Metroid Prime 2: Echoes is the second installment in the Metroid Prime trilogy. This time we follow Samus after she receives a contract to locate and help Galactic Federation Marines stranded on the planet Aether, a planet currently at war with itself; split in half into Light and Dark parallel worlds.
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Note: Images might not reflect the visuals on the Wii version, as the two versions make it difficult to isolate images for each.
After Metroid Prime’s success, Nintendo commissioned Retro Studios to create a sequel, for which the design team at Retro focused on the themes of light and dark, making the game about ‘push and pull’ as Senior Designer Mike Wikan stated: “We wanted a push and pull, the whole game is pushing and pulling you back and forth between the dark and the light. It ended up being that we wanted something that would feed into that dichotomy, that conflict between the two, and how the player’s basic abilities reflect that.” In designing this game, Retro asked advice from The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past producers, since their game also used a twin-dimension theme. Metroid Prime 2 had a very strict deadline for holidays of 2014, and with the game at 30% completion three months before release, Retro had to work extremely hard to release a finished product that maintained the level of quality expected of them.
Metroid Prime might be one of my favourite games (I don’t really have a specific list, just games I love, but this one is way up there) so when Metroid Prime 2: Echoes was released, I bought it in an instant and once again settled myself behind Samus’ visor while we explored the deepest corners of Aether – both sides of it.
You’ll be jumping through these a lot, going from Light to Dark Aether.
As she enters Aether’s atmosphere, Samus’ gunship (which in this game is modelled after the Super Metroid one) is caught in a fierce electromagnetic storm, the same one that made the Federation soldiers incapable of communicating with their superiors. Lightning strikes the ship and she’s forced to make an emergency landing.
After a brief exploration, Samus jumps down a hole into an underground Federation outpost, where she finds all soldiers dead, but not for long. Suddenly, gateways appear all around her and dark clouds swirl around the corpses,possessing them and raising them as undead, something not uncommon in Metroid games. After fighting them off, Samus confronts her doppelganger, Dark Samus, a figure in a matte black Chozo Powesuit, draining Phazon from an area. Dark Samus quickly jumps through a newly formed portal and Samus follows, finding herself on Dark Aether, where the very air is corrosive. She manages to make her way back to Light Aether quickly, but not before Ing, the native creatures of Dark Aether and the entities possessing the soldiers, swarm her and steal her gear from her.
The Ing come in various shapes but none of them are exactly harmless. They’re also very tough.
Back in Aether, Samus makes her way to the main temple finding U-Mos, a Luminoth Sentinel, the planet’s sentient species, who tasks Samus with recovering the planet’s energy from Dark Aether so that the other dimension might cease to exist.
As you can see, the opening of Metroid Prime 2 is significantly more complex from its predecessor which is exactly what the developers intended, opting for a more immersive storytelling, having more cutscenes and explaining plot, moving away from the Space Pirate and Metroid themes (though both appear in the game, just not on center stage) from previous games while still remaining within the plot they’d crafted for the Metroid Prime trilogy. The story itself has few surprises and is a straightforward affair but that doesn’t make it less interesting, as you’re constantly kept interested by both the exposition cutscenes, spoken or not, and the large variety of logs from Luminoth and Federation alike. As the second in the trilogy, it makes an interesting choice of making Phazon and Dark Samus almost secondary to the main plot, while still making them important, the latter especially so considering a Phazon meteor like as the one that struck Tallon IV in Metroid Prime is responsible for splitting the planet in two dimensions. Dark Samus advances the Prime plot but switches back and forth between secondary and main villain, keeping you guessing on exactly what is going on which I think is the most brilliant aspect about Metroid Prime 2’s storytelling.
Light Aether favours earthy tones, though temple areas like this one feel imposing and intimidating.
In audiovisual terms, Metroid Prime 2 features a fantastic soundtrack with both high tempo and soothing tones for the different areas following a theme that matches the zone. For example, Torvus bog’s background music is water themed, a gentle melody accompanied by a rhythmic echoing beat that reminds you of deep water; the Sky Fortress’ theme is an upbeat techno piece for a high-tech futuristic setting, matching it perfectly. Dark Aether on the other hand features remixes of its light counterparts featuring lower and darker tones. As for sound effects, they keep the same high standard from Metroid Prime, though the ‘corrosive damage’ sound effect can get on your nerves (especially if you keep dying on the same boss because you play it on Hypermode difficulty).
Visually, the most impressive thing about Metroid Prime 2 is how distinct and unique the twin dimensions are; even considering their room layout is almost identical. Dark Aether is filled with deep shades of red and purple and a predominance of black, and shadows, giving it an oppressive and vile vibe and you’ll want to leave and go back to the light world as soon as possible to return to the familiar and comforting tones of Light Aether.
The Light Suit looks awesome!
The dichotomy of the twin sides of Aether is central to the game, not only in story but also on gameplay. Dark Aether’s air is toxic and corrosive, but there are safe havens in the Luminoth crystals spread around the environment in which you heal; but on Aether while the air is safe almost every room is fraught with dangers, and there are no safe zones. Light Aether’s containers often release dangerous clouds that deal damage if you’re close to them, but the containers on Dark Aether are completely safe. The two dimensions are at war and their inhabitants can’t coexist, but to advance in one world you often need to activate devices in the other.
Gameplay wise is where I have a few issues with the game recycling concepts from its predecessor, with Samus starting out with most of her gear and losing it almost immediately leaving players with only the basics, though it’s not as critical as it is in Prime, as you get to keep the Varia Suit (which you’ll exchange for two completely new and original suits, the last one being the coolest looking armour in Metroid history). It’s a valid gating mechanic, but I would’ve preferred they’d found another way of restricting your progress than losing your gear yet again. Another low point was the reuse of the ‘Final Boss Keys’ from the first game, in which you needed to collect artefacts to open the way to Tallon IV’s core. In Metroid Prime 2, you must collect keys to open the way to where the final boss is. On the visor side, the Dark Visor seems mostly like an X-Ray visor re-skin, and less useful than its predecessor.
Bosses in this game make those in Metroid Prime seem pathetically easy.
Aside from that, Metroid Prime 2 does manage to expand on the Prime gameplay, adding the Wall Jump and Screw Attack abilities, the latter requiring you to Screw Attack into especially designed surfaces that only have their scarcity as a flaw. The Screw Attack allows you to extend a jump considerably while being completely lethal to almost anything you touch. In terms of returning abilities, Metroid Prime 2 allows you to combine the Boost and Spider Morphball abilities allowing you to propel yourself from a railing, a mechanic that sees considerable use and has made me giggle with excitement from the first moment I saw it all those years ago. Another new ability coming in is the Seeker Missile upgrade, allowing Samus to target up to five enemies with missiles before launching the barrage.
Metroid Prime 2 is a very challenging game and unlike its predecessor, in which the real challenge where only the bosses, here everything can be extremely lethal if you’re not careful, doubly so on Dark Aether where your health will deplete at a worrisome rate just by not being in a protective bubble. Retro added plenty of mini-bosses to the game in addition to main bosses, giving players a wider array of unique and challenging encounters, and dying on them is quite possible especially on Hypermode difficulty where the damage ramps up to ludicrous levels.
The Sky fortress is all about high-tech!
For the first time in a Metroid game your beams have ammo. As you progress through the game you’ll find both the Dark and Light beams each carrying 50 ammo (though there are expansions). The Dark Beam can encase enemies in ‘dark matter’ or deal damage over time to certain creatures, while the Light beam supercharges Luminoth crystals and destroys creatures from Dark Aether while setting others on fire. Adding to the Light versus Dark theme: the two beams are co-dependent as enemies or objects destroyed by one beam give you ammo for the other.
Metroid Prime 2: Echoes is also the first Metroid game to feature multiplayer allowing players to take control of multiple Samus clones in deathmatch games, featuring all of the Bounty Hunters’ abilities. It’s a very fun experience, if not a very deep one.
Dark Samus packs quite a punch and if you’re not careful, she’ll take you out!
Metroid Prime 2 is a highly addictive and entertaining game and a worthy second entry in the Metroid Prime trilogy. While it does reuse a few concepts, the interesting theme of Light versus Dark on which it focuses and the new mechanics it brings to the table make it a completely new experience from its predecessor that never feels like a rehash.
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