Customer Reviews

Metroid Prime 2: Echoes

5 star:		(109)
4 star:		(32)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I remember when the hype for the first Gamecube Metroid was buzzing. All the talk about the fps mode, all the sneers and the scowls regarding not actually being able to see Samus...and then the game came out. And maybe I'm just looking in the wrong circles, but I haven't met a single person who disliked the first Metroid Prime. It was, for all intents and purposes, a perfect game.

From what I've played of Metroid Prime 2: Echoes (I'm a little stuck at 9% in the Agon Wastes, and gamefaqs doesn't have anything up yet), I can definitely say its much of that same excellence with a little more added on for good measure. Once again, the most impressive aspect of the game seems to be the environments. Best example I've seen so far is the lightening that pours from the sky in the Wastes...lightening which can actually hurt you in the off chance that it does hit you. And the array of new enemies doesn't hurt the overall look of the game. But the real outstanding feature are the light and dark worlds, which are the "echoes" referenced in the title.

Reminescent of Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past, every environment has its mirror image. The difference is that Aether's other half has a little bit of a goth complex, and as a result the enemies there are not only darker, but stronger. The environment is inhospitable to even Miss Aran, who is forced to hop from Luminoth beacon to beacon to minimize time in the miasma. Such is the life of a bounty hunter. And honestly, it gets a little irritating, but that's probably my biggest complaint. I will also agree with EGM's Shane that the plot seems like more of a Rare-style fetch quest than the average Metroid game, and nowhere near the incredible Metroid: Fusion plot. As for multiplayer, the experience hasn't been amazing. Fun for a while, as most multiplayer games are, but if you don't have a full group of people, you're going to get bored pretty quick.

But look on the bright side. The cinemas are brilliant, better than the first game (especially when Dark Samus gets into the fray). I wish I could provide feedback on a final boss and an ending, but I've still got some ways to go, and with a game like this, I gotta be honest...I wanna take my time and enjoy this.

Intro: I'm sorry guys. I've been reading some reviews, and they are horrible. No one who wrote the reviews have even played it. And that guy who complained about the commercial- what does marketing have to do with a game? We know you're an xbox fan boy.
Review: Grade: *****
Why: Well, I startec the game up, and the first thing I liked about it was the music. Great music. I always find Metroid games to have great music. I played the 1 player game, and it was pretty good. You feel like you're actually facing a big challenge, even if you know what you are doing, which lacked in the first Metroid Prime game. The graphics are superb, and the controls are great. You can tell Nintendo liked the buttons from last time, because most of them did the same thing as they did in Prime. They added some new weapons too, that are good enough to get excited about. I'm not going to go around saying Metroid Prime 2's multiplayer is better than Halo 2, but it's pretty good. If for some reason you can't get Halo 2, or you're too young for it, Metroid Prime 2 is a great choice. I'll even go and say it's Story is better than Halo 2's. And that's why I give it a 5 out of 5.

I've been playing Metroid games since the first one came out for NES in the 80's. It's always been my favorite Nintendo game series, and this is the most perfect one so far. The graphics are incredible (Samus and her ship are SO much sharper and more detailed than in MP1), the storyline is way cool, and the game in general is challenging and *REALLY* fun to play. There are tons of new weapons and other toys, and they even updated the scan visor, logbook, and morph ball boost (among other things) in some really cool ways - you can now use the morph ball boost as a weapon! And I can't even express how great it is to have the screw attack back in the game.

I brought it home last night and played until it was really late and I had to get to bed. Can't wait to get back home tonight and continue the journey! They really outdid themselves this time - it's gonna be hard to go back and play any of the earlier Metroid games now, even MP1!

To start off, I'm going to contradict what that other guy said about the Metroid series because from the sound of things he sucks at video games... First, Metroid was an excellent game for the day and the hardest part about it was getting some paper to write down the password. Then, Metroid 2 for the Game Boy was pretty good, but it had a few flaws... namely the story, there were no real bosses/mini-bossess till the end. Super Metroid is an excellent game, and one of the top ten SNES games, and I'm not trying ot sound like a best-game-of-all-time groupie, but face reality, that game was worthy of at least a 9.8/10. Metroid Fusion was short, which is a fact, but for the most part is was really fun, but the replay value is indeed extremely low. Metroid: Zero Mission, was just a redone version of the first Metroid with an extended ending where you get to run around with out your suit on, which is really cool. It is in no way confusing because when you get a new item, a stone Chozo character tells you where to go, as if that isn't giving the game away, but thankefully you can turn that option off if you get sick of it. Then there was Metroid Prime which was a fun 15 hours for me first time through, and I've played througha couple more times since I then, which was a few days after I acquired the game.

The new Metroid Prime game is fantastic. It's sheer brilliance, and the thought of giving this game a score below 4 stars (unless you dislike the Metroid series because the thought of a chick running around in a space suit kicking as* is against what video game principles you believe in which are that the main character has to have a red hat, or a gun, which makes you a video game trendy) is just an inane thought. I bet some of you are thinking, "Oh man, I hope they never make a movie out of this! I hope they make another redundant movie about drug king pins in the mid 1900s and movies that include Tom Cruise where he pretends to be some one he's not..." well, suck the big one cause it's being made, so all people who are fans of the series can rejoice over that.

Now if you've read all this, maybe you'll read a little further as to why I think the new Metroid Prime game is going to rule. First, the demo leaves the first MP game in the dust, and second the game concept is a slight copy of Zelda: A Link to the Past, but hey, that was also one of the ten best games...well, maybe 20 best games of all time, but still, it means new guns and new worlds which is a bonus. Plus there's the new multi-player mode function which is going to be awsome. So buy this game if you have fifty bucks, if not, well, mow some lawns before the snow falls, it's worth the effort (unless you have a steady job, save a few bucks).

The game starts off with Samus crash landing on a planet after responding to a distress signal. After landing, you have given control of her, you are fully upgraded, but that won't last long, you will eventually lose all of your weapons, after losing a battle with the mysterious Ing. After that, you know the routine, find weapons, upgrades, solve puzzles and defeat bosses.

Graphics:
The graphics in this game are almost identical to the original Prime, but that is a good thing. The detail in this game is nothing short of amazing. The lighting and environmental effects are so real and life like. The enemies are also very interesting. They move like they were patterned after real animals.

Sound:
There is nothing really new in the sound department either, again not a bad thing, because the sound in the original was very effective.

Gameplay:
While the controls are very intuitive and responsive, the actual game play does make it seem like something is definitely missing that made the other Metroid titles such a blast to play. I am an old school gamer, and I beat the first Metroid on NES as well as Super Metroid in the SNES. I also played the Metroid on the very first gameboy, until someone stole it. Anyway, the first thing I noticed is that this game focuses much more light and dark versions of the same world, rather than distinctive worlds. This game does have different worlds, but to me they seem to blend in with each other and you really don't get that feel of a true environment. A good portion of your time is spent cycling through the light and dark worlds to solve puzzles; it gets VERY tedious and boring. Oh yeah I did I mention you have to solve puzzles? While I like a challenge sometimes, this game has gone entirely too far with the puzzles. In the later stages of the game, you have to solve puzzles in nearly every room you go to just to get to the next door. Even a good number of the later mini-bosses are really just more puzzles you have to solve. Imagine fighting a boss while your in the morph ball for the entire fight, and you have to move Samus onto spaces that are a tenth of her width, and THEN bomb up into a bomb slot in a space that is barely big enough for the ball to fit through in the first place, oh yeah you have to activate 3 bomb slots before the hidden timer resets or you have to start all over again from the first one. If you die, then you have to spend 5 minutes getting back to the boss. What fun is that? Imagine having to switch between the light and dark world, over and over and over and over and over again just to get one missile expansion.

The game in general is harder this time around as well as the bosses. Aside from the annoying puzzle bosses, the boss battles are the most fun part of this game. I am really finding solving puzzles in worlds that are already uninspiring to get very boring. Even though this game plays exactly like the first, it just doesn't have that "Metroid" feel that I have come to love. This game as all the elements to be an awesome game, but they just don't come together as they should. The developers went WAY overboard with all the puzzles; you do more puzzle solving than actual fighting! I like solving complicated problems here and there, but not for the entire game! I shouldn't have to turn on my echo visor and shoot 5 beacons to open a door, just because the game decided it wanted to lock it in front of my face for no apparent reason. If I wanted a puzzle game, I'd get Wheel of Fortune or play Tetris. To put it bluntly the game is boring. Its possible to spend a good hour with this game before you discover you only actually advanced three rooms because if you mess up ONE single thing in a puzzle, then you are forced you to start ALL over again. Wow that sure sounds fun doesn't it?

One thing I must add is that I also agree that the limited saves in this game can be a problem. I didn't find this to be much of an issue until I spent 20 minutes unlocking three locks to get to a boss, only to find that I couldn't save my game after the locks were open. Needless to say the boss really handed it to me first time around, meaning I had to spend ANOTHER 20 minutes unlocking the same locks just to fight the boss again. I beat him the second time, but BARELY; I was down to my last energy tank with 15 health left in it; which is not that much considering every hit from him takes 30. Now before I get to a boss, I backtrack and save just so I don't have to solve the annoying puzzles again. The time spent backtracking to a save point is sure a heck of a lot better than having to solve EVERY single puzzle again just to get to the same boss that beat you for the 7th time!

I agree with the other reviewer that said something seems missing from this game. When I got the first Metroid Prime, I played it ALL the time, because it was just so much fun. This game plays almost exactly like the first, except for a few new weapons and items. Despite this, I have a hard time getting involved in this game. With the original Metroid Prime, I played it every day, this one I play once or twice a week for a couple of hours or so, then I get bored and turn it off. I will eventually beat it, but it is not on my list of priorities. And after I beat it, I can say that I will NEVER play it again, EVER; and thats even if I don't get 100% scans. That says a lot coming from me, since I'm usually the type to beat games over and over again. But once I beat this one, I don't even want to think about playing this boring game ever again. Recently, I even picked up the strategy guide, so I can beat it faster and be done with it.

I finally got to the last boss today, and unsuprisingly, he is super hard, you have to beat 3 forms of the same boss using your same energy for all three forms. After 15+ tries and 3 hours I finally beat him. After beating the last boss, the countdown timer started. I was escaping to my ship, then all of a sudden dark samus shows up more powerful than ever. You have to beat her before you can continue and yes, the timer is still going down while you fight her. Needless to say I lost, thinking I would have to start over from the original final boss. I was about to throw my last controller out the window, but was realived to see that I was able to start from the countdown sequence. I FINALLY beat the game, but not without breaking one of my controllers. After completing it, I found out I got 99% complete my first time through, bummer. This game is way to frustrating, long and boring to warrant another go at it for 100%. In fact I was so frustrated with the last bosses I didn't even bother scanning them, I just wanted to beat them and get it over with.

If you haven't played the first Prime, then I would highly suggest getting that first. If for some reason you have never played Metroid at all, then I STRONGLY suggest playing Metroid (NES) and Super Metroid (SNES) Those two titles to me are the best in the series both very worthy of 5 stars. Prime is close behind with strong 4. Prime 2 is a weak 3, with the ONLY thing saving it from a 1 or 2 star rating is that great graphics, and the Metroid name. Honestly, I will think long and hard before subjecting myself to antoher Metroid Prime game after this one, I just don't think I will have the patience to put up with something like this again.

I have played every metroid game there is since the very first one, and this one does not lose it's originality in any way.

Starting out however, i did find myself questioning the areas and how unique they are, but after a short time I really found myself to liking the whole plot and the eerie Dark & Light lands.

The bosses are very cool and the game has just the right amount of challenge. The game is also very long, much longer than any other metroid game I have played. However I never even thought about thinking of saying that i was getting bored, the game stayed full all the way through and I'm still getting around to beating it on Hard mode.

I guess I would have to give this game 4.5 stars but i cannot do that cause it is not a choice, the reason i say 4.5 is because the music in this one I found not to be as good as all the other metroid games. However one track comes back from Super Metroid that brings back a great euphoric feeling, you'll see.

Do not believe that just because something is next-gen it cannot be classic and fullfill it's original tastes.



My favorite metroid games greatest to great:

1)Metroid Fusion (so eerie and i felt comfortably numb playing it)
2)Metroid Prime 2: Echoes (it's true beauty sneaks up on you)
3)Super Metroid (I find this to be the most classic to me, even more than the NES one)
4)Metroid Prime (start of a new breed)
5)Metroid II (ooo the good old days)
6)Metroid I (ooo the good old old days)
7)Metroid: Zero Mission (It's metroid, i love it no matter what, but i barely remember playing through this, the game must be beatable in about 1 hour)

Many praised the first Prime as godlike and a modern masterpiece. The game was a beaut to look at but it was hard as hell and there was a lot of backtracking. Now the sequel comes and while it's not a failure on all fronts, the developers still haven't addressed some issues from the first one.

Story: What little story there is anyway. On the planet Aether, a race called the Luminoth is thriving, much like the Chozo on Tallon IV. They discover a massive meteorite is about to hit and when it does, the resulting energy causes a dimensional rip that provides 2 Aethers: Light and Dark. Afterwards, a Federation ship crash lands on Aether and a distress signal is sent to Samus. She must now stop the Ing, the race that occupies the Dark world.

Graphics: Improvements over the first one, which was beautiful anyway. Particle systems are better and levels seem more expansive. Bosses take up a huge chunk of the screen which makes it a bit annoying when you're trying to dodge.

Sound/Music: No voice overs except for Luminoth's weird voice(kinda like Zelda, no words just gibberish). The music is still the same: ambient textures with an otherworldly feel.

Gameplay: Basically the same as the first. 2 new visors: Dark Visor, allowing you to see objects and enemies that are in the dark world when you're in the light world. And the namesake Echo Visor, which looks like Ben Affleck's power from Daredevil. They took out some beams and added the Light and Dark beams, with get this: ammo. Instead of going nuts, you have to preserve your ammo, which got really irritating.

As for the difficulty, if you've never played the first one, I suggest you beat it first. At least then you'll know what to expect with this. For players who long for a harder difficulty, you'll enjoy this. For the rest of you, you will have your *** handed to you on more than one occasion. Even with standard enemies. One enemy early in the game took a huge chunk of my life with each hit and I wasn't even half an hour in.

I'd suggest renting first just to see if you're ready for the game cause this can seriously make you wanna throw your controller against the wall.

In 2002, Nintendo unveiled a game of such vision, complexity, and stunning visual detail that it shook the gaming world to its core. In a time when Xbox and Playstation 2 games were running away with the market and widely considered to be far superior to anything Nintendo put out, this game rose above it all to become one of the most popular console games of the past decade and even achieving the coveted title of GameSpot Magazine's 2002 "Game of the Year" honor (for ALL platforms, not just Nintendo). That revolutionary game was "METROID PRIME".
Two years later, the time has come for the much-anticipated sequel to that seminal video game. Just this past November, "Metroid Prime 2: Echoes" hit the market just in time to quell the hunger of Samus Aran fans nationwide who had their appetites hopelessly whetted by its predecessor. With all this pressure of having to live up to the standard set by "Metroid Prime", the burning question becomes, "How well does `...Echoes' stand up?" While not being quite mold-breaker of the original, "Metroid Prime 2: Echoes" holds up quite well.
The story, in brief, leads Samus, our intrepid bounty hunter, to the planet, Aether. Initially in pursuit of a quarry, Samus ends up involved in a much deeper and far more dangerous struggle as Aether struggles with a rift torn in time that has torn the planet between two dimensions, light and dark. It is up to Samus to travel between the two dimensions to recover the stolen energies that caused the rift and to close the rift for good. All the while, she is followed and mocked by an adversary who looks very familiar.
The true strength of "...Echoes" is in its stunning graphics, which even surpass the incredible visuals of "Metroid Prime". The attention to detail is so great and realism so present that the player feels more like a part of this game than in any that have come before. The concept of traveling between the Light and Dark Aether worlds, while initially difficult to adjust to, proves to be a tremendous asset because is forces the player to adopt different strategies based on which realm Samus is in (i.e. the atmosphere on Dark Aether is poisonous and Samus can only seek shelter within small fields of light crystals). The degree of challenge is right up there with the previous game and conclusion of the final battle leaves one feeling quite satisfied. The addition of light and dark crystal weapons, while not very practical, are also a nice touch.
Alas, there are some weaknesses to "...Echoes" that leave it a step below the original. One of the most glaring is how it seems that some missions are just plain tedious and take forever to accomplish, despite not involving a high degree of challenge. The beauty of "Metroid Prime" was that even random explorations of the various aspects of Chozo provided a visual treat that created a very robust gaming experience. "...Echoes" has more of a bare-bones feel to it that leaves the player just wanting to rush from one mission to the next to finish the game as quickly as possible, instead of taking in the full experience. This pattern continues with a number of the enemies and bosses that are faced. Defeating them seems more like a chore than a challenge.
The overall structure of the game feels a bit more out of focus than in the original. The maps overlap and confuse much more than they help (a marked difference from the first when the maps were an tremendous help). In addition, the dearth of save stations through the game proves exceptionally frustrating when a player has to go way out of their way to save the game or risk losing all their progress by forgoing it and losing a life in a tedious manner later on.
This quibbles aside, "Metroid Prime 2: Echoes" still stands strong next to its older brethren and more than leaves the diehard Samus Aran fan's appetite whetted for future installments.

I've successfully played and beaten this game with 91% completion and about 26 hours of game time. I have to say this game met my expectations after playing Metroid Prime 1 and I was very impressed by the game play.

Things I liked:
1. Fantastic graphics -- Ing & Luminoth char's were unbelievably detailed and pretty much as life-like as it seems possible.
2. Fast gameplay -- All parts of the game were virtually seemless & nothing ever lagged, even in the biggest rooms or with the biggest bosses.
3. Challenging puzzles -- The puzzles in this game are numerous and at least as challenging as the puzzles from Metroid Prime 1. Often times a part of it was hidden from view or behind some rocks.
4. Challenging bosses & sub-bosses -- The sub-bosses in this game are not simple shoot-and-kill bosses. In one case there was a sub-boss you couldn't hurt directly and as a result you had to figure out how to use your surroundings to do so.
5. Full-screen videos -- The videos in this game made it feel a bit more like an interactive movie than the previous game. Several times when I moved Samus into a room, it would switch to a cut-scene and something would happen (i.e. you'd see some pirate creeps entering a portal).
6. New weapons and toys -- If you're looking to have all the same weapons and toys from the first game, you won't find them here. You do have the same basic beam gun & missiles, but you won't find the ice beam, plasma beam, or such here. You do have some new visors too, along with a few other new toys.
7. Lots of secrets -- There appears to be more secrets in this game than the previous game. I've collected about 235 missiles so far and 4 expansions for the super bomb, along with 3 ammo expansions for the *new* beam weapons and I'm only at 91% as mentioned before.
8. Game ending -- I won't say why I liked this because I don't want to spoil it!

Things I didn't really care for...
1. Save points. I found it somewhat of an irritation that I had to go to particular places to save my game in Metroid Prime 1. This game is no different and it seems like there are actually less save points than in the previous game. I don't consider this a terrible inconvienence but it does get annoying at certain points in the game.

All in all, I would heartily recommend getting this game if you like First-person shooter games AND you like to solve puzzles. I recommend you get Metroid Prime 1 first though. In my mind, this game is at least as difficult as Metroid Prime 1 and as a result I would recommend you play Metroid Prime 1 before you play this game.

If you loved the award winning Metroid Prime for GameCube then you will adore the follow-up. Taking a tried and true formula from a classic SNES title called The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, MP2Echoes uses a Light/Dark World theme. This allows for cross world puzzle solving and some amazingly unique locales. The control setup is identical to its predecessor, and the HUD (Helmet display) is pretty much the same. No need to remaster new controls, just hop in and go.

Graphically the engine was rewritten from scratch. It looks lightly different but not a large gulf of difference. It does push the Cube to its limits in many ways with ginormous bosses and no slowdown. The game features a lot more cut-scenes and lore to explore with log files from dead soldiers and computers found throughout the games large areas. Space pirates are low key in this one but still they are in here trying to kill you any chance they get.

There is a lot more wild life and curved terrain thanks to the fantastic engine. The plot also moves a long a lot faster than the orginal which makes for a more pleasant trek. You get to battle a dark version of Samus throughout and also traverse giant mechanical fortresses. There is a lot of variety and the music is "to die for" good.

All in all the MP2E is a solid First Person Adventure with shooting components, puzzles, ginormous bosses, a variety of lifeforms, lots of weapons/suit upgrades, tones of secrets to explore, fantastic music and real atmosphere. A must buy for the serious gamer.