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Miyamoto Shrine> Gamecube> Metroid Prime 2: Echoes Review I feel very ashamed for turning up with a 2 month late review for this game, to think there's a chance that, however small, I alone could be responsible for the commercial failure of Metroid Prime 2: Echoes makes me cry inside. You lot however, the readers who have not for whatever inexcusable reason purchased Metroid Prime 2 should be more ashamed than I. You are depriving yourselves of what, ignoring the massive three titles released the end of last year is the game of 2004. You are deprived.Metroid Prime was despite all odds in all respects a
complete success in transferring the classic Metroid formula to 3D. It really,
really shouldn't have worked. It was a new 3D update of a near-on ten year old
classic side-scrolling shooter, now changed to a first person perspective under
a rookie first-game developer who's workforce were being laid off in droves, as
well as all their game projects being canceled fast due to them allegedly being
completely unimpressive. But it worked, it really, really worked.
Metroid Prime is up to now still one of the greatest games
of the generation and it saddens me that every time I hear about someone buying
it they always play it for an hour and then never go near it again. Games have
changed, gamers have changed. Metroid Prime so perfectly transferred the
original game's playstyle of progression, backtracking and item collecting that
the game has a certain appeal that doesn't click at all with gamers who barely
remember the SNES. The fact that it's an action/adventure game disguised as a
first-person shooter doesn't help.
I guess I'll just address this review to fans of the first
game who undoubtedly didn't get around to buying this new installment due to
certain other big titles (shame on you). Our hero Samus is on a mission on the
planet Aether to locate and assist a group of federation troopers, but she later
discovers there is much amiss on Aether. Aether has been struck by a phazon
meteor and has been ripped into two dimensions, a dark and light world. Samus is
drawn into an age-old struggle between the all but defeated planet natives the
Luminoth and the new evil inhabitants of the darkworld the Ing. Throw an evil
Phazon-enthused Dark Samus into the mix and you've got a solid story on which to
spend 20-odd hours with.
Some of you at first glance may think Metroid Prime 2:
Echoes is little more than a rehash of the first game with a dodgy multiplayer
mode tacked on, admittedly the first few hours don't help to convince you much
otherwise, it's the usual affair of scanning, exploring every area, morthball
puzzles and massive bosses hiding all your lovely power-ups. At about the
half-way mark however the game drastically picks up pace as you gain more
power-ups to explore with and new areas become accessible to you.
The controls are still the same controversial affair,
which in my opinion are absolutely perfect. Dual-stick FPS style is no-where to
be seen and retro have opted again for the more simple but effective method of
locking on with the left shoulder button leaving you to strafe and dodge to your
hearts desire. A few camera problems when looking vertically aside the control
scheme is perfect for the game and I wouldn't change a thing.
Echoes' game world as with the original Metroid Prime is
extremely open-ended. Your basically left to yourself to explore the games huge
world often with little idea of where to go next. This approach is quite
appealing as you get completely entangled in Metroid's world scanning every
object, reading pages of information about creatures and plants and stumbling
into the odd secret or too. This world setup if a bit tedious at times can give
you a strong desire to progress, explore a little more and learn about Aether
and it's inhabitants.
If you found one world difficulty to explore in the first
Metroid Prime you're going to love the chaos created by the second dark world
which is basically an evil parallel of the existing light Aether. This parallel
world approach to the story adds some Zelda-like gameplay to the game activating
portals and hopping between the two worlds changing stuff around in order to
access new areas and get new items.
Retro has also dug some retro-style game difficulty out of
the grave with the resurrection of the Metroid series, Echoes is hard as rock.
The game does not hold your hand and you are not told what to do and you're
going to have some very tough boss fights to contend with. Gamers have become
lazy and like the first game if you're not up to scratch you wont get passed the
first hour.
The sheer level of time and imagination that has gone into
Metroid Prime 2: Echoes is amazing. There's never a moment in the game where I
thought I was doing something I had already done before. The huge number of
varied power ups from the spiderball to the dark and light beams, the grapple
beam to the seeker missiles and the various visors to the spectacular screw
attack add so much fresh appeal to the puzzles and gameplay Retro could have
doubled the games already hefty length once you collect all the power-ups.
Enough words cannot be said about how satisfying, fun and down right cool it is
to wall jump up huge towers and see sound with the Echoe Visor. Retro have
thought up some very imaginative creations whilst staying true to the previous
games in the series. The art and sound of echoes are again second to none. The
worlds of Aether don't look like they were designed in a dark room in Texas,
they look like they were organically GROWN. The art is, in a word, stunning. The
sound isn't far off either, the catchy tunes that the Metroid series are famous
for are certainly present, even if a little weaker than the music of the
original Metroid Prime.
Multiplayer. We said it wouldn't work, at E3 I was forced
to play it on the show floor as well as at the press conference in front of
everyone and I still said it didn't work. It doesn't work. The development team
said it was included because of huge demand, but I don't see how the single
player mechanics could ever work in a multiplayer game and after playing it
extensively it really isn't that great. There are two modes: Deathmatch and
Bounty Mode, Deathmatch is your basic all on all killing spree where as Bounty
Mode has you dropping coins whenever you get hit so the player with the most
coins at the end of the match wins. Games are reducded to shooting at each other
for a minute straight until eventually the person with the best button-mashing
wins, running away from each other in morthball mode, and all franticly trying
to get the best weapon in order to win. If there's anything I do good, it's
exaggerate how bad something is.
Overall Review written by Andy
Robinson |
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to Shigeru Miyamoto Miyamoto Shrine is not affiliated with Nintendo Co Ltd. © 1999-2005 A.Robinson/C.Johnson unless otherwise stated |
