As of writing this I'm a few hours in and so far I'm loving it, although I still feel like I'm an extended tutorial of sorts, which isn't helped by Myles telling me how to play the game like a Sony game companion. Speaking of Myles, he hasn't ruined the game so far per se, but the atmosphere has kind of fell off a cliff since he joined me, it feels like the strong art direction and honestly beautiful visuals (I will try to take some nice screenshots) are the main reasons the game still has any sort of Metroid feel to it right now.
Regrettably my TV can't handle 120 fps mode for some reason, but I'll settle for a slightly nicer looking game at 60fps I guess, control wise I can't seem to find a way to have turning and moving on the left stick alone so I'm using the 'pointer' mode and it's more than decent when you manage to centre the pointer, no mouse mode yet until I find a better way than putting the joycon on my desk and turning my body 90 degrees to the side to see. So while it's sad I don't get to feel smooth 120fps still but I've done a boss fight and some minor combat parts and the game is smooth as butter.
Not got the bike yet and hearing the desert is a Hyrule Field hub sounds really unecessary, so that sounds like the first part of the game I might end up finding really questionable. Because so far this is really nice. Also I'm really digging Psychic Samus ((( 😔 )))
So far the Desert is fucking awful and I can't believe it's in the game…but then you drive to an actual biome and it gets pretty good again. Myles is still periodically talking over my comms, I don't think he's an awful character but he has no place in a Metroid game IMO, worse still I got the Fire shot upgrade and I had to come back to him, driving across a desert expanse, to get him to install it. Am I going to have to do that for the other upgrades?
This should be screaming GOTY right now, instead it's a mixed bag. I haven't played Prime 3 and I know it'd got a mixed recption but I can't imagine it's worse than this.
Doing the Fire Dungeon right now and most of it so far has me fighting alongside an NPC soldier (who I need to revive if he gets downed). I fully expect him to set up base somewhere and let me do my own thing but man, the Halo comparisons are starting to make sense.
EDIT - Can't wait for the people who hated Myles to realize he's nowhere near as close to obnoxious as the squealing Samus fangirl
I have more negative things to say but I will say this, the boss fights are fantastic. Although Sylux makes me want to run through Metroid Prime Hunters and I assume Corruption after this because whilst his fights are fun and remind me a lot of Dark Samus I have no fucking clue why he's trying to kill me…
I'm still only a few hours in, and so far I agree with Al's early impressions that this is great. I'm scared to continue, in case the quality dives off a cliff.
I saw today that this got a 4 in Edge, largely because of the gender politics of having male soldiers mansplain to a silent Samus. Which seems like a pretty batshit take, but I'll reserve judgement until I've played more.
The extra characters are truly awful, though. A gobsmackingly bad idea that goes against everything that makes Metroid unique. I genuinely can't understand how they made it into the final game, approved by so many clearly talented devs.
They keep trying to do it, though, don't they? Other M was exactly the same, Samus could only use certain items of equipment when she was given permission by her (male) commanding officer. Nothing to do with having to find them, she just had to be told by a man that she was allowed.
I don't remember any mansplaining, but Samus just going '…' at everything with the odd gesture does start to feel fucking weird in my opinion, I know we all hate Other M but Samus canonically can talk, if you're going to put her in that situation you might as well have her respond IMO. It sounds like they're talking about stuff like Myles saying 'Hey, did you know Missiles can destroy shelled enemies?' the knowledge gaining of such information I am pretty sure was the whole point of Samus having the Scan feature, but whatever, just really unecessary.
I'm not sure where a few hours takes you but I think obviously Fury Green cuts a nice first impression, and the Ice area is okay too if kinda' small, everyone loves Volt Forge too because the music is amazing but that was when I started to realise I was getting bored, but if you like that you'll probably have quite a bit of fun to go.
And depending on how long you spent in the Desert in between zones at that point can affect your opinion quite a bit, like if you just drove from Volt Forge to the Ice Belt it's like 'okay that was just a means to get from A to B on the Bike' (which does feel good to control at least) but if you do more than that you might be wondering how/why it even exists, the same way you said about the extra characters.
Well, I thoroughly enjoyed that. Got all the mech parts, but gave up on the green crystals. Life's too short. I checked on youtube and I only missed one boss fight, and presumably more terrible cutscenes with the A-Team.
It's much more linear than it should be, and the desert can do one, but I still had a blast.
I am glad you like it, maybe you'll encourage more people here to try it, but from reports it's not even the game Retro Studios wanted to make, it's the one they had to make best off from what they were handed. In light of that, and how you can really feel the development hell of the game as you play it, feels weird to see people say an unfinished, half baked mess of a game is somehow not even the worst in the series, different priorities for people and that but still.
It has great boss fights, a godlike soundtrack and it feels nice to play but for me it has almost negative atmosphere (worst thing to say about a Metroid, honestly) and barely feels like a Metroidvania. It's broken up in to so many segments and that fucking desert is right in the centre of all of it, you're not exploring anything you're just driving from point A to B, it offers absolutely nothing in terms of content besides maybe the ««shrines»» which took potential exploration rewards and just basically say 'can you solve the really easy puzzle?' and then just… gives it to you, also more time wasting as you Professor Xavier the door open, go down, and realise you can't do the shrine yet and go back out. Also the Green Crystals, yeah, fuck off Metroid Prime 4. A common defense of the desert is to compare it to Hyrule Field for some reason, an N64 game. 🤔
The biomes, which are usually called 'dungeons' online because…they kinda' are, are usually said to be where the game is allowed to be a Metroid, but it varies imo. Like you say, it's still linear, including these bits, and for every Ice Belt you have the Lava Area which honestly feels about as Halo as Metroid ever has, constant npc interaction and feels very set piece-ey.
Also you missed nothing, the finale is a wet fart, and a reminder that this game basically has no villain.
Haha that's all fair, I can totally see what people dislike about it. And yes, it's the worst Prime game (although I can't REALLY remember Corruption).
But for whatever reason, I was able to enjoy it for what it was. As you say, basically Halo with a teeny bit of backtracking. I just thought the moment-to-moment gameplay was super satisfying.
I've said this already, but I'd LOVE a candid retrospective at some point. I can't even imagine what the other devs were making, based on the poo stains they left behind.
I just beat Corruption and I prefer it to 4 but honestly the decline started there so I can't make 4 bear the cross completely alone, I think 4 probably has better combat then 3's roid mode hyper blaster gameplay too, also 3 definitely has a more limp finish.
😔 
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