Let me preface by saying that I thoroughly enjoy multiple "Metroidvanias". I think it's finally time to admit to the fact that I'm just not going to enjoy any Metroid games. Super Metroid, Dread, and now this have all tried their best to annoy me enough to stop playing. Despite low expectations going in, this game still disappoints.
Listen, if I played this back in 2001 it's possible I would have loved it and have plenty of nostalgia for it. Surely it's something special considering the time of release. However, in modernity it just oozes issues. Playing this in 2023 means it's held to a different standard now, and it falls flat in regards to most of them. I could not imagine playing the original considering how dated the controls would feel. This game actually playing pretty smoothly is one of its only silver linings.
Why do Metroid games deal with backtracking so poorly? Why?! The games that take inspiration from them have pulled off much more interesting ways of dealing with this feature. Guacamelee 1&2, Ori 1&2, Hollow Knight, and Bloodstained to name a few are so much better at being Metroid games than any of the 3 Metroid games I've played. All of those games are better than all 3 Metroid games I've played in almost every conceivable metric. This game requires a guide in multiple instances because it does such a poor job of explaining what you're capable of doing/seeing at any given point. It feels like it expects you to either meticulously study every room you find and record that information (literally) or it just wants you to wander around aimlessly until you find something new you can interact with. Neither of those sound enjoyable, which means you must resort to a guide unless you take pride in wasting your own time.
To add to this problem, Prime half-asses it when it comes to using video game logic. In a game like Guacamelee, the moves you learn are very explicitly linked to certain colours so you can very clearly understand what each attack accomplishes. Yes, that's non-sensical but it's also embracing that its a video game. In this, it wants to be video gamey and use colours but it also randomly blocks off plenty of doors and areas with... blocks? Rocks? Other random material? Oh no, that type of rock can't be blown up with a powerful rocket! You have to use this other bomb that can only be used when you're in your weaker form! Duh! Idiot.
What? Everything just feels arbitrary. This is something I noticed in Dread, as well. It doesn't feel like it's got any sort of reasoning behind it. It's not designed to make things more fun. It's not fun to be like "oh I have this new more powerful explosive move, let's try to blow up these rocks now!" to have it not work because there's arbitrarily another blast move you don't know yet. To bring up Guacamelee again, the way your moveset expands lends itself to finding new ways to explore. Things that actually take some skill to pull off. Prime just pointlessly gates you over and over. Sometimes it does it after you walk down a narrow path for 20 minutes only to find out you can't progress because of another different looking rock. Welp, time to head back.
Manually. This game desperately needs fast travel. I think it would be game breaking to have full control over where you can travel. But it would greatly benefit from at least being able to revisit a couple areas once you've done A, B, or C. Something. The game is paced horribly and doesn't flow well at all. The amount of times I have to stop and go "ok, so now where am I headed?" is unmatched. No other series places you in this trap as much as Metroid seems to. Also, no, I'm not just bad and stupid. I made plenty of connections and enjoyed remembering certain points of interest. Taking mental notes of grappling spots, for instance, was fun - to a degree. There's just too many different ways to open a door and it becomes a chore once you've sunk 10 or so hours in to it.
The main word that comes to mind that perfectly sums up this game is 'nuisances'. The enemies are a nuisance - they absorb some shots, and some require you to switch weapons - but in reality they're all the same thing and they don't put up much of a fight. Almost every fight is the same. Not only that, but the respawn when you re-enter rooms which puts even more emphasis on the annoyance that is back tracking. The back tracking itself is a nuisance - it's not fun whatsoever and is very poorly integrated. The controls are a nuisance - why are there so many almost identical actions that you must switch between? The weapons barely feel different outside of their visual effect. Plus it's annoying having to swap visor functions constantly so that you don't feel like you're missing something.
I got about 10-12 hours in and I decided to quit. I fully intended to beat the game but I just could not deal with the immense amount of my time the game was literally wasting. Backtracking in this game brings me no joy. The other mechanics don't make up for it. Shooting things feels... fine. Moving around is actually pretty fluid - I'll give it that. Rolling around is fun! It would be nice if doors just opened themselves once you have them unlocked, though. Why do I have to switch forms and then switch weapons just to get through every single door after the first time?! Again - the pacing is ruined. I like the feeling of the jumping. I like the visuals. The strong and vibrant colours speak to me. The music is great.
Like I've said about the other 2 Metroid games - I would love to love this. It's got so much potential. It's a shame that potential has only been lived up to in other series. We'll see how Metroid Prime 4 goes - I intend to try it. That will be my last shot at the series. If that doesn't land for me, I'm out for good for sure. I'm going to give it the benefit of the doubt due to it finally being a truly modern 3D Metroid. We'll see - Dread probably should have been my realization a couple years ago that Metroid wasn't going to do it for me.
In a year full of remakes and remasters ranging from fantastic to good - this one sticks out as a sore reminder that Metroid is a very stubborn franchise that has many issues that need to be addressed. Why it's praised so much, I do not understand. With each attempt I make at understanding, it makes less sense to me. Everything else is better at being a Metroid game than Metroid games are.
My first time experiencing RE4 this year was incredible. Dead Space is better than it was back in 2008. Super Mario RPG was still fun and charming.
This? Nah, this is a mess. Fluid movement, pretty visuals and effects, and an eerily cool soundtrack aren't enough to save it from being one.
I feel like the praise being given to this remaster is a hold-over from its original praise. If this was a new game, surely it would get roasted for all of these issues, right? I would hope so. It feels silly to me to shower it in compliments because of what the original meant. That's not fair, imo. Praise the original all you want for what it pulled off over two decades ago. Surely that's quite a feat and was very impressive for its time. Nowadays, this games structure is out of whack and outdated. It's not impressive in any way anymore. It should be treated as such.
Listen, if I played this back in 2001 it's possible I would have loved it and have plenty of nostalgia for it. Surely it's something special considering the time of release. However, in modernity it just oozes issues. Playing this in 2023 means it's held to a different standard now, and it falls flat in regards to most of them. I could not imagine playing the original considering how dated the controls would feel. This game actually playing pretty smoothly is one of its only silver linings.
Why do Metroid games deal with backtracking so poorly? Why?! The games that take inspiration from them have pulled off much more interesting ways of dealing with this feature. Guacamelee 1&2, Ori 1&2, Hollow Knight, and Bloodstained to name a few are so much better at being Metroid games than any of the 3 Metroid games I've played. All of those games are better than all 3 Metroid games I've played in almost every conceivable metric. This game requires a guide in multiple instances because it does such a poor job of explaining what you're capable of doing/seeing at any given point. It feels like it expects you to either meticulously study every room you find and record that information (literally) or it just wants you to wander around aimlessly until you find something new you can interact with. Neither of those sound enjoyable, which means you must resort to a guide unless you take pride in wasting your own time.
To add to this problem, Prime half-asses it when it comes to using video game logic. In a game like Guacamelee, the moves you learn are very explicitly linked to certain colours so you can very clearly understand what each attack accomplishes. Yes, that's non-sensical but it's also embracing that its a video game. In this, it wants to be video gamey and use colours but it also randomly blocks off plenty of doors and areas with... blocks? Rocks? Other random material? Oh no, that type of rock can't be blown up with a powerful rocket! You have to use this other bomb that can only be used when you're in your weaker form! Duh! Idiot.
What? Everything just feels arbitrary. This is something I noticed in Dread, as well. It doesn't feel like it's got any sort of reasoning behind it. It's not designed to make things more fun. It's not fun to be like "oh I have this new more powerful explosive move, let's try to blow up these rocks now!" to have it not work because there's arbitrarily another blast move you don't know yet. To bring up Guacamelee again, the way your moveset expands lends itself to finding new ways to explore. Things that actually take some skill to pull off. Prime just pointlessly gates you over and over. Sometimes it does it after you walk down a narrow path for 20 minutes only to find out you can't progress because of another different looking rock. Welp, time to head back.
Manually. This game desperately needs fast travel. I think it would be game breaking to have full control over where you can travel. But it would greatly benefit from at least being able to revisit a couple areas once you've done A, B, or C. Something. The game is paced horribly and doesn't flow well at all. The amount of times I have to stop and go "ok, so now where am I headed?" is unmatched. No other series places you in this trap as much as Metroid seems to. Also, no, I'm not just bad and stupid. I made plenty of connections and enjoyed remembering certain points of interest. Taking mental notes of grappling spots, for instance, was fun - to a degree. There's just too many different ways to open a door and it becomes a chore once you've sunk 10 or so hours in to it.
The main word that comes to mind that perfectly sums up this game is 'nuisances'. The enemies are a nuisance - they absorb some shots, and some require you to switch weapons - but in reality they're all the same thing and they don't put up much of a fight. Almost every fight is the same. Not only that, but the respawn when you re-enter rooms which puts even more emphasis on the annoyance that is back tracking. The back tracking itself is a nuisance - it's not fun whatsoever and is very poorly integrated. The controls are a nuisance - why are there so many almost identical actions that you must switch between? The weapons barely feel different outside of their visual effect. Plus it's annoying having to swap visor functions constantly so that you don't feel like you're missing something.
I got about 10-12 hours in and I decided to quit. I fully intended to beat the game but I just could not deal with the immense amount of my time the game was literally wasting. Backtracking in this game brings me no joy. The other mechanics don't make up for it. Shooting things feels... fine. Moving around is actually pretty fluid - I'll give it that. Rolling around is fun! It would be nice if doors just opened themselves once you have them unlocked, though. Why do I have to switch forms and then switch weapons just to get through every single door after the first time?! Again - the pacing is ruined. I like the feeling of the jumping. I like the visuals. The strong and vibrant colours speak to me. The music is great.
Like I've said about the other 2 Metroid games - I would love to love this. It's got so much potential. It's a shame that potential has only been lived up to in other series. We'll see how Metroid Prime 4 goes - I intend to try it. That will be my last shot at the series. If that doesn't land for me, I'm out for good for sure. I'm going to give it the benefit of the doubt due to it finally being a truly modern 3D Metroid. We'll see - Dread probably should have been my realization a couple years ago that Metroid wasn't going to do it for me.
In a year full of remakes and remasters ranging from fantastic to good - this one sticks out as a sore reminder that Metroid is a very stubborn franchise that has many issues that need to be addressed. Why it's praised so much, I do not understand. With each attempt I make at understanding, it makes less sense to me. Everything else is better at being a Metroid game than Metroid games are.
My first time experiencing RE4 this year was incredible. Dead Space is better than it was back in 2008. Super Mario RPG was still fun and charming.
This? Nah, this is a mess. Fluid movement, pretty visuals and effects, and an eerily cool soundtrack aren't enough to save it from being one.
I feel like the praise being given to this remaster is a hold-over from its original praise. If this was a new game, surely it would get roasted for all of these issues, right? I would hope so. It feels silly to me to shower it in compliments because of what the original meant. That's not fair, imo. Praise the original all you want for what it pulled off over two decades ago. Surely that's quite a feat and was very impressive for its time. Nowadays, this games structure is out of whack and outdated. It's not impressive in any way anymore. It should be treated as such.