Player0
12-15-2004, 01:30 PM
It's still hard to review a game I only have 8 hours of playtime in. It's been hard to find time during the holiday season to play, and it's been harder too pull myself away. I'm a huge metroid fan, I've played and completely beaten every single version. I consider Metroid Prime to be probably the best platformer of all time. So it's little surprise that I'm a little disappointed with Prime2.
Maybe the continuity makes more sense. But I miss the extreme differences of the old metroid games. You wander a little ways, your in a completely different surrounding. I haven't gotten that feeling in Prime2 yet, and I've gotten nearly halfway through. I may have gotten a ton of upgrades already, yet I still use the common old beam gun.
I wholely dislike the new ammo system for the light and dark weapons. It means I avoid using them. I find myself relying more heavily on missles and super missles in this game. Which means, I also spend a lot more time blowing up boxes and containers looking for refills.
I don't hate the darkworld gimmick, but it limits the exploration early on in the game. Even with the dark suit, I find myself running. Or standing still for 3 minutes waiting for my suit to recharge some before a boss fight. Boost Guardian is a :mad2::mad2::mad2::mad2::mad2: to beat, and it took me more than a few tries. This was annoying cause its a fair distance from the save point, plus, there was really no time to refill on ammo. I had to go backtrack. That's really no fun.
I haven't really ever felt lost or overwhelmed in the game. It still feels very 'tunneled' right now. Most exploration options have been voided until later I guess. This is to prevent people from getting loss and to stop from needing so many hints which were complained about. But this takes away from the game.
It feels like a natural extension from Metroid Prime, but not a natural extension from the Metroid series, and it's gone a step in the wrong direction. I felt the same way about Metroid Fusion although I also really enjoyed that title. Metroid 2 Echos is no Prime killer, but it's hella fun, and I hope that later levels will make up for a fairly disappointing first half.
On the good side, boss fights have felt great. You start off with the same control scheme and some more of the advanced moves pretty quick, it makes for some very interesting control and game play. In typical Metroid fasion, you have more moves available than what the game actually tells you, although reading the manual reveals a few more, such as dodging. I wish there were more of these secret moves such as in Metroid 3 for the SNES.
Graphics is slightly improved and pretty smooth, although it's hard to see the differences from this and prime right away. More detailed rooms, slightly larger rooms, less 'blocky'. The music and sound effects are great, and I think better than the original, its great and moody and its one of the best aspect of the series. She still turns to SLOW! Trying to turn around in a fight is a nightmare with her slow rate of turn. It shoudnt take 5 seconds to turn around in a fight. Im not 100% sure if theres a quick turn around move...Ill have to check in to that. Standard enemy fights are REAL challenging and I love it. Every enemy in the game brings something to the table and theres very few one shot kills in this game. The first metroid battle took me quite a few missles and charge shots. The visor damage/goo/rain/water/static effects look improved. Scanning is still annoying, it just gets in the way of natural exploration most of the time, same with the dark world.
Not sure what else I can say about it. Its a solid game and a must purchase for any cube owner :)
Maybe the continuity makes more sense. But I miss the extreme differences of the old metroid games. You wander a little ways, your in a completely different surrounding. I haven't gotten that feeling in Prime2 yet, and I've gotten nearly halfway through. I may have gotten a ton of upgrades already, yet I still use the common old beam gun.
I wholely dislike the new ammo system for the light and dark weapons. It means I avoid using them. I find myself relying more heavily on missles and super missles in this game. Which means, I also spend a lot more time blowing up boxes and containers looking for refills.
I don't hate the darkworld gimmick, but it limits the exploration early on in the game. Even with the dark suit, I find myself running. Or standing still for 3 minutes waiting for my suit to recharge some before a boss fight. Boost Guardian is a :mad2::mad2::mad2::mad2::mad2: to beat, and it took me more than a few tries. This was annoying cause its a fair distance from the save point, plus, there was really no time to refill on ammo. I had to go backtrack. That's really no fun.
I haven't really ever felt lost or overwhelmed in the game. It still feels very 'tunneled' right now. Most exploration options have been voided until later I guess. This is to prevent people from getting loss and to stop from needing so many hints which were complained about. But this takes away from the game.
It feels like a natural extension from Metroid Prime, but not a natural extension from the Metroid series, and it's gone a step in the wrong direction. I felt the same way about Metroid Fusion although I also really enjoyed that title. Metroid 2 Echos is no Prime killer, but it's hella fun, and I hope that later levels will make up for a fairly disappointing first half.
On the good side, boss fights have felt great. You start off with the same control scheme and some more of the advanced moves pretty quick, it makes for some very interesting control and game play. In typical Metroid fasion, you have more moves available than what the game actually tells you, although reading the manual reveals a few more, such as dodging. I wish there were more of these secret moves such as in Metroid 3 for the SNES.
Graphics is slightly improved and pretty smooth, although it's hard to see the differences from this and prime right away. More detailed rooms, slightly larger rooms, less 'blocky'. The music and sound effects are great, and I think better than the original, its great and moody and its one of the best aspect of the series. She still turns to SLOW! Trying to turn around in a fight is a nightmare with her slow rate of turn. It shoudnt take 5 seconds to turn around in a fight. Im not 100% sure if theres a quick turn around move...Ill have to check in to that. Standard enemy fights are REAL challenging and I love it. Every enemy in the game brings something to the table and theres very few one shot kills in this game. The first metroid battle took me quite a few missles and charge shots. The visor damage/goo/rain/water/static effects look improved. Scanning is still annoying, it just gets in the way of natural exploration most of the time, same with the dark world.
Not sure what else I can say about it. Its a solid game and a must purchase for any cube owner :)