Metroid Prime is Retro Studio's freshman release, a promising American developer from Texas. With its release, Prime has garnered much critical acclaim, including 'Best Game of the Year' awards from such videogame websites like gamespot.com and gameforms.com, and even print magazines like Electronic Gaming Monthly, to name a few.
Metroid Prime is the second game chronologically in the long running Metroid series, starting back on Nintendo's first major console, the Nintendo Entertainment System (Famicon in Japan). It is also the first Metroid game to leap into the third dimension, making the transition gracefully.
Graphically, Prime is a gem. Prime sports detailed textures, an unwavering 60 fps of animation, and outstanding use of color and lighting. Aesthetic touches like lens flare (probably the best lens flare for a console game ever), heat distortion, and reflections add to the overall atmosphere of the game. The sound design accomplishment is on par with the rest of the game's high design value. The music, like Super Metroid, is an inspired accomplishment, so very fitting for the areas, for the situations, not creating emotions or moods, but reinforcing them.
The game is set in a first-person viewpoint, but also moves into a third-person view whenever you access the 'morph-ball mode'--allowing the protagonist, Samus, to form into a sphere, which in turn allows her to perform various tactical and exploratory functions. The inclusion of this element is evidence of the diversity in the gameplay and innovation as well as its preservation and accurate translation of previous Metroid games' elements.
Though the game is primarily in a first-person view and involves shooting as its main offensive gameplay element, it does not necessarily play like any other FPS; it does feel and play like Metroid games of the past since it utilizes so many gameplay elements and items from Metroid games of the past, a notable achievement in itself. The shooting element uses a lock-on system if you so choose, allowing you to engage one-on-one's more effectively; although this might make it easier, it doesn't particularly detract from the enjoyment of the fighting. True, hardcore FPS fans aren't generally going to like the control scheme or the battle system, but it will appeal to the more casual gamers or the newcomers to the genre. The lock-on system is probably necessary to make the game playable because Samus' speed of movement and (especially) turning is limited compared to other FPS (most likely because of hardware limitations so that there weren't as many graphical compromises): there's no way for some gamers to deal with the potential onslaught of enemies if you couldn't lock on; there's no mouse.
Prime is a milestone achievement in level design. Every room, every area has its own personality, its own backstory, providing an alien authenticity rarely found in games. The game effortlessly moves from one environment to another, from a lush, wet jungle-like environment, to subterranean caverns of molten rock, gaseous vents, and expansive openings. There is also a serene, harmonious area of ice and snow, the arid ruins of the previous inhabitants of the alien world of Tallon IV, and deep caverns/mines which is home to a lethal and profitable ore, "phazon." There is no cheap rehash of previous environments.
And if the level design based purely on its merits of originality, detail and aesthetics wasn't enough, it also helps tell the unspoken story of the game. Prime is one of those rare atmospheric games that do not rely on narrative or other common storytelling elements to tell its tale. Older cartridge-based games attempted this feat because it was all they could do: the use of text or voice-overs in a game took up too much room on a cartridge to be used in an effective manner. Yet, their graphical capabilities weren't no where near that of Prime's is, and telling the story through visuals was also limited. Hence, the story was usually told at the beginning and end. Prime, however, is one of the first games that foregoes strong narrative--that gained much momentum during the Playstation/N64 era--and instead uses environmental cues, mood, and notes/logs left by previous and current inhabitants. You have the option to use one of Samus' pieces of technology that allows her to scan objects in the environment. You can scan a variety of objects like various bioforms, computer terminals, stasis tanks, power-ups for Samus, enemies and creatures that inhabit the planet, etc. There are also logs you can decrypt that are left by a marauding group of Space Pirates who are on Tallon IV conducting experiments on its inhabitants using the mysterious, alien organism called 'phazon.' In addition to the Space Pirate logs, there are the scribblings left on stone throughout the world of Tallon IV by the Chozo--bipedal, birdlike creatures from which Samus shares blood ties to. Throughout the game, you begin to notice contrasting views--simplicity vs. complexity, natural vs. technological.
The writing is well executed and has a scholarly overtone to it through its choice of words and use and references to science: biology, astrology, geology, physics, etc. However, it can be a bit vague in its references and usage at times.
Prime is the best game to grace the Gamecube thus far. Every detail and aspect of the game seems to have been pored over meticulously. Not only is it a technical achievement in game design, it is more importantly an artistic achievement, elevating videogames beyond forms of entertainment, to the realm of inspiration, evoking emotions, moods, and higher thought.
[Author's Note: Some text is borrowed from a preliminary analysis of Metroid Prime by the author, published elsewhere on the web. All work above remains the original work of the author.]
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