Customer Reviews
More Metroid Prime! Wheeee!
If you loved Metroid Prime, you will probably love Metroid Prime 2: Echoes. That's not a given, but it is very likely. Same game engine, same control scheme, same graphical detail, new environments, second chapter of the story. That about sums it up. Personally, I do love the game.
The story isn't groundbreaking by any means. Samus Aran travels back and forth between a "light" and "dark" world to battle evil shadows of her allies and herself. It's been done before many times, but this game pulls it off well. While Prime 2 is very much a second chapter in the Metroid Prime story, you do not need to have played or beaten the first to understand the second. On top of that, unlike most of the other titles that use this plot, the "dark" side of the game world is genuinely creepy. The atmosphere of Metroid Prime 2 is top notch.
There have also been a few major tweaks to the scan visor. The scan visor is, apparently, the most under appreciated part of the Metroid Prime series. Using the scan visor tells you a great deal about the environment, particularly the enemies you face. It is also how you get most of the back-story of the game. But the great part is, using the scan visor is completely optional. If you find it slow or annoying, you can simply ignore it and still play through the game just as well without it. The scan visor's implementation really is an elegant system.
In Metroid Prime 2 it gets a lot more elegant. In the prequel, scannable items had orange symbol blocks on them when you aimed the scan visor at them, and you had to focus in on these to scan something. If your angle was wrong, say if you were behind or below the scannable object, it was easy to miss the orange block and therefore miss the scan. In Prime 2, however, a scannable object changes color entirely when the scan visor is turned on, quite clearly pointing it out, and you can scan it regardless of your view angle. This makes the scan visor much easier and more intuitive to use.
With all that said, there are a couple niggling issues. While more Metroid Prime is a good thing, it was the first game that was the real breakthrough for 3d first-person Metroid. The second one can only be...the second one. Great game though it is, it is still basically a rehash of the first. For example, at least a third of the enemies are taken directly from Metroid Prime and given a slightly new look. That's just lazy.
Second, it is easier than its prequel. For most of the game this is hardly noticeable, but the final boss fight really drives it home. For the original Metroid Prime, even if you know the trick to beating the final boss it is still challenging. In Prime 2, if you know the trick you can blaze right past the final boss. Just to add insult to injury, in a couple boss fights "challenge" has been replaced with "completely random pattern that you can only beat through luck". That's pretty annoying. Fortunately, it is also pretty rare.
(Also, speaking of the final boss fight, if you get 100% of the pickups, you'll see an ending which proves that there will be a Metroid Prime 3. I'll not say anything more to avoid spoilers.)
But Prime 2 has also kept most of the good parts of its predecessor. The platforming and exploration elements of Metroid Prime were effortless, and the same is true for Prime 2. Jump distances are easy to judge by eye and just as easy to pull off. You won't often find yourself falling short of your mark. The enemies tend to blend in well with the environment, really adding to the atmosphere of exploring the ecosystem of an alien planet. The background music also adds to the atmosphere; it switches effortlessly from bright and almost-cheerful tunes to more somber melodies.
There's also a multiplayer mode where players try to frag each other. It seems fairly well put together, though I have not played it extensively. I am not a first-person-shooter fan, and I'm guessing it was added for those folks rather than for Metroid fans, to whom playing Metroid is more important than fragging people.
The control scheme is also largely unchanged, using the same L targeting lock-on system as Metroid Prime rather than the dual control stick system used by most first-person console games. While this cuts down slightly on mobility, it also aids significantly with fighting quick enemies and/or a swarm of small foes. A couple of new moves have been added, however. The fan-favorite screw attack is back, though it is not very useful as an attack. It's more a way to lengthen the jump and cross wide gaps. The morph ball has also received a few movement upgrades. All these new moves blend into the familiar control scheme without any trouble.
Speaking of crossing gaps, another addition to Metroid Prime 2 is the age-old platformer menace of bottomless pits. This seems like something the developer added almost as an afterthought, considering how forgiving they are. In most platformers, if your avatar falls into a bottomless pit, he/she/it dies. In Metroid Prime 2, your avatar loses 10 health and is magically returned to the point from where she fell. It is more annoying than anything else, which makes this addition to the game somewhat superfluous. If the consequences of falling in are so light, why have them in there at all?
But that's a minor gripe considering, as mentioned above, that accurate jumping is quite easy. What matters is that the pros far outweigh the cons. If you liked Metroid Prime and would like to play it some more, you'll like Metroid Prime 2.
To summarize:
Pros:
- Same excellent game engine with some minor streamlining tweaks
- Vastly improved implementation of the scan visor
- Same excellent graphical detail
- Amazing new environments
- Good integration of old Metroid staples of exploring and treasure hunting
Cons:
- Still only the second one
- Slightly easier than the first
- Pointless "bottomless pit" obstacles
Neutral:
- Multiplayer fragging mode
Final grade: Five stars of fun, but only 4 stars overall for being "the second one".
An improvement over Prime, but I want to see Samus again!!!
First, what don't I like:
I can't tell you how much I hate first person shooter. First of all, did you notice the aspect of the game, really, Samus is about 3 feet tall. I feel like I'm walking on my knees, everything is at ground level and it drives me nuts. Next, I love morphing into a ball because it's the only time I can actually see what's going on! Remember about 20 years ago race car games in arcades started to give you the option of four or five aspects, everything from the windshield view, to just the front of the car to then entire vehicle. Why? Why? Can't they do that with metroid???
I also miss the jumping! Samus is supposed to jump high and use the screw attack, this Samus barely gets off the ground, it's like a fat-person playing hopscotch. You jump slow, you come down hard (CLANK!!!) so your three-feet tall, you weigh a thousand pounds and you're saving the planet from some threat that might possibly come someday....
Now, what did I like:
Huge improvement in control over first Metroid Prime. Firing is more accurate and movement is cleaner, jumping is much more forgiving and not so tedious. I like the graphics, but some contrast would have been nice, each area seems to be all shades of one color and that's kind of boring. Some real 5.1 sound would be good, but the dolby digital is impressive (try a high-def tv and 5.1 system with bass up in a dark room if you want full effect.) This game is not a mind numbingly hard as the first. I can actually fight enemies in this one without screaming. I do hate that you die and have to do entire areas over and over just to get back to the boss enemy. Also, we are still on cons here, I don't like the "let you open a few doors at a time" crap. If these idiot aliens want me to save the freaking universe then they should give me the keys to all the damned doors strait away.
This game is very, very liner compared to Prime 1, a pro that it's less frustrating, a con in that you are limited to completing each task as they come.
Oddly enough I still really enjoy it, it has more of a feel like the original and GBA games (play the GBA games, they are much more fun!) and the emersion into the alien world feels complete, if limited.
Incredible
Metroid Prime 2 is nothing short of amazing. The graphics are probably some of the best I've ever seen and the storyline is great. I won't disagree that this is very similar to Metroid Prime, but only in the weapons/power-ups aspect. The overall game is very different. If you're someone who likes a video game that isn't just running around shooting things, but also provides mind-challenging entertainment, MP2 is perfect. It's extremely challenging and unless you have a strategy guide, you won't beat it in four days like most games.
On the note of the strategy guide, I advise you get one, but don't use it throughout the whole game; only use it if you are thoroughly stuck.
The multiplayer isn't great, but the Single Player more than compensates.
Overall, this is the best game I've ever played.
