So I picked this up again after a long hiatus. Originally the reason was that I had borrowed Wind Waker and Paper Mario 2 from a friend, and wanted to get those awesome games back to him ASAP. So I put my playthrough on hold (halfway through Torvus Bog, I think), which stretched a long, long time as I put off restarting that. But I finally did and finished it.

My initial impression of the game was that it seemed like a mod, or expansion pack, of Prime, rather than a fully developed sequel. The engine is obviously the same, the interactable objects are mostly quite similar, certain enemies are reskins of Prime enemies, the beams are quite simple reskins. It differentiates itself a bit more as you go on though, with some stunning environments, new items and concepts, and a more active plot (rather than mostly inferred through scans, although it has that too).

That’s not to say that building so closely upon Prime is a bad thing. Prime was a fantastic game, still recognised today as a classic and a brilliant extension of the Metroid franchise despite some pre-release concerns. The sequel is less accoladed, but to my mind it’s probably just as good and different enough to be worthwhile playing. Also, similarly to Majora’s Mask, a few changes can go a long way toward the atmosphere, especially in environments. The comparison is apt as both are lesser-liked sequels that share many assets and mechanics, but with a darker tone and new ideas.

Echoes is a little less experimental than Majora’s Mask though, although carrying the Zelda link further, designers who worked on A Link to the Past apparently consulted with Retro to develop the Light World/Dark World concept. It’s well-executed here, with familiar structures but twisted and a dangerous feel to Dark Aether, although the portal loading screens were a little long and annoying.

I realised as I went on that Echoes was a bit smaller in area than Prime, but the dual worlds added to the size, and I feel bactracking was handled a little better. The smaller size and interconnectedness helped this aspect. As I got to know this little world, I felt good moving around confidently.

This feeling was hampered in the long run by a lacking “sense of progression”. Progressing meant collecting items and upgrades, getting MacGuffins, and opening new areas—all well and good, and staple to Metroid. But adding cutscenes and a major NPC (and Dark Samus scenes) was ultimately futile as it was not followed through enough. I didn’t feel as if my efforts were hindering the Ing or helping the Luminoth. I suppose the Dark Samus subplot was handled well, but due to all the explicit scan lore I expected some reflection of the conflict I was currently carrying out on the game world or dialogue with U-Mos, for example. Prime also felt a bit strange in this respect, as everything was implied and I didn’t feel as if I was accomplishing much until the end, which then felt a little flat.

Then again, the restrained and laid-back storytelling (for the most part) is refreshing in this age of Quicktime events and dull cutscenes. Echoes’s cutscenes were snappy and light on text, leaving some more lore/audiolog-type scan stuff for optional finding. This also applies to more retro stuff, but the comparison is more appropriate for this, a 3D first-person action-shooter. Just the tone and pace was so nice and slow and subtle. I liked that.

Combat is, well, it’s ok. At first you have to be careful, as threats are unknown and can do much more relative damage, but as you get to know everything’s patterns and capabilities—and your health increases—you tend to just rush past most creatures. Thus I think the start of the game and new areas that you venture into are more effective in building tone so on. Of course, once you get the Annihilator Beam there’s another shift because it makes it so much easier to just blast through things. So the tonal shifts are a little strange in that way but cool.

I like the sound design in this game. Sound effects are not too loud most of the time, the compositions for the different areas are nice, and part of the soothing change back into Light Aether after a stint in the Dark.

Another positive was the interactions of different groups. The Luminoth built everything, then the Ing corrupted it. The Luminoth then lost the war and went to sleep, waiting for a redeemer. The Federation showed up later and promptly got slaughtered by some Ing. Space pirates also make the scene (with Phazon), but are mainly possessed by more Ing. Finally, Dark Samus wrecks some stuff. Then Samus arrives and has to figure all this out by scanning stuff. It’s a fairly rich world, although the Federation and Pirate stuff is pretty much just in the first quarter of the game, I guess.

Oh by the way, there was a manga produced for this game which the Metroid Database has translated (except the last chapter) here. It focuses much more on the Federation troopers, and Samus arrives before they all die. It’s not bad.

Not sure what else to say, as I actually finished the game a little while ago and (appropriately to my playthrough) put off the review. But yeah it was a sweet game, and on the strength of it I bought Hunters for the DS too, which I will play before starting Corruption as they were developed in that order, although Hunters is set between Prime and Echoes. I really respect Retro at this point, they should hire a bunch more people so they can work on more than one game at a time! Anyway that’ll do so, see you next mission!