Metroid Prime 2 dosent much change the formula. It gives us more of what we want, but that's not exactly a bad thing!
The game's graphics have also been improved slightly since the last installment. When the environment is supposed to look dreary and dark, it does. Many small details are in the game that bring up a level of realisim that is quite amazing. For example, when you exit a lake, waterform, etc, little droplets will go down your visor. There are many added details, such as vines, moss, etc, you will find scattered across the land. The creature animations are greatly made. Overall, the graphics in the game have that clear, very detailed feel to it, and manage to be much better than the average game.
The game has a large arsenal of weapons and items, including just about every trademark metroid item you could think of. It has the standard power beam, but it also has the new additions of the dark beam, light beam, and annhialator beam. These new beams also take use of the new ammo system. Its pretty self explanatory of what it is. You start out with 50 ammo for the dark and light beam. You can increase the total amount by getting a beam expansion. The dark and light beams use 1 ammo for one regular shot, and 5 ammo for a charged shot. However, the annhialator beam uses 1 ammo from the dark and light beam ammo for a regular shot, and 5 ammo from the dark and light beam ammo for the charged shot. Some people may find the ammo system is just a pointless addition, but it balances the difficulty of the game. This game would be too easy if there was infinite ammo for each beam, as these beams are quite powerful.
The game still uses the missle system it always has. One expansion will give you 5 missles, and you can get about 250-255 total missles in the game. You also get the Metroid Prime variation of the super missle. Charge your power beam, and press Y, and you will unleash the super missle, which uses 5 missles. You can also charge your dark/light/annhialator beam and unleash a whopping 30 units of ammo and about 5-10 missles for an even stronger super missle. Metroid Prime 2 also has new visors. You get the new dark visor, which is basiclly night vision. You also get the echo visor, which allows you to see sounds given off by just about anything. These are cool aditions, and lead up to some of the most innovative and fun boss fights ever. There is also the anticipated addition of the screw attack. The screw attack makes it really easy to take out enemies, and leads to some awesome wall jumping sequences.
This game might actually force you to use your brain. You could treat just about everything in this game as a puzzle. You will most likely get stuck on many parts of the game. Even enemies can be treated as puzzles, there's always some solution you have to figure out on how to beat an enemy. However, alot of points in the game you will have to backtrack in order to proceed. This may turn off some gamers, but any real gamer should be able to look past it. Bosses in this game are some of the biggest examples of enemies being puzzles. Some bosses may require three, four, and sometimes, even five steps required to merely damage a boss.
The game also has a good soundtrack. The game has dreary, dark, and sometimes even creepy sounds given off by enemies and the same goes for the music in the game. The quality of the music is very good, and fits the sci fi theme well. Metroid fans will probably like the soundtrack as much as any other metroid game's soundtrack, and may even recognize some old metroid music.
One of the new aspects of the game is travel between worlds. The story is pretty intresting, and unique. The luminoth inhabit Aether, a planet of peace. One day, a portal between two different parts of Aether is opened. A strange race of creatures called the ing come out of the portal, and war is raged between the two races. The power of the planet is divided between the "light world" and the "dark world". Its up to Samus to save the luminoth, by returning the power of the dark world to the light world, and destroying the ing. The game is very story driven, and you will find more cutscenes in this installment than the last Metroid Prime. Travel between the light world and the dark world creates some pretty cool puzzles, forcing you to go to the dark world, change something there, and then finding a portal back to the light world, and finding that a new path has been opened, due to what you did in the dark world. It's not as easy as it sounds. These kind of puzzles are plentiful in the game.
The travel between worlds also intertwines with the story and areas you visit. After the first boss, you gain the ability to transfer the power contained in the dark world to the light world. To do this, you must absorb the power from the three "temples" in the dark world, and take it to the same place in the light world. The dark world is somewhat a reflection of the light world, and has all the areas the light world has. However, you have to defeat "the guardians" before you can transfer the power. These boss fights are the most complex boss fights in the game, and require a huge amount of skill and patience to defeat. You also come upon Dark Samus, a key character in the story. You fight Dark Samus three times throughout the game. I would give more information, but it would most likely contain spoilers.
The game gives something that fans of Metroid expected to be on the first Metroid Prime, but wasn't. What that is, is multiplayer. Unfortunately, the multiplayer overall is not very good. I mean, sure, we were not expecting multiplayer as good as forsay, Halo, but we were expecting better than this. The problem with multiplayer is the lock on. It defeats the purpose of having skill in the game, due to the fact that all you have to do is lock on, and you dont have to aim. Also, you can quickly jump side to side when locked on , which will make it too easy to dodge the opponents attacks. Metroid is meant to be an incredible single player experience, not multiplayer.
Metroid Prime 2 Echoes is a great achievement. It is very story-driven, and gives a great selection of cutscenes. The graphics are very detailed, down to the smallest plants, up to the giant worlds in the game. The game has some incredible bosses fights, and overall very good gameplay. This is a definite choice for anyone looking for a great game with some pretty challenging puzzles.