Metroid Prime 4 Overview: Superb Visuals, Obnoxious Characters

Almost a decade after it was first teased,  Metroid Prime 4: Beyond is lastly out on Nintendo Swap and Swap 2. Samus Aran’s newest first-person sci-fi journey is a visible deal with that options some well-designed ranges that present hours of satisfying exploration and puzzle-solving. Sadly, annoying NPCs, an enormous ol’ boring desert, and a nothingburger villain make this a messy, so-so entry within the Metroid franchise. 

Metroid Prime 4 begins with a large-scale galactic battle that wouldn’t be misplaced in a Halo or Star Wars recreation. A military of House Pirates, led by Metroid villain Sylux, is attacking a Galactic Federation facility, and Samus arrives to avoid wasting the day. However shortly after displaying up, Samus, Sylux, and a few Federation troops are teleported to the faraway alien planet of Viewros, which is the place Prime 4 takes place. Right here, Samus is remoted on a mysterious alien world and—

*Sci-fi-sounding notification beep* Hey, good job studying the second paragraph of this assessment. In case you are not sure of what to do subsequent, you possibly can attempt scrolling right down to the subsequent paragraph of textual content! This could provide help to transfer ahead! You’re doing nice! 

Effectively, okay, Samus isn’t actually remoted and alone on Viewros. As a substitute, a plucky squad of Galactic Federation troopers is situated on the planet, too. Very early on, you encounter certainly one of them, Myles, who’s written as if he fell out of an MCU film. The opposite troopers you meet are additionally totally different flavors of annoying, with every falling into one overused sci-fi soldier trope, from child rookie to chill, silent sniper. There’s even a robotic who’s well mannered and comical! The entire gang’s right here. They usually all spoil the vibes continually. 

None of these chuckleheads will shut the hell up! Whenever you uncover every of them whereas exploring the sport’s varied ranges and biomes, they find yourself working alongside you for an prolonged time frame and supply suggestions that appear to indicate they suppose Samus is a buffoon. Stuff like “Scan that computer” or “Put a bomb there.” But all of them additionally deal with Samus as if she’s House Jesus and the best, most badass particular person ever. 

The worst of those offenders is Myles, who will name up Samus whereas she’s out exploring the open desert that connects Pime 4’s varied ranges and aspect areas and bug you to do that or that. A couple of occasions, I used to be out looking for secrets and techniques and Myles intervened, marking a spot on my map for me to go to subsequent. Thank god you’re right here, Myles, or I may need loved a couple of minutes of quiet exploration and discovery! 

When the federation squadmates aren’t squawking, and it’s simply Samus alone on an odd planet attempting to unravel puzzles and progress ahead, Prime 4 is a a lot better recreation. 

The extent design is beautiful, with every of the assorted biomes you discover and return to feeling each massive and sophisticated with out being complicated or a slog to work by means of. I’ve already talked about how a lot I love Volt Forge, the primary actual degree you go to in Prime 4, however the different areas are additionally implausible. The legally mandated ice degree, Ice Belt, is an typically claustrophobic and creepy trek by means of an deserted laboratory that was performing some unusual alien assessments. It ditches the ice caves and snow of most ice ranges for sterile labs and windy alcoves which might be all correctly desolate and dreary. 

And naturally, inside all of those ranges are varied alien enemies to combat, which isn’t an issue as a result of fight in Metroid Prime 4 is implausible, even when it is kind of the identical gunplay present in previous Prime titles. You lock on, hop round and lob missiles, power blasts, and elemental-themed photographs at a various number of critters and robots. Sure enemies have totally different weaknesses, like ice blasts, which provide help to clear the hordes extra successfully. It ain’t new, nevertheless it nonetheless feels good, and operating at 120FPS, it seems unbelievable. 

That’s most likely the most important praise I pays to Metroid Prime 4: Past. This can be a visually beautiful, aesthetically cohesive first-person motion shooter that runs like a dream. I by no means as soon as encountered a FPS drop that was noticeable or bumped into an space that appeared ugly. Each inch of Prime 4 delivers sharp, stylized sci-fi visuals that pop on an enormous 4K TV. This ain’t what I count on from a first-party Nintendo recreation, however I’m not complaining about it. I liked it a lot, and it makes me longing for future Nintendo video games on the Swap 2. 

*Sci-fi-sounding notification beep* Hey, author, don’t neglect to say the desert and the bike! These are options in Metroid Prime 4, the sport you performed, and are price together with in your assessment. Use the keyboard to jot down about them within the subsequent paragraph. 

Proper, the desert. That is essentially the most baffling a part of Prime 4. The big Sol Valley desert acts as an odd, largely empty hub space connecting the totally different ranges collectively. To assist Samus traverse this massive area, Prime 4 offers the participant a cool bike. And it is cool, and feels nice to drive. Hitting a dune whereas boosting and flying throughout the sands is sick shit. However the open desert simply turns into a boring strategy to gradual the sport down. 

Discover a new improve that may allow you to discover extra of a previous degree? Cool. You get to drive all the way in which again to that degree. Need to go get some upgrades now that you’ve a brand new Morph Ball potential? Effectively, guess what, you gotta drive by means of the desert once more. Worse, to get into and out of the desert, Samus is compelled by means of at the least two totally different loading areas that make it really feel barely linked to the remainder of the sport. 

The desert additionally appears to indicate Prime 4 is an open-ended journey, nevertheless it ain’t. Like previous Metroid video games, you gather power-ups and unlock extra of the sport world in a largely pre-determined order. And that will be greater than advantageous if the desert didn’t appear to arrange this concept that you just had extra freedom than you actually do. It’s only a massive empty waste of area that shouldn’t have been included in Prime 4 in any respect. 

And whereas exploring the desert, Myles will maintain yelling at you to do that or verify on that or open your map to go right here, and it simply turns into so tedious and annoying. Worse, to achieve the sport’s ending, it’s important to gather a ton of inexperienced crystals that spawn within the desert. I didn’t have sufficient after I obtained to the ultimate moments of Prime 4, so I needed to spend half-hour or so driving across the desert gathering gems whereas Myles repeated the identical tip about harvesting the rattling issues. The phrase torture popped into my head a number of occasions throughout all of this. 

*Sci-fi-souding notification beep* Oh no! Don’t neglect Sylux! This can be a villain that has been part of Metroid for years now, however will get a much bigger function than ever on this newest sequel. It is best to talk about him and his look in Prime 4 within the subsequent paragraph. 

Pricey god, go away me alone, Myles. However sure, Sylux is on this recreation. And that’s… about all I’ve to say about that. I’m not attempting to keep away from spoilers; I simply don’t have anything else so as to add. His presence is so minimal that at the beginning I assumed he was only a enjoyable cameo included at first. However no, you technically (type of) see him a number of extra occasions earlier than the top. 

What are his motivations? Why does he do something he does on this recreation, which may be very little? Why ought to anybody who, like me, hasn’t performed the video games he appeared in beforehand care about any of this? The sport solely actually solutions certainly one of these questions for those who handle to get 100% and unlock the key additional ending. For everybody else, kick rocks. 

Metroid Prime 4: Past is an effective recreation made worse by some actually dangerous decisions. It options annoying characters who spoil the remoted and haunting vibes that this newest sequel strives so laborious to create, and forces Samus to drive throughout a boring desert over and over and over for no good purpose aside from forcing you to do some additional busy work to increase Prime 4’s runtime to round 11 hours for most individuals.