Video games are my favorite medium of artistic expression because they allow me to explore and exist in fully realized worlds. The Metroid series endures and is vital to longtime gaming fans because it was an early touchstone for this type of interactive experience. From the very beginning, Metroid has excelled at making you feel like you’re in a sci-fi world that you explore at your own pace. Metroid Prime 4: Beyond maintains the high standard set by previous games in the series, offering incredible atmosphere and subtle touches that make the planet Viewros look and sound realistic, but it’s not without a few irritations that hamper immersion.
In the fourth installment of the Prime subseries, Samus finds herself in the service of the Lamorn, an historic alien race that is not Chozo but is certainly similar. She is the prophesied warrior who will aid them regain their strength, and that means exploring a immense desert surrounded by several fascinating locations with power-ups and teleportation keys.
There may be Nintendo games with more striking visuals, but Switch 2-powered Metroid Prime 4 is arguably the best-looking game the publisher has ever released. The industrial setting shines with impressive lighting and effects, and the views of the natural environment are stunning. Developer Retro Studios is an expert at creating a lonely, alien atmosphere, and I’ve always been amazed by the impressive mechanical animations of all the otherworldly hardware. My favorite location, a floating motorcycle factory powered by constant lightning storms, seems really risky and scary. I was less enthused by locations like the snowy lab and the nondescript mines, but navigating them all was stimulating and rewarding.
The first-person action gameplay is familiar from previous Prime games and makes a good impression. Samus’ up-to-date psychic powers don’t radically change the fun of targeting shooters, but I enjoyed remotely controlling the Control Beam at appropriate moments during boss fights and solving puzzles. The pacing and progression of each location are brilliantly designed, guiding you towards your goals while consistently planting the seeds that will keep you wanting to come back later with expanded possibilities. The desert area where Samus rides her motorcycle between cells is the perfect size: immense enough that the motorcycle seems necessary, but not so immense that you ever end up riding for too long.
A recurring task assigned to Samus throughout the game in the desert is to collect green energy crystals. I enjoyed playing ping-pong between the crystals and riding my motorcycle over them, but I didn’t like that I hit an obstacle at the end of the game where I didn’t collect enough to continue and had to spend time growing my bank before I could continue to the finale.
And it was in the final that I overcame most of the bumps. In terms of narrative, the ending is disappointing and the beginning of the story isn’t particularly compelling either. The petite group of Federation soldiers that Samus encounters are generally cute and once she gets to know them, she doesn’t mind. I was grateful that I could call them when I wasn’t sure where to go, but once they stepped in, they became a burden. Instead of being grateful for their aid, I was annoyed that they triggered a game over when I didn’t revive them quickly enough. Fortunately, cases of their “help” in combat are occasional. We spend the huge majority of the game in lonely silence.
Perhaps most disappointing, however, is the inability to re-enter a save point before the point of no return after beating the game. I love wiping out all the power-ups and turning over every stone after watching the credits in this genre, but if you don’t back up before the final area (something the game doesn’t encourage you to do), the only way to collect what you may have missed is to restart, which I did on strenuous difficulty unlocked, but I wasn’t elated with it.
My annoyances with Beyond were largely overshadowed by its flawless, solid sci-fi exploration experience. Exploring all that Viewros has to offer is incredibly rewarding and provides an unparalleled sense of alien atmosphere. The wait for the up-to-date Metroid Prime has been long, but Beyond takes just a few minutes to remember why we’ve been looking forward to re-entering this universe for the past 18 years.
