i couldnt just make one review on the game so i made a note file and wrote out a bunch.

Filler: The Game

This game has the worst sound design/mixing of any video game ever created.

I was genuinely surprised at any time this game got even slightly good because of how rare it happens.

Fuck you.

Fuck this game.

How the fuck is this the sequel to my favorite game ever made.

I hate every single character in this game.

I refuse to believe the same person that designed FUCKING PYRA designed the XC3 characters. Monolithsoft is lying to us.

The only way I got through this game was by turning on the cheats with the DLC and making the game dirt easy.

I hope we see Rex's grave in XC3 so I can piss on it.

At some point in my life I will throw a physical copy of XC2 into a pit of fire.

No other game has made me think "Who in the everloving fuck on this dev team thought this was an acceptable decision" more than this game.

This game should be studied on how not to design a video game.

I cried when the credits rolled because I was so happy it was finally over and I never had to play it ever again.

Field skills are actually worst mechanic in any video game ever. This isn't an exaggeration. How in the actual fuck did the developers of this game put this in and think it was fine. I hope the fuckhead that thought of field skills and the bitches that refused to speak up about how shit they are all get demoted to working on Mario+Sonic at the Olympic Games.

OK SO THERE'S THIS RANDOM OBJECT THAT'S BLOCKING YOUR PATH AND YOU NEED LEVEL 4 FUCKING COCKRIDING TO PROGRESS SO EITHER SIT IN A MENU AND BOND BLADES FOR 2 HOURS UNTIL YOU FIND ONE THAT HAS A COCKRIDING SKILL OR YOU CAN FIND A BLADE THAT ALREADY HAS COCKRIDING AND LEVEL IT UP WHICH'LL TAKE FUCKING YEARS BECAUSE THEY ARE TASKS LIKE Find 20 Mechanical Parts AND YOU HAVE TO GO DO OTHER USELESS SHIT UNTIL YOU CAN EVEN PROGRESS WITH THWE STORY

This game made me hate our world a little bit more.

How do you make a combat system that is worse in nearly every way from the original.

In half of the cutscenes the music is so loud you can barely hear the dialogue.

at least the ending was good

THIS RULES!!!

very minimalist, very chill, despite deep ocean games usually being hoenstly terrifying to me

i suppose the abstract detached nature of the interface helped there, as opposed to staring with your (virtual) eyes deep into the abyss, like, say, submerged (another great game, but i mean yeah it's scary the deep ocean is scary, alien or not!)

cataloging the life discovered while trying to uncover the truth of what happened was so extremely... nice to do

mmm i'm happy

kratos: "boy... i must leave you... for i have an important mission..."

battle bus flies in

agent jonesy: "Woooah!!! You're Kratos, right? We need you... Come join us in Fort Night!!!"

kratos: hits griddy, hops in battle bus

atreus: "wjat the fuick"

Well, beating this on my birthday sure was a nice surprise! Especially since this was a pretty great game overall. It was my Secret Santa game in fact, which was something me and my discord fellas participated in. I'll link the list I did for that here.

Any who, yeah this was really good. I beat Prime 1 last year for the first time and thought it was awesome. So I was excited to see how 2 fared and I was not disappointed. I do think 1 was better overall as 2 has higher highs in some parts of the game and lower lows but it's still really good even compared to 1.

When it comes to straight up improvements, there's a couple things 2 did extremely well compared to 1. Loading times are all faster, it takes like half the time for you to get to a new area now. Scans now go from red or blue to green when scanned and are much easier to see if they've been scanned or not. The scanning especially being a lot better than 1's would definitely make me miss it when I replay that eventually lol.

Obviously the game's big mechanic is the dark and light worlds and honestly, I thought it was awesome. I've heard some people say they found it tedious, and I never really had an issue with it. I thought it added a cool spin on Prime's gameplay and made you think. It could make the game difficult somewhat, especially when fighting some of those dark world bosses but I liked that.

Speaking of the bosses, they're very interesting in this one. Overall, I'd say they were an improvement from 1 tho there were a couple that were a pain in the ass. Spider Guardian obviously being the main culprit for most people. I didn't hate it but man was it frustrating trying to figure out what to do while fighting it cuz that one can be brutal. A lot of the bosses were actually pretty tough, they were certainly more complex than 1's bosses. Those last few tho, the 2nd Dark Samus fight...Quadraxis and the whole set of final bosses were easily the best in the game and better than all of Prime 1's bosses. At first I was a little disappointed with the boss roster in 2 but after fighting the endgame ones, overall I do think 2 has better bosses than 1.

Now the biggest thing I think that's holding this game back from being better than 1, is its world. Prime 1 was basically Super Metroid in 3D. You had a very interconnected world to explore that was more into showing not telling. Prime 2 is more similar to Fusion with its bigger focus on storytelling and more linear world. The game is definitely not quite as linear or focused on story as Fusion, but it definitely feels like it took inspiration from it. The world is broken up into 3 main areas to explore and 1 overworld type area you go back and forth from. Rather than exploring at your own pace like Prime 1, it feels more like you're guided around slightly as you have to go back to the hub to unlock each new area. Eventually the areas do have elevators that connect to other areas but even with that the world isn't as tightly designed as 1's I feel. The area's are all cool, especially Sanctuary Fortress...that one is awesome, however I feel there weren't as many "aha" moments whenever I saw areas connect like in 1. I also feel like the game wasn't as atmospheric as 1 was, at least not the atmosphere I dig as much. Still, the world does interconnect by the end, I just think compared to 1 it just aint as good.

As for other miscellaneous things, the OST is pretty solid tho I do think its a downgrade compared to 1. I love how the classic item room theme is back, that's sick. I enjoyed the connections the game made to 1 near the beginning. Dark Samus was awesome to see in this game finally and it seems like it comes back in 3 so that'll be cool. Pirate commanders suck ass and were easily the worst enemy in the game. They're basically Chozo Ghosts from 1, except instead of locking the doors only some of the time, they lock them every time they appear and they're tanky as fuck which Chozo ghosts weren't. Weird change tbh and was just tedious every time they popped up. Navigating menus in this game feels clunkier than 1, they tried to make it all cool but it feels like it takes longer to find a certain file if you wanna read it again. It was interesting to see the screw attack in this game and while I warmed up to it by the end of the game, I still can't help it felt a little lame compared to how it was in prior games. Also again, one of the best parts of the game was just getting collectables and seeing what puzzles you have to do to get/find them. That was still really fun to do in this game, especially with the Dark/Light gimmick. I did get every item, which is of course a Metroid staple, and got a good chunk of the scans so I'm satisfied.

Overall, this was very good despite some issues I had. I do like Prime 1 more but this was definitely a worthy sequel I feel. Thank you @QuentTheSlayer for having me play this as my Secret Santa game, had a jolly good time! Next is gonna be the original Klonoa. A nice short game will do me good methinks.