After A While: Metroid Other M, Part 3

The 3D Where's Waldo Puzzles

While there were few that I could skip talking about, they are starting to get a bit more numerous. Throughout the game the camera will go into a first-person view of Samus and the player won't be able to exit out of this view until they locate and hold their cursor over a specific object for some time. They are essentially 3D Where's Waldo puzzles, as the segment title describes. While I can kind-of see the purpose of these scenes (more drama/make the player notice something small), I don't understand why they are there, especially when the rest of the game is a straight-forward action game. I can only assume this was a decision to make the game more like a traditional Metroid title (having the player pay attention to their surroundings), but it feels dis-genuine when it's forced upon the player.

Resident Confused

Up until this point, there have been some optional rooms that force the player to don tank controls a la Resident Evil. These rooms have mostly been what appear to be bathrooms that contain some upgrades like missile packs. Now, bear in mind these rooms are small; using the normal control set would not work well in these rooms, which justifies the control switch to the point where I'm willing to bite it and move on. However, when I get to the abandoned information center in what I believe to be Sector 1, the game forces the player to use the Resident Evil-esque controls. Now, as I said before I didn't mind this in the optional areas. However, I  do have some problems with it being used in the information center. Specifically, it just slows the pace of the game to a crawl for no real reason. It's not like the game has had a focus on heavy atmosphere, especially when I was doing back-flips about 5 minutes ago. Not only that, but the information center isn't an extremely compact area. It at least took me about 3-5 minutes to get to my final destination solely because of the controls.

The War I Took No Part In

After I'm done acting like a tank, the whole party of Galactic Federation troops ends up outside the information center being attacked by some normal enemies and a particularly nasty giant lizard-thing. After Samus takes the elevator down and ends up outside, she is attack by the lizard-thing from above and ends up trapped between the claws of it. This initiates a first-person view where Samus must repel the lizard-things stinger on its tail with some good, old-fashioned missiles. While the tail whipped around a bit ridiculously, one of the soldiers comes to my rescue by firing the giant laser weapon at the lizard, repelling it off of Samus. This is where I start to think that the battle really starts; I help my comrades defeat the normal horde of enemies while I personally beat the lizard to shit. However, this is not what happens. Instead the cutscene of the soldier saving me continues and he ends up shooting the lizard-thing again finally killing it. The rest of the Galactic Federation soldiers end up dealing with the normal enemies all by themselves with no external help. Other than somewhat detracting from Samus's character by being a bit helpless, this sequence also builds the player up to drop them. It really doesn't make the game look good.

Smashing In A Brick Wall Made Of Lava

After another 3D Where's Waldo puzzle, I'm ordered by Adam to investigate a curios oddity that I had discovered earlier. A little while ago I met a baby animal of some kind. Other than feeding off of the flesh of the enemies I killed, the animal seemed to be stalking me. I actually find this plot quite well done so far since it's mostly handled visually. But anyways, I'm ordered to follow the thing and end up going to a different sector, which just so happens to be the sector with lava. Of course, everything that's there is expected; lava, lava rocks, lava/flame-themed enemies, etc. So I continue on, assuming nothing will go wrong or surprise me. And then a giant lava-serpent of sorts comes out from under the lava and breaks the pathway which I was walking on, effectively swallowing me and making me instantly get a Game Over screen. For a second I assumed that I was having some sort of fever dream and decided to do the same thing and ended up getting the same result; one broken bridge and one game over screen. Now, after reloading from a checkpoint and just standing in the hallway, I notice the same lava-serpent jumping in the background. For a second I pondered about the action, and then came to the conclusion that was my cue as to not advance. And then I realized that was completely asinine. How was I supposed to guess that I would be in an instant Game-Over-screen situation based on that? While I didn't investigate any further, it was stupid and I stopped playing right there.

After A While: Metroid Other M, Part 2

"Less Talking, More Game" Is Confirmed!

After getting past the first boss, I was finally sent on my own with my only orders being to reactivate the Bottle Ship's electrical system. This thankfully opens up the game to the point where I'm not being dragged by the toes through dialog and flashbacks. And I have to say, I'm very pleased with the gameplay! While it's not anything like past Metroid titles, the fluid and fresh mechanics appeal to me much more than those in past titles.

The Bottle Ship Has An Appropriate Name

At a specific point during my journey to turn on more of the lights, I stumbled into something interesting I though I wouldn't see on a spaceship; an oasis filled with plant life and creatures. Of course, being in space brought up the question of how this is all possible. After working my way around this oasis, I found some sort of beacon and turned it off. This caused the fake backdrops of wildlife beyond the small oasis area to disappear and reveal the metallic walls and circuitry. To be honest, this is one of the best in-game reveals of anything that doesn't use a single line of dialog; there's no build-up or character commenting on the aspect. The game throws the player in an odd situation and through what they see they start to understand why said situation is odd. It's very odd to see this in what will most-likely be a very dialog-heavy game by the end of the day.

The Cinematic Direction

Unlike almost every other Metroid game, Other M is very guided. There are some opportunities for straying from the path, but otherwise the game wants the player to follow one route and stick to it. However, due to this the game can be a bit more cinematic with how it presents locales and it's starting to show in my most recent mission. The camera positions itself in such ways that make the locals noticeably different. This results in the game being more cinematic, which is a conflicting and interesting direction to take the series at the same time. On one hand Metroid has always been about being in control of a lonely experience, something that feels hindered due to the camera being so obviously manipulated. However, it also enhances the ability to show off the environments, which are arguably some of the most important parts of the Metroid series.

After A While: Metroid Other M, Part 1

Did Metal Gear Solid 4 Have A Cousin?

Throughout my first hour of the game, I'm noticing that the half of my time is spent watching stuff happen rather than playing the game. For a series about immersion and loneliness, this is a bit jarring, especially considering that most of the cutscenes involve things that happened in the past. I can't quite immerse myself when the focus changes from "Now" to "X Days/Weeks/Years Ago".

It's True: Samus Won't Shut Up

While she doesn't talk during gameplay, Samus has at least one line of dialog in every cutscene, and considering that half of the game so far has been cutscenes, it doesn't help. Also, the English voice actor that they got to play Samus is emotionless entirely throughout her performance. And it's not the good kind of emotionless either; she literally sounds dead-bored throughout the entirety of the first hour. The other voice actors actually do their job well, so it's not like I'm sitting in front of a choir of half-bored, half-sleeping surrogates, but more like I'm sitting in a choir that contains a robotic soprano that is auto-tuned to death.

Less Explaining, More Talking

The cutscenes that were mentioned earlier are narrated by Samus as she explains things in the past as well as what's actually happening currently (in past-tense). To me, most of the narrating is extremely preachy and doesn't give any thought to the fact that Samus is still a person and less of a vehicle for the story to center around. I'm also seeing no real reason for this, as if things were held under wraps it would give a sense of mystery to the story and it's not like the currently-narrated dialog skips long, unimportant talking scenes that the player wouldn't want to sit and listen too. Also, some scenes are extended due to Samus' narration and my feelings towards those are the same as the scenes involving what happened in the past; remove them and you just presented something interesting for the player to ponder on.

Pointless Addition #1

After Samus meets the Federation troops on the Bottleship, she lets them go ahead before deciding to trail behind. However, a little message box pops up stating that since Adam hasn't authorized Samus' uses of missiles or bombs, Samus has decided to turn them off. Other than being stupid and having no build-up to the point where Samus can justify this move, the ban gets removed about 15 minutes later when the first boss of the game is encountered, a blob of purple bugs. While technically only the use of missiles are authorized, there's no point in actually using bombs during the boss battle and right after it Adam authorizes the use of bombs. And even from a gameplay perspective I don't see the logic behind the decision; the only thing that I could find that required the use of either missiles or bombs before the boss was a hidden extra energy tank. And even if missiles open doors like they did in other games, I imagine it wouldn't be hard to perma-lock those doors until after the first boss was beaten.


To Come: Samus' First Mission Under Adam (And Beyond...)

After A While: Metroid Other M, Part 0

The Prologue

While I haven't played Metroid Other M, I have heard so much about it. I've been there since the announcement of the game at Nintendo's 2009 E3 press conference and I've felt all of the bumps of the ride, from the jarring release backlash to the ever-present scalding hate that some still have of the game. I've even seen a few deconstructions of how the game just doesn't work. However, in general I'm seeing two different concerns being brought up:

CONCERN #1: Samus Talks Too Much

Ignoring my urge to post the parody videos from Youtube, it appears that Samus talks too much in this game. From pointless philosophy to "The Baby", Samus never seems to take a breather outside of gameplay. Considering that this will be the easiest aspect to notice, I'll only mention it if I find it interesting/meaningful to the game in any way.

CONCERN #2: The Story Just Doesn't Work

From abandoning previously established characters and to never confronting stupid lapses of logic, it seems that the story of Other M seems to fail as a sequel, prequel, and stand-alone narrative. The one that everybody picks on is that even though Samus has all of here powers from the get-go, she isn't allowed to traverse a lava-infested area with her heat-protection enhancement activated until Adam gives here the go-ahead. However, there have been other problems that (supposedly) negate those other small points. I'll be sure to comment on these when I see them.

The Epilogue

And so my map of this adventure has been planned along with the tour spots. Now all that's left is to push on the accelerator...