Further Metroid Prime 2 Impressions.

[Bohdy]

Actually, I passed him a while ago (nearly having an anxiety attack in the process), I was just posting to warn others. Hardest boss in the game for me so far, althoug the Power Bomb guardian was also a major pain.

And can I just say that I hate Quadrax. Took me three whole long and painful tries to figure out *how* to kill him but once I did he was the easiest boss in the game. How irritating

Btw, I'm amazed how well they worked the Screw Attack into 3D. Its my favourite item!

 

[Goldni]

Master Chief would kill Cortana to have levels designed like these in Echoes. I'm in love with Retro's levels designers. After two great games it's appearent that what ever game Retro comes out with will/should have masterful level designs. Very clever imo.

 

[wazoo]

Master Chief would kill Cortana to have levels designed like these in Echoes. I'm in love with Retro's levels designers. After two great games it's appearent that what ever game Retro comes out with will/should have masterful level designs. Very clever imo.

You do not need gool level design when you can use two guns at the same time

 

[Blade]

Goldni! Do not compare the level design of Halo 1/2 and Metroid Prime 1/2 because it is very unfair and pointless!

You are a very mean man!

 

[Evil_Cloud]

Master Chief would kill Cortana to have levels designed like these in Echoes. I'm in love with Retro's levels designers. After two great games it's appearent that what ever game Retro comes out with will/should have masterful level designs. Very clever imo.

You do not need gool level design when you can use two guns at the same time

Wait untill you see Samus with two laser beams.

 

[Fox5]

Master Chief would kill Cortana to have levels designed like these in Echoes. I'm in love with Retro's levels designers. After two great games it's appearent that what ever game Retro comes out with will/should have masterful level designs. Very clever imo.

Doesn't retro have quite a few people from Valve, ID software, and Acclaim(or Iguana)? Halflife had excellent level design, id software games a bit above average, and...well the turok games had pretty horrible level design, but were technically and visually impressive.

 

[wazoo]

Doesn't retro have quite a few people from Valve, ID software, and Acclaim(or Iguana)? Halflife had excellent level design, id software games a bit above average, and...well the turok games had pretty horrible level design, but were technically and visually impressive.

YES

 

[[maven]]

My current enemy is the Gravity Boost armoured fishy thing. Why in earth's name is there such a huge delay when firing power missiles? And I had him down to about 2% of his health, too.

 

[Nightz]

I Still havent played the game.
But has anyone seen how they have used indirect texturing effects yet?

 

[Tagrineth]

Mine arrived Tuesday...

I just beat the worm boss and got the Dark Suit. Man... that boss dropped way too many health ups. O_O;

I'm very impressed... the flow is a little weak compared to Prime's, but the areas are VERY non-linear (I was always pissed off by Magmoor - it's a straight frigging line) with tons of different routes, and the colour-coded missile blast shields are back! YAY! Same colours as Super Metroid, too!

Prime 2 feels a lot more like Super Metroid to me... start off with a brief story intro, then drop you into the world with minimal powerups and no clue where you're going. Prime 2 also forces the player to back up and explore more immediately, for example when looking for the 2nd and 3rd keys for the first dark temple - the route was rather non-obvious and getting the beams and getting both keys required three loops through the passages using different directions and paths... Neat stuff.

 

[Bohdy]

I agree Tagrineth that the game plays more like a Metroid game than the first one, but after playing through it and doing some post analysis I am now quite sure that it is just not as good a game experience. There are many new elements over the first Prime and many things on which Echoes improved but there just wasn't enough time spent on trying all of the elements together to a smooth flowing, synergistic experience.

Its a shame, since with more devtime it could well have been the greatest game ever (or at least one of the top ones). Its amazing though that even in this imperfect state the amount of effort and polish in the game simply dwarfs 99% of others.

And about TEV effects: The only type of effect I really notice in heavy use is the refractive effect which I presume is done with EMBM. This is especially obvious with the Sonic Boom charge combo.

To tell you the truth I would have rathered that the game was designed to be at 30 FPS as I drool at the thought of the Echoes engine with double the frame time...

 

[Readykilowatt]

I'm currently playing MP2:E on hard mode....




















.... and I am having a blast!

 

[[maven]]

I agree Tagrineth that the game plays more like a Metroid game than the first one, but after playing through it and doing some post analysis I am now quite sure that it is just not as good a game experience. There are many new elements over the first Prime and many things on which Echoes improved but there just wasn't enough time spent on trying all of the elements together to a smooth flowing, synergistic experience.

Its a shame, since with more devtime it could well have been the greatest game ever (or at least one of the top ones). Its amazing though that even in this imperfect state the amount of effort and polish in the game simply dwarfs 99% of others.

Could you give some examples as to what you mean? I haven't finished the game yet (I have just acquired all the 2nd Dark Temple keys in Torvus Bog), but so far I haven't found anything that grates on me as much as you seem to imply. The only bit where I was a bit disappointed was the water surfaces didn't use TEV / Bump effects.

And about TEV effects: The only type of effect I really notice in heavy use is the refractive effect which I presume is done with EMBM. This is especially obvious with the Sonic Boom charge combo.

The water splashes on the visor, the portals, power beam space distortion / heat haze.

To tell you the truth I would have rathered that the game was designed to be at 30 FPS as I drool at the thought of the Echoes engine with double the frame time...

I think that is an interesting proposition. I would be afraid that it feel different (which is the feeling I get switching between Burnout 3 and PGR2 for example). It could also be really good.
I don't think they could drastically increase geometry or texture detail (as those are constrained more by memory limitations than by rendering speed), so they could increase the number of effects (normal mapping? not sure whether the cube supports that).

In any case, I would be very much interested in more "post-mortem" articles on "platform exclusive" console games, as these tend to use the hardware in unique and interesting ways. Things like how is rendering set up, how much memory is allocated to what type of resource, effects, unusual usage of processing units.

 

[L_i_n_k]

Metroid prime was to me like a Girl that you just met after 10 years, She looks and sounds 10 times better that you remembered. And becouse of that she is just magical. But after a year or so divorce, when you get the seuquel Aran2 , your expectations are mirroring the first experience and becouse of that, the magic is not quite as it was (put your hand in the cold water first). That is one theory, the feel that i get ,might be wrong about mp2 (becouse i dont have the game this might be a very big probability). Is becouse it does not have as great soundscape as the first one, maybe this could be part of the reason (i believe that music is VERY imortant of making those magic moments apear, or maybe the ai is just too deterministic?).

 

[mkillio]

First off I just want to say that I love MP2 and I think it's probably better than the first one. Having said that, I have never been so frustrated with game in my entire life. I can not beat the spider gaurdian for the life of me. Then to make it even worse the save point is so far away from him. I can't beat the SG in the last stage, I've come close but I just can't do it. Any suggestions/any one going to be in the Indianapolis/Bloomington area any time soon?

 

[Goldni]

Yeah was that the one that you had to boost ball jump on his back? That was a pain. The Boost gaurdian was the hardest in the game for me..took me about 15 times to get him. The last bosses were very easy for me.

I loved the game however. It along with RE4 are two of the most beautiful games this gen by far. I miss the melodic music from the first MP though. Echoes was more ambient. I love Retro.

 

[[maven]]

First off I just want to say that I love MP2 and I think it's probably better than the first one. Having said that, I have never been so frustrated with game in my entire life. I can not beat the spider gaurdian for the life of me. Then to make it even worse the save point is so far away from him. I can't beat the SG in the last stage, I've come close but I just can't do it. Any suggestions/any one going to be in the Indianapolis/Bloomington area any time soon?

The spider guardian has taken a few tries for me, too.
Make sure to do the first three stages well, so that you have plenty of energy left for the last stage. Also, be patient on the last stage (as hard as that is), as you'll have to hit the switches in the right order.

 

[mkillio]

Well I finally beat the Spider Guardian. I'm now back at Torvus Bog to get back some lost equipment...power bomb I assume.

 

[Blade]

I beat it last week. The boss is generally more enjoyable than Metroid Prime.

The game rates pretty highly with me, but it's not as good overall as the original.

 

[mkillio]

Well, I just beat it. And I think I liked it better than the first one, although I never did beat the final boss. I was pretty dissapointed with how unattractive Samus was though.