Difficulty:

Hard

Time Spent:

20 to 40 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"All it's cracked up to be"

Back again on a whole new world, with different regions and more creatures to scan. Metroid Prime 2: Echoes is the second game in a trilogy done by Retro Studios. Graphic-wise, it's pretty much the same thing. There are a few tweaks to the HUD that are noticeable compared to the first game, such as the missile meter is now just a number, while the ammo itself is actually your Dark/Light Beam ammo. The soundtrack also gets a boost. Some of the music has been remixed from the first game, the most notable being the Space Pirate music. They've also changed the model of the Space Pirates, most likely from the new armor and weapon systems they now use.

Metroid Prime 2 pits you in a world thirsting for energy. Torn apart by the same phazon that devastated Tallon IV in the previous game. This time around, however, the planet Aether, inhabited by the Luminoth, is torn from light and dark. The planet itself is in a trans-dimensional flux with Light Aether and Dark Aether. The light world is inhabited by many creatures, all unique to their region from the desert to a tropical forest. The dark world is overrun by a horde called the Ing, a ravishing race seeking nothing but the destruction of the light world.

Samus lands on the planet from a distress call from the Galaxy Federation that she is a member of. She then investigates the planet and what had happened to all of the personnel and what had attacked them. After a while, you head into a temple, where only one Luminoth is awake and alive. U-Mos tells you about the ravaged world of Aether and that he, and his people, request your help to save the planet from turmoil that the Ing have caused.

Alright, that's a back-story of what was going. Graphics didn't get a major boost. I mean, how can you improve already amazing graphics from the first game? There isn't much to say here. There are some tweaks, again, in the HUD, and some other effects not really worth mentioning.

Unlike the first game, this one gives you three new beams entirely. Dark Beam is similar to the ice beam, as dark energy is very cold. The Light Beam, however, is like the plasma beam, setting fire to enemies. My personal favorite, the Annihilator Beam, is a combination of both Light and Dark, and is used in combination of the Echo Visor to unlock Echo-Lock doors and systems. Their missile combinations are also deadly. The Darkburst is a black-hole essentially, causing extreme damage to any enemy near it. The Sunburst is a ball of pure light energy. However, this is not very useful as it is the slowest thing in the game. The Sonic Boom is another story. It uses a whopping 30 Light and Dark, and 5 missiles to execute, and can deal major damage to many enemies.

Speaking of visors, you also get two new visors, but they work somewhat the same in the previous game. Actually, only the Dark Visor does. The Dark Visor is the equivalent of the X-Ray Visor in Metroid Prime, revealing hidden platforms to reach new places. The Echo Visor is a different story entirely. Hence the name, it uses sound waves to detect sonic locks or to open doors locked by a sonic combination. In some ways, you can compare it to echolocation with bats to some degree.

The soundtrack itself hasn't changed too much. Well, actually in some ways it did. A few of the tracks from the previous game have been remixed for the new game. All of the areas get a new music for the background. However, I feel that the Agon Wastes region feels left out. The music there isn't too pleasing or even fits a wasteland area. I believe the Torvus Bog region fit pretty well though, but maybe I'm too picky. The Sanctuary Fortress fits it perfectly, as its a technological area with machines flying around and such. The Dark World music gives off an eerie feeling when you listen to some of it.

Now to go a little in-depth on a few creatures. The Ing, in general, don't really change much from guardian to guardian. The only two to note are the Boost Guardian and the Spider Guardian. Both of the bosses are very difficult to defeat, more so with the Boost Guardian as you can't heal unless it boosts into one of the pillars for energy. The Spider Guardian is more of a puzzle boss to some extent that you have to make it run into electrical pillars.

Leaving the Ing aside, War Wasps make a come-back here. I'm curious as to how they traveled through space to inhabit Aether, unless they have been there? I don't know, I found it funny that there were War Wasps. The Grenchlers of Torvus Bog are your new Baby Sheegoth monsters. They have the same attacks, minus the fact that Grenchlers have an electrical attack, not an ice-based attack. I didn't quite like re-using old ideas for this game, as defeating them is the exact same thing.

Gameplay remains unchanged for about 95% of the game. There are a couple of new tricks, such as the Screw Attack and Wall Jump. Screw Attack is an old Metroid favorite, and it works well for getting across huge gaps. Wall Jumping is basically using the screw attack on a wall jump surface, and is very easy to execute. Then of course a new mechanism, the Echo-Lock doors. These are a combination of a certain sound to lock a door in a specific order. Unique idea, but there is a very fatal flaw in this idea, and kills your game as well.

This is why I don't rate it near the first game. Echo-Lock doors have a fatal bug that, if you save your game when this bug occurs, you have completely screwed up your game. If you partially unlock the combination, then leave the room and come back, the room doesn't fully reset like its suppose to. So, even if you try the combination again, it won't fully unlock, and thus, you have a broken game. If you saved before-hand, you can work your way back up. But, DO NOT leave the room when there is an echo-lock door. It is a very fatal bug and I have been the victim of it once before.

There is one other flaw I noticed in the camera on one particular map. I forgot what it was called, but its to get either an Energy Tank, or Missile Expansion in the Torvus Bog area. You have to defeat two Dark Pirate Commandos to continue further. Its a maze thing where you need a combination of boost and bomb jumps from spider ball tracks. In one particular area, there is a camera glitch that goes behind the scenery, leaving you completely blind to what you're doing. I've tried the supposed fixes, but they don't work. 8 times out of 10, you'll probably be affected by this. Strangely, in my latest run-through, I didn't get it. Weird indeed...

Backtracking isn't a huge thing like it was in the previous game. You still have to backtrack, however its not as prevalent this time around, so its easier to get things without it so much. But, there is one annoying room, and again, why I don't rate it as high. Energy Controller Access rooms, where you have to bomb jump to a slot, activate, wait for it to rotate.. etc... This room is highly annoying, and is over-used way too much in this game. A few times is fine, but having to do it more than 20 times is just excessive.

That about does it for this review. Graphics are still amazing, gameplay is virtually the same, the new world has whole new creatures (the Bombu from the first game are now drone units of Luminoth technology here), music is fairly descent, but not as great. This is another great game to add to your collection, with new strategies, more use of the morph ball, and many other things. The dialogue isn't very long, so its not worthy to note. Its extremely minor and not an integral part of the game. But it was a nice turn of things that U-Mos had a way of speaking to you.