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[Son of Godzilla]

Yay for getting to the marine's ship and not being able to progress further.

 

[Timen]

wait till you get to the boost guardian

 

[dark10x]

Yay for getting to the marine's ship and not being able to progress further.

At the beginning?

Enter ship, look for hole in the side, jump through hole onto raised land and continue onward.

 

[Frank the Great]

Echoes has a pretty normal challenge level as long as you don't suck at videogames.

 

[olimario]

At the beginning?

Enter ship, look for hole in the side, jump through hole onto raised land and continue onward.

Ding Ding Ding.
But that hangup isn't what stops the game from being a shell of the first. It's the underwhelming graphics and effects, the dimmed down art style, and the horrible world switching.

 

[Amir0x]

Underwhelming graphics? I can understand - not agree, necessarily - but understand the other complaints. But that?

No, friend. NO!

Also, BEFORE YOU SAY ANYTHING DRAGONA I WILL EAT YOUR EYE OUT. METROID PRIME OWNS.

 

[tedtropy]

And still my copy of the game sits encased in shrink wrapping. I think I just had to own it out of my love for the first, even if I've yet to hear a convincing reason to play its sequel.

 

[nubbe]

When you don't know what to do... Scan baby, scan

 

[dark10x]

I feel that it is still a very solid game worthy of praise (afterall, it's a very complete and polished package the likes of which is rather uncommon these days). However, I cannot disagree with the notion that it is quite a step down from the original. It comes down to less compelling content.

The environments are nowhere near as compelling, the dark world is not particularly enjoyable, the music isn't as well done, and the art direction has dropped a notch.

Disappointing, but still very good.

Hopefully they have realized this and will not repeat some of those mistakes.

 

[Sinatar]

I'm still slogging through this game and it is doing everything possible to make me stop.

Bland World Design: Check
Lame Enemies: Check
Generic Rooms: Check
Stupid Dark World Crap: Check

I honestly don't know how this game got the reviews it did, it is not fun at all, whereas the original was an exceptional game.

 

[olimario]

Sorry. The first game impressed me more. Maybe it was the over the top lighting, the less plasticky Samus, or the superior art... but Prime just puts Echoes to shame in visuals.

 

[dark10x]

I think it is a bit unfair to suggest that the world design is generic and/or bland. In comparison to the original title, perhaps that IS the case, but it still stands above the crowd. Every room is once again hand crafted with loads of geometric detail and things seem rather well thought out.

When you raise the bar too high, it becomes difficult to reach that point a second time.

 

[Triumph]

HOT LOCK ON ACTION

 

[olimario]

I think it is a bit unfair to suggest that the world design is generic and/or bland. In comparison to the original title, perhaps that IS the case, but it still stands above the crowd. Every room is once again hand crafted with loads of geometric detail and things seem rather well thought out.

When you raise the bar too high, it becomes difficult to reach that point a second time.

Maybe if Echoes had come out first it wouldn't be so glaring.

 

[ocelittle]

I got stuck at that part for a good couple of days.

 

[Sinatar]

I think it is a bit unfair to suggest that the world design is generic and/or bland. In comparison to the original title, perhaps that IS the case, but it still stands above the crowd. Every room is once again hand crafted with loads of geometric detail and things seem rather well thought out.

When you raise the bar too high, it becomes difficult to reach that point a second time.

I do find it very bland though to the point where a lot of the rooms blend together making it hard to navigate without opening the map every 5 minutes. The original MP I could get anywhere I wanted just due to each room being very unique in layout and appearance while still matching the general theme of its parent region.

 

[Mrbob]

The way Samus lost her suit powers is the most stupid shit ever in Echoes. The way she lost her suit powers in Prime is awesome. But in Echoes OH NOS don't take my suit powers away piece by piece and then warp me back weaker. Bleh. I love Metroid Prime but Echoes just seemed like a boring derivative game. Dark world is garbage. I hope for Metroid Prime 3 you have Samus planet hopping on a ton of beautiful enviroments. Don't give me this dark and drudgy crap. I also hope Samus keeps all her powers at the beginning for Prime 3. Let her be the bad assity from the beginning.

 

[Amir0x]

The problem with Echoes was undoubtedly the world switching. It made so much of the game blend together and really diminished the quality of many of the segments within the game. It was also very annoying.

I also hope Samus keeps all her powers at the beginning for Prime 3. Let her be the bad assity from the beginning.

Noooooo! one of the best things about Metroid is your ever-evolving powers during the course of a game. It makes you feel like you've actually developed during the course of it, and I love that. And it's an absolute Metroid staple, you can't change that because it's awesome. I love the feeling when you get a new power, and you're like "oh fantastic, I can finally get through that corridor that was locked before. I can't wait to find out what is behind it."

 

[krypt0nian]

The way Samus lost her suit powers is the most stupid shit ever in Echoes. The way she lost her suit powers in Prime is awesome. But in Echoes OH NOS don't take my suit powers away piece by piece and then warp me back weaker. Bleh. I love Metroid Prime but Echoes just seemed like a boring derivative game. Dark world is garbage. I hope for Metroid Prime 3 you have Samus planet hopping on a ton of beautiful enviroments. Don't give me this dark and drudgy crap. I also hope Samus keeps all her powers at the beginning for Prime 3. Let her be the bad assity from the beginning.

Agreed - can we find another gameplay mechanism besides "regain all your lost powers"?

amir0x - we can still evolve them as needed but why the ridiculous lose your powers each game? Its beyond plausable.

 

[brandonh83]

The only area I didn't like in Echoes was the lower half of the Torvus Bog. Everything else, IMO, was awesome. I loved the desolate feel of the Agon Wastes and the look ALONE of the Sanctuary Fortress was absolutely incredible. Also the Dark World portions of each stage, I thought, were extremely creepy. Especially the music.

 

[Sgt. Killjoy]

Let her be the bad assity from the beginning.

Agreed.

 

[etiolate]

Bland World Design: Check
Lame Enemies: Check
Generic Rooms: Check

wtf? The world of Echoes isn't as enjoyable as the first, but it's certainly not bland. The enemies though are an improvement over the first and are tougher. But generic rooms? The only generic rooms in Metroid games normally are the save rooms.

Maybe it's the dark world that makes them seem bland to you. In light world I can tell all the rooms apart.

 

[Mrbob]

I dunno. I think her losing her powers is getting a little old hat. Especially after the way it was handled in Echoes. At least she lost her powers in a sweet battle in Prime.

I want to be bad ass Samus from the beginning.

 

[olimario]

Sanctuary Fortress was the only Echoes area that rivaled Prime.

 

[brandonh83]

I also liked the overworld quite a bit. I thought it looked neat and the music was pretty catchy.

 

[Amir0x]

amir0x - we can still evolve them as needed but why the ridiculous lose your powers each game? Its beyond plausable.

I just don't like that idea. It totally destroys the Metroid flow that has always been fantastic. Maybe they need a better reason for why she loses her powers each time, but I can't think of a better way to create a game flow. It's such a great structure. Finally getting that spiderball power and then trying to remember all the places it could be used, either for powers ups or new rooms or locations. It's so rewarding.

 

[etiolate]

Having all the powers would sort of ruin the flow of progression and level design of Metroid though. Plus, no sequence breaking to be had.

 

[olimario]

I'd love for her to have her Prime powers at the start of Prime 3.
Just have her acquire even more over the top shit as she goes.

When MegaMan X came out I didn't think the base megaman could be any more of a badass than he was. Then I got the dash, and the helmet, and the super charge...

I want Prime 3 to be to Prime what MegaMan X is to MegaMan 6.

 

[SantaC]

Echoes is a good game, but not anywhere the first one. Though the bosses were harder this time, and quadraxis was awesome.

 

[BigBoss]

I'd like Retro to tone down the backtracking, they don't have to get rid of it alltogether but the amount of backtracking in Echoes was ridiculous.

 

[xexex]

a few comments, some off-topic, some on-topic

I am not enjoying Metroid Prime 2 Echoes nearly as much as the original. It's not fun, the scanning is boring, but I will find some value in MP2 since I bought it and will complete it one day. I'm AM a pretty big fan of Gamecube, it's the only Nintendo system I own...(aside from DS) though I am *not* a fan of Nintendo in general - although some of their games ARE brilliant.

I am looking forward to Zelda: TP as much as anyone and cannot wait to learn about Revolution, and will get one on launch day. looking forward to the next GameBoy (to see what its like) and waiting for better NDS games (Nectaris please, Hudson! better than AW) this is saying alot about me, a gamer who grew up on SEGA and NEOGEO.

 

[krypt0nian]

I'd love for her to have her Prime powers at the start of Prime 3.
Just have her acquire even more over the top shit as she goes.

Exactly. She should always start with her base power set at least. And then the new setting could require new power sets to function there.

Losing her powers this many times makes coming up with new ways excrutiating.

 

[crumbs]

I picked up MP2 a couple of weeks ago and have just gotten around to playing it. I just got the Dark Suit and have entered Torvus Bog.

I'm hoping the game picks up, because the so far the game is rather boring. The only real improvement is color-coded scanning, it seems tighter and not as annoying. A solid game, but definitely not as compelling as the first

 

[LakeEarth]

Can I ask the question, why does every enemy in Echoes have to be hit 5-10 times to be killed? There are barely any enemies in the game that can be taken out in a shot or two, it just makes the respawning enemies more annoying. If I had to face off with those warping Space Pirates attacking again and again and again. And those bastards took 3 Super Missles to be killed, so they aren't just a minor annoyance.

And why the hell were the Space Pirates even there? "There's phazon on this planet" is all we get pretty much. And they barely even explain Phazon Samus, since

Spoiler

I thought Dark Samus wasn't the same thing as the Samus that came out of Metroid Prime's 100% ending?

I just did not like Prime 2. I can't believe I beat it, just because Metroid is my favourite series.

 

[Warm Machine]

Ding Ding Ding.
But that hangup isn't what stops the game from being a shell of the first. It's the underwhelming graphics and effects, the dimmed down art style, and the horrible world switching.

Wrong on all counts. I played Echos immediately after completing Prime on a 480p CRT HDTV and the visuals are much better.

The art style is a massive step up from the ridiculously geeky complex panelling with screws and shit everywhere look of the first. The creatures are much better in design as is Samus herself. Lighting is better in the environment with higher res shadow maps, SH lighting for the characters makes them look more as though they are lit by the environment and not some abstract source and actual specularity on certain objects.

Worst part of the game is the regaining of power's you've lost as it is such a bland convention. The light and dark switching only bothers people because it is bloody hard sometimes.

 

[DrLazy]

I'm an Echoes hater as well. Never finished the game because I got stuck. I swear I've searced every fucking crevice in the dark and light world. Still nothing. And what do you know, the one time I need it, the hint system won't activate.

The reason I got stuck is I quit playing for a week or so because I was so bored with it. When I tried to pick it back up, I'd forgotten where I was suppose to go. So I searched EVERYWHERE. Its just bad design. Key fetching of the worst Doom 1 sort of way. Story is bad. Just overall bad. And I was addicted to the first one.

 

[GrimReaper]

I'd love for her to have her Prime powers at the start of Prime 3.
Just have her acquire even more over the top shit as she goes.

When MegaMan X came out I didn't think the base megaman could be any more of a badass than he was. Then I got the dash, and the helmet, and the super charge...

I want Prime 3 to be to Prime what MegaMan X is to MegaMan 6.

I've seen somewhere that they were doing something like that for the single player mode of Hunters. I guess it's a beginning.

 

[IJoel]

Echoes has a pretty normal challenge level as long as you don't get bored with tedious, uninteresting videogames.

Fixed.

 

[Red Scarlet]

I dunno. I think her losing her powers is getting a little old hat. Especially after the way it was handled in Echoes. At least she lost her powers in a sweet battle in Prime.

I want to be bad ass Samus from the beginning.

Er, you scanned a thing, and then an explosion knocks her into a wall and she loses her powers.

 

[silenttwn]

Wrong on all counts. I played Echos immediately after completing Prime on a 480p CRT HDTV and the visuals are much better.

The art style is a massive step up from the ridiculously geeky complex panelling with screws and shit everywhere look of the first. The creatures are much better in design as is Samus herself. Lighting is better in the environment with higher res shadow maps, SH lighting for the characters makes them look more as though they are lit by the environment and not some abstract source and actual specularity on certain objects.

Worst part of the game is the regaining of power's you've lost as it is such a bland convention. The light and dark switching only bothers people because it is bloody hard sometimes.

Agreed. I like Prime 2 better than Prime 1 in the visuals department. I thought Prime 2 was all around a better game.

 

[Jive Turkey]

I love how "I suck at gaming and got stuck" transilates into "This game sucks!"

I'll agree with most here when I say MP:E wasn't as good as the fist but when you get down to it not much is.

 

[Mrbob]

Well, whatever.

It has been awhile since I played Metroid Prime. I have faith Retro will fix thing for MP3.

It seems like the second game in many games series gets tarnished. Is the third time the charm?

MGS2 >> MGS3

Halo 2 >> ?

MP2 >> ?

 

[DrLazy]

I love how "I suck at gaming and got stuck" transilates into "This game sucks!"

I'll agree with most here when I say MP:E wasn't as good as the fist but when you get down to it not much is.

It translates just fine when you get stuck because of bad game design not lack of gaming skills. I never died. And the whole game is boring. So yeah, it sucked.

 

[Sp3eD]

I quit after I got screwed with the lame assed echo sensors bug in Fortress Santuary that forces you to restart the entire game. I actually enjoyed it up until that part. So dissapointing.

 

[Ironclad]

The world switching was most likely the most tedious part of the game. The new weapons were interesting enough and it's great to see the screw attack return but although Echoes does look great, I much preferred the setting of the original Prime and the Chozo architecture is much better than that of the Luminoth. Overall, I prefer the atmosphere of Prime but Echoes is definitely amazing in this regard as well. Difficulty wise, I would say that Echoes is harder to a certain extent, but it is a little less fair also. Still, as much as I enjoy the Prime games, we need a classic Metroid game on a home console now.

 

[LakeEarth]

I love how "I suck at gaming and got stuck" transilates into "This game sucks!"

To be fair, the game is really fucking unclear sometimes. You get to a certain point in Torvus Bog, and then the hint system tells me I have to go all the way to near the beginning of the game to get a "mystery item". If I didn't have the hint system on it I don't know how I would've found it.

I think that's my main problem with the game. When you get a new item, you never think "okay I can use this to do this now!" because the level design is so forgettable. That and you pass by like a dozen purple doors before you get the Seeker Missles, you have to retread and find every one over again and see if what's on the other side is important.

 

[Teddman]

I skipped this game after spending nearly an hour on the E3 demo. I think that was the best way to experience it. :lol

 

[Of All Trades]

The light and dark switching only bothers people because it is bloody hard sometimes.

It bothered me because I had to sit through the same stupid loading screen each time and because the dark side was just uninteresting after the first area. Having to hunt for invisible keys sucked, too.

And I thought Sanctuary Fortress, while visually interesting, severly detracted from the rest of the game because it completely broke the "unified world". It just didn't fit with the rest of the levels and felt like someone decided that "computer zone" would be a neat idea, even if it made no sense. Total immersion killer. Plus the Rebooting enemies took way too many shots to kill.

What I want out of Prime 3 is a game where you start with everything and over time lose the components, but which in turn strengthens the others, until all you have left is a massively powered arm cannon that can slap around the final boss.

 

[Jive Turkey]

To be fair, the game is really fucking unclear sometimes. You get to a certain point in Torvus Bog, and then the hint system tells me I have to go all the way to near the beginning of the game to get a "mystery item". If I didn't have the hint system on it
I don't know how I would've found it.

And I'll totally give you that one because the same thing happened to me (I didn't have the hint on) but everything else? Especially what Son of Godzilla is complaing about? Take 5 fucking minutes and look around the room you're in.

 

[etiolate]

Fixed.

Coming fromt he FF fan!