Metroid Prime 2 Demo Disc: Hands On

by Willy Hung

I’ll never forget the first time I turned on Metroid Prime on my GameCube. It was a sensational rush of satisfaction to see such dramatic imagery portrayed for a game that had stayed in 2D for most of its life. But when it crossed the third dimension, a new realm of exploration opened up for the heroine. Unlike most transitions to 3D, Metroid Prime did not forget its 2D roots and kept the things that made it memorable, the most memorable being the morphing ball and its maze-like puzzles. Now, with the sequel’s release close at hand, Metroid Prime: Echoes brings in Samus’s other array of abilities. If Metroid Prime was a sequel to the NES game, you can think of Metroid Prime 2 to be the sequel to the SNES game.

Right from the demo’s title screen, you can sense the same atmosphere first realized from popping in Metroid Prime for the first time: the seemingly abstract images shrouded in darkness, made visible by a single light source. This perfectly sets up the theme for Metroid Prime 2: Echoes.

STORYLINE

We learn from the demo’s beginning that Samus is tracking a Galactic Federation trooper squad Bravo which was in pursuit of Space Pirates towards the Planet Aether. However, the squad crash-landed on the planet’s surface, and their condition is unknown.

As the demo begins, we find Samus receiving coordinates to the last known whereabouts of the squad through an impressive tracking system. As we see Samus’s ship fly towards the planet, its instability between light and purple becomes an unexpected menace to Samus, causing a ship malfunction and forcing her to land on the planet surface.

Probably the first thing noticeable is the strong emphasis on the theme of light and dark, especially over the typical threat of metroids. In accordance to the Metroid Chronicles (which are also on the demo), Metroid Prime 2 occurs before Metroid II on the Gameboy, in which Samus befriends a baby metroid, from which its relationship grows in Super Metroid and Metroid Fusion. In this new sequel, a threat other than metroids is certainly a refreshing one, leaving the heroine to worry about more than just a life-sucking alien lifeform. Now, Samus must deal with the ever-growing conflict between two alternate universes.

GRAPHICS AND SOUND

Within the first few seconds upon the ship’s landing, we are treated to a more experienced bounty hunter. Once landed, the ship’s hatch opens up and we are treated to a darker, battle-worn Samus. Compared to her first 3D appearance (which was very shiny and sleek), this version is heavily worn out, definitely from many skirmishes in intensive battles. She’s been through it all, so she must naturally look like she went through hell.

If you played through the first Metroid Prime, then the graphics will not surprise you. This is not a bad thing, considering that the graphics in the first one are simply jaw-dropping. Everything was so dynamic in layout and design that felt more like an actual breathing world than your typical "easy-to-spot" platforms game. The colors and tone of the texture maps really bring out the grittiness of the new landscape as you guide Samus through the caverns. But the great thing I love about Retro is their extreme sense of intricate details. For instance, when you roll up into a ball in the very beginning, the strange insects seen flying all around the level start to gather near your glow like moths to the light. Simply stunning. For myself, I had but one check to perform, and that’s to create a glow strong enough to visibly (and for a brief moment) see Samus’s human facial features reflect from within her visor. That’s a definite check!

Everything else should be familiar to any Metroid Prime veteran; the detailed visor information, the targeting reticule with power-up meter for each beam, the easy-to-navigate weapons and visor settings. The one thing I have to disagree with is the new way the scanners are implemented. Sure, in the first game a simple red square made finding key items to scan bland and sometimes frustrating…but the newer method detracts from the realism of the world. Now, objects are isolated and individually highlighted to distinguish them from their environment. That alone wouldn’t be so bad (actually, it’s definitely an improvement) were it not so…rigid. In my opinion, it’s the only thing that constantly reminds you that everything’s made of polygons, but that’s just being nit-picky on my part.

As for the audio, expect to hear very similar tunes and sounds reminiscent of Metroid Prime. Again, not too surprising, but at the same time not a disappointment. The perfect cues of battle music and exploratory music is what made the game even more immersive.

NEW FEATURES

The new Dark and Light beams are the main new element to this sequel. They provide the power to survive throughout the game. They have their own practical uses, such as opening certain doors and activating crystals that shield you from the alternate Dark planet. These beams also aid you in fighting certain monsters that Samus encounters. In the demo, the only beam-specific monsters are these dark monsters called Warrior Ings, which are weak to Light-beam attacks.

Other noticeable changes were some spider-ball walls, which have been more clearly noted with a small animated glow to distinguish them. Another thing I noticed was during a battle with space pirates in which some jumped into a cursor-like image to mount turrets to attack Samus. The hologram that appeared looked similar to the holographic ball shapes in the first Metroid Prime game, so there’s a chance that Samus will need to utilize the turrets with her own body!

METROID PRIME PLUS?

The sequel is more like an expansion to the Metroid Prime universe, in which the same winning formula is adapted into an entirely new story. This doesn’t faze me one bit. Nintendo and Retro pretty much got the gameplay on the mark – the only thing to do was to give fans more. And more they’ll get, when the game is released.

Metroid Prime with Metroid Prime 2 Echoes

by Erica Jeng

Metroid Prime has been the return of the Metroid franchise with skeptics questioning the decision to turn the game into 3D and becoming a first-person shooter. Almost immediately afte its release, the skeptics turned into believers amazed at how much the Metroid franchise has evolved.

The Metroid Prime game including the bonus of Metroid Prime Echoes 2 is a teaser of the next story that will be coming in November, 2004. Gamers can only obtain this game through the new GameCube bundle which will include the Gamecube along with the game. Owners of GameCubes can still obtain the game in one of two ways – by subscribing to Nintendo Power magazine for a year or by registering their GameCube system and five eligible games.

Now on to Metroid Prime 2 Echoes...

Story

When Samus investigates an abandoned Federation ship on a planet named Aether, her ship is incapacitated by a freak electrical aberration in the atmosphere. Crash-landing on the planet’s surface, she finds the scene of a slaughter. A group of creatures borne of darkness, known as the Ing Horder, attack her and steal a number of her Power Suit’s abilities, leaving her for dead. As she soon comes to realize, the planet has been dimensionally doubled: One exists in darkness, the other in light. The peaceful people of Light Aether, called the Luminoth, are slowly being destroyed by the Ing Horde, and the loss of their generators will mean the permanent eclipse of the planet by Dark Aether. Not only that, but Samus soon finds that something more dangerous than the Ing stalks the planet surface: A dark creature is on the loose, and growing more lethal by the minute.

I must admit that for any type of shooter game, I tend to forget that there’s a story and go straight to killing the enemies. That being said though, the storyline of Metroid has always intrigued me since we have a heroine as a main character. Along with a planet where good and evil is exaggerated with imagery to light and dark, we have an intriguing storyline as the missing pieces come together slowly as the game progresses.

Graphics

The graphics for Metroid Prime 2 Echoes is superb. Despite being the graphic underdog of the 3 systems, Metroid Prime 2 delivers amazing graphics and details. The cinematics are smooth and flawless and you even see a hint of Samus’ face in the opening. The graphics during the gameplay is just as good. Everything is rendered perfectly and lines are all anti-aliased from what I could see.

Sound & Music

The music fits the game appropriately. The eerie music and the sudden sounds from weapons and other sound effects fit hand-in-hand.

Gameplay

The gameplay is that of a great first-person shooter, not the best, but definitely one of the top. The one complaint is that there was no rumble functionality in the game, either because it doesn’t have that feature, which I highly doubt, or that it was not implemented in the game. Unfortunately, the lack of the rumble made the game less exciting.

Other than that, the gameplay was similar to Metroid Prime – shooting the enemies, scanning control panels to access locked rooms, turning into a Morph ball to escape quickly and to access small space. Occasionally, I was overwhelmed by enemies, but after keeping more of a distance, I was still able to recover.

Another feature is that the Prime 2 Echoes allow for up to four player to battle one another in multiplayer mode, adding to additional gameplay.

Summary

Although, the game was just a demo, I found Metroid Prime 2 Echoes to be entertaining despite not being a fan of first-person shooters. The game was fun and had the feeling of a first-person shooter, without being too overwhelming or even too scary for the player, making it a great game for people of all ages. If the demo is any indication of the final product, it is a must buy for fans of first-person shooters and Metroid enthusiasts alike.