Originally posted by Mayhem
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I've had the hints turned off since I started playing but it still seems to insist on giving me hints at times anyway. I don't want them dammit! -
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Right, now that I'm done with this, I'll force my opinion on y'all. Well, force is a strong word. See it more as offering a viewpoint. You don't really have to read it. But, you know, seeing as I took the time to write it, it would be rude not to.
In my opinion (of course), Metroid Prime 3 is an enjoyable game. It's decent.
The element that really succeeds most is the visual design. Bryyo looks great with its organic, alien plant-bulb-things. Skytown has a real Oddworld look to it and feels old, in a great way. While the game opens in some pretty generic boring space ship hallways, the game later ends up in some more sci-fi hallways (on the
) but, this time, really gives them a totally unique atmosphere. In general, I hate boring sci-fi hallways, but the later sections of MP3 really show just what can be achieved with them. Totally alien and with a feel all of their own.
That said, for visual design, that's really it. In spite of there being several planets and such a huge difference between them, it actually felt like there was much less variety here than MP1.
Sound was fine. I didn't find the synths particularly high quality and the composition did its job but, aside from the really soothing Skytown tune (which is lovely), nothing stood out for me.
So that leaves me with the biggie - gameplay.
This game is so utterly contrived at every point, it is baffling to think it gets away with it. And if this didn't have the Metroid name to it, it wouldn't. The Penny Arcade comic about the giant rhino statues doesn't begin to scratch the surface.
Now every game, by their very nature, is contrived. It's about giving you a play area with challenges and tasks. But never is it so obvious as it is with MP3. Other games at least make an effort to provide the illusion of a world beyond the game. MP3 does not. Rooms serve no purpose whatsoever and yet are all equipped (handily) with morphball tracks and all sorts of gadgets to make use of Samus' abilities.
This is not a game set in a fictional world. It is a game assault course with world textures plastered over it.
Part of this comes from the decision to let Samus keep a load of her abilities at the start. Gaining an ability like the space jump can open up new sections simply by having them higher up. But they had to invent new tricks for this one and most of them amounted to 'red key for the red door' stuff. Coloured doors, locks to need to drain energy from, locks you need to boost ball, wall jump sections (which really barely count as gameplay in this one) etc. Few (pretty much none) of the abilities required you to rethink your terrain. You just had a new key so could now open new locks. That simple.
Most of the level design, I felt was far too claustrophobic. Corridor, corridor, corridor, room. Even outdoors, they managed to get it to feel really closed off. The playing areas felt really small. The maps are actually quite large but it doesn't feel that way. Maybe that's down to the familiarity of the elements.
And the amount of repeated elements is criminal. Again, another game would be slaughtered for this. Skytown features the same lift room again and again, a few moved crates are the only thing to differentiate them. Repeated elements are everywhere. The fact that the Seeds are identical except for the addition of a new contrived door to match your new abilities just seems lazy. Even the cut scene animation in these sections is exactly the same.
And, speaking of repeated elements, yes it's a staple of the Metroid series but, in this day and age, to have enemies reappear in a room exactly where they were before the second the door closes is just lazy. Not exactly immersive either. And, when you have a few energy tanks, there is no motivation to kill anything. You're better off just running through a room and taking the damage because you could be back there in 30 seconds anyway. Okay, so it was like that in 8-bit Metroid. But it was like that in just about every 8-bit game. That doesn't mean that it still has to be like that now. Respawning enemies was a hallmark of the time, not of what made Metroid unique.
What made Metroid unique was the exploration. The discovery. The rethinking of covered ground with new abilities.
And they had no problem dropping all this.
Go here (press 1), now go here (press 1), now here (press 1). Maybe that should have been spoilered because that gives away the entire sequence of the game. As I said in an earlier post, giving you clear directions is actually self-defeating because, when you have to cover old ground, you feel gypped. Lied to. When you discovered that for yourself in Metroids of old (or indeed Exhumed, which I would say is the best example of a 3D Metroid), you felt a rush of realisation - ahh! Now I know where I should go! It was an achievement. They may have felt that this makes the game more accessable. I disagree. I think it makes the game less satisfying. Considering that was the big criticism of Fusion, the decision to repeat here is odd.
Most of the enemies are usual Metroid fare. Teleporting enemies and invisible enemies, again, I feel would be a big criticism of any other game but they aren't game breaking by any means.
But combat is fine once you get the hang of the controls. Actually the controls work really well. Are they a revelation? No. I have had no problem with non-Wii FPS controls. But these definitely work. The decision to go for smoothness over details should be commended here. I hope more game devs go down that road because the smoothness is part of what led to the control feeling so natural.
I felt the boss battles were mostly dull but it should be noted that I played in Normal, which seems to mean Easy. I expect they get much more challenging at the higher levels. That one with the balls was a pain in the ass but, after that, it all seemed to get very easy. I think this was more down to the abundance of enery pickups. It was actually hard to die. I'd say that's completely different at higher levels so Normal wouldn't be the place to judge that.
The decision to add soldiers into the game was a brave one. I really didn't like the opening at all. It really started me off in a bad place - poor action segments in boring, generic, sci-fi halls. This is stuff that has been done much better in many games. So to see Metroid try to do it and not really pull it off was disappointing. That said, there are later sections where they try similar things and it seems to work well. I actually really enjoyed the
Who needs head shots when you can get brain shots, eh? Considering the nature of the end sections and how they played out, I reckon they were much more fun than I would have expected. They worked really well and led to a good climax.
In general I enjoyed the latter sections of the game more than the earlier. The game seemed to get better and better as I got into it. As games have a hard time holding my interest lately, this is a sign of good development and a clear sense of progression.
What Metroid Prime 3 does well, it does really well. There is a real sense of polish here. I found no bugs, nothing weird and everything seemed to work as it should. In a time of patches and downloads, this seems rarer and rarer. There is no doubt that a lot of love went into finishing this game off well.
Lastly, the story - I had no idea what it was about. But then, I've had no idea what any of them had been about except for Fusion so it didn't matter a damn.
Overall, I enjoyed Metroid Prime 3. I don't think it's a great game. It's certainly down at the bottom of my 'favourite Metroid' list but then that list is filled with some serious quality so it's a little unfair. But it's decent, enjoyable and it works. I'm glad I got the chance to play a non-VC game on my Wii once more. It's not the second coming of gaming by any means. I reckon if this game was released without Samus and the Metroid name, it would come in for some harsh criticism.
Luckily, it does have the Metroid name. That counts for a lot.Comment
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Yeah I know metroid is all about backtracking but the energy cell quest is really mundane. My heart sank when i found out that I had to go collect em. I was up for some sort of super finalé and this massive brick wall hit me.
Just a quest which feels like will pad out an hour or two.Comment
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Great review Dogg Thang. I suspect from everything you said about the game that I'll feel the same way.Comment
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Same with me. I never got round to playing MP1 or MP2, but I was thinking of picking this up.
Unfortunately, from what you say, it is unlikely that I would enjoy it very much.Comment
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Hey, don't get me wrong - it is enjoyable. I wouldn't want to feel like I'm putting people off trying it. It has its merits and is a solid game. I have limited time for non-handheld games these days and the fact that I stuck with it until the end is a testament to the game's ability to hold my interest.Comment
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Sure. I just think that the things that annoyed you about the game (particularly the artificial things like rooms having morph ball tracks for no reason), would annoy me too. And as I’ve not played a Metroid game, I’m unlikely to put up with stuff that annoys me just because it is “Metroid”.
I’ll probably pick it up cheaply 2nd hand (I have a PAL Wii anyway), just to try the controls.Comment
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I hate corridors, I really do
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Probably only in hyper mode, really. And even in that, the game might be easier than hard MP1/2 - I don't know that, never had the willingness to play MP1/2 in hard, but, yes, Corruption is easy. Probably a bit less easy if your first play is in veteran, but I, too, think that there are too many energy tanks in the beginning. They are extremely welcome in hyper, but in normal and veteran they are overkill - just like all missile expansions.I felt the boss battles were mostly dull but it should be noted that I played in Normal, which seems to mean Easy. I expect they get much more challenging at the higher levels.
Prime and Echoes had an use for those 255 missiles, Corruption doesn't - nor it hasn't for the ship missile expansions, their purpose is a mystery to me.
About everything else, in random order: the world feels smaller, yes, but I still think that a lot of rooms in Prime and Echoes were there to artificially expand the game, while Corruption present a much more compact world, which I actually enjoyed exploring and to do that little backtrack the game requires (except for the ziplines in Elysia in hypermode) and, yes, world are littered with spider ball tracks, but, hey, why did Aether had so many tunnels and slot that fitted perfectly the morph ball? Elysia has its reasons (
), Bryyo too (
), Tallon IV too (
), but you can say that Samus-activated devices are a bit too many in the whole galaxy - it's something I gave no weight at all, it can be described as a plot device for gameplay purposes, although stupid you need them to play a game.
Less backtracking to me was a welcomed addition (
) as it never forced players to travel the whole world again and again once you've got one or more new abilities - it's like the
in Wind Waker, a tedious task to do. However, I must say that I've enjoyed much, much more backtracking in the 2D games, they too have less "useless" rooms (and no loading times...ah, a Wii with an HDD for caching room information...sigh...); it's something you're going to hate or love, and that was clear from the first posts.
Pickups and suit upgrades: thank god Samus doesn't lose the Varia suit and other abilities for some stupid reasons! Even getting the missile launcher was a bit awkward, I'd have preferred to have it from the very beginning. I feel that having so many upgrades right from the start give the player more freedom, especially experienced players. I know that some of the Metroid charm is about collecting new/old upgrades again and again, but then again, why would Samus lose them after each mission?
I agree with the "forced objective" routine, hearing them again and again at the start of each game is irritating, but again it's something I partially welcome - spent too much time wandering aimless in Prime and Echoes, but then again it's something you love or hate.
I completely disagree about Corruption being more repetitive than Prime or Echoes graphically wise each planet part is different from the rest, and it's very easy to understand where you are just by staring at the sky or a wall. The repeating elements in each planet (the lifts in Elysia) help in getting around - but probably it's me, I always have an hard time understanding where to go in videogames without a map (and sometimes even in real life) - repetitive elements made my life easier in going back and forth
Probably Thang's review is a bit more impartial (I'm a bit of Nintendo fanboy) or probably it's just I liked the changed when he didn't and it's pretty clear that everyone else posting is in thread it's in a group or an other, no middle ground.Comment
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completed
Only died once, even beat the final boss with ease, i'd suggest not choosing normal mode for experienced players.
good game, worth the dosh.. not groundbreaking though.Comment
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I've been mostly ignoring the hints and just doing my own thing. I didn't get far mind, but I've already found tonnes of secret missile power-ups etc as well as doing one or two fetch-and-carry missions that no doubt I'd have ended up doing much later in the game. I don't really like the introduction of 'objectives' in this game but having said that it's still got that "I remember seeing something that needs this new power, I'll check it out" factor I enjoy.
It's clearly been suggested to Retro at some point that they make a few of the unpopular changes because of the sort of people playing the Wii... Let's face it, they are not, in the main, hardcore gamers. Hopefully they won't feel so constrained now that the Wii has a far larger install base and can easily support niche titles.Comment
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Those changes were made only because Metroid Prime 2 sold less than 1.3 million copies worldwide, and those who had played the game had complained about controls, backtracking and difficulty. Furthermore, to improve sales, game needed to attract Halo / FPS crowd that found two first games too tedious and boring. Basically all these changed were made for "hardcore*", not casuals.Originally posted by MattyD View Post
* Read: Teenagers who play FPS's and GTALast edited by elkatas; 13-09-2007, 13:19.Comment
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Pah, n00bs. Personally I thought MP2 was great. I think its poor sales had more to do with the little matter of it going toe-to-toe with Halo 2 and GTA San Andreas myself but there you go.Comment
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