Finished
Other M last night and thought I'd share my thoughts.
GameplayFirst off, the gameplay is very nice. There's definitely an emphasis on combat, so for those of you who enjoyed the more puzzle-oriented
Prime series, it might not be as familiar as you had hoped. Anyway, the combat itself is well-done - the Charge Beam is much more essential here than it is in any other
Metroid title to date - more often than not, it's your first and only real line of defense. The Sense Move feature is a godsend, because Samus is figuratively made of glass in this game. Assuming you're about as skilled as I was, you'll constantly find yourself rather low on energy, and that's with copious use of the dodging system, which, if you're holding the fire button while using it, will bring your charge meter to full when you're back on your feet for a quick counterattack. This can be abused in certain battles, since - again - most creatures are vulnerable to the Charge Beam. The auto-aim is good. Not exceptional, but not horrible. For precision, you'll want to use... FPS mode! The First Person mechanic is by far the most universally-reviled one in the game. And not without reason - not being able to move while inside First Person mode and not being able to use missiles while outside First Person mode are both every bit as stupid as they sound (admittedly, dodging is still possible in First Person, but it's more unreliable and requires Waggle). But the real blow to the flow of the gameplay comes not with those aspects of First Person mode, which, while annoying, aren't quite enough to make the game play choppily. The real blow to the flow of the gameplay comes with the segments in which you're forced into First Person and have to search for a tiny and un-hinted-at objects with the purpose of advancing the story. There are no clues as to what you're looking for and the objectives often blend into the background to a fault. Luckily, these segments don't appear
too much. The wrestling-style finishing moves are cheesy and over the top and I love 'em. Good job there. The power-ups are implemented fairly well, apart from the often-criticized method of obtaining them (rather than needing to re-acquire all the suit upgrades, you need authorization from Adam to activate them). You get the Spring Ball from the start, which is nice. Missiles have received an upgrade in power compared to their
Prime counterparts, and a downgrade in usefulness, due to the fact that you can't use them unless you're in
Sitting Duck First Person mode. The Space Jump was disappointing, only allowing lateral movement and not vertical. Think
Prime 2's Screw Attack - it's really more of a "Glide" power-up than a "Flight" power-up. The Screw Attack returns and it's useful again. This thing will decimate formerly-miniboss-grade enemies with ease. There are, like, two non-boss enemies that it doesn't one-hit. Seeker Missiles return from the
Prime games and are about as useless. The Speed Booster is awesome, but it would be more awesome if the level designers didn't
specifically add obstacles in rooms that would otherwise be long straightaways just to cripple the Speed Booster. The Plasma Beam returns to
Return of Samus and
Prime levels of brokenness, which is awesome. In fact, each beam upgrade significantly increases your damage output, in a nice change of pace from
Prime 3. Since only two power-ups are actually acquired in the traditional sense, expansions are the only hidden items to get. Missile tanks give you one missile apiece here, and E-Tanks are much more sparse (this game may be
Fusion 2, but one aspect it does not share with
Fusion is the scarcity of Energy expansions). Accel Charges (which make the beam charge faster - a very welcome upgrade) and Energy Parts (basically Heart Pieces from the
Zelda games) are introduced, but are more rarely-encountered than Missile tanks. As for linearity - there's lots of it, and it's shoved down your throat even more than in
Fusion. There are virtually no side-rooms and absolutely no sequence breaks whatsoever. I am very disappointed in this regard, even though I wasn't expecting anything different.
Fusion set a nasty precedent, and rather than being a nice change of pace, the rigidly linear gameplay it introduced has become a giant tumor on the series' proverbial neck. Still, the levels are well-designed for the most part and are fun to play through.
StoryThe story is supposedly the big selling point of
Other M, and while the game's main plot won't win any awards, it's not bad.
Even if it is basically Fusion all over again (Nightmare even appears and you have to fight him). The most controversial part in the game by far is the cutscene where
Samus breaks down into a panic when Ridley reappears. I'm in the camp that says this was a really bad idea and makes no sense considering the previous games, but whatever. Ignoring this little hiccup, I, unlike many others, don't believe that Samus was particularly derailed from her bad@$$ery. Anthony Higgs is awesome and has an awesome gun
which he uses to awesome effect on Ridley as the latter is about to end Samus. Adam was a little underwhelming compared to how he was described in
Fusion, but whatever again.
GraphicsThis game looks pretty nice for the most part. A few bits are noticeably sub-PS2 quality, but really the whole game is quite pretty. As is Samus. Her Zero Suit model's polygons are a lot bigger now, if you know what I mean.
Musiclol no music for u lulz
No, seriously. There are one or two music tracks in the game that actually have a melody and aren't ambient sounds. Luckily,
Ridley's Theme is there to pick up the slack. As far as riffs go, there's the
appearance fanfare, which is heavenly. Also, the result screen has a
snippet from Samus' theme from Super Metroid. The real one with the triumphant horn section, not the fake one with just the bass from that one trailer.
OverallNot a bad game. Quite a good game, actually. There are several bad design decisions, but I still liked it, and the signature
Metroid feel is still there - you just have to look a little harder. Awesome combat (especially boss battles), good graphics, and a killer atmosphere make for an enjoyable experience. It's a little short, and maybe not worth a full fifty dollars for the 8-12 hours it'll take you to beat it, but I recommend it.
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