What parents need to know
Samus Aran is back in a new adventure in the Prime series, the first since 2007’s Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. As she comes to lend a hand to the Galactic Federation, she comes up against Sylux, a bounty hunter obsessed with defeating Samus. He accidentally activates an artifact that teleports her to Viewros, a distant planet from which it is impossible to contact civilization.
On this same planet, she discovers the records of a vanished civilization, the Lamorn, who entrust her with the task of bringing back the fruit of the planet, which contains all the memories of the civilization that faced extinction, so that their collective memory survives.
With the help of other refugees who are also stranded on Viewros, Samus must explore the planet in order to activate the teleporter and return home to plant the Lamorn fruit.
Fortunately, in addition to her usual weapons (cannon, missiles, morph ball), she can now count on the psychic powers granted to her by the Lamorn. These powers are primarily used to interact with the environment and solve puzzles.
Like the other games in the Prime series, Metroid Prime 4: Beyond is a first-person shooter that focuses on exploration and puzzle-solving. Of course, there are many shooting sequences, but this is above all a game in which you have to examine the environments from top to bottom to find out how to progress.
In addition, of course, to high-resolution graphics, this new episode takes advantage of the capabilities of the Switch 2 to offer an innovative control mode; we use the left joy-con as a traditional controller to make Samus move, but the right joy-con can be used as a mouse to aim and fire our cannon.
Another new feature in the game’s design is the atmosphere. Usually, Metroid games (whether it’s the Prime series or the traditional series) place Samus in a dense, interconnected world, in which she finds herself isolated. Without being outright in horror, we clearly play with tension and the references to series like Alien are numerous.
For Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, slight change. On the one hand, instead of an interconnected world, we are offered several distinct areas, separated by a large, rather empty desert, which we cross on a motorcycle. In addition, Samus now has human allies with whom she communicates and talks during her adventure (well, Samus is practically mute throughout the game, let’s say she gets talked).
Details
Level of experience required
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Evaluation
Some enemies produce blue or green blood when hit. You have to shoot the enemies to fight. The atmosphere can sometimes be slightly disturbing.
Nothing to report.
It helps to read since the voices are only in English, and several clues to help with progress are transmitted by text.
Samus is a heroine who tries to protect the innocent. The ending, on the other hand, might surprise some.
There are several buttons to remember, but the game shouldn’t give players too much trouble habitué.es action games.
At $99.99 as a base price, Metroid Prime 4: Beyond is expensive compared to its relatively short lifespan. This is even more true when you consider that some features, such as the radio when riding a motorcycle, are hidden behind an amiibo costing $39.99!!
Local game modes
Story mode.
Online Game Modes
None.
Expansions/Add-ons (DLC)
None.
Our opinion
18 years of waiting is a long time. Too long, surely. Expectations were very high for this Metroid Prime 4, announced with great fanfare at the unveiling of the Switch in 2017, before falling victim to a host of twists and turns (including a change of developers) that ended up delaying the release.
At the time, the Prime series revolutionized the Metroid franchise, and many players seemed to hope that this fourth installment would reinvent the wheel once again. If these are your expectations, you will unfortunately be disappointed. Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, despite its qualities, remains in the same line as the previous opuses, improved graphics and additional control method as a bonus.
On the other hand, we must also admit that we feel when playing the title that the development has been complex. The design doesn’t seem coherent. For example, the huge desert that separates the different environments is practically empty, except for green crystals that can be harvested. However, we have put ramps there to do motorcycle jumps and other reliefs, but none of that is ever exploited. It’s as if there was the beginning of an idea, but no one had time to develop it.
We also lose in atmosphere. For the first time, Samus has companions to interact with, but the trouble is that she is usually mute. So, the characters talk to her, dazzled by her, but Samus only stares at them in silence. It’s funny, but it’s mostly strange. Samus doesn’t look stoic, she looks confused at best, mentally broken at worst.
On the other hand, for the rest, we find the excellent gameplay that we know from the franchise. The boss fights are particularly successful and exciting, and it’s always nice to see the dungeon map open up more and more as Samus regains her powers.
The graphics deserve to be highlighted again. We played Metroid Prime 4: Beyond on Switch 2, which obviously offers the best visual quality, but the fact remains that it’s a game that was designed to work on both Switches, so it’s safe to assume that it’s limited. If so, it’s encouraging for the future, because this Metroid Prime 4 is a feast for the eyes. The facial animations are particularly good, which is strange considering that everyone wears a helmet 99% of the time.
And the soundtrack, signed by the franchise’s longtime composer, Kenji Yamamoto, continues to impress.
In summary, Metroid Prime 4: Beyond trades the claustrophobic atmosphere of previous titles for a renewed visual quality, but continues to offer us the same exciting gameplay, despite some inconsistencies in the game’s design.
Note: a code has been given to us by the publisher for criticism purposes. This does not affect our opinion.
