Metroid Prime: Corruption

[Alex W.]

Hmm, you know, it's interesting to contrast this with the HL2 episodes. In those, especially with the commentaries, there's a sense that they've been very economical with the information in the game, that everything serves some sort of role in giving the player information about their goals and teaches them to use abilities without getting in the way. Prime 3 is very much the opposite - there's a huge redundancy of information. I mean, I walked into a room, knowing I was there to activate the reactor because 4 characters told me over the radio, and the door's locked behind me until I activate the reactor, and still three different consoles, side by side, displayed as seperate scans, tell me I have to activate the reactor. And it gives me a cut-scene to show the meteor flying in when I come outdoors, even though I've just been told by the shit computer that the meteor is flying in, and I can see the friggin' meteor flying in. When I run into Ridley while going through some tubes (which doesn't impress me as to his awesome power), I have to do the same little set-piece twice, exactly the same. When I'm twisting the handles, I get on-screen symbols, and text, telling me how to do it, even though the only way I can move the handle is back, turn, forwards.

There's also a lot of fluff in there which only seems to exist to annoy the player and reduce immersion. I mean, I was going through a tube there, and a little enemy was shooting at me the whole way. Not enough to damage me, but it was like the developer was sitting behind me going, "This is very tense and urgent! You should hurry! Hurry hurry hurry! This is a tense sequence!" the whole time. And the way radio calls disable my ability to scan as they come through. And the mini-cut-scenes every time I save the game, or a bunch of enemies appear, or to play their extended, operatic "ITEM-GET" jingle. There are doors here which I have to carefully shoot in 4 or 5 spots in order, quickly, to open, but... I mean, the game already has target-shooting challenges. They're the enemies.

Half-Life 2 feels confident. This feels... I don't want to say half-assed, but it's like they didn't actually get anyone to sit down and play the game and see what worked.

[Cyhwuhx]

.::: It's very much a mixture of different thoughts running through each other.

The series wants it to be Metroid.

Retro wants it to be a more epic shooter.

Nintendo wants to prove their Remote with it.

And then there's the thing about having a new target audience that also must be able to play this, without too much learning. Basically Corruption couldn't have been a better sub-title. Personally I primarily hate the Rare-puzzles. You don't get any chance to feel clever (something that Portal gave me in spades for just thinking the obvious), because you get the puzzle-pieces, the puzzle-frame, the image to complete and Clippy in the form of a giant brain on the radio saying which piece you should put in next.

It's affecting my enjoyment of the game, especially when most puzzles don't seem to require skill. Save for the bomb-jumping. Which isn't explained at all (ironically) and seems to have a completely different timing opposed to Prime and Echoes. I almost thought it was removed from the game until I actually saw an item that blatantly needed it.

That said it's not a bad game. But EDGE's 7 is pretty logical for them.

[Alex W.]

It's an interesting mess, yeah. I concur on the puzzles, although that's been a flaw of the Prime subseries from the outset. You're basically running through the machine hitting buttons and setting things off. When that flows, it's enjoyable (many of the Half-Life puzzles work this way) but you're constantly being interrupted here.

[Mr. Gerbik]

I don't feel much love for this game when I read this thread. Was Edge's 7/10 correct after all?

It's nowhere near as good as the first Prime (never mind Super Metroid). 7/10 sounds about right imo.

[TheSlugFormerlyKnownAsNap]

Bit of a shame really. The first Metroid Prime had so many standout moments and so much potential. It may have had a couple of problems, but it was a great start of a 'new' series (yeah Metroid is old, but not in 3D). And then it seems every next episode gets worse instead of better. A proper 3D Metroid could be SO the best thing ever, why keep they screwing it up? Should Nintendo maybe farm out the series to another developer?

I heard Bungie is going solo....

[scottcr]

why don't you give it try - only edge seemed to think it wasn't as good.

[Sigourney Beaver]

Mmm... the first bit of Bryyo is nice. Excellent backdrop on that level; something I think Halo 3 did really well too. The distant scenery in both these games is gorgeous. I stil can't quite believe the Wii is doing this considering some of the crap graphics its played host to in the past.

I'm liking this more and more. I disliked Prime 1 coz of that stranded feeling. Running around scanning dead things until a few enemies turned up. Then the controls started to annoy me and I also kept getting lost a lot. So far in 3 I've hardly used the map at all, but I'm not too far in yet.

How long do these Metroid games last?

[Cyhwuhx]

why don't you give it try - only edge seemed to think it wasn't as good.

.::: Yeah, because all the others were suffering from Zelda-itis.

"OOOOH! BIG SPARKLY NINTENDO FRANCHISE! Better give it a 9/10 at the very least!"

The very notion of doubting THE BRILLIANCE OF THE HOUSE OF MIYAMOTO is a sin in itself it seems.

[Cyhwuhx]

Mmm... the first bit of Bryyo is nice. Excellent backdrop on that level; something I think Halo 3 did really well too. The distant scenery in both these games is gorgeous. I stil can't quite believe the Wii is doing this considering some of the crap graphics its played host to in the past.

I'm liking this more and more. I disliked Prime 1 coz of that stranded feeling. Running around scanning dead things until a few enemies turned up. Then the controls started to annoy me and I also kept getting lost a lot. So far in 3 I've hardly used the map at all, but I'm not too far in yet.

How long do these Metroid games last?

.::: 2 hours on average.

Though this one is supposed to let a mediocre person run around for at least 20.

[scottcr]

ah buy cy... we all know you were never really going to like this one anyway..

I'll happily admit that I thought, ultimately, Echoes was too frustrating and difficult to be enjoyable for me. When it was great, it was wonderful - lovely, atmospheric.... but I never finished it. I valued my TV too much to risk throwing my controller at it in disgust.

Prime though... was amazing.

[Mr. Gerbik]

I heard Bungie is going solo....

God no, the main problem with Prime 3 is that it wants to be an epic shooter (like Cyhwuhx said) at the expense of being a proper metroid game.

The first Prime is definitely not a fps, it's a fpa. Corruption however...

why don't you give it try - only edge seemed to think it wasn't as good.

Well, the level design, the atmosphere, and (most importantly) the puzzles were all better in the first Prime. Corruption is still a decent and enjoyable game, it's just not as good as I thought it would be.

[Sigourney Beaver]

.::: 2 hours on average.

Though this one is supposed to let a mediocre person run around for at least 20.

Great, 30 hours of enjoyment for me

[Ferine]

Hmm, you know, it's interesting to contrast this with the HL2 episodes. In those, especially with the commentaries, there's a sense that they've been very economical with the information in the game, that everything serves some sort of role in giving the player information about their goals and teaches them to use abilities without getting in the way.

To play devil's advocate, perhaps that sense of purpose is born of the commentaries themselves: they're telling you why they made certain choices so naturally you pay more attention to them.

[scottcr]

I need to listen to the commentaries - because there's a few bits in HL2 which drive me mad - such as the scary town place with the zombie things with the electric cable that can only be disabled with a big switch even though I'm armed with a grav gun and a million circular saw blades... yes - nice one valve.

[squirtle]

From the sounds of it, people are judging it on the first hour or so. Which everyone has decried as a bit off... And it is. Not to say it isn't good. I really enjoyed it. But now it's settling into more of the same from Prime and Echoes. Lonely worlds and off you go. I do wish that the Aurora unit would shut up though. That's my only gripe. Give me an objective and then shush until I do it. I don't need to know about energy surges and monitoring my suit. Leave me be. Have it in a terminal like the last couple of games...

You know, for all the talk of how cool extra storage space is with the debate between blu-ray and DVD, I can't help but feel that the mini cube disks actually were something of a blessing in disguise for Prime and Echoes as they probably didn't have any room for voice acting and thus had to tell the story through text in terminals and chozo lore and the like. Much more atmospheric on the whole. Sometimes, extra space is just something that is not needed for the good of a game...

But anyway, I think, on the evidence so far, that and Edge seven is a bit harsh.

[Capwn]

To play devil's advocate, perhaps that sense of purpose is born of the commentaries themselves: they're telling you why they made certain choices so naturally you pay more attention to them.

This game has commentaries??

I keep mentioning how this is my first metroid. I have to say though, though people go on about prime being the better game I just can't imagine it since it uses a traditional controller. Can't imaging playing without the wiimote.

[Gorf King]

I'm only up to boss...about 6, I think, but I'm finding the game has got better with every new area.

Having said that I'm still not enjoying it anywhere near as much as the first, for some reason. I prefer the controls and the compound beam in this one, but I'm finding just about everything else less gripping. It's mainly the atmosphere, and the world and mission structure - the handholding, the voice acting, the incessant transmissions telling me what to do, the bite-sized nature of the environments. It may be more friendly and some of this sounds like a good idea in itself (you'll be hard pushed to get lost here), but it just doesn't feel like I'm exploring remnants of an alien civilisation, alone and vulnerable. And with hindsight, that's probably what I liked most about Prime. (I'm not a vet of the 2Ds either.)

I'm not even sure that it's going to appeal to newcomers any more than the older titles. For example, you still have to scan quite a bit if you don't have a clue what to do in new areas and I'm not sure that'll be a mechanic that's popular with non-obsessives - it makes for a very stop-start experience. I had a friend text me last night (a n00b) not having a clue with the simplest 'puzzle' as he just didn't get the importance of scanning - too many non-useful objects to do it on and it hadn't really been explained in-game at all. So I think the concessions to more popular gaming notions might just be wasted on this, leaving it in a bit of a no-man's land.

It's a decent game though. I don't really do 'scores', but if I had to, at gunpoint, I'd probably give this a 7 too. Maybe 7.5. So far.

[Sigourney Beaver]

This game has commentaries??

I keep mentioning how this is my first metroid. I have to say though, though people go on about prime being the better game I just can't imagine it since it uses a traditional controller. Can't imaging playing without the wiimote.

o/\o

The controls are almost perfect. I have a small gripe with losing the lock-on. It might be me unconsciously loosening my grip on Z though.

I like the first part of the game too. All space shooters should start on a spaceship. Look at Halo. Spaceship - stuning game.

[Gorf King]

I like the first part of the game too. All space shooters should start on a spaceship. Look at Halo. Spaceship - stuning game.

Oops. Cy nuke attack incoming.

I thought the first part of the game was a really poor Halo wannabe, in all honesty, and totally out of place. Tried to like it, but I was glad to see the back of it.

[sandman]

As a massive Halo fan I'm glad that Corruption has caught a Halo bug. My fave MP by far. I even like the music! And, it seems like it might actually be a game I can complete, unlike the first two.

I totally get why purists will hate it though. This is MP for people like me (ie Halo/GOW/GRAW fans) rather than extreme hardcore gaming types who have played all the Metroid games 14 times each.

[Super Craig]

This game has commentaries??

I keep mentioning how this is my first metroid. I have to say though, though people go on about prime being the better game I just can't imagine it since it uses a traditional controller. Can't imaging playing without the wiimote.

Now that I've got used to the new controls it probably will be hard to go back. The first game still does everything better though.

[scissorkicks]

I saw this for £29.99 in Blockbusters and decided to throw caution to the wind (despite having PGR4/Orange Box/Halo 3(multiplayer) all still on the go.

I played the original Prime and loved it... until I hit a wall and gave up on it. I honestly can't remember where I got to, but I recall some gigantic amounts of back-tracking finally making me put it away.

I didn't play MP2, but I loved Metroid Fusion on GBA until..... you guessed it, I hit another wall and gave up.

You'd be right to wonder why I picked up MP3. Anyway, I'm loving it so far (I've just finished Bryyo). There have been a few moments of frustration when I haven't been able to find a crucial element to progress, or figure out how to deal damage to a boss. But I'm definitely enjoying it, and really pleased with the controls (I'm using the advanced aiming, which gives lots of flexibility).

It's entirely possible that I might get hopelessly stuck and throw in the towel soon, but I'm enjoying it a lot so far. It really is very pretty - best looking Wii game? I'd say probably. Although a lot of that is probably down to Retro's terrific production design for the series (honed over previous games, no doubt).

But for now, it's got my attention over the "heavyweight" 360 games, which is nice.

[scottcr]

right

just did the first 'hour'

if that's the worst part of the game and it only gets better - then I'm, predictably, going to be a very happy metroid.

Seriously, it wasn't that bad!!!

[Cacophanus]

Steady on kids, Corruption is a bit simplistic compared to the older entries to the series (especially in regards to the level design) but it's still very good indeed. Well, it makes Halo 3's levels look as though they were custom built for a lobotomised monkey...oh...wait a second...

[Sigourney Beaver]

right

just did the first 'hour'

if that's the worst part of the game and it only gets better - then I'm, predictably, going to be a very happy metroid.

Seriously, it wasn't that bad!!!

o/\o

Incidentally, I have noticed all the help on-screen with levers and stuff. It looks like Nintendo are catering for any casuals who might want to move on to something more advanced.

I can't remember much about Prime 1, didn't play 2. Did they have the same level of help?

[TheSlugFormerlyKnownAsNap]

Metroid Prime had a hint system which told you roughly where to go next, but you could switch it off.

[Sigourney Beaver]

There's a help section in the options in 3 though. I'm sure I saw it coz I think I left it on for the start of the game.

[Cyhwuhx]

Metroid Prime had a hint system which told you roughly where to go next, but you could switch it off.

.::: Just like this one. Not that it helps. Auntie Mother Brain keeps harassing you anyway.

[TheSlugFormerlyKnownAsNap]

why don't you give it try - only edge seemed to think it wasn't as good.

I probably will, but not for a while. At the moment I got so much to play on the 360, and the Wii will soon get some serious Mario action so I'm not really willing to purchase something I'm not 100% sure about. But if Echoes is anything to go by, this game will probably be available for one or two tenners within 6 months or so. Perfect summer drought fodder.

[Cyhwuhx]

I probably will, but not for a while. At the moment I got so much to play on the 360, and the Wii will soon get some serious Mario action so I'm not really willing to purchase something I'm not 100% sure about. But if Echoes is anything to go by, this game will probably be available for one or two tenners within 6 months or so.

.::: That actually took 1,5 years.