DP Challenge Part 8/100 – Metroid Prime Trilogy (Metroid Prime II: Echoes)

Game: Metroid Prime Trilogy (Metroid Prime II: Echoes)

Ranking: 5/100

Score: 92.27%

As previously stated, this is the second part under the Metroid Prime Trilogy game. Metroid Prime III: Corruption will be covered in another part, as it was released separately and in the top 100 ranked games on its own.

Samus is back, and this time there’s two of her! Yay! Well, not really, because one of them is a Phazon-obsessed evil version hell-bent on destruction.

Is Dark Samus a dark copy of her and her suit, or is it just a creature made from her suit alone? No, really, I'm curious. I don't think she ever gets to take off her helmet...

Intro

Navigating the menu is straightforward, and the opening cutscene is done through a series of ship log updates and a brief animation. This shows you the 'contract' Samus has signed up for and the planet she is heading to, but in an interesting and concise way. The air of mystery is retained, as once control of the game is handed over to the player, you still don't really know where you are and what to expect (beyond the premise given in the manual).

Although I like the fact that, at this point in the game, I effectively have no clue what is going on, I can see it could be a little daunting to new players.

Perhaps it would be nice to see a little more information teased out in the cutscene - a hint of the new game idea of dark and light worlds could be given by Samus briefly musing over detecting wormholes and what they might imply. Or, the player could just read the manual. It's difficult to suggest any improvements for the intro, as like Metroid Prime, the first level acts as both tutorial and premise explanation.

Getting Going

The game works in much the same way as Metroid Prime; you start off fully powered and as you progress through the level, you end up in a cutscene situation where you lose your main power-ups - in this case Dark Samus destroys the force field that protects you from the dark world. The starting level is fun and allows you to get to grips with many of the power-up features and mechanisms you will use throughout the game.

One thing the makers clearly decided was that nobody would play this game if they hadn't played Metroid Prime first. Given that it's only available on the Wii as part of this trilogy package, that's reasonable, but it's a shame. Unless you are familiar with the controls in Metroid Prime, you will probably find yourself referring to the manual a lot. Some of the features are explained, but there were quite a few moments in the initial stages that I noticed would have flummoxed me had I not started out with Metroid Prime.

Metroid Prime did a great job of making a tutorial level not feel like a tutorial level, and I think doing something similar in this game would have made it easier for someone who decided to play this game first (hey, maybe they played the first one on the Gamecube years ago and didn't want to re-do it?), while not being overly intrusive to anyone who had played the previous title.

Have any of you seen 'Teeth'? You know, about the girl who has teeth in her... Yeah. I'm reminded of that right now.

Fun

There is a slightly greater emphasis on both shooting and puzzles early on in this game; there are more enemies you have to take out on various screens, and when it comes to the puzzles, they are a little more thought-provoking. One example is where you have to set off a rigging system, and then shoot down the storage case hanging by a damaged cable. This allows you to use it as a platform to reach another level, where you get additional puzzles to open doors. It's a nice addition that makes you feel as though you've accomplished something rather early on. The world has a variety of claustrophobic space-station levels, external elements and internal buildings which keeps things interesting. One genuinely almost-jump-out-of-your-seat moment comes when you have to backtrack through a couple of rooms where you found and scanned a number of dead marines hanging from the ceiling... only to find the dangling corpses suddenly reanimating and trying to kill you. I mean, who doesn't love zombie space marines?

I didn't feel the threat that I felt in Metroid Prime in the early stages. The levels weren't disorientating and there wasn't that sense of urgency. The puzzle element is a little more complicated, but there's no real adrenaline rush until you get to a boss fight.

Even with the puzzle element being expanded upon, I think there would have still been space to have a few more time-crucial segments to build up the fear-factor a little. For example, a puzzle you have to complete to get a door open within a short time period might be interesting.

Visuals

The game uses dark corridors a lot to increase the sense of dread as you try and navigate an area, and localised light sources such as glowing power cables or species' pods add to the atmosphere. The 'dark' portals use such a different colour scheme to the rest of the environment, so they really stand out as being unusual. The fact that sometimes the sky takes on the appearance of some kind of electrical storm, but those colours are similar to the 'dark' portals you might see are a nice way of tying the environment together. The 'dark' parallel world is quite different in palette, so it really feels like a different place while still being clear that you are inhabiting the same space. The alien artefacts have a unique design that helps to make them both recognisable and interesting to look at. The aliens themselves all have a unique look to them, and the whole design carefully avoids showing you human features by keeping everyone in full armoured suits. The organic look of the alien temples and crafts are a marked contrast from the metallic human spacecrafts. Another nice little detail is, if you're in a dark area and you fire your blast beam (or there's any flash of light), Samus' face is reflected briefly in your visor - and it's the only human face you really see. When using the scan visor, objects you have previously scanned now show up as a different colour, which means you don't waste time scanning something you've already looked at. More importantly, this occurs even when you come across an object again in a later part of the level, so you can concentrate on only scanning objects that will provide you with new information - for example, if a marine doesn't have any new log information from one you've already scanned, they'll show up as a previously scanned object.

There's a slightly different take on the scan visor, where instead of a small square being displayed in red if it's essential to scan and orange if it's optional, the whole object is coloured. I actually found this a little off-putting; it's too garish and makes the rest of your environment very difficult to distinguish while moving around in scan mode. It also means you tend to overlook the nice Giger-esque artwork because it's covered up by bright blocks of colour. They've also kept the abundance of white-line effects on the visor, sadly.

I really like the fact that scan visor mode shows you which objects have already been scanned, but if only they'd kept the less distracting oblongs on each object. Also, I'd like Samus to carry a torch, or have some kind of localised light you could point at things to get a better look.

'Hint heavily at what I should do next, Exposition Hologram!'

Intelligence

There is a mixture of enemies, each with their unique pattern of attack and biological field notes. Some will attack you if you disturb them, some will seek you out regardless, and some will leave you alone entirely. There are War Wasps who will keep seeking you out no matter how many you kill, unless you destroy their hive - it's nice that there are varied ways to tackle the enemies. What I found particularly interesting is that the notes you uncover when scanning some species make it clear that attacking their hibernation pods will cause them all to come out and attack you en masse; so there's an incentive to just avoid some creatures rather than try and take them out, lest you cause greater problems for yourself. Oh, and all the enemies become harder to deal with when consumed by 'dark' energy, which is another cool variation. Another thing I really like is that so much thought has gone into each enemy type, that they each appear to have biological niches within the levels that match the log information you get upon scanning them; there are enemies that nest on cliffs, enemies that you only find underground, and so on.

There appears to be a lot of emphasis of enemies which swarm at you. This is fine, but when that seems to be the focus of every enemy attack, it just gets a bit boring. Even the shooting zombie marines swarm at you.

I'd like to see a few more 'lone wolf' creatures that are dangerous in different ways. When you have wave after wave of swarming enemies, they merge into one - which is such a waste of the incredible thought that's gone into each enemy.

Immersion

The game sucks you in with the same combination of exploration and shooting you get in Metroid Prime (and the same ability to collect biological field notes on any flora and fauna you find). One thing I definitely noticed is that there is greater variety of ways to interact with the environment; you're no longer just opening doors and shooting things. There are additional things you need to do, just as activate cannons that you get fired from in your morph ball mode, or operating winches to set off bridges, or shooting down crates. All of this makes you feel more like you're trying to make your way through an unknown world and piece together what's going on. The fact that you can access many different logs of the deceased as you explore makes for interesting reading; there are a handful of marines who's log files you scan, which when pieced together tell you a bittersweet story. One log file tells you how the deceased was annoyed at being put on monitor duty when they could outshoot half the men there and added 'I bet Samus wouldn't have to do this'. I groaned a little at the heavy-handedness of getting Samus mentioned as the legend she's supposed to be... until I came across another marine, who was sceptical of one of his colleagues' belief that Samus had done all these amazing deeds. You suddenly realise you've read the tale of an ambitious woman who idolised Samus, went off to earnestly follow in her footsteps, and was ultimately killed. It's moments like these that really flesh out the world, the people affected and the enormity of what's going on; and it all happens during gameplay. Oh, and the Space Pirate logs are often hilarious.

There were a couple of odd moments that yanked me right out of the game because they were so puzzling. Around halfway through entering various rooms in the opening level, I realised I could open heavy duty crates with a morph ball bomb. So, I went back a few rooms to open up some of the previous heavy-duty crates I had abandoned... only they wouldn't open with the morph ball bomb. I scanned and checked that they were indeed the same type of crate, and they were. What gives, game? That was just weird. I also felt that the game had increased its linearity from Metroid Prime, and that it was more obvious when I could only explore the one route of a multiple that the game was permitting me to go down.

I appreciate you need to do things in a certain order to progress through the game, but I'd like to be fooled a little more into thinking I'm making an actual choice in the path I go down. Even just giving me two routes to the same area that divert slightly through unimportant rooms would be enough.

'Carol Anne, don't go into the light... no, wait. Stay in the light! Stay!'

Cameras

There is nothing different in the cameras from Metroid Prime, so the same comments apply here. The camera is first person, so causes you very few problems; you see what's in front of you, and if you turn, so does the view. There's really not a lot that can go wrong here. One thing to add is that, as in Metroid Prime, the view switches to third person when you're in morph ball mode. This is necessary both so you can see to navigate the morph ball, and to prevent motion sickness.

Of course, seeing what's behind you is tricky - you have to whirl around to get a view of the whole area and in that time, you can get shot. You have a radar in combat mode to give you a fighting chance, but not scan mode. When so much of the game relies on you scanning your environment, that's not so useful.

If anything, an enemy radar is more useful when you're in scan mode and can't immediately defend yourself. I think it would make more sense if it were visible regardless of the visor you are using.

Controls

Again, the controls are identical to 'Metroid Prime', so the same comments apply. The controls are simple to pick up; you turn with the Wii remote and you move with the nunchuck control stick. One button is used to jump and the other is used to perform most actions. It's pretty easy to make the controls do what you want them to. One advantage is that there is now an option to swap the jump and fire buttons around - so you can use the button that feels like a trigger to fire instead of jump.

I found that it was sometimes difficult turning and moving; an element of this was definitely down to practise, but sometimes you would perform movements that should make you turn and run, but instead you seemed to get stuck. Most likely an object was in your way, but this was difficult to see in scenarios where you're navigating a boss fight. Oh, and reaching for the missile weapon (which was triggered by the Wii Remote direction pad) was quite awkward when you hold the Wii Remote pointing towards the screen as required by this game. Maybe I just have tiny hands. I also found accessing the scan mode wearying - you have to point the Wii Remote past the main view, then press the + button. On paper that doesn't sound awkward, but in the game, it seems to take an age. At least you can get back to combat mode with a single button press.

I'd love a way to quickly toggle between visor modes, but I've struggled to come up with a button that's easily accessible that isn't already being used by another important function. 

Klepto millipede steals your bomb capabilities? Time to unleash the pain... 

Ideas

The games has all of the great features of Metroid Prime, such as the way the story unravels through scanning and exploring, through to the fun combination of simple platforming with more complex puzzling and shooting elements. One of the ways in which it manages to be different is with the addition of the dark/light worlds of Aether. If you enter a 'dark' portal, you will instantly take damage simply by existing in Dark Aether. The only way you can prevent this from happening is staying in the safe zones generated by Light Crystals; these let you repair any damage you sustain when in Dark Aether. This new gameplay feature places the emphasis very much on quickly getting through areas between these safe zones and killing enemies, rather than puzzling your way through, which makes the 'dark' worlds very different to play. This, coupled with the variety added to the puzzle elements and the enemy attacks, makes it an improvement on, rather than a clone of Metroid Prime.

I'm back to ranting about the Save Stations again. For most of this game, any niggles I was able to whine about in 'Metroid Prime' seem to have been improved on in this game (apart from the controls, but there's really not a lot you can do about that, save including a new type of Wii Remote with every game) but they've just made the Save Stations more annoying. Basically, it works exactly as it does in 'Metroid Prime', where they are on your ship and scattered around the levels with a considerable amount of space between them. Only this time, they sometimes hide them. Example - I'd been making my way through the game for a good hour since last spotting a Save Station. I opened up a room which had a door covered in glowing cables, but noticed it looked a bit 'boss room' like, so stepped back. I checked the map, and it claimed there was a Save station. What a relief! Only, I couldn't find a door. It took me a short while to realise that there was a route to the Save Station - a small crack in the wall that your morph ball form could fit through. Not cool, game. Not cool. That isn't fun. That isn't amusing. That isn't challenging. That's deeply frustrating. If I'd missed that Save Station and inevitably died at the boss fight (which was in the next room and it was only luck that had prevented me from triggering it), I'd have had to replay a whole hour of platforming and puzzling. I would have been livid. I would have not picked the game up again, and I don't think I'd have been alone.

Another minor thing is during the 'dark' world gameplay. The challenge of getting around the environment before your suit blows up is a good one, but in order to complete the levels, you'll find yourself hanging around waiting for the light areas to regenerate your armour - and you'll be waiting quite a while.

Metroid Prime series, I get why you love Save stations, I really do. I understand that not allowing the player to save willy-nilly means that they get punished a little for dying and have to retrace their steps a bit, which increases the incentive the player has to not die. But players can't always dedicate hours at a time to play the Metroid Prime series. Sometimes they have to go to work, or eat, or socialise. They might have family engagements, or dates. Sometimes, they just want to play the game for the half an hour they have spare between getting in from work and getting ready to go to the football. When you put Save stations that are hours away from each other in terms of gameplay, they can't do that. Then they get cross, and play other shooty puzzle games where they can save their progress when they need to without having to play for hours until they find a save option that then tries to camouflage itself. So, just humour those players and maybe increase the number of Save stations and decrease the gaps between them - and certainly don't make players have to hunt for them. Also, if you want to be nice to lazy players (like me), let me teleport between them so I can cut down on the amount of time I spend running between areas on opposite ends of the map. It's not like I'm doing the running; I don't get any exercise from it. 

Schrodinger's Bomb Slot.

Memory

Although I felt a little more constrained in this game than I did in Metroid Prime (even though I'm sure I probably wasn't), I much preferred the different puzzles I had to complete in order to open doors and progress through the level, as well as the increased variety in enemy attack and style. The way the story is slowly drip-fed to you by the use of log files and the like makes the whole experience feel a little mysterious and urged you to keep playing to find out what's going to happen next. What also managed to make me enjoy this game even more is that some of my gameplay niggles - such as the similarity of the tasks you have to complete in order to navigating each level - have been improved upon, making those earlier levels more interesting to play.

The few niggles I have are the same as in Metroid Prime; such as the way the controls are set-up slowing the game down a little for me and the fact there seems to be no way of speeding up some of the backtracking. These still rankle with me a little, but they are nothing compared to the Save Stations. These are deeply frustrating, but I won't go over that yet again.

The only thing that really could improve this game is making the Save Stations more frequent and less camouflaged. As it stands, I have to set aside a day to truly play this game, otherwise I stand to lose all my progress if I have to stop playing after half an hour.

Seriously... what is she?

Overall, this is a fun, absorbing first person shooting adventure that manages to improve on its predecessor. Now, I just need to go and scan a few more enemies into my logbook before they kill me…