Metroid Prime 4: A Review of my First Metroid Prime Game

It's important to know a little about the reviewer before you read their review.

This is my first Metroid Prime 4 game. I had never played any Metroid game before this.

I typically enjoy Action-Adventure, exploration oriented games. I played Metroid Prime 4 for about 13 hours on my Nintendo Switch 2 and here is my review.

Characters

Samus was her stoic self. Didn't speak a word and communicated through head nods but there were other supporting characters that had dialogues and they were written pretty well. There was not a lot of depth into it as it was all about Samus but they still delivered.

I've a feeling you don't play these games for characters and their developement, why I say that is becuase I've been told that this is the first time there were dialouges in Metorid series, that's true or not I don't know.

Exploration

This is where the game truly excelled. The mystery of knowing that there is a path ahead but to figure out how and when that path opens up is a joy for me personally. To go from one locked are to other and then figure out the right approach to exploring an area was crafted well and I enjoyed that aspect of the game.

The game has 5 main regions, each one of them houses a key and they are all interconnected through a desert in the middle. The Desert is an open-world space where you bike around and find some more hidden gems.

Two weakest things that stood out for me in exploration were, first, you had to farm green crystal to unlock the final phase of the game, and you need to farm crystal through out the desert - just roaming around hitting the crystals so that you have enough at the end of the game.

Second, every time you found a new weapon you had to go back to the base to get it fixed by the main engineer. At first I didn't like it and I probably still don't but I think I understand the point of it now. The point was that every time you went out in the desert, the game was designed in a way that you farm some crystals and come back and submit it so that it does not feel like a chore to farm crystal at the end and you feel like you are making some progress.

In spite of those 2 weakness the game felt pretty solid when exploring and I wish there was more of it.

Gameplay

The gameplay in this game is as simple as it gets, First-person exploration with point and shoot mechanic and a bike to ride. But what adds to the fun is the back and forth exploration of the areas. The gameplay is designed in a way where the key locations are open and you can go to any area you want but in order to progress you need to unlock certain ability to make progress into an area.

Another cool thing is, Samus could turn into a Morph Ball and anytime you had to turn into one, the game felt cooler because some of the best platforming in the game was when Samus turned into morph ball.

Weapons

Samus is spoilt for choices of weapons in this game. She gets 4 kind of launchers with finite bullets, one laser gun with infinite bullets and a a gun that stops time and lets you hit the target, mainly used for puzzle solving.

Apart from those guns, she also turns into Morph ball and can create small blasts and later in the game a it can generate a very large explosive bombs doing massive damage.

Samus also has an automobile that can fire bullets to take enemies down, this part felt fun as you get to shoot down some enemies while wandering in the desert on your bike.

Story

Story of Metroid Prime 4 is not complex at all. Samus is responding to battle and gets transported to another planet where the existing species are extinct. Samus has to work with the only survivor of the planet and find a way back home.

The overall plot felt very weak. In the very beginning of the game you are told that you have to collect 5 keys and you are golden and to me that felt like a buzzkill but game still managed to deliver around the main plot through some excellent exploration and puzzle solving.

Boss Fights

Let's talk about bosses now. As I said earlier, there are 5 keys and each key is locked behind a boss.

The boss fights felt really good for the most part but 2 boss felt very tanky. The one in the Desert, Varmis and the other in the mines, the boss in the mine was a living hell as it would jump from one wall to another and you just circle around looking for where the hell he is.

Rest of the bosses were fun and fighting the recurring boss of the game Sylux was the best.

Performance and Visuals

The game performed flawlessly throughout. On the Switch 2, the game offers two primary performance modes: 4K at 60 FPS for visual fidelity or 1080p at 120 FPS for smoother gameplay. I played in Fidelity mode and I had no issues.

Conclusion

As my first Metroid Prime game I was pleased by Metroid Prime 4. Apart from the green crystals farming and sometimes more than usual use of scans, I enjoyed the game very much.

Talking to my friends and followers, I found a sense of disappointment in them towards the game since they are long time fans of the franchise but as a new guy into it, I enjoyed the game.

All I can say is if you like exploration and some good battles, you will not be disappointed by Metroid Prime 4.

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SpwanYaard