Becky! (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
code_gorilla) wrote2011-05-21 11:56 pm
code_gorilla) wrote2011-05-21 11:56 pm
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me.letsPlay(MetroidOtherM).summarize();
Alright, so if you're reading this, you've probably read through my pseudo-Let's Play of Metroid: Other M. If not, go ahead, go read it. I'll wait.
... yeah, okay, this gag has been done a billion and one times. Sorry for insulting your intelligence, readers! I love you all dearly. <3
Moving on. I said I was going to do a summary, so here it is, in two parts.
Some Prose on the Pros:
There was actually a fair amount I liked about this game - I've heard a decent amount of criticism, and while some of it is certainly deserved, I don't feel like this is a bad game because of it. I'll break it into three main sections: Gameplay, Story, and Style.
Gameplay:
Gameplay-wise, Metroid: Other M is a solid game. The controls are pretty smooth, and it includes all of the features one typically expects from a Metroid game. I almost want to say that in terms of gameplay, this is more like what Metroid should be in 3D, rather than the Prime series. Almost. I hesitate because the Prime series is one of the best things ever, even if it's not quite what one might expect from 3D Metroid.
One of the nice things about the game play is that you can actually see why Samus is such a big name and such a big deal - in a lot of the other games, her abilities are hyped up, but her best moves, the ones that actually put her a cut above the red shirts, are only shown in cut scenes. Not so, with this game: with Overdrive, Lethal Blows, and Sensemove, you get to actually pull the sorts of stunts that make Samus a force to contend with. The only other time the player has been able to pull of those kinds of move with Samus is in the Super Smash Brothers series.
Personal favorites of the game include the Speed Booster and Shine Spark - these are some of my favorite power-ups in the series, and I'm glad to see that they transferred to 3D well. I also kind of liked that in the third-person view, most of the aiming was taken care of for you - that could have made the game much more frustrating, otherwise.
Story:
Story-wise, I love that this game actually had characters, as opposed to most Metroid games. Metroid Prime 3 is the only other game in the series that came close, and none of those were given much depth before they were possessed by Dark Samus. Dark Samus had more personality, and she never had any speaking lines. So even though Anthony was introduced as an important person out of nowhere, it was still a nice change.
The story itself was pretty decent, and the established characters were all written correctly, more or less. It wasn't stand out, but it wasn't bad, either.
Style:
The style is pretty good, too. It stays true to the sort of genre that Metroid typically fits under - at least, the one it fits into in the games from Fusion and onward, which is kind of a Sci-Fi Survival Horror, not unlike the movie Alien. The idea of the traitor amongst the platoon, and an abandoned space station filled with dangerous lifeforms and bioweapons is exactly the right kind of thing for a Metroid game. The atmosphere is good, and the many holodeck chambers give the impression of being on a distant planet instead of being in a space station all of the time - therefore the scenery doesn't get old. The music is downplayed, which is good for a survival horror like this one - it needs to be quiet for when the alien jumps out at you. The themes of the game are pretty solid, too - sacrifice and change being two of the major ones. Decently solid.
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The Contents of the Cons:
Now with all that said, there's still a fair amount that I didn't like about the game. Again, I'll break this into Gameplay, Story, and Style.
Gameplay:
There are only a few bits of the gameplay that I didn't like. The need to switch between third person and first person regularly didn't really work for me - especially when the game forced you into third person mode where you cannot move. Furthermore, the fact that you cannot shoot missiles unless you are in third-person mode and locked-on to the target makes them pretty much useless unless you are forced to use them, which in my opinion, defeats the purpose of the missiles. I tend to save those for emergencies, when I need to fire them quickly and abruptly - but if I'm locked on from a distance, I'm probably picking off monsters that can't get to me yet, so I'd rather save the missiles. Of course, with the ability to recharge missiles whenever, wasting them is not much of an issue.
One gameplay thing that mildly bugs me: there are no drops from enemies in this game, unlike all of the other Metroid games. Among other things, this means that there is no way to heal without going to a save point. It's not a big deal, especially since you can partially recharge your health by standing still when your health is low enough (which, as you might imagine, is difficult to do during boss fights - i.e. when you need it most), but it is kind of noticeable.
The final negative I have on the gameplay is the loading times - this was only really noticeable near the end, when I was wandering all over the place looking for power ups, but several times it would take several seconds for a door to open after I walked up to it. It was particularly noticeable when I was either A. using the Speed Booster or B. going through a morph ball tunnel that didn't actually have a door. Again, it's a minor thing, but it does get on my nerves.
Story:
My biggest complaint about the story is that a lot of this seems like a repeat of Metroid Fusion. Stop me if you've heard this one: Samus responds to a distress call from an abandoned space station, and ends up having to work under her old CO, Adam. The space station ends up being a research center for bioweapons, but something has gone terribly wrong, and the beasts are loose. So Samus has to run through the space station and figure out exactly what happened and how to stop it - and near the end it's revealed that there are metroids on board, so they have to crash the whole thing in order to prevent the eventual destruction of the universe. Oh, and at points it's questionable whether Samus can trust Adam. Yeah, I basically just described both this game and Fusion.
My next point about the story is that they can't quite seem to figure out what the main focus is. Case in point: the traitor, who is kind of a big deal earlier on, is basically dropped as a story line about the time you meet MB the second time. They don't even acknowledge it in the end - even Samus doesn't bring it up in her closing narration, and she narrates about everything else. Meanwhile, the story they do resolve comes mostly out of left field in the second to last cut scene. They have to explain the entire chain of events that led to the game right before the end, instead of gradually leading up to it - essentially, the pacing of the story is off.
Style:
So the biggest style flaw in this game, and the one you've probably all been waiting for me to cover: Samus Aran is a whiny bitch. Why is this under Style and not under Story? Well, because I think her character is actually portrayed correctly. Not that I think she's completely a whiny bitch; but then again, most of her lines - especially the ones that could be taken as whiny - happen during her internal monologues. She only has around thirty or so lines that are actually said to other characters, and most of those are in her usual no-nonsense attitude. Internally, though, she is a lot more fragile. The only super-emotional lines she delivered to other characters were to Adam as he was sacrificing himself.
That said - it was still a mistake to have her narrate everything. While yes, it did give us more of a view into her mind, it also interrupted the flow of the story, I feel. A lot of times Samus would narrate something that was already blatantly obvious - or just repeat herself. Show us, game, don't tell us. The flashbacks are nice, and the dialogue is nice, it's the constant monologues that get on my nerves.
Other stylistic complaints: this is mostly minor, but for a large portion of the game, things felt largely linear. Metroid is typically about exploration, not walking in a straight line to the next target. The fact that most of the time I could just walk through the nearest door and be pretty sure that it would progress the plot kind of took away a lot of the fun. Combine that with the fact that the place doesn't completely open up until the very end of the game, and we've got a few problems with linearity.
So those are my thoughts on Metroid: Other M. I hope you enjoyed my commentary and review. If you've got your own opinions to share, feel free to let me know! I'm always happy to hear them.
... yeah, okay, this gag has been done a billion and one times. Sorry for insulting your intelligence, readers! I love you all dearly. <3
Moving on. I said I was going to do a summary, so here it is, in two parts.
Some Prose on the Pros:
There was actually a fair amount I liked about this game - I've heard a decent amount of criticism, and while some of it is certainly deserved, I don't feel like this is a bad game because of it. I'll break it into three main sections: Gameplay, Story, and Style.
Gameplay:
Gameplay-wise, Metroid: Other M is a solid game. The controls are pretty smooth, and it includes all of the features one typically expects from a Metroid game. I almost want to say that in terms of gameplay, this is more like what Metroid should be in 3D, rather than the Prime series. Almost. I hesitate because the Prime series is one of the best things ever, even if it's not quite what one might expect from 3D Metroid.
One of the nice things about the game play is that you can actually see why Samus is such a big name and such a big deal - in a lot of the other games, her abilities are hyped up, but her best moves, the ones that actually put her a cut above the red shirts, are only shown in cut scenes. Not so, with this game: with Overdrive, Lethal Blows, and Sensemove, you get to actually pull the sorts of stunts that make Samus a force to contend with. The only other time the player has been able to pull of those kinds of move with Samus is in the Super Smash Brothers series.
Personal favorites of the game include the Speed Booster and Shine Spark - these are some of my favorite power-ups in the series, and I'm glad to see that they transferred to 3D well. I also kind of liked that in the third-person view, most of the aiming was taken care of for you - that could have made the game much more frustrating, otherwise.
Story:
Story-wise, I love that this game actually had characters, as opposed to most Metroid games. Metroid Prime 3 is the only other game in the series that came close, and none of those were given much depth before they were possessed by Dark Samus. Dark Samus had more personality, and she never had any speaking lines. So even though Anthony was introduced as an important person out of nowhere, it was still a nice change.
The story itself was pretty decent, and the established characters were all written correctly, more or less. It wasn't stand out, but it wasn't bad, either.
Style:
The style is pretty good, too. It stays true to the sort of genre that Metroid typically fits under - at least, the one it fits into in the games from Fusion and onward, which is kind of a Sci-Fi Survival Horror, not unlike the movie Alien. The idea of the traitor amongst the platoon, and an abandoned space station filled with dangerous lifeforms and bioweapons is exactly the right kind of thing for a Metroid game. The atmosphere is good, and the many holodeck chambers give the impression of being on a distant planet instead of being in a space station all of the time - therefore the scenery doesn't get old. The music is downplayed, which is good for a survival horror like this one - it needs to be quiet for when the alien jumps out at you. The themes of the game are pretty solid, too - sacrifice and change being two of the major ones. Decently solid.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Contents of the Cons:
Now with all that said, there's still a fair amount that I didn't like about the game. Again, I'll break this into Gameplay, Story, and Style.
Gameplay:
There are only a few bits of the gameplay that I didn't like. The need to switch between third person and first person regularly didn't really work for me - especially when the game forced you into third person mode where you cannot move. Furthermore, the fact that you cannot shoot missiles unless you are in third-person mode and locked-on to the target makes them pretty much useless unless you are forced to use them, which in my opinion, defeats the purpose of the missiles. I tend to save those for emergencies, when I need to fire them quickly and abruptly - but if I'm locked on from a distance, I'm probably picking off monsters that can't get to me yet, so I'd rather save the missiles. Of course, with the ability to recharge missiles whenever, wasting them is not much of an issue.
One gameplay thing that mildly bugs me: there are no drops from enemies in this game, unlike all of the other Metroid games. Among other things, this means that there is no way to heal without going to a save point. It's not a big deal, especially since you can partially recharge your health by standing still when your health is low enough (which, as you might imagine, is difficult to do during boss fights - i.e. when you need it most), but it is kind of noticeable.
The final negative I have on the gameplay is the loading times - this was only really noticeable near the end, when I was wandering all over the place looking for power ups, but several times it would take several seconds for a door to open after I walked up to it. It was particularly noticeable when I was either A. using the Speed Booster or B. going through a morph ball tunnel that didn't actually have a door. Again, it's a minor thing, but it does get on my nerves.
Story:
My biggest complaint about the story is that a lot of this seems like a repeat of Metroid Fusion. Stop me if you've heard this one: Samus responds to a distress call from an abandoned space station, and ends up having to work under her old CO, Adam. The space station ends up being a research center for bioweapons, but something has gone terribly wrong, and the beasts are loose. So Samus has to run through the space station and figure out exactly what happened and how to stop it - and near the end it's revealed that there are metroids on board, so they have to crash the whole thing in order to prevent the eventual destruction of the universe. Oh, and at points it's questionable whether Samus can trust Adam. Yeah, I basically just described both this game and Fusion.
My next point about the story is that they can't quite seem to figure out what the main focus is. Case in point: the traitor, who is kind of a big deal earlier on, is basically dropped as a story line about the time you meet MB the second time. They don't even acknowledge it in the end - even Samus doesn't bring it up in her closing narration, and she narrates about everything else. Meanwhile, the story they do resolve comes mostly out of left field in the second to last cut scene. They have to explain the entire chain of events that led to the game right before the end, instead of gradually leading up to it - essentially, the pacing of the story is off.
Style:
So the biggest style flaw in this game, and the one you've probably all been waiting for me to cover: Samus Aran is a whiny bitch. Why is this under Style and not under Story? Well, because I think her character is actually portrayed correctly. Not that I think she's completely a whiny bitch; but then again, most of her lines - especially the ones that could be taken as whiny - happen during her internal monologues. She only has around thirty or so lines that are actually said to other characters, and most of those are in her usual no-nonsense attitude. Internally, though, she is a lot more fragile. The only super-emotional lines she delivered to other characters were to Adam as he was sacrificing himself.
That said - it was still a mistake to have her narrate everything. While yes, it did give us more of a view into her mind, it also interrupted the flow of the story, I feel. A lot of times Samus would narrate something that was already blatantly obvious - or just repeat herself. Show us, game, don't tell us. The flashbacks are nice, and the dialogue is nice, it's the constant monologues that get on my nerves.
Other stylistic complaints: this is mostly minor, but for a large portion of the game, things felt largely linear. Metroid is typically about exploration, not walking in a straight line to the next target. The fact that most of the time I could just walk through the nearest door and be pretty sure that it would progress the plot kind of took away a lot of the fun. Combine that with the fact that the place doesn't completely open up until the very end of the game, and we've got a few problems with linearity.
So those are my thoughts on Metroid: Other M. I hope you enjoyed my commentary and review. If you've got your own opinions to share, feel free to let me know! I'm always happy to hear them.