Post by Ninmast on Sept 6, 2010 23:58:06 GMT -5
In her first game since the Prime Trilogy, Samus gets back to her roots in a third-person adventure that takes a few steps back, telling of events in the wake of Super Metroid.
In the final battle with Mother Brain, the bounty hunter Samus Aran was completely outclassed and would have been destroyed were it not for the baby metroid that she rescued from SR388 returning the favor. Giving its life to bring her back from the brink of death, it saw its last moments above her head, moments which sealed the fate of Mother Brain, as well, and all of the Space Pirate planet Zebes with her, as the metroid's last gift to its imprinted mother, the unfathomably powerful Hyper Beam, came online.
Zebes was destroyed, and with it, the last of all Metroids. The hunter who had made her name pursuing that goal was left with a bitter taste in her mouth at its completion, and for a time, she merely drifted from day to day. Until one day when her ship received a distress call from a decommissioned vessel called the Bottle Ship. The kind of signal was called Baby's Cry, for its purpose in drawing attention. The hunter made the course adjustment as if it had been part of her flight plan all along.
Baby's Cry ... It was if it was crying just for her ...
Storyline: 7/10
The primary draw of Other M is the detail in which it delves into Samus' history with particular focus on her time serving with the Galactic Federation. As a result, most cutscenes are actually flashbacks. While it does possess a great deal of spoken dialogue, however, the grand majority of non-flashback material involves Samus falling prey to the temptation of dramatic monologue. I blame too much time holed up in a ship with mission logs as your only companion.
That being said, the game, itself, is not without a story to it, and the gameplay isn't the only thing reaching back to its roots. In the very beginning of the game, Samus quickly meets up with GF Platoon 07, in which are two old friends, one of which we first heard of in Metroid Fusion. As events unfold, the story quickly develops into one of intrigue, suspense and introspection.
While the game DOES possess an epilogue, it is largely empty, however, and only lets you pick up the items you missed or couldn't get before throwing you into an extra but largely unexplained boss battle, then throwing in the traditional, "Oh sh--, you've done it again, Samus!!! Beat your heels to your ship before it blows!" timed dash scenario. Really, all that for a
In the final battle with Mother Brain, the bounty hunter Samus Aran was completely outclassed and would have been destroyed were it not for the baby metroid that she rescued from SR388 returning the favor. Giving its life to bring her back from the brink of death, it saw its last moments above her head, moments which sealed the fate of Mother Brain, as well, and all of the Space Pirate planet Zebes with her, as the metroid's last gift to its imprinted mother, the unfathomably powerful Hyper Beam, came online.
Zebes was destroyed, and with it, the last of all Metroids. The hunter who had made her name pursuing that goal was left with a bitter taste in her mouth at its completion, and for a time, she merely drifted from day to day. Until one day when her ship received a distress call from a decommissioned vessel called the Bottle Ship. The kind of signal was called Baby's Cry, for its purpose in drawing attention. The hunter made the course adjustment as if it had been part of her flight plan all along.
Baby's Cry ... It was if it was crying just for her ...
Storyline: 7/10
The primary draw of Other M is the detail in which it delves into Samus' history with particular focus on her time serving with the Galactic Federation. As a result, most cutscenes are actually flashbacks. While it does possess a great deal of spoken dialogue, however, the grand majority of non-flashback material involves Samus falling prey to the temptation of dramatic monologue. I blame too much time holed up in a ship with mission logs as your only companion.
That being said, the game, itself, is not without a story to it, and the gameplay isn't the only thing reaching back to its roots. In the very beginning of the game, Samus quickly meets up with GF Platoon 07, in which are two old friends, one of which we first heard of in Metroid Fusion. As events unfold, the story quickly develops into one of intrigue, suspense and introspection.
While the game DOES possess an epilogue, it is largely empty, however, and only lets you pick up the items you missed or couldn't get before throwing you into an extra but largely unexplained boss battle, then throwing in the traditional, "Oh sh--, you've done it again, Samus!!! Beat your heels to your ship before it blows!" timed dash scenario. Really, all that for a
? Yeah, it felt more like they just weren't satisfied that Samus had shown up someplace and not blown it up on the way out.
While it is, all in all, a pretty engaging story, and the cinematics (almost) gorgeous (while they expressions are usually pretty good, there were a few times when they seemed kind of stiff), they could have afforded a little more gameplay, however. You don't really notice how much cutscene material there is ... until you realize that there was enough for them to make a frickin' movie out of it!!!
Graphics: 5/10
As I've said, cinematics are incredible, and many of the vistas are lovingly (or disgustingly, depending on the setting) detailed. Unfortunately, most of this detail is lost because you spend most of the game looking at it like a platformer, zoomed out enough from Samus to cause the beauty to shrink accordingly. Not to mention a complete lack of a rotating camera in 98% of the game and a resulting impression that the entire station must be cut in half.
The sad thing is that it's not even that the detail isn't there. Going into First Person View (used only for shooting missiles and vague quasi-forensics, unfortunately, see Controls & Interface) reveals that it is ALL there, in as much detail as we've come to expect from a 3D Metroid game thanks to the Prime series. No, they just decided not to show any of it in favor of keeping the gameplay style they wanted.
Sound: 9/10
One thing you can rarely fault a Metroid game for is sound. All of the cannon blasts, charging sounds, explosions, environmental noises and background music are well tended to, and for the first game that we've gotten to hear Samus speak, it sounds like they got a good person for the job. Her voice is a bit higher than we've been led to expect, but I blame it on being earlier in her career, and you get used to it pretty quick.
The one problem is that in some areas, perhaps due to other noises getting in the way of those frequencies, sometimes certain sounds just aren't heard or come across particularly muffled. Usually, this is the cannon's doing. It isn't a huge issue, but it can be a little mood-breaking when you charge up to blast a big freak, and all you hear is a little fizzle when it goes off.
Control & Interface: 6/10
Most times, the controller is fine. Playing like an old-school platformer works well for Samus, even though she hasn't been in one on a console since Super Metroid. The semi-3D environment would make manual aiming difficult, but Samus can usually handle that herself and all you have to do is pull the trigger. Other features, such as the ability to recharge missiles on the spot, as well as energy when she is in critical, are certainly attractive but may seem like overkill when one first hears about them ... until you find out they've entirely removed item drops and have cranked boss difficulty up to eleven.
No, where Other M loses points here is in First Person. Perhaps partially in tribute to the Prime series, Other M lets you enter First Person by simply pointing the remote at the screen, which then allows you to aim much like in Corruption. Without locking on, you can fire beams like normal, but by locking on, you can fire missiles, including Super and Seeker variants when they are unlocked. There are two down points to this alone. One is that this is the ONLY time you can shoot missiles and two is that, when locked on, missiles are ALL that you can shoot. Another problem is that you can no longer move when in first-person. One wouldn't think it would be too hard to include, even only using the remote, but they didn't, so to fire a missile, Samus has to stand still, which, of course, makes her a sitting duck for enemy attacks. Half of all of the damage you take in boss fights will likely be due to trying to fire a missile. Most of those times, it will also knock you out of it or disrupt your aim or charge, forcing you to start the process all over again.
Replay: 2/10
You can, with little effort, get everything in one play-through, and odds are that you'll have restarted from boss fights so often that you'll probably be ready to set the controller aside for a little while at least. You don't even have to play it again for cutscenes, as the movie they compiled with cutscenes, boss fight excerpts and enough level coverage to fill in the gaps, you can just go to theater mode and see it all together. The whole game, condensed into a two-hour movie. Not the best movie, of course, but it's decent enough to tell the story.
Overall: 7/10
I won't lie. I was tempted to give the game a 6 overall and almost did. It had many poor points, but at the same time, I feel it accomplished what it set out to do: Return Samus to her roots with a quasi-platform title in the wake of a line of first-person shooters, as well as tell a great deal of her past that has been, for the most part, known by her fans, but has never been played before us. For that, and just because Anthony Briggs is a frickin' badace with his plasma cannon, I go ahead and give this a 7.
But unless you're a pretty heavy fan, you might want to rent or borrow it due to its short and internal nature, just the same.
While it is, all in all, a pretty engaging story, and the cinematics (almost) gorgeous (while they expressions are usually pretty good, there were a few times when they seemed kind of stiff), they could have afforded a little more gameplay, however. You don't really notice how much cutscene material there is ... until you realize that there was enough for them to make a frickin' movie out of it!!!
Graphics: 5/10
As I've said, cinematics are incredible, and many of the vistas are lovingly (or disgustingly, depending on the setting) detailed. Unfortunately, most of this detail is lost because you spend most of the game looking at it like a platformer, zoomed out enough from Samus to cause the beauty to shrink accordingly. Not to mention a complete lack of a rotating camera in 98% of the game and a resulting impression that the entire station must be cut in half.
The sad thing is that it's not even that the detail isn't there. Going into First Person View (used only for shooting missiles and vague quasi-forensics, unfortunately, see Controls & Interface) reveals that it is ALL there, in as much detail as we've come to expect from a 3D Metroid game thanks to the Prime series. No, they just decided not to show any of it in favor of keeping the gameplay style they wanted.
Sound: 9/10
One thing you can rarely fault a Metroid game for is sound. All of the cannon blasts, charging sounds, explosions, environmental noises and background music are well tended to, and for the first game that we've gotten to hear Samus speak, it sounds like they got a good person for the job. Her voice is a bit higher than we've been led to expect, but I blame it on being earlier in her career, and you get used to it pretty quick.
The one problem is that in some areas, perhaps due to other noises getting in the way of those frequencies, sometimes certain sounds just aren't heard or come across particularly muffled. Usually, this is the cannon's doing. It isn't a huge issue, but it can be a little mood-breaking when you charge up to blast a big freak, and all you hear is a little fizzle when it goes off.
Control & Interface: 6/10
Most times, the controller is fine. Playing like an old-school platformer works well for Samus, even though she hasn't been in one on a console since Super Metroid. The semi-3D environment would make manual aiming difficult, but Samus can usually handle that herself and all you have to do is pull the trigger. Other features, such as the ability to recharge missiles on the spot, as well as energy when she is in critical, are certainly attractive but may seem like overkill when one first hears about them ... until you find out they've entirely removed item drops and have cranked boss difficulty up to eleven.
No, where Other M loses points here is in First Person. Perhaps partially in tribute to the Prime series, Other M lets you enter First Person by simply pointing the remote at the screen, which then allows you to aim much like in Corruption. Without locking on, you can fire beams like normal, but by locking on, you can fire missiles, including Super and Seeker variants when they are unlocked. There are two down points to this alone. One is that this is the ONLY time you can shoot missiles and two is that, when locked on, missiles are ALL that you can shoot. Another problem is that you can no longer move when in first-person. One wouldn't think it would be too hard to include, even only using the remote, but they didn't, so to fire a missile, Samus has to stand still, which, of course, makes her a sitting duck for enemy attacks. Half of all of the damage you take in boss fights will likely be due to trying to fire a missile. Most of those times, it will also knock you out of it or disrupt your aim or charge, forcing you to start the process all over again.
Replay: 2/10
You can, with little effort, get everything in one play-through, and odds are that you'll have restarted from boss fights so often that you'll probably be ready to set the controller aside for a little while at least. You don't even have to play it again for cutscenes, as the movie they compiled with cutscenes, boss fight excerpts and enough level coverage to fill in the gaps, you can just go to theater mode and see it all together. The whole game, condensed into a two-hour movie. Not the best movie, of course, but it's decent enough to tell the story.
Overall: 7/10
I won't lie. I was tempted to give the game a 6 overall and almost did. It had many poor points, but at the same time, I feel it accomplished what it set out to do: Return Samus to her roots with a quasi-platform title in the wake of a line of first-person shooters, as well as tell a great deal of her past that has been, for the most part, known by her fans, but has never been played before us. For that, and just because Anthony Briggs is a frickin' badace with his plasma cannon, I go ahead and give this a 7.
But unless you're a pretty heavy fan, you might want to rent or borrow it due to its short and internal nature, just the same.
