Metroid Prime 4: Beyond - Did I really enjoy this game?
Metroid is one of the most peculiar Nintendo series. Inspired by the Alien Franchise, the series has been going on for 40 Years, following the adventures of Samus Aran in her fight for keeping the galaxy safe by the ambition of the Space Pirates. It’s the series that inspired one of the most prolific genres of the Indie scene, and one of the first videogames to ever have a woman as the lead! And yet, it’s one of the most niche and less prolific series by Nintendo, often in a state of hibernation between generations.
Metroid Prime was born in 2002 during one of these hibernation periods. After skipping the Nintendo 64 entirely, a young team called Retro Studios was given the task of bringing the series on the Nintendo Gamecube, adopting the Third Dimension for the first time. Metroid became an FPS with a big emphasis on exploration, which success led to the series most prolific period.
Unfortunately the sales numbers for Metroid Prime 3: Corruption were a disappointment for Nintendo and the series went back into hibernation. This was the series most critical period, since the following titles Metroid: Other M and Federation Force were completely rejected by the fans. In 2017, Nintendo took it upon itself to make it up to them, with the announcement of Metroid Prime 4 for Nintendo Switch and Samus Returns for Nintendo 3DS kickstarting a sort of renaissance for the series.
On Nintendo Switch the series is more accessible than ever thanks to Nintendo Switch Online, and the remaster of the first Metroid Prime which gave to a whole new generation a chance to experience it for the first time. In all this climate though, Metroid Prime 4 was mysteriously absent.
This title had a very troubled development! It was originally handled by Bandai Namco, only to shift back to Retro Studios. This was a gestation period that lasted eight years, during which Nintendo was tight lipped about the details. What was supposed to be one of the main titles for the Switch launch period, became the main launch title for the Nintendo Switch 2.
As exhausting as the wait was, and Nintendo’s silence was more than a little unnerving, when finally the game was shown to the public I was ecstatic! Visually the game was as beautiful as ever and the gameplay shown wasn’t any different from what we knew back in 2002, it was like time never passed!
I was anxious to finally explore the world of Metroid Prime 4 and uncover what secrets it had in store for me. Metroid Prime Remastered also rekindled a new appreciation for the 3D formula, since I’ve always been a person that preferred the classic 2D incarnation more.
And yet, here I am. After the big initial hype, after enjoying the initial phases of this grand adventure, after exploring every nook and cranny of this game, I’m left with just one thought in my mind: “Did I really enjoy this game?”
Let’s find out together.
Metroid Prime 4 Beyond
A Desperate Call
The story opens up with a help request from the planet Tanamaar, where a settlement is under attack by the bounty hunter Sylux, who wants to steal an alien artifact held by the Federation. Samus arrives on the planet to stop him, but during the fight a rogue energy blast activates the artifact and the whole base gets bathed in white light.
When Samus awakes she finds herself in a completely different world: the planet Viewros, in an alternate dimension from the one she came from. The artifact was created by the dominant race of the planet called Lamorn, which are now completely extinct.
This artifact was actually a probe containing a plea for help. Whoever finds it, is gonna be sent on their planet with the aim of cataloguing everything possible about their race, help with the ripening of the memory fruit, and bring everything on a new planet so that their race would be once again reborn.
The Lamorn were a highly advanced species able to use psychic powers. Their frantic technological advancement led them to an ecological disaster, and the planet is almost entirely depleted of the resources necessary to their survival.
Their only hope was with this new energy source called Green Energy, which could’ve revitalized their planet, but instead it led them to their ruin. Green Energy mutated the local fauna by making it more aggressive, even the Lamorn themselves ended up being mutated into this new savage race called Grievers. Their attempts at healing the mutation were unsuccessful, and slowly the Lamorn were driven into extinction: their only hope now lies with Samus.
As typical of the Prime series, the plot is reduced to essentials. The focus is mainly gathering the pieces of this species' life, uncovering the truth behind their catastrophe and in the meantime finding a way to go home. Having a race which, in their last moments of life, has a desperate need of someone that allows them to move their legacy forward is very interesting!
It reminded me of the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode, “The Inner Light”, where a space probe sent Picard’s conscience in another world where he got the chance to live in first person the last decades of a lost civilization, with the only goal of passing on their culture to others and remember that they also existed.
The biggest fear isn’t death, it’s being forgotten!
Unfortunately we don’t uncover much about the Lamorn outside of the events that led them to their doom. It would've been a lot more interesting to uncover anecdotes about their daily life, instead of gathering more data about their experiments and technology, especially when their technology was the thing that brought them ruin in the first place.
Where’s their culture in all of this? Their customs? Their beliefs? Technology is certainly important to preserve, especially when they’re gonna have to start from scratch on a whole new planet, but if the game seems more interested in preserving that aspect about them, leaves room for one awful worry.
Would the Lamorn be able to not repeat the same mistakes?
It also exposes a whole bigger problem: this species hasn’t really been thought out. To hold a premise such as this, is necessary a very deep and extensive study, otherwise it’s here just to uphold a series tradition in which we explore planets whose inhabitants have been hit by a catastrophe.
Exploring a Dead Planet
As Samus, we explore the surface of Viewros with a list of objectives: cataloguing as much as possible about the planet, gather enough green crystals to allow the memory fruit to ripen and finally collect the necessary keys to unlock the teleporter back to Tanamaar.
Viewros’s first impact couldn’t have been more beautiful. Fury Green welcomes you with this dense and luxuriant jungle, one of the most enchanting opening areas I’ve ever seen in Metroid. The wonderful vision of this ancient civilization, submerged in green, was just magical. This is where the Tree of Life emerges, our main base of operation and the only place on the planet where vegetation has managed to survive.
Once you step foot into Sol Valley, we uncover the true face of this planet: boundless miles of desert, the result of a heinous industrial development.
Industry is what makes most of this game. Whether they’re located in the mines under the valley, between the snowy peaks, or in the heart of a volcano, the external environment is more of a decoration for these industrial sites where the Lamorn did their research.
This lack of variety has made exploration strenuous to me, since most of these zones consist of these lengthy corridors with lots of machinery. The background might change, but it doesn’t really matter if most of the exploration is behind closed doors.
Sol Valley as the hub which connects all these zones is probably the worst offender in terms of monotony. It’s an immense desert for miles on end, and meant to be crossed with a bike called Vi-O-La. I was hyped when this was first introduced, especially since I love its aesthetic, unfortunately it has been tied to the most boring section of the game.
Sol Valley is the place where you’re going to spend the most of your in game time! Not only for traveling between zones, but mainly to gather countless amounts of green crystals scattered throughout the entire map. The game does offer some variety with a couple of sanctuaries to give some new power ups, but since the crystals are mandatory for the ending, the game makes it so that you have to cross this desert quite often, in order to avoid having most of the gathering at the tail end of the game.
What they don’t realize is that they’re exchanging a form of tedium for another. It doesn’t matter how good this power ups are, it doesn’t matter how these crystals are scattered in a way to make them easy to spot and collect, it doesn’t matter how much you can optimize trips, it doesn’t matter how easy it is to travel thanks to all the reference points around:
Sol Valley remains extremely boring.
The fact that this is such a predominant part of the game ruins the entire experience. Even if you enjoy the industrial setting, you’re immersed in the lore, you’re enjoying the level design, you cannot escape this vast stretch of nothing where you’re gonna periodically gonna travel in a straight line to your next destination.
Samus in her best shape ever
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption came out in 2007 on the Nintendo Wii, and it’s been 18 years since then. Many wondered how the formula could’ve evolved after all this time, especially in a game that, while being an FPS, puts shooting in second if not even third place, in order to focus more on exploration and puzzles.
Nintendo’s answer was to change absolutely nothing!
We have the same UI from inside of Samus’s helmet, the same lock-on on the enemies, the same visor to scan the environment and gather information and our typical arsenal of missiles, grappling hook, and morph ball to pass through tight spaces. The cornerstones of the first Metroid Prime are still the same.
New to this game is the addition of elemental bullets, fire, ice and thunder. At the sight of these bullets I was scared that each would’ve had their own different ammo. Fortunately they all share the same ammo pool and the game is generous enough to make you find lots of them.
These bullets are the most fun part of her arsenal! Not only is it easy as hell to switch between types, it’s also very fun to see the effect they have on the enemies. My favourite thing to do was using the ice shot against the Grievers, in order to freeze them in mid air and then make them explode with a well placed rocket.
Samus as always is a war machine, but in this game she’s also surprisingly frail! If you’re not careful you can see your life bar vanish very quickly: sometimes half life bar is taken away with a single hit. This made me nervous on many occasions! I wouldn’t call this game hard, especially since it’s full of checkpoints, but I would recommend giving priority to the energy tanks in order to increase your max health.
Another aspect of exploration that has been emphasized a lot during presentations are the psychic abilities. The name says it all: Samus would be able to use psychic powers in order to move stuff around from a distance in order to solve puzzles.
The psychic ability that gets used the most is tied to Samus’s laser. By concentrating the energy of her shot we’re gonna be able to move a remote controlled laser ball, which is both useful in exploration to hit far switches, but also against some bosses to hit their weak spot. I would’ve loved to be able to control it with the gyroscope, it would’ve made it a lot easier to control and more precise to use.
Psychic abilities are a very situational gimmick, sometimes I also completely forgot I had them, which is very embarrassing. A nice addition to give some more identity to the game but nothing that will revolutionize the formula.
I also would’ve loved to have more space dedicated to Vi-O-La. I love its design, I have fun driving it, and also has some uses in battle, although limited. Unfortunately it’s relegated to the desert for most of the game, a real shame.
I can only hope to see it being added to the next Mario Kart.
The only true complaint I have with Samus’s gameplay is the implementation of mouse controls. To fight against enemies most of the time you just have to lock on an enemy with the shoulder buttons and shoot, and as long as you have your aim locked, bullets will travel towards their direction. However there are some exceptions, in particular against bosses, where you’re gonna need to aim at some precise points of the enemy. As long as the lock is in place, if you aren’t using the mouse function of the Switch 2 Joycon, you can adjust your aim by using the right analogue stick or the gyroscope
This functionality has been added in order to take advantage of a new gimmick for the joycons, and I understand it, but it came with a lot of problems. I was playing with the Pro Controller, and aiming with the analogue stick isn’t as comfortable. Also the fact that it’s susceptible to the gyroscope made it so that the aiming reticule would fly off at the slightest movement, and in an action game it’s very hard to keep the joypad perfectly steady.
I understand the necessity of trying something new, but this hybrid of lock on the enemy, combined with the precise aiming, isn’t all that comfortable. At this point I would rather adopt an aiming system closer to a modern FPS.
An adventure with some company
For the first time in Metroid Prime history, we have other characters accompany us on our adventure! After the activation of the artifact, not only Samus, but other members of the federation ended up getting transported on planet Viewros, each of them will end up being a support member for Samus, since they all share the same objective: getting back home!
This news was met with vitriol by the fans, since it was thought that it was going to completely ruin the feeling of isolation that usually accompanies a game like Metroid: reaction that to me felt wholly exaggerated. It’s not the first time Samus has to deal with other characters, in fact this was the right occasion to have some group dynamic, which to me would’ve been a great innovation.
The problem is that their space is fairly limited during the adventure. After meeting them along Viewros, most of their time is spent relaxing at base camp while you do all the work. Most of the times you’re gonna deal with MacKenzie are more in service of expanding your arsenal rather than his character.
The only one who gets a slight bit of introspection will be Tokabi. He tells us about his family, his devotion to the god Sollan, a pacifist god, and how this devotion makes him feel conflicted about himself, since he’s forced to work as a soldier to support his family.
We needed more scenes like this! Moments where the characters could’ve been involved and thus create a true bond between all of them, so that you feel attached to them and want them to come back home from this mission!
The same can also apply with the main antagonist of the game, Sylux, but we’ll talk more about him in the spoiler section.
There’s also another big problem that’s preventing this group to actually bond to perfection, and it’s the fact that once again, Samus is a silent character, without any good reason as to why she keeps her mouth shut. And this in particular I feel is the main point that exposes the reason why this game failed to impress me as much as its predecessors.
The fear of breaking tradition
A thing that has become even more evident to me while writing this blog, and reflecting on this game, is that it’s affected by a severe case of identity crisis. Being bounced from studio to studio definitely hasn’t helped in that regard, but it’s also clear how there was a lot of internal conflict about the direction this game should’ve taken.
Sylux himself it’s a symptom of Retro Studios that was desperately trying to close a door left open for years by this point! In the ending of Metroid Prime 3 there was a cliffhanger that hinted at him being the next great antagonist for samus, but after 18 years he has found himself catapulted in a story that isn’t his own.
Why insist on including this bounty hunter, with a grudge against the main character, in a story where you’re tasked with cataloguing the history of a dying species?
Why include a support team, when you’re still too scared by the ghost of Metroid Other M to allow Samus to speak?
Why include this giant open world desert to connect all macroareas, in a game that doesn’t really allow to be approached in non linear fashion?
The only explanation I can come up with is that there was a fear by some at Nintendo about shaking up too much the status quo. Instead of Metroid Prime 4 being the first step towards the future, it became an attempt at recapture the magic that made the original game so great in 2002.
Even the menace from the Green Energy, completely unexplored, reminds me entirely of the Phazon in previous games: a radioactive substance that destroyed a planet and drove insane everyone who came in contact with it.
Instead of daring and pushing the boundaries to new heights, they decided to take the easy way out and repeat what Retro Studios used to do so well. Unfortunately this approach came at the price of a game that, for as satisfying as it is, in the long run will most likely feel like an empty shell of itself.
Did I really enjoy this game?
Overall I feel the answer is a Yes, unfortunately followed by a lot of asterisks. It’s a game that did what it had to do, to give all Metroid fans that Metroid Prime 4 they’ve been waiting for 18 years by this point.
Surely it’s an excellently crafted game. Visually is gorgeous, controls are smooth as butter, and the soundtrack by Kenji Yamamoto does an excellent job submerging me in the atmosphere of the game. His works are some of the few soundtracks that stuck with me in spite of being mostly environmental pieces.
I just can’t shake this feeling that this work, regardless of how well it was made, was just about delivering homework, with as little risk as possible, and trying to please everyone after years of development, to the point that it was seriously lacking a clear direction as to what it actually wanted to be.
Impossible to say if the series still has a lot to give, or if we’re on the verge of another hibernation period. I can only hope that if and when Metroid Prime 5 will come out, they manage to find that spark that would bring this series towards the future.
In the meantime, let me know what you think! Did you enjoy Metroid Prime 4? Are you interested in getting it? Were you already fans of the series or this was your introduction to the world of Metroid? What would you like to see in the future? Let me know in the comments, in the meantime, for those who already played the game, follow me to the…
SPOILER SECTION - Proceed at your own risk
I feel the biggest factor that contributed at ruining my entire experience with this game was the ending, one of the most nonsensically sour endings I’ve ever seen, and one that left me flabbergasted in front of the screen with just one thought in my mind:
“Are you serious?!?”
As anticipated, Sylux has little to share with the Lamorn. He also got stuck on Viewros because of the artifact’s activation, and thus he’s stuck with no way out until Samus manages to find the necessary tools to activate the teleporter and get everyone back on their dimension.
Sylux will occasionally appear as an enemy to fight us, only to find out that’s not really him, but some Lamorn sentinels that copied his appearance. It’s only in the very last moments of the game where we find out that Sylux has been kept prisoner in a capsule on top of Chronos Tower, where we can only assume he was remotely controlling all the sentinels that were trying to kill us. Once freed from that capsule and once his eyes meet with Samus, he’s gonna jump at us like a frenzied animal, becoming the final boss. His only lines of dialogue are screaming the name of Samus out of sheer anger.
Moments like these, really make it apparent how Sylux was shoehorned in at the very last minute just to satisfy some continuity. The worst possible choice they could’ve made was keeping him out of Samus’s adventure, after all he’s also stranded on this planet, he also needs to escape it!
How cool would’ve been to have an uneasy alliance between Samus and Sylux! Two people who hate each other but are forced to get along for things out of their control. Any score to be settled can wait and be resolved once they go back to their respective dimension. Sure, this would’ve meant that Sylux wouldn’t have been the main antagonist, but he would’ve at least been present during the story, and you can also take more advantage of the Griever menace which almost destroyed the planet.
So much wasted potential because it was decided from the start that he should’ve filled the role of main villain, against a main character who gets her ability to speak taken away from her depending on the weather at Nintendo offices that day.
Also, if you get 100% completion, or if you prefer, spend 20$ for Sylux’s amiibo, you can also uncover the reason behind this deeply rooted resentment towards Samus.
In the past, Sylux was a commander at the galactic federation. During a fight against the space pirates, decided to disobey orders from his superiors and send his troops forward. That choice would be fatal for him: his entire squad got wiped out by a powerful enemy weapon, and Samus was the one who saved him at the very last minute.
The order he received was “Wait for Samus, leave the space pirates to her”. We can assume he was punished for disobedience and being kicked out of the federation. The trauma of having caused the death of his squad, combined with the jealousy he felt for Samus, drove him to becoming a bounty hunter, hoping that one day he could take revenge on Samus.
His backstory is fine, but I don’t understand why this was considered a bonus worthy of being locked behind completion or a 20$ figurine. This sad backstory also doesn’t add anything to the character if it doesn’t end up being used at all in the main story. It’s just an addition to the lore that in the years to come will become the equivalent of an addition to the Trivia section of a Wikipedia page.
But that’s only part of why I really hated this ending, the true reason is what happens after the fight with Sylux.
The result of the fight is that the teleportation device gets badly damaged, there’s no time left, they have to activate it now or they’ll be stuck on Viewros forever. Sylux though doesn’t wanna listen to reason, because his mind is obsessed with killing Samus.
It’s at that moment that a hard decision is being made: MacKenzie, Tokabi, Duke, Armstrong e VUE-995 exit the teleportation area, all together trying to hold back Sylux. Samus has only one choice: the teleportation device is close to exploding. She decides to activate it, so that she can return to Tanamaar, but everyone else remains on Viewros.
Marooned for all eternity, at the center of a dead planet.
Immediately after that scene, the credits roll. There’s no scene of a return to Tanamaar, no reaction to what happened by Samus, nothing! After the credits we see Samus at a center of a desert planet, planting the memory fruit, so that the Tree of life of the Lamorn can be reborn, and on one of the branches she ties up Sollan’s necklace that Tokabi gifted to her.
Everytime I think back to this ending I get angry. I don’t think a game necessarily needs a happy ending, and I wouldn’t be against the idea of one of them sacrificing themselves. Duke, for example, gave me the feeling he would’ve put his life on the line to save Armstrong, him being the old mentor and her the young recruit.
The game also makes it apparent how each and every one of them was willing to risk their life. During a session in the mines underneath Viewros, we get the good old trope of the character staying behind to allow everyone to proceed, leaving you wondering if they’ll ever make it, since the risk is very high for them. In spite of everything though they overcome the adversities and manage to save themselves all together.
It’s not even to say that I was particularly attached to this group, but the fact these guys got sent to this adventure against their will, and that in the last second everyone is left behind to die with this enraged psychopath, while the main character goes back home safe and sound, really left a bad taste in my mouth.
All this effort, all these mishaps, all this work to finally go back home, and only the important character gets the honor to do so. Everyone else is just a worthless pawn which has to consider themselves lucky enough, they were deemed worthy to have a face. I really felt like I wasted my time in all of this. Especially since to me, it was obvious that Samus would’ve come out safe at the end.
My only hope in this ending is that the Lamorn have learned something from their mistakes and won’t end up annihilating this new planet once they’ll be allowed to be reborn.
What do you think? Were you also disappointed by the ending? Or do you think it was the right way for this story to end? Would you have saved everyone? Would you have sacrificed someone? What do you think about Sylux and how would you’ve integrated him into the story? Let me know in the comments below!
See you next mission!
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