A much more difficult, polished, and mixed example of a sequel
When the game was released and people played it, they were amazed (me included). The game's environments were so atmospheric and the HUD really made one feel like they were behind the visor as the heroine of the story. It was a turning point for both the series and the developing studio. Two years later, they decided to release a sequel under the name of Metroid Prime 2: Echoes. It is supposedly an improvement over the first game boasting a much larger area to traverse, a "parallel worlds" concept, and a greater difficulty. While this all sounds very nice, these new improvements unfortunately bring about a number of numerous drawbacks which may or may not make the player like this instalment as much as its predecessor.
In this entry in the series, players once again don the visor as Samus Aran, an extremely experienced and renowned bounty hunter who has deep connections with the Galactic Space Federation. This time around, Samus is assigned a rather simple task as she is being sent to the planet Aether to investigate a missing squad of soldiers. Unfortunately, the environment of the planet isn't quite suitable for her ship and it ends up crash-landing. While setting it to repair itself, Samus goes off to explore Aether and finds herself in a situation that might be too big for even her to handle. In one of the more creepy introduction sequences of the Metroid series, Samus finds all the Galactic Federation soldiers dead and not only that but somehow, they are materializing and attacking her. In a matter of minutes, she gets caught up in sort of war between the Luminoth, an endangered race of friendly but powerful creatures that settled on Aether, and the Ing, a malevolent and aggressive race that threatens the Luminoth. Samus' old enemies, the space pirates are also there to cause trouble. To top it all off, there's a weird doppelganger of her running around wreaking havoc on everything and stealing Phazon from any source it can find.
The story certainly sets itself up so that Samus and the lone Luminoth working with her have their hands full and it definitely shows. For better or for worse, this concept makes this game far more difficult than its predecessor. However, the story also makes the game feel like it's on a much larger scale. The first Metroid Prime was pretty much a solitary mission. It was Samus vs. the Space Pirates (and some Metroids) and it didn't feel like much else was involved. This time around, the stakes are much higher. If Samus gets wiped out, it's not just her who suffers the consequences. The entire race of the Luminoth are doomed, the Space Pirates are free to do whatever they want on Aether and steal all its resources, and Samus' strange and dark counterpart is free to become as powerful as she wants by stealing all the Phazon. The plot is much more complex this time around and everything just feels so much bigger which is good because it means that the developers have been improving on their storytelling.
The main bulk of any Metroid game is the gameplay and Retro Studios has re-used the basic interface of the original Metroid Prime, made things a bit better, and added a bunch of new features which leads it to being an overall improvement. Much like what happened in the first Metroid Prime, Samus starts off with all the basic functions of her suit. She can shoot with her Power Beam, turn into her morph ball mode (which, for players new to the Metroid series, is a feature that literally allows her to turn into a small compressed ball form and move around giving her access to areas that would be too small for her in her normal suit), and more. She also start off with some advanced functions like the Grapple Beam. Unfortunately, some Ing steal her suits various powers and leaves her suit stripped to the bare basics. She can shoot with her power beam and enter morph ball form but she loses all her advanced functions like the boost ball, grapple beam, and missiles.
She does however get them all back, either through finding them after completing a puzzle or fighting one of the Ing Guardians who stole her power-ups in the first place. Not only that, but she also gains new powers throughout her adventure. One of the new things about this game are the new beams Samus has access to. She gives up the Wave, Ice, and Plasma Beam from the first Prime game and instead uses Light or Dark beams (which now also have ammo limitations).
One of the interesting parts of the gameplay which also goes hand-in-hand with the story is the whole parallel "light and dark" world aspect. The Luminoth are creatures who govern the planet of Aether with light, focusing more on developing through vigilance and peace. The Ing however govern the parallel "Dark Aether", a nasty and unforgiving counterpart to normal Aether filled with powerful creatures that draw their power from darkness. Samus can activate portals which allow her to make the transition from Normal Aether to Dark Aether and vice versa. The Light and Dark Bream also work around this aspect. The Dark beam shoots slowly but in the end, it simply packs more power than its Light counterpart so it is very effective against the creatures in Normal Aether, even having the power to paralyze them. In Dark Aether however, this beam will do next to nothing on the enemies, it's not even worth it to try it out on most of the Ing. Instead, the Light Beam which isn't quite as powerful but faster and has the power to set enemies on fire will be far more effective. Combine this with doors that cannot be opened unless shot with the dark or light beam and you've got a pretty good parallel combat and puzzle solving system going on.
Other than this new aspect, Metroid Prime 2: Echoes hasn't really changed much (which unfortunately means it doesn't have that fresh new feel that Metroid Prime did). It does have the inclusion of the Screw Attack which wasn't in the first Metroid Prime and two new visors which are really nice (one of which is really unique and amazing as it gives a representation of the environment through sound and sonic waves) but not much has changed which isn't a bad thing considering how well the first entry worked. The game still works as a mix of a First-Person Shooter and an Adventure game. It emphasizes exploring and puzzle solving far more than it focuses on shooting down enemies (which at times turns into a puzzle itself) but at the same time, there are a large number of massive bosses and challenging minibosses for you to defeat. In the end, Metroid Prime 2: Echoes stands on equal ground as the previous game, except when compared, it's at a bit of a disadvantage as it wasn't the first game to do it.
In my honest opinion, the best part of this game is the graphics. The alternate world scheme really gave the art directors at Retro Studios a chance to show off their skills and that's exactly what they did. The normal world of Aether is filled with biological life and lots of unique and even high-tech designs for architecture. The first few main areas of the game are filled with desolate quiet wastelands and underwater areas filled with relatively passive monsters scurrying under the ground to surprise Samus and flying around bridges to hinder her progression. Meanwhile, Dark Aether is one of the most dreadful places you can even imagine being in. You will literally dread every single time you have to step through that portal and enter it. The moment you leave the designated "safe zones" in your normal suit, your life depletes which really emphasizes that this world is not safe for Samus. Coupled with the fact that unlike the monsters of normal Aether, the Ing aren't afraid to show themselves and are very aggressive, this world really gives of a feeling of fear and uneasiness. The monster designs aren't very pretty either (in a good way) as they look pretty ugly like deformed animals covered with black slime that can blend into the environment. The sense of fear you get when you enter Dark Aether and the passive dangers off normal Aether really show that they made really good use of the whole light and dark concept. The sort of feeling that you get when traversing the world changes completely depending on whether you're on the lighter side of the world or the darker side which was all brought to life thanks to intelligent monster designs, excellent use of color contrast, and lots of attention to detail.
Audiowise, the game also excels. Kenji Yamamoto who was the main composer of the original Metroid Prime returns once again and he does an excellent job. Most of the music he composes for this game is pretty unique. It's mainly composed of synthesized sounds which gives the game a bit of a more sci-fi feel. Some things also sound as if he's just banging stuff like pipes and metal together which strangely enough actually works. You'll also hear muffled synthesized chanting in some boss battles and environments which make them seem a bit more epic. Overall, it's hard to really describe the music of Metroid Prime 2 but I think the best way to do so would be to say that it works and it works very well.
The game's biggest problems however come from the overall length and replay value. Backtracking has always been a part of the Metroid series. Some people like it, some people don't (but even some of those who don't still like the games themselves). Metroid Prime 2 also has a lot of backtracking, especially for those who want to scour the planet for every single item. Unfortunately, all of this results to tedium when you realize that the world of Metroid Prime 2 is in 3D, bigger than the original Metroid Prime, and the fact that there are two parallel worlds for you to explore. While it may sound enticing to the hardcore explorer, everyone else will be groaning at this thought which will lead to less people going for the 100% Item Percentage challenge. Also, for some reason, the developers decided to add some sort of fetch quest towards the end of the game which requires you to collect nine keys hidden in some really out of the way areas which can only be seen if you kill an enemy which can only be seen using a certain visor (in other words, you can be in the same area as it but bypass it completely). This fetch quest is rather difficult and completely unnecessary. I didn't see anyone praising the part at the end of the first game where you had to collect hidden Chozo Artifacts (which was a lot more manageable than this) so I don't know why the developers thought that they might have to "improve" on this aspect (if you can even call it improving).
Overall, Metroid Prime 2: Echoes has a more "polished" feel than its predecessor but for some reason, a number of design choices that Retro Studios made also created a large number of problems that may or may not bother the player. Don't get me wrong, Metroid Prime 2 is excellent and although I did seem to criticize it towards the end of this review, it's still an amazing game that I'd put above many others. It just falls a bit short in comparison to the original game and will receive mixed reactions depending on who the player is. Thanks to its steeper difficulty and larger gameworld, I wouldn't recommend this to newcomers to gaming but to those who love a good adventure, I'd definitely recommend Metroid Prime 2: Echoes.
Good Points:
+ Uses the same basic engine as the original Metroid Prime which was already proven to be successful
+ Incredible atmosphere and graphical design
+ Puzzles are fun and satisfying to solve
+ More intense difficulty makes it much more satisfying whenever you accomplish anything (boss battles, etc.)
+ Hardcore explorers will love the large parallel worlds
+ Light and dark concept works rather well
+ The new screw attack power-up works pretty well
+ Story is more epic and has a much larger scale
Bad Points:
- Those who hated the first Metroid Prime will hate this even more
- Some will dread all the backtracking in the huge expansive world