"Polished and well done, with some expected flaws"

Metroid Prime 2-

9.5/10

After having the pleasure of playing this game, I can only make one conclusion, and that is it is definitely better than the first. Not to say that the first Metroid Prime was bad in any way, but this game takes all aspects of the game and tweaks it to be better than the first, but in no way destroying nor changing the formula too much. Taking into account that most people have read the back of the box, or read a column in a magazine already about this game, I won't go into too much detail about the story, since all of you already know it to some extent. Samus now has to fight enemies in two dimensions, but ultimately trying to destroy the infamous Ing in the dark dimension. What I do want to talk about is the way that the story is presented.

In Metroid Prime, much of the story was told in the form of "Lore" left by the chozo written on walls or something similar to that. In Metroid Prime 2, this lore is found by scanning bodies of dead Luminoth left by the war with the Ing. The new lore is much more interesting, and does not try to be too sophisticated in the language usage sense like the lore in MP was (I found myself reading many passages over again in MP because some of the sentences could be very confusing.) That also brings me to my next point. Remember how in MP, when you scanned a piece of lore, you had to read it then and there while still holding down the L trigger button? Well, for me that was annoying, and I guess Retro caught on to that because when you scan a piece of lore in this game, it is downloaded to your logbook........but if you want to read it, you can press the start button..........and you don't have to hold down the L trigger anymore!! Talk about giving a big break to your left index finger! Great job by Retro to make this tweak. Also, while still on the topic of your scan visor, you don't have to find that little orange or red box anymore to scan......all scannable items in the game are highlighted in blue or red, and you can press L on any part of the object to scan it. This alone makes the game much more user friendly, and things you already scanned turn green when you have the scan visor on......oh man what a help that was!!!! So you can see that the tweaks in the scan visor alone make this game much better! The only downside to this is that much of the story is crammed into the beginning of the game, making the rest of it nothing but a fight to beat it. Thus, I believe that the story could have been spread out a bit throughout the game, but when you think about it, much of the story is on the back of the game box, so I guess there could have been little done to avoid this. Oh well.

MP2 is a more difficult game indeed than the first outing, but I don't think that it is as insane as most people paint it out to be. Yes, there are parts where you want to pull your hair out, especially in the dark world, but it is nothing that a seasoned Metroid player can't handle (I personally died twice throughout the whole game). This being said, I also think that the difficulty in this game was flip-flopped from the first. I know that some people might disagree, but I found that the Omega Pirate, Ridley, and Metroid Prime were very hard bosses to defeat, making MP a relatively easy game to get through....until the end with these bosses. MP2 flips this, making the game very hard, but making the end bosses easy.......I beat them on my first try. Also, I don't think that the end bosses in MP2 were as cool as fighting the end bosses in MP, I mean, wasn't it a cool feeling to be fighting Ridley with the boss music from Metroid 3 playing? I thought it was, but I don't think that Dark Samus really fills the shoes that the climactic battle with Ridley left behind.

Most of you have probably read about the weapon system already and how it is ammo based. While it was a bit annoying in the beginning only having 50 shots for each beam, after you find the expansions, it no longer becomes an issue. I personally enjoyed the Light and Dark beams. Even though they act like Plasma and Ice beams respectively, they are an interesting twist on the classic Metroid beams, which have been used over and over since the beginning. The visors are also much more interesting to use than the first game's visors were. Gone is the annoying sound that the X-ray visor made when you put it on, or the washed out blinding white it gave to everything. Gone is the weird sound that the thermal visor gave when you had it on. Now we have the Dark visor, which is like X-ray and thermal visor combined into one....less the annoying sounds, and the echo visor, which allows you to see sound. Interesting concept with the echo visor, but you really only use it to find a couple of items and against 2 bosses, and you don't really use it that much in those sequences. Great idea though, and it does look cool. As far as suits go, the first MP's suits were just different colors of the Varia suit. Now the suits are all unique and redesigned. Of course, to no surprise, we have the Dark Suit and the Light suit, but each one has a very unique look, and they were obviously carefully thought through the design process. Very well done.

As far as control goes, if you played the first game, you'll feel right at home with this one because they are the same. If you haven't played the first game, you'll feel very comfortable with these controls. They couldn't have made them better. One control aspect they improved though was the jumping. Remember how in MP, when you jumped and tried to turn at the same time, you felt pulled in the direction you were jumping? Well, that's gone in here, or tweaked so I didn't notice it as much. Also, when you jump, you no longer gradually angle downward like you did in the first game, making the jumping more comfortable.

The graphics in this game are mostly the same, but are given more color, life, and form. Everything seemed more polished and brighter....very well done. There is also much use of particle effects in the game, which are a sight to see when Samus travels between dimensions. She obliterates into a mesh of particles that buzz around like a swarm of bees......very well done indeed. Also, the elevator scenes have been beefed up, as there are now thrusters under them, violently thrusting the elevator to its destination. Very cool, very polished, and very well colored. One more thing. I noticed while playing the game that Samus' suit is more proportionally fit to her body. MP's suit seemed too big in the upper body, especially her shoulders, giving a somewhat awkward look to her, but MP2's suits are perfectly proportioned and detailed, giving a much more natural and vibrant look.

Overall, I think that this game is a definite polished version of the first. It has a more natural feeling, better graphics, better interface, and a greater experience. The only real downfalls to this game are the story, which is shoved at you all at the beginning, the end bosses, which were not as cool as MP's nor as challenging, the multiplayer games, which feels like I'm playing a dubbed down version of Turok without the battle options, and the ending, which I don't think was very rewarding considering all you had to go through to beat it. But thinking about it, MP's ending wasn't that rewarding either. However, I believe that all the high marks of this game make up for it. Almost all of the annoyances of the first game are tweaked out and made wonderful (I still can't get over the scan visor improvement!), and it's a blast to play from beginning to end. I sometimes couldn't believe what they were making me do in some sequences, especially with the boost ball in conjunction with the spider ball....pure genius! Some enemies even need to be finished off with the boost ball! But I don't want to get off onto a tangent here..... I definitely recommend this game for all fans of the action/adventure genre, as it is an experience that will be difficult to top. Bravo Retro, bravo.

9.5/10

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 12/13/04