Metroid Prime superbly blends the adventure and action genres, although it can get a little monotonous at times.
User Rating: 8.6 | Metroid Prime GC
Metroid Prime may not be the best game of 2002, and it may not be the best game on the GameCube, but it certainly is one of the most creative mixes of two genres that has ever been seen in the video game industry. Though it's not particularily my favorite game around, it's hard not to recognize that Metroid Prime is one of the most amazing games released thus far this generation. To set it straight, scores don't mean anything, this is just one of those love/hate type games that I'm on the other side with. There are some people who think this is one of the best games ever made, and to be honest, they're not wrong, but then there's people like me who recognize it's quality but are still turned off by its apparent flaws that should have been fixed before release. Don't take that the wrong way. Metroid Prime has awesome gameplay, it's amazing looking, and it's far and away one of the most immersive games around. Though it has many high points, it has quite a few problems to balance it out. For example it has a very poorly directed plot. There is little that actually happens in this game other than what happens in the first thirty minutes of it. You are Samus, and you're exploring Talon IV. Not much more too it, which is okay if that's your kind of game. It just leaves me asking why. Why am I looking around this alien world? Why should I run from one side of the area to the other just to investigate something that probably won't get me anywhere important? That could definitely just be me, though. I also thought it was a little, well, boring at times. It's not because of the constant backtracking, or the lack of constant action, because that's understandable for an action adventure game that focuses more on the adventure part of things. It's the lack of reason behind what you're doing. Sure, there are great pirate logs for you to read over, but in reality, they're no more deep than the random journals you can find in Resident Evil games. To pass that off as the depth of the plot is quite pathetic in my opinion. It would have been nice to see a grandious epic tale of Samus and her adventures through space as an intergalactic bounty hunter, but no, not this time. As I said before, the gameplay is really something special. Once you get past the awful control set up, which, no matter what you say, was not necessary to do and was done out of the sake of trying to be unique. The puzzles and way they integrate awesome powerups and gizmos to Samus' suit is really quite awesome. That alone makes this game worth playing, it's really, really fun. So, if you can get over the problems the game has, you'll find a game that's quite impressive and shows that these old franchises still have life left in them if they're done right. Don't be discouraged by the score, the game is really quite amazing. I highly recommend the game to anyone who owns a GameCube because it's one of the best games this generation, although it's not the absolute best.
