14 hours play time and 100% collection later, STM has laid Other M to rest (...Hard mode? Yeah. No.)
Let's get this [parasitic bomb] going:
[spoiler=Delicious bite-sized bullet points for happy enjoyment reading]+Samus' characterization. After hearing so much bitching about her panic attack at seeing Ridley back and finally seeing the scene, her reaction was as it should have been: she was convinced she finally nailed the bastard on Zebes... and here he is... again, never mind she has PTSD from the Zebes extermination mission and the death of the Baby Metroid.
+Atmosphere. At least early on, the game had an air that kept me on my toes and awaiting some big bad mother hubbard from coming out and tearing a superfluous new hole in my rear end. Not so much later on.
+Ridley, Phantoon, Nightmare. Easily the best bosses in the game... which is sad because they're all returners. None of the new bosses were any good.
+Gameplay. Very tight 2D and 3D. While controls could have been better, everything in the game played very nicely. Honestly, I didn't use FPS view a lot unless I wanted to missile/super missile the [parasitic bomb] out of something because of how clunky it could get in battles.
+Adam. You damn well know why. He died a man's death.
+Lil' Birdie. It's so cute and cuddly and--OH MY GOD IT ATE MY SPLEEN.
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-Music. Generic atmospheric crap; there was no "Phendrana Drifts" or "Maridia" like music. None of the boss themes (aside from Ridley, obviously) really stood out either.
-Story. Look, I like that it was exploring Samus' psyche, I really do. The mission itself was also nice, if bordering Fusion a little. However, the Deleter plot being dropped cold and then the big plot twist of "The GF recreated Mother Brain's A.I. to make a unit containing Space Pirates and Uber Metroids within the military? AND the AI was put into an android that looks like a 15 year old girl? AND it learned to feel and have a soul? AND it grew to hate humans? THIS CAN'T GO WRONG!"
But it did. The last scenes, while sad, did nothing emotionally. She died... oh well. I didn't feel anything wrong because of how abrupt the revelations were and the true Madeline being introduced so late that the player can't give two shits that she treated MB like a daughter. Adam's death was far greater because he was man enough to enter a section with invincible metroids, shoot [parasitic bomb] up and blow up the section so he could take them all to Hell with him.
Otherwise, it really treaded closely to Fusion, for better or for worse.
-Final Boss. Really? I like the long-needed Metroid II throwback, but come on. The Metroid part was just annoying because if you weren't fast enough to dispatch them quickly, you get mobbed and murdered. After that, Queen Metroid was no more threatening than a normal enemy. The last phase was even sillier as, while you're expected to Power Bomb her from the inside (Metroid II players will know this instinctively), others will be confused as to what the hell is going on because you're never told, after a whole game of hand holding, that you can now use them. The game only tells you AFTER the credits roll.
-Length. Look, I know Metroid games are traditionally known for not being long, and maybe this is a spoil point from the Prime series, but this game felt awfully short. Right now, people are attempting sub-three hour runs on the game. While this isn't a huge deal with stuff like Zero Mission, Super or Fusion, the sad truth that this is a really low mark for a modern title, especially one gunning at $50. Maybe this is a problem with the state of gaming, I don't know, different topic, NEXT.
-First Person perspective. Aside from missile use, the set up felt clunky. I do appreciate the slow down that happens when switching into it to allow time for orientation, but in frenzied battles, like against the Metroids or even the Power Bomb door guardians, it felt more like a hindrance than an aid. This is also true for Phantoon. The more frantic battles get, the less usefulness it has unless the enemy takes a breather from attacking. By end game, the Plasma Beam and Screw Attack will be the main arsenal murdering every non-boss enemy, so it also becomes useless too.
-Scan scenes. Some were pretty annoying, like the blood one because of no true indicator of what to be on the lookout for at time or it being covered up too well (the green blood one, for example).[/spoiler]