. My biggest complaint is no Ridley, but then he’s probably to busy recovering from his defeat at the Chozo Artifact Temple and preparing himself for an epic return in Corruption.
After finishing this game, you’ll be completely prepared for the exciting Prime conclusion in Corruption.
See you next mission.
Pros
+Better visuals than those in MP1
+Much more epic boss fights
+New weapons and upgrades
+Challenging enemies
+Still plenty of expansions to collect
+Two worlds to explore
Cons
-Too much like Metroid Prime 1 in some areas.
-Going back and forth between worlds can be annoying.
-Boost Ball Guardian is annoying.
-No Ridley D:
The scores.
Story: 8.5/10
-Samus Aran attempts to make contact with a squad of Galactic Federation troops who crashed on the surface while pursuing Space Pirates, she soon finds herself tangled up in a struggle between the Light Luminoth’s and Dark Ing.
Visuals: 9.5/10
-Beautiful areas, great character design, and superb detail.
Gameplay: 9/10
-As action packed as combat in MP1, but the epic boss fights really stand out.
Controls: 8.5/10
-The same as Metroid Prime 1, easy to pick up and relatively responsive.
Audio: 9.5/10
-A soundtrack with extreme quality, in some areas matches the original, but in a few areas I believe it surpasses it.
Replay Value: 9.2/10
-The same as Metroid Prime 1, collect all the items and upgrades (missiles, energy, power bombs and now beam ammo) and then play through the game on Hard Mode.
Overall: 9 /10
-An amazing game for those who liked Metroid Prime 1, only major flaw is certain aspects lack originality.
Review by LemonManX
