"An honest review from a longtime fan"

‘What the hell? How can this game get a bad review?' I am sure that is what many will say when they scan the reviews and notice anything less then a perfect score for Echoes. Personally, I don't see how this game warrants such high scores from so many. Before I get into the review however, let me say that I don't derive some weird kind of enjoyment from giving well-liked games bad reviews. Leave that to the fanboys. I also sunk 20 hours into this and finished it twice, so I think that also makes my opinion valid. Furthermore, I am a hardcore Metroid fan, having first played SM when it was out in '94. Instantly I fell in love with the games open endedness, interesting premise and overall fantastic presentation. I still play SM for a couple hours a week because there is just so much to do. No suit run, NBMB run, reverse boss run etc. When I heard that my beloved SM was going to make the transition into 3D I was one of the people whining and complaining it would suck. I gladly put my foot in my mouth after getting my hands on MP because MP rocks. Hands down, no question about it. MP2 does not however, and thus begins my review of MP2.

Graphics: 10/10

No one can deny that the visuals in this game are nothing short of breathtaking. The contrast between light and dark is extremely well done, and will cause hours of ‘ooooing and awwwing.' It really is hard to put into words what candy your eyes will feast on when you get the privilege of reaching many of the games detailed areas. Some of my personal favourite locations are Dark World Torvus Bog and the Light/Dark World Sanctuary Temple. The attention to detail is also astounding, as many of the games locations feature moving backgrounds, tiny animated creatures and cool particles effects that only serve to make the game that much more impressive. Samus animates very well, and the transitions from first to third person are almost always very fluid. 60 fps is very normal for most of the game as well, which is nice to know the system can actually handle graphics as nice as these, unlike some other games on other systems (Killzone being a good example of overdoing it). Overall the graphics and attention to visual detail in MP2 are too good to put into words, and personally I don't think I have ever seen graphics as gorgeous as these on any system out there to date. Bravo Retro, truly a work of art.

Music: 5/10

Bleh. That was the though that was going through my mind most of the game. Tunes that were new stunk, and the ones that got used/re-mixed from MP were nothing special. Nothing is memorable here, well save for the one that is heard when you get ambushed by those flying pirates. That is the one track that stuck in my mind from this game. Don't ask why, but it's there, haunting me in my sleep. Though to give some points to Retro the music never gets so bad to the point of being unbearable, but it's nowhere near the quality of Final Fantasy Tactics or Xenogears. Not even close. I don't know what else I can say about the lame music. Bad music is bad music I suppose. Sloppy and lazy is what the music would say if it was converted into words.

Sound Effects: 7/10

Pretty good for the most part. Where it is best is the sounds all of the different creatures make. All of the shrieks, roars and whatever other sounds are heard sound great. Where the game loses some points is the beam and other Samus related sounds. They all sound watered down and boring for the most part. The power beam is still good, but the light/dark beams sound as boring as they look and feel. Elevators sound like elevators and explosions sound like explosions, so no complaining there. Overall the sound effects just seem a little too watered down in most cases, except for the excellent job done on all of the creature-related sound effects. When you walk into a room with some Ing Retro is not shy about letting you know it.

Gameplay: 5/10

The most important part of any game, and MP2 just does not deliver. It is a disappointment in nearly every category. Since I have a lot of things to talk about here, I am going to break the gameplay aspects into different sections. In a nutshell Retro has turned the Metroid formula into a boring and tedious experience that lacks any real fun and enjoyment.

Enemies/Bosses

While they look fantastic and are animated very well, they are, for the most part, just not enjoyable to kill. I mean some old ones even got recycled from the last game, just with different skins and maybe an extra attack. Plus the enemies all have way too much health, and regenerate every time you have to come back into that room, sometimes locking the doors and forcing a fight when they do. Talk about frustrating. The bosses in the game look fantastic as well, but most of them have way too much health and a boring pattern that warrants repeating until that big health bar is drained. I mean the Grapple beam guardian was the same guardian that protected the Wave Beam from MP as well. That is lame. A good example of a cool looking boss but boring to play is Chykka larva and the adult form. How many times should I have to repeat the exact same pattern to kill the larva? It's boring! Then when I do kill the larva I have to fight the adult form, which forces me to repeat the same patterns again, twice for the light/dark forms. How is that fun? Though some of the bosses are done extremely well, namely the Spider Ball Guardian and Quadraxis. Sadly the few that are done well just do not save the others, and the games enemies certainly do not help the experience. Why anyone would want to kill hundreds of beefed up enemies over and over and treat themselves to a repetitive 15-minute boss fight is beyond me, though I guess some people at Retro decided that this would be fun. Right.

Weapons/Upgrades

This is even more of a letdown then the enemies and bosses. At least they looked great and were entertaining for a little bit. Almost every power up in this game lacked any real feeling of accomplishment when collected, namely the new beams and suits. The suits look cool enough, but in terms of what they do they are not that exciting. Dark damage halved/nullified, woo. Even worse are the beams. The beams in this game are so hopelessly BORING to use. I can't stress that enough. They sound boring, they look boring, and they even feel boring. The light beam is a variant from the Plasma of MP, and enemies even die the same way when killed by a charged version of it. The Dark Beam is a variant of the ice, and hell, it even freezes enemies too. Wonderful. The final beam, laughably called the Annihilator beam, fires a little homing black ball with a trail of light. Fantastic. Oh yeah, and they have limited ammo, as if you wanted to use them all of the time anyway. Most of the game super missiles worked well enough. The new upgrades are no good either, for example the Jetpack that replaces the gravity suit. I don't even know what to say about this, as it is such a stupid idea in the first place. Next we have the screw attack, one of the few items in the game that was exciting to obtain. Then when it's actually used the novelty wears off fairly quickly. This thing is so damn hard to use it's a wonder it made it into the game at all. It's only use is to allow the player to clear some canyons and do some predetermined wall jumps. Don't expect to be able to kill any enemies with it though, it is very hard to aim correctly. Don't agree? Almost every boss in the game requires the use of an item collected earlier. Nothing exists for the screw attack, and that ain't a coincidence folks. The bottom line is that the only fun items to use were from the last game anyway, since the new ones are just way too boring.

Challenge/Difficulty/Puzzles/Whatever else you want to call it

Now for the truly frustrating part of this game, the puzzles and so called challenge (intended and otherwise). Now when a company decides to make a game challenging they usually do it through interesting puzzles, bosses etc. Retro decides to do this by beefing up the health on everything, creating endlessly respawning enemies, and making easy puzzles that take an unnecessary amount of time to complete. That is why this game can be called hard, not because of any real interesting thought and creativity, save for a few bosses. Also an element that indirectly adds to the challenge and is also infuriating are the load times. How many times were you switching rooms in Dark Aether (with or without the Dark Suit) and patiently waiting for the next room to load while your health goes down? Disgusting. Or how about when you were running from some unfairly tough enemies for the hundredth time only to have to wait for the door to open? All the while getting nailed from beefed up attacks from behind. Unacceptable. Not to mention when the game requires switching back and forth between worlds a bunch of times and having to wait for the game to load every time. Pure frustration. Oh yeah, and the keys. The keys! Was there nothing else that could be used then being forced to collect eight-teen keys? eight-teen! Ugh. Retro has discovered a way to take the tried and true formula of the Metroid series and turn it into a boring and all around frustrating experience.

Multiplayer: 7/10

I give it a decent score not because it's good, but because it's there. I mean it's sloppy and does not play all that well, but in a strictly single player series the addition of multiplayer is undeniably pleasant. Five levels, no profiles, and limited weapons and power ups are all that exist here, but it is still a nice break from the one player game. Having multiplayer is better then not having it, so just the fact that it's possible to have some fun from it is good enough in my opinion.

Replay: 8/10

I have to give this a good score since I did finish the game a second time. Not because I had so much fun the first time around, but because I am a hopeless fan and will probably play it again, and own MP3 as well. *sigh.

To conclude

Echoes is a visual piece of art and a hands on piece of crap, to put it crudely. The game is boring and frustrating for the most part, and when it is interesting it is over all to quickly. I don't know how Retro did it, but they turned something as concrete as Metroid into a repetitive, tedious and enjoyment free experience. It is so hard to give a game that features the coolest video game hero in existence a bad score, but there has been a bad Metroid game before so it is inevitable to happen again. This game does not deserve the praise it gets, period. I still love the Metroid series, but it's time that everyone snapped out of denial and admit that this game is just not that good.

Graphics: 10/10
Music: 5/10
Sound Effects: 7/10
Gameplay: 5/10
Multiplayer: 7/10
Replay: 8/10

Overall (Not an average): 5/10
Barely a pass. Oh my beloved Samus :(

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 01/18/05