More of the same Metroid Prime goodness, but it fails to reach the highs of the first game. The multi-world concept is cool, but the dark and light beams relying on an ammo system becomes an annoying grind for ammo rather than a cool limitation. Being guided around by Umos also takes away from the personal sense of accomplishment of your discoveries.
It is a great game. It isn't as good as the first one, but it's still a good game, and changing Prime up with its different mechanics. I thought the light and dark mechanics were unique, but it made the game annoying to play at times.
Thanks to the remaster for Switch I was able to finally experience Metroid Prime, and that was over a year ago now. For the longest time I’ve been wanting to get around to continuing the Prime series, but just haven’t gotten around to it. Thanks to the recent trailer for Metroid Prime 4, I finally got the motivation to continue to Prime series, in order to catch up before the game’s release. So finally after all this time, I played through all of Metroid Prime 2, and it was a surely interesting game. I think the original Metroid Prime is a better and more polished game, but I feel like I enjoy Metroid Prime 2 more for how experimental it is in comparison.
Now, I want to be transparent before moving forward here, as I think a certain factor influenced my perspective and experience playing Prime 2. Specifically, I played using Primehack, which allows for Keyboard and Mouse Controls for the Prime series. I bring this up because I believe that the use of Keyboard and Mouse controls changes how you interact with the game naturally. This can especially be seen with aiming, as the lock-on button loses a lot of the usage it would have if you played with a controller. But I also bring this up because I want to acknowledge that the experience I had with Prime 2 isn’t necessarily the true experience, unfortunate as it sounds. I found the game really easy which is likely due to Primehack and Keyboard and Mouse. That being said, Primehack and Keyboard and Mouse controls feel perfect, and smooth, it felt great to control. I was already planning to play Prime 3 with Primehack so that I don’t need motion inputs, but how good Primehack feels cements that choice even further.
Onto Prime 2 itself proper, it’s a really interesting game. Compared to the likes of the other Metroid games I’ve played, it really tries to do something unique, for better or for worse. I really like the idea of the world layout in Prime 2. It’s like Fusion, where you have a main hub area, areas connected to it, and some minor interconnectivity between them. I think really the only thing I think to improve upon it is to slightly increase interconnectivity, like 1 or 2 more transport rooms per area. Where Prime 2 becomes the most interesting with its world layout however is with the shifting between Aether and Dark Aether. Having to shift between these two worlds is really fun, especially when later on you have to do it multiple times in order to solve puzzles. Dark Aether as well is a really cool setting, as even being there slowly drains your health unless you’re in protective spaces. In that regard, Dark Aether is both a very daunting and very forgiving area which I find really impressive. It also just creates really interesting worldbuilding for the setting of Prime 2! A world split in half, both sides fighting for dominance, and the one that wins is the one that remains in reality. Dark Aether itself isn’t perfect, but that’s not Dark Aether’s fault, rather something I’ll mention later.
One of the big major things in Prime 2 are unique beam types found only in Prime 2, the Light and Dark Beams. And I’ll say this, there’s things I like and dislike about them. I do really like them however, they have unique ways of function, special charge shots, and the puzzles that utilize them are really fun. However the general issue with them is the fact that they have an ammo count. Even though you can get up to 250 shots for both Light and Dark Beam, the fact that there is an ammo count for them disincentivizes the excess use of them. It disincentivizes experimentation, which makes it hard as certain bosses are weaker to some beams over others. Though I will also acknowledge I’ve played many survival horror games, so it’s ingrained in my brain to only use resources if absolutely necessary, which no doubt influenced how I used the Light and Dark beams. Regardless of that, it is possible to get ammo drops for the beams, however it’s a little finnicky. Unlike regular missile, health, or power bomb pickups, the pickups for the Light and Dark beam require the use of the opposite beam than you want the drop to be. So basically you need to use the Light beam to get Dark beam ammo, and vice versa. And I see what they’re going for and I really like the idea, but it becomes a very difficult balancing act, as it almost ensures that you’ll never have full ammo for both beams at the same time.
Actual exploration is really fun though. I went out of my way to get 100% item completion, which ended up being really fun to do. Especially in later areas of the game, when you get more abilities, the puzzles becomes really complex and challenging. But those puzzles being as complex and challenging as they are made them ever more satisfying when I did solve them. Though there was one minor gripe with exploration. Specifically, there’s areas in Torvus Bog that when you enter them, will spawn enemies called “Dark Pirate Commandos”. While this isn’t exclusive to Torvus Bog, for some reason only in Torvus Bog, certain rooms will have their doors lock when Dark Pirate Commandos spawn. This isn’t inherently bad, but with how much health a Dark Pirate Commando has, it becomes this really odd interruption that just messes with the flow of things. I do want to specify yet again, that this only happens in a couple of rooms in Torvus Bog so it’s not that major of an issue, but it’s one that is apparent.
Another thing about Prime 2 is the hunt for the Sky Temple Keys. They function just the same as the Chozo Artifacts in Prime 1, you need to collect them all before you can gain access to the final boss. In Prime 1, the hunt for Chozo Artifacts were a little dull, but it was remedied with the fact that you can get a good majority of them before the hunt even start. The same cannot be said for the Sky Temple Keys though. 5 of the 9 Sky Temple Keys you need to obtain can only be obtained once you get the final upgrade, the Light Suit. This is also at a point in the game where all you have left is the final boss, so it’s a major section of exploring all of Dark Aether to find the remaining keys. On top of that all, you can only see the enemies that hold the Sky Temple Keys with a certain Visor, which means you’ll be hunting for a good while if you don’t know which rooms they’re located in. For my experience though, it did help that I wanted to 100% the game, so I had to go and explore each area all over again anyway. But I do think it can be frustrating to a degree. As someone who knows nothing about Prime 3, I really hope Prime 3 doesn’t feature a system like this as well.
And of course one of my favorite things in any Metroid really are the boss fights, and Prime 2’s are interesting. Over and over, I’ve always thought of them as “they’re really fun… if you know what you’re doing”. Now a lot of the early game bosses are really fun, and it’s relatively clear what you’re supposed to do for each fight. However, it becomes a lot more complex once you get to the third area of the game, as it’s not entirely clear on how a boss is meant to be fought. For example with the fight with Quadraxis, the second phase didn’t feel clear how you were meant to destroy the radio signal, but once you do figure out how, the phase becomes really fun. The last few boss fights of Prime 2 are really fun, and some of my favorites overall in the series, but that was only once I figured out how I was supposed to fight them. That being said, Prime 2 also features some of the worst bosses I’ve encountered in Metroid as well. There’s a specific set of bosses that are “guardians” and while they’re fine at the beginning, later ones just become a drag. The three that come to mind are Boost Guardian, Grapple Guardian, and especially Spider Guardian. None of these bosses are difficult, in fact they’re really easy, the problem though is that they take such a long time to kill. This is due to high health alongside having to wait for an opening to actually appear. I absolutely believe that Grapple Guardian took me longer to beat than the final boss did as ridiculous as that sounds. Even still, the major named bosses of Prime 2 are still really fun and some of the best I’ve experienced in the entire series, once I knew what I was doing of course.
That’s sort of the thing with my general experience with Prime 2. It had its fluctuating moments of ups and downs, definitely due to how experimental Prime 2 feels. The puzzles were amazing, the world of Aether and Dark Aether are awesome, and exploration in general was really fun. A good number of bosses were really fun to fight, though it wasn’t always telegraphed well how I was supposed to fight them. And of course without a shadow of doubt, Dark Samus is just one of the coolest villains in all of Metroid. I mentioned earlier that I went out of my way to get 100% item completion, which is something I do rarely, especially on a first playthrough. Even though it does have its flaws, I end up preferring Prime 2 to Prime 1, while it doesn’t succeed with every experiment, I love that it tried regardless, and it made for a really unique experience compared to the likes of other Metroid titles.
Now, I want to be transparent before moving forward here, as I think a certain factor influenced my perspective and experience playing Prime 2. Specifically, I played using Primehack, which allows for Keyboard and Mouse Controls for the Prime series. I bring this up because I believe that the use of Keyboard and Mouse controls changes how you interact with the game naturally. This can especially be seen with aiming, as the lock-on button loses a lot of the usage it would have if you played with a controller. But I also bring this up because I want to acknowledge that the experience I had with Prime 2 isn’t necessarily the true experience, unfortunate as it sounds. I found the game really easy which is likely due to Primehack and Keyboard and Mouse. That being said, Primehack and Keyboard and Mouse controls feel perfect, and smooth, it felt great to control. I was already planning to play Prime 3 with Primehack so that I don’t need motion inputs, but how good Primehack feels cements that choice even further.
Onto Prime 2 itself proper, it’s a really interesting game. Compared to the likes of the other Metroid games I’ve played, it really tries to do something unique, for better or for worse. I really like the idea of the world layout in Prime 2. It’s like Fusion, where you have a main hub area, areas connected to it, and some minor interconnectivity between them. I think really the only thing I think to improve upon it is to slightly increase interconnectivity, like 1 or 2 more transport rooms per area. Where Prime 2 becomes the most interesting with its world layout however is with the shifting between Aether and Dark Aether. Having to shift between these two worlds is really fun, especially when later on you have to do it multiple times in order to solve puzzles. Dark Aether as well is a really cool setting, as even being there slowly drains your health unless you’re in protective spaces. In that regard, Dark Aether is both a very daunting and very forgiving area which I find really impressive. It also just creates really interesting worldbuilding for the setting of Prime 2! A world split in half, both sides fighting for dominance, and the one that wins is the one that remains in reality. Dark Aether itself isn’t perfect, but that’s not Dark Aether’s fault, rather something I’ll mention later.
One of the big major things in Prime 2 are unique beam types found only in Prime 2, the Light and Dark Beams. And I’ll say this, there’s things I like and dislike about them. I do really like them however, they have unique ways of function, special charge shots, and the puzzles that utilize them are really fun. However the general issue with them is the fact that they have an ammo count. Even though you can get up to 250 shots for both Light and Dark Beam, the fact that there is an ammo count for them disincentivizes the excess use of them. It disincentivizes experimentation, which makes it hard as certain bosses are weaker to some beams over others. Though I will also acknowledge I’ve played many survival horror games, so it’s ingrained in my brain to only use resources if absolutely necessary, which no doubt influenced how I used the Light and Dark beams. Regardless of that, it is possible to get ammo drops for the beams, however it’s a little finnicky. Unlike regular missile, health, or power bomb pickups, the pickups for the Light and Dark beam require the use of the opposite beam than you want the drop to be. So basically you need to use the Light beam to get Dark beam ammo, and vice versa. And I see what they’re going for and I really like the idea, but it becomes a very difficult balancing act, as it almost ensures that you’ll never have full ammo for both beams at the same time.
Actual exploration is really fun though. I went out of my way to get 100% item completion, which ended up being really fun to do. Especially in later areas of the game, when you get more abilities, the puzzles becomes really complex and challenging. But those puzzles being as complex and challenging as they are made them ever more satisfying when I did solve them. Though there was one minor gripe with exploration. Specifically, there’s areas in Torvus Bog that when you enter them, will spawn enemies called “Dark Pirate Commandos”. While this isn’t exclusive to Torvus Bog, for some reason only in Torvus Bog, certain rooms will have their doors lock when Dark Pirate Commandos spawn. This isn’t inherently bad, but with how much health a Dark Pirate Commando has, it becomes this really odd interruption that just messes with the flow of things. I do want to specify yet again, that this only happens in a couple of rooms in Torvus Bog so it’s not that major of an issue, but it’s one that is apparent.
Another thing about Prime 2 is the hunt for the Sky Temple Keys. They function just the same as the Chozo Artifacts in Prime 1, you need to collect them all before you can gain access to the final boss. In Prime 1, the hunt for Chozo Artifacts were a little dull, but it was remedied with the fact that you can get a good majority of them before the hunt even start. The same cannot be said for the Sky Temple Keys though. 5 of the 9 Sky Temple Keys you need to obtain can only be obtained once you get the final upgrade, the Light Suit. This is also at a point in the game where all you have left is the final boss, so it’s a major section of exploring all of Dark Aether to find the remaining keys. On top of that all, you can only see the enemies that hold the Sky Temple Keys with a certain Visor, which means you’ll be hunting for a good while if you don’t know which rooms they’re located in. For my experience though, it did help that I wanted to 100% the game, so I had to go and explore each area all over again anyway. But I do think it can be frustrating to a degree. As someone who knows nothing about Prime 3, I really hope Prime 3 doesn’t feature a system like this as well.
And of course one of my favorite things in any Metroid really are the boss fights, and Prime 2’s are interesting. Over and over, I’ve always thought of them as “they’re really fun… if you know what you’re doing”. Now a lot of the early game bosses are really fun, and it’s relatively clear what you’re supposed to do for each fight. However, it becomes a lot more complex once you get to the third area of the game, as it’s not entirely clear on how a boss is meant to be fought. For example with the fight with Quadraxis, the second phase didn’t feel clear how you were meant to destroy the radio signal, but once you do figure out how, the phase becomes really fun. The last few boss fights of Prime 2 are really fun, and some of my favorites overall in the series, but that was only once I figured out how I was supposed to fight them. That being said, Prime 2 also features some of the worst bosses I’ve encountered in Metroid as well. There’s a specific set of bosses that are “guardians” and while they’re fine at the beginning, later ones just become a drag. The three that come to mind are Boost Guardian, Grapple Guardian, and especially Spider Guardian. None of these bosses are difficult, in fact they’re really easy, the problem though is that they take such a long time to kill. This is due to high health alongside having to wait for an opening to actually appear. I absolutely believe that Grapple Guardian took me longer to beat than the final boss did as ridiculous as that sounds. Even still, the major named bosses of Prime 2 are still really fun and some of the best I’ve experienced in the entire series, once I knew what I was doing of course.
That’s sort of the thing with my general experience with Prime 2. It had its fluctuating moments of ups and downs, definitely due to how experimental Prime 2 feels. The puzzles were amazing, the world of Aether and Dark Aether are awesome, and exploration in general was really fun. A good number of bosses were really fun to fight, though it wasn’t always telegraphed well how I was supposed to fight them. And of course without a shadow of doubt, Dark Samus is just one of the coolest villains in all of Metroid. I mentioned earlier that I went out of my way to get 100% item completion, which is something I do rarely, especially on a first playthrough. Even though it does have its flaws, I end up preferring Prime 2 to Prime 1, while it doesn’t succeed with every experiment, I love that it tried regardless, and it made for a really unique experience compared to the likes of other Metroid titles.
the first half of this game starts off great. its classic Metroid, exploring the world, finding secrets, and having a great time
about halfway through, however, you run into a boss called The Alpha Blogg, and this is where the game starts to fumble big time. bosses range from "tedious" to "frustrating and annoying." the Spider Ball Guardian is tedious and confusing; the final Dark Samus fight has you absorb Phazon to fight her by charging your beam, but if you get hit by the Phazon, you lose your charge and youre on the clock as well; the Quadraxis fight is one of the worst bosses ive ever fought in a video game, with his first phase being frustrating, second phase being tedious, and third phase being frustrating again. bosses in the Dark World can kill you after you beat them because the Dark World constantly damages you, which results in doing an entire fight again. the beams have ammo, which is frustrating to use and makes no sense, since the beams arent any more powerful than the beams in Prime 1 or Prime 3. and theres wayyyyy too much backtracking. theres also barely any save rooms, and the game is much harder than the previous Metroids. if the game is going to be harder, there should be more save rooms, but theres less than theres ever been before. this game was not fun, and i had very few moments of enjoyment out of it
about halfway through, however, you run into a boss called The Alpha Blogg, and this is where the game starts to fumble big time. bosses range from "tedious" to "frustrating and annoying." the Spider Ball Guardian is tedious and confusing; the final Dark Samus fight has you absorb Phazon to fight her by charging your beam, but if you get hit by the Phazon, you lose your charge and youre on the clock as well; the Quadraxis fight is one of the worst bosses ive ever fought in a video game, with his first phase being frustrating, second phase being tedious, and third phase being frustrating again. bosses in the Dark World can kill you after you beat them because the Dark World constantly damages you, which results in doing an entire fight again. the beams have ammo, which is frustrating to use and makes no sense, since the beams arent any more powerful than the beams in Prime 1 or Prime 3. and theres wayyyyy too much backtracking. theres also barely any save rooms, and the game is much harder than the previous Metroids. if the game is going to be harder, there should be more save rooms, but theres less than theres ever been before. this game was not fun, and i had very few moments of enjoyment out of it
Well. It's the game I got stuck the most of all Metroid entries, but with the Wii motion pointing and weapon changing that doesn't natively change the gameplay (unlike how MP3 make clear it was meant to be a Wii game).
(Review from 2017) Every time I play through Metroid Prime Trilogy I stop on this game. I theoretically should love it (and it’s well done, and even good!) but something about the light/dark switching doesn’t do it for me, which is weird cause other games that use this device I love.