One of the most difficult and action-packed games in the Metroid series, Prime 2 focuses more on the moment-to-moment challenge than its predecessor. The game starts strong with an incredibly well directed "post-disaster" scene that is much more engaging than the equivalent in Prime 1. This strength in directing holds for all the cinematics and location reveals in the game, with my favorite portrayal of Samus as a character through animations.
The light/dark world spin this game has on the Metroid formula is interesting, though it detracts from the exploration aspect a bit. The game asks you to retread similar but changed level layouts, with toxic air and stronger enemies doubling the already high danger of the light world counterparts. It means you do less "discovery" than most Metroid games, but instead use your memory of recent layouts in a sort of challenge mode. All in all I think it's not a bad idea, and only in late game item retrieval did I find annoyance in how sparse portals often make you travel long distances to get many places.
Combat in this game in general is decent, but the bosses here are an absolute treat. There are straightforward shooting matches with Dark Samus, enemies that use your own abilities against you, and the major area bosses that are long battles that often make use of multiple abilities at once. The variety and creativity is stellar, and the combat is enhanced a bit with the beam ammo system imo. You can't just choose your strongest beam, you have to balance enemy weaknesses with your current ammo count and try to get ammo with kills of the opposite beam. It's easy to get scared and just use the power beam all the time, but if you get the ammo upgrades and try to use the beams more often you may find some fun in the system.
Thankfully this game has many area shortcuts to get around easily during the end game macguffin search, though the light/dark world portal placement can often lead to tedium in retreading areas at times. However, the finale is the best in the Prime series by a long shot. Overall I think this game is almost as good as Prime 1 but rougher around the edges.
The light/dark world spin this game has on the Metroid formula is interesting, though it detracts from the exploration aspect a bit. The game asks you to retread similar but changed level layouts, with toxic air and stronger enemies doubling the already high danger of the light world counterparts. It means you do less "discovery" than most Metroid games, but instead use your memory of recent layouts in a sort of challenge mode. All in all I think it's not a bad idea, and only in late game item retrieval did I find annoyance in how sparse portals often make you travel long distances to get many places.
Combat in this game in general is decent, but the bosses here are an absolute treat. There are straightforward shooting matches with Dark Samus, enemies that use your own abilities against you, and the major area bosses that are long battles that often make use of multiple abilities at once. The variety and creativity is stellar, and the combat is enhanced a bit with the beam ammo system imo. You can't just choose your strongest beam, you have to balance enemy weaknesses with your current ammo count and try to get ammo with kills of the opposite beam. It's easy to get scared and just use the power beam all the time, but if you get the ammo upgrades and try to use the beams more often you may find some fun in the system.
Thankfully this game has many area shortcuts to get around easily during the end game macguffin search, though the light/dark world portal placement can often lead to tedium in retreading areas at times. However, the finale is the best in the Prime series by a long shot. Overall I think this game is almost as good as Prime 1 but rougher around the edges.