Metroid is getting back to it’s 2D platform roots (sort of), but that’s not really the biggest change in franchise. Samus talks! Not only that, from the gameplay I’ve seen she won’t shut up. Here’s a slightly spoilerish example of Samus talking about an emergency signal she’s receiving. We get it! It’s a signal to draw your attention, shut up already!
The game does look good and the cutscenes look gorgeous. I’m not as exited for this one as I was for Corruption, but I’ll probably buy it on release day. The game is coming out on August 31st in North America, September 2nd in Australia and Sept. 3rd in Europe.
Luckily I just happen to have a few days off, so I’ll be adding my two cents shortly:)
The game does seem to be brewing a small amount of controversy among fans. Many are finding it to be a good game, if not up the standard of the greatest games in the series. Others others finding it an entirely mediocre effort that is really a disservice to the franchise for a myriad of reasons, including sexism!
Strangely instead of being discouraged by the range of reactions, I’m kinda intrigued to see how I feel on the matter.
Playing it now. Samus’s voice-acting is atrocious. Luckily, the rest of the game is pretty tight. It does some relatively unique things and does them well. But it’s got nothing on the original Prime so far.
As much as I’ve loved the traditional Metroid series (NOT prime) I just can’t past the worst subtitle in video game history. Other M? That sounds like what a crappy indie band names their 4th album.
It’s a neat idea, but can certainly be clunky. The main problem is that it can be difficult to “find” the sensor bar by aiming quickly, which is especially annoying in combat as it often leads to taking unnecessary damage (protip: Sit several feet back from the TV). It’s also a bit annoying as you need to adjust your grip on the controller from the 1 & 2 buttons to A & B (oddly, the 1 button can still be used to shoot in 1st person view, but 2 cannot be used to lock-on, forcing you to use the A & B setup. Why they didn’t allow the 2-button to do this as well, I have no idea.
It’s not so much sexist now that I play it–it’s more along the lines (at least from my viewpoint) of, hey, someone’s acknowledging that Samus might actually be building up some issues from the relatively traumatic goings-on in Prime and Super Metroid. All the boys in the Federation Army still bow to her superior firepower.
Aside from that, Red Barchetta said everything that needed to be said about the controls. I’m a lot happier about the color palette “in real life” than I was in the trailers, and I’m not far enough into the game to really judge whether or not it’s going to be merely good or totally awesome.
So far, it has nothing on Prime or Super Metroid. It’s at a “Fusion” or “Prime Hunters” level for me–good, but not truly superlative.
+1 It is this horrible monotone that turns the normally silent Samus into a simpleton.
As others have said, switching from 3rd person to 1st person is rough and the idea that Samus has all of her weapons but she won’t use them until the guy in charge authorizes them is retarded.
I’ll share with you my thoughts on the game. I think it’s sexist, and in a way that is really distracting me from the better qualities of the game. I’m shoe-horning my post on another board here…
2 hours of gameplay? Does that include the 30 minutes of cutscenes in the first 45 minutes of gameplay?
Which feature are you basing your GOTY nod on?
[ul]
[li]the brainless, skill-less, repetitive, camera-gimped run-n-gun[/li][li]the bullshit opening plot where Samus, THE GODDAMNED BOUNTY HUNTER, has her abilities gimped by a commanding officer’s instructions (sidenote: he looks like he’s straight from the uncanny valley) to whom she pointlessly submits? It’s not even like he takes some token from her. He just fucking tells her not to use particular abilities and she just listens. WTF? There are so many narrative ways to resolve this giant logic gap that they just didn’t give a shit about doing.[/li][li]the wonky controls that prevent you from shooting missiles in 3rd person view (but allow in 1st person), but prevent you from moving in 1st person mode. Seriously, FUCK YOU to the guy that approved the decision to let Samus get gangbanged by a bunch of rapidly-respawning, neon mosquitoes while you have to fumble with shooting 3 missiles at the nest (which can’t be fired in rapid succession!)[/li][li]the game being totally devoid of energy replenishments, yet when Samus is down to a tiny fraction of health she can magically “concentrate” and replenish not just her health, but her missiles too![/li][/ul]
Seriously, this game is akin to putting out a Super Mario game where there were practically no coins, no mushrooms, no pipes, and no Bowser. It’d be like they just put a bunch of vegetables, potions, jars, and a giant fucking frog. It could still be a good game, but it’s not Super Mario.
And with me also having about 2 hours into this Metroid game, I’ll say that despite its flaws, it has still been fun. The environments feel immersive and it’s (pun intended) a blast to just unleash shot after shot running blindly and quickly down a mix of space station-ish and holographic-ish environments. Environment-wise (with respect to the type and number of enemies feels), it feels a lot more Metroid-y than many of the places in the Prime series. But Samus doesn’t feel like Samus. I don’t feel like a badass bounty hunter. I feel like a girl from a story book that was written by misogynistic men. Sure, Samus is a chick, but you’re supposed to all-but-forget that. She’s not supposed to be treated like a child by a paternalistic army officer. It’s an insult.
Good game? Yes.
Great game? We’ll see.
GOTY? GTFOOH.
It was . . . meh. And the voice acting was physically painful. Some fun sections, but mostly it was going too fast to enjoy. (And then the pace completely crashed in the boss fights.) sigh
I have it, but haven’t played yet, but I have seen some cut scenes and gameplay, and one thing that really pissed me off: (spoiler, I have no idea how big a spoiler, because I saw the cutscene with no knowledge of when it takes place in the game)
When Ridley shows up, there is a God-awful scene where he clutches Samus in his arm, and she has some BS “flashback” to her traumatic childhood when Ridley killed her parents and destroyed her colony. WTF? So the 5 other times she has fought Ridley (Metroid, Metroid Prime, twice in Metroid Prime 3, Super Metroid) were no big deal, but now THIS time she chooses to have a freakin’ PTSD moment? Oh, and she only “snaps out of it” because the “big, strong man” helps her. Gah!’
And add me to the camp who hates the idea of her not using certain abilities just because Adam tells her so. Yeah, the old method of “some explosion/Dark Samus took it all” was pretty stupid, too…but at least then they were actually gone, not just “turned off”, even though in several situations they would have been really nice to use them before Adam says so (or so I am told, again, haven’t played it yet.)
So far the game’s pretty fun. But there are some area’s I got stuck on wondering if I had to start over the game, or backtrack to see if I missed an exit. I know for sure I missed some items in the beginning of the game… I hope I have a chance to pick them up.
I would have to say I enjoy games like these, (so far), to the all First Person Prime series Next I just want a 2D only Metroid. A DS or 3DS one would be cool.
Just finished the game and I have to say I really liked it. I thought the first person mechanics worked pretty well. I had no huge problems with it. The controls in general were great, though I would have preferred to use the analogue stick for movement. I was pleasantly surprised by the combat. It had good variety for such a simple control scheme. Once again there were great boss battles. The game is fairly linear. The exploration aspect was greatly reduced, which is a shame cause it’s my favourite part in Metroid games. The games is also a lot shorter compared to the Prime series, about ten hours. The difficulty was pretty easy, a hard mode would have been nice.
The basic story wasn’t too bad. A pretty standard scifi plot that, while not very original, kept you interested in what happens next. The story really needed some trimming in the dialogue department, especially with Samus’ monologues. Subtle is not a word I’d use to describe the dialogue. The story telling was typically Japanese and watching enough anime has given me a higher tolerance for the stupid bullshit that usually comes with it. Samus needing Adam’s authorization to use abilities was monstrously stupid. Here’s a better idea: The station has a suppression field that prevents non federation technology from working properly. It’ll take a while for the station to accept some of Samus’ abilities. It was a clumsy plot device, but I wasn’t too annoyed about it while playing.
Some plot related thoughts:
Who was the traitor again? One of those faceless mooks I didn’t give a shit about I guess. Also, Samus calling the traitor The Deleter. See if it was me I would have called the traitor, oh I don’t know, THE TRAITOR! And the Ridley flashback thing was BS, though I didn’t have a problem with her getting help from her buddy. She’s still the baddest mofo on the station.
The game looks great with a consistently good frame rate. Rarely did the game slow down even a little bit. I hope Team Ninja get to do another Metroid. By fixing the biggest complaints, they could make a great Metroid game.
After thinking about it, I really don’t have any huge objections with how Samus was characterised in this game. Sure she has her moments of insecurity, but who doesn’t. She has problems but she still rises to the occasion and kicks ass. I think if the writing hadn’t been so clunky, less people would have had problems with the characterisation.
I’m thinking the authorization of abilities thing was less the misogynistic girls shouldn’t have big guns kind of thing and more the Japanese absolute obedience to your CO kind of thing.
So, its it like previous Metroids? (Die 10 times til you learn the specialized muscle memory to kill Boss #47, which you’ll never use again…walk down the hall and repeat for Boss #48?)
