#METROID PRIME REVIEW FREE#

Metroid Prime is a unique game (barring its sequels). Nothing funnier than turning into a ball when in danger and zigzagging though a room of aliens trying to stomp you – “I am outta here!” (Yet another dimension to exploration.) As with all of her equipment, the Morph Ball has uses in combat too. Samus curls up and rolls around like a Sandshrew, fitting into narrow passages and scaling walls once upgraded. Your main puzzle-solving tool is the Morph Ball. Puzzles! Throughout Talon IV, you will find many ingenious puzzles akin to an Indiana Jones adventure, though with a sci-fi slant. Or all those purple doors that impeded your path, now ready to fall aside as you blast them with your new Wave Beam – yes, even the weapons play a significant part in the exploration and puzzles. Finding the Space Jump Boots, you remember that platform, just out of reach, which you spent ages trying to snuggle your way onto. Each new equipment find feels meaningful you immediately get a sense that so much more of the non-linear world has opened up to you. Samus can also acquire various utility upgrades to help with traversal. It still blows my mind how incredible the tech was to build this game. At later stages, the visor upgrades with different vision types, my favourite being the X-Ray visor, which allows you to see through walls and into enemies. Samus can scan the environment (useful for finding secrets) and enemies to uncover lore and weaknesses.

Metroid Prime has more to it than combat, mind you, far more.

#METROID PRIME REVIEW FREE#

If this still doesn’t sound appealing, the Wii and Wii U versions allow free movement of the crosshair with the Wii remote at all times, while lock-on merely keeps the enemy in view. However, Metroid Prime was tailored for this control scheme and it works great. This sounds strange, I know, and if it were a standard FPS like Halo, it would be utter rubbish. Use the other trigger, and you stand still, converting the movement stick into a free-view mode. While locked-on, you will strafe instead of turn and you can do quick dodges to sidestep attacks. As the second stick handles weapon swaps, you aim by holding a trigger to lock-on target. My favourite immersion detail is seeing your face reflected inside the visor after a bright flash – mind blowing for the time. From the way rain and frost affect your visor, to how the interface is integrated Iron Man-style within the game world, to that haunting music of alien mandibles clicking with anticipation, Metroid Prime pulls you into a world unlike any other. Instead, prepare for heavy exploration, unique combat, and atmosphere few games manage to achieve. You won’t find 360-no-scopes or run-and-gun gameplay here. To label Metroid Prime as a first-person shooter is misleading, for it shares nothing in common but the perspective with the common notion of an FPS. No filler, all awesome – sums up the whole game, in fact. I have never had a demo hook me into a game as much as this – it certainly helped that Metroid Prime has the pinnacle of what a first level should be. There was a timer on the demo before it kicked you back to the title screen, so I would play over and over to get as far as possible (made it past the first boss). I still remember playing the Metroid Prime demo kiosk at the local K-Mart before its release. Genre: First-Person Shooter Action Adventure

Related: Metroid Prime 2: Echoes (sequel)

Metroid prime review