Metroid Prime 2: Echoes Discussion Thread

[foogledricks]

Might jaded Metroid fans, not happy with the first-person prime, be tamed by what might be a new feature:

 

may also be an advanced camera system that enables players to manually trigger a third-person view without morphing into a ball.

 

Jump over to IGN for the brief news snippet. The info doesn't seem solid. But I think it would be a good idea, because I really enjoyed the moments in 3rd person in Metroid Prime.

[Kain rising]

It'd be very useful during some of the platforming moments, instead of having to do the look down and lock your view trick.

[Mark E]

Well, manual trigger could mean a lot of things. To me that implies that you'll be able to use it, as noted, for jumps and such, not necessarily anything long-term. But of course like you said Keith, the details are extremely sketchy.

 

I'd play it first-person for the most part anyway, myself, as I love all the visor effects like the Samus reflection and the raindrops.

 

Gah, must not start to become hyped for MP2 .

[Romier S]

You know, I can't get over how much my viewpoint has changed towards Metroid since Prime was released. I honestly would not even want or need a third person view. The first person jumping in Metroid Prime was superb IMHO and this is coming from someone that detests any kind of platforming in first person. It was my biggest reservation before Prime was released and it was put the rest the first time I jumped on a platform in the game. Its great if they add it as an option and nothing more (nothing wrong with choice afterall) but I doubt I would use it.

 

Now, the only thing I DO ask is please please please reduce the amount of scanning in the damn game. That irked the hell out of me.

[foogledricks]

I agree about the scanning. I thought it was a unique way of telling the story, and I liked it, but it was overdone.

[Beer Monkey]

Scanning hurt the game for me.

[danger9777]

I didn't mind the scanning in the game....although there were times where I thought it got to be a little too much. It might be nice in the next game where maybe as soon as something new comes into view on your visor that it automatically scans and displays the info rather than you haveing to do it manually.

 

I like that they're making the game so that it has a third person view as well. While I thought the first person view in the game was awesome and I don't think I could play it another way, there were many people who were turned off by the first person perspective in Prime. Hopefully this next iteration will attract more people to the series by offering both options.

[Mark E]

I love MP, but I agree that the scanning was one of its down points. Not that the scanning was a problem when it was interesting, in some cases it was very, very cool to see what you could download about stuff. In other cases though, it was used for one liners that were excessively boring ("This vent looks like it might have once been used for venting something.").

 

Minimize the scans or have it so that the ones that are there are relevant and contain interesting tidbits. I'd seriously consider dropping the 100% scan requirement for goodies too, as incessantly scanning things really bogged the game down at points.

[ChoiceStriker]

You know, I thought scanning was kind of a neat idea too, but what bothered me about it was HOW LONG you had to scan something to get any data on it.

 

I can understand the pauses when a door took a while to open, because the Cube was loading the next massive part of the world. But to take so long to load a simple text box every time you scanned something got really old - especially when you knew there was no good reason for it to take so long.

 

P.S. Mark - I'm sorry to hear about your Cube!

[Carlucci]

Multiplayer Confirmed!

 

No screenshots yet.

 

you will be able to use the Metroid trademark ball move to get around, and all the players in the game seem to use slightly different colored versions of Samus. It also appears you only have one energy tank at a time, which makes sense for a competitive game.

 

Also no word on online. This article makes it clear they are talking about 4 player split-screen.

 

Carlos.

[adamsappel]

Screenies.

[merlot]

While the addition of multiplayer is great, I'd much rather see internet play

 

However, the single player game is where it's at, so it doesn't bother me...

[Romier S]

I'll be the dissenting opinion and say that the multiplayer does nothing for me at all. Metroid has always been a single player experience and I've never seen any reason to change that. I'm glad some folks are looking forward to trying the multi mode but its presence, to be blunt, means zero to me. As Merlot said, the single player is where its at. :tu:

[Kain rising]

Originally posted by FutureVoid@Apr 15 2004, 02:51 PM

I'll be the dissenting opinion and say that the multiplayer does nothing for me at all. Metroid has always been a single player experience and I've never seen any reason to change that. I'm glad some folks are looking forward to trying the multi mode but its presence, to be blunt, means zero to me. As Merlot said, the single player is where its at. :tu:

Not the only dissenting opinion. Multiplayer in Metroid doesn't interest me in the slightest. So much of the the atmosphere of Prime was based on being alone (or so it seemed to me) that multiplayer doesn't seem 'right'. (I know that's not a very descriptive reason ) I just hope that the single player experience hasn't been sacrificed in any way so they could have time to develop multiplayer.

[Mark E]

Yeah, Metroid multiplayer isn't a big sell for me either. I'd like co-op, but even that would be straining it. The whole 'thing' about Metroid is that Samus is a lone bounty hunter struggling to rid the universe of the Space Pirates. It has this lone wolf, hopeless battle feel to it that multiplayer just doesn't convey properly.

 

We'll see though, never know what will happen. Maybe I'll be blown away .

[JFo]

It looks as if Nintendo has finally given an official name to this highly anticipated game: Metriod Prime 2: Echoes. Along with that, we have a batch of screen shots to drool over. Here's a sample:

 

 

 

 

 

You can find the rest of them here. The detail in the environments, enemies, and even Samus herself is more striking than the original. I can't wait to get my hands on the first movies of this one!

[Mark E]

Mmm, nice. I wonder if that's a space pirate in the first shot? Looks like they've been hitting the gym .

[JFo]

IGN Cube just posted an article with some new information about this highly anticipated game.

 

The basic concept behind the story has Samus returning to another mysterious planet to exterminate evil. As long as she finds it. Only this time Samus will find her new battlegrounds torn in half, a world of light and darkness. As Samus, players will have to travel between the light and dark parts of this world, and the gameplay dynamics will of course be affected by this. We'll be able to explain exactly how it all works as E3 gets closer.

 

Cool! Click here for the rest of the article, which discusses more details about both the single- and multi-player portions.

 

Also, since it appears as though this will become the official discussion thread for Metroid Prime 2, I've edited the subject to reflect that.

[Ryan FB]

A light world/dark world story? Man, that's never been done before.

 

It would be damn cool to have it be some kind of instant/near-instant switch, a la Ikaruga, but I get the feeling it won't be. Regardless, this game will still probably kick ass and take names.

[Kain rising]

I have to say that based on that article, unless there are some unannounced modes for multiplayer, then I'll have to re-state my previous comments that multiplayer still doesn't interest me in the slightest - basic deathmatch just doesn't seem well suited to Metroid. Now if they could come up with a mode where one player gets to control a group of space pirates, lay them out in ways to try and prevent the Samus character from achieving a goal, that might be more interesting. Of course, something like that would be hindered greatly by no-online play. :?

[JFo]

IGN Cube has just posted some new impressions of Metriod Prime 2 based on what they played at E3. From the way the article reads, this game will indeed incorporate many of the elements from the first game while at the same time including enough new features and abilities to keep this from being just "more of the same." These paragraphs intrigued me the most though:

 

Samus is equipped with her traditional Power Beam, but she's also got the Light Beam. This weapon is very much encapsulated by the Light and Dark World theme. The Light Beam can shoot off standard rounds or be charged, at which point it will rocket off a buckshot of beams very much in the way that a shotgun works. The Light Beam is useful for taking out Dark World enemies and, oppositely, the Dark Beam can inflict greater damage on Light World enemies. The Dark Beam is a particularly nasty weapon. It shoots out a black gooey liquid -- we'll call it Dark Matter for the purposes of this preview -- that attaches itself to enemies and surrounds them. Too much Matter will kill an enemy and the right amount will freeze them. The Light and Dark Beams have other functions that work hand-in-hand with the game's environmental puzzles, which Nintendo promises will be plentiful. For instance, the Light Beam will grow organic structures like plants and trees and the Dark Beam will shrivel them.

 

Neat!

 

Oh, and there's also some new movies posted at the site, including one of the new visors, the Echoes Scan Visor, which allows Samus to see sound. I wonder if the guys at Retro are fans of the Daredevil movie.

[The Daisy]

To me, this sounds like they encorporated Ikaruga into Metroid.

 

Glen

[JFo]

So, you guys want to see what the Screw Attack looks like?

 

Then go to Planet GameCube!

 

All I can say is, "Hell yeah!"

[JFo]

I saw this at IGN and thought I'd pass it along. Basically, they outline some interesting developments in the game as reported by GameInformer magazine. There's certainly some cool stuff to read about, so I suggest you all check it out. In particular, I thought this bit was interesting:

 

• Retro is still considering dual-analog support for the game
  

 

This may sound crazy, but I'm not necessarily sure that I would want them to include dual-analog support. Something about the controls in the first game just felt right, as if I was playing a Metroid game and not just another FPS with the franchise label tacked on.

[JFo]

This news is a bit old, but I figured I would post it here anyway on the off chance that someone hadn't seen it.

 

From IGN:

 

According to sources close to Nintendo, the company is planning to release a Metroid Prime-themed GameCube bundle this August in America. The package will allegedly include a GameCube and controller, a copy of the original Metroid Prime, and a demo of the anticipated sequel Metroid Prime 2, all for $99.99.

 

When questioned, sources were uncertain if Nintendo would sell or release the demo of Prime 2 separately.

 

Needless to say, I want to get my grubby hands on that demo as much as Romier (FutureVoid) wanted Silent Hill 4 or Mark (Pharmboy) wants Resident Evil 4. If this all turns out to be true, I suspect my best chances of getting it would be if Nintendo were to offer a pre-order bonus disc with the demo on it. In my dream world, this bonus disc would also include Super Metroid, but I'm getting ahead of myself here. We still need a confirmation from the Big "N" at this point, so I'm not even going to worry about it.