MCPShephard

A perfectly fine game released at the wrong time (more on that below). Federation Force is an exciting and unique mix of the Metroid Prime gameplay control and mission-based team shooters. As someone who typically finds team shooters uninteresting, I can say that this experience may help make you a fan. And if you're like me, a glimpse into the Metroid universe from a different perspective is a rare treat. Unlike your typical first-person shooter, the Prime sub-series allows you to lock-on to targets, creating an experience that simplifies aiming so you can focus on positioning and evasion. Your standard weapon has unlimited ammo, and additional weapons/items come in small enough quantities as to not overwhelm you with options. Missions often have unique objectives that require actions outside of the combat loop, which helps to make each of the game's many missions feel unique. Further, in-line with its Metroid lineage, there are almost always a few hidden secrets in the environment, often rewarding you with utility upgrades to customize your character. Your ability to equip these upgrades is improved by performing well in enough levels, and the different roles you can take on a team make each playthrough feel different. All these together give many reasons to replay each mission at least once or twice. A small but important caveat, while the game is playable in single-player, it was clearly designed for multiplayer, so there will be times where the bonuses to health/damage in single-player cannot address the difficulty of acting alone. I had a great time regardless, but it can be a brutal experience. Now, this is clearly a lower-budget title, which makes sense for a handheld. All of the budget clearly went into programming, level design, and graphics, as the story and music are a bit lacking. Story is conveyed almost entirely through mission briefings, cutscenes being rare and utilitarian. The actual effort to expand the series universe here feels surprisingly conservative, a bit of a wasted opportunity. Meanwhile, music often lacks the synth instruments and pseudo-diagesis that Metroid music is known for. This would be fine, but score tends to focus on being reactive and cinematic, rather than building atmosphere and recognizable melody. Competent, but not memorable. Unfortunately, when this game was announced, the series was on a half-decade of silent hiatus, with no announcement of a full Prime or Mainline game coming. Metroid fandom has long struggled with an understandable scarcity mindset, which has long-impeded efforts to grow or expand the series. The original Metroid Prime itself was met with intense vitriol prior to its breakout success, for example. But that is not in the scope of this game; this game was clearly made by talented, creative people with a passion for Metroid. However if you enjoy Metroid for very specific reasons like exploring one large, consistent world, this may not be for you. But if you enjoy the lore and setting of Metroid, the fundamental controls of Prime, and are interested in seeing the series try new things, or you're just looking for a fun multiplayer shooter, I strongly recommend Federation Force.

Metroid Dread is one of the easiest games in the series to praise. The controls are exceptional, the animation work is some of Nintendo's best, and nearly every part of the game demonstrates an impressive level of technical polish. Samus is more responsive than she has ever been, and her animations communicate her state so clearly that the game remains readable even during its most chaotic moments. Combined with a stable 60fps in gameplay and some of the strongest boss encounters in the franchise, Dread often feels fantastic to play. The game also deserves credit for resisting the temptation to simply recycle the past. Samus receives several genuinely new abilities, the return of intended sequence breaks adds replay value, and the new lore generally feels like a natural extension of ideas that already existed within the series. Likewise, a particular late-game twist feels like a logical continuation of story threads that had been building for years. Metroid has always evolved from game to game, and some of the best entries in the series succeeded precisely because they were willing to experiment. Dread is among them, but it often improves certain aspects of the formula by reducing emphasis on others, and some of those tradeoffs were not to my taste. The clearest example is the game's focus on action. The Flash Shift is incredibly responsive, the improved melee counter integrates naturally into combat, and the boss fights demand far more player engagement than previous 2D entries. At the same time, the emphasis on empowerment comes at the expense of atmosphere. Dread frequently presents itself as a horror game, yet much of the vulnerability required for horror is absent. The EMMIs initially create tension, but predictable behavior patterns and generous checkpoints quickly reduce them to obstacles rather than threats. Exploration often feels secondary to combat and movement challenges, and despite the impressive environmental detail, much of the world blends together into variations of the same cold, industrial tone. The world also feels less cohesive than previous entries. Regions are segmented by loading screens, which is understandable in the slower-paced 3D titles, but in 2D it is a big change that significantly breaks up the pace and cohesion. EMMI zones are interesting while active, but become empty space once completed. The music does little to help. While Metroid has often relied on ambience, Dread pushes so far in that direction that much of its soundtrack fades into the background entirely. Several tracks feel oddly unfinished, with meandering compositions and awkward instrumentation. A very odd choice includes the use of staccato midi choir, which sounds very cheap. For a series with such a strong musical legacy, the soundtrack is one of the game's biggest disappointments. Now, I appreciate that Dread attempts to move the narrative forward rather than endlessly revisiting familiar ideas. The problem is that many of those ideas feel underdeveloped. The primary antagonist receives minimal characterization before being removed from the story. The EMMIs themselves feel oddly disconnected from the larger narrative despite being central to the game's marketing and identity. Major plot elements appear briefly and then disappear, while the ending arrives so abruptly that it feels as though important connective tissue may have been removed during development. Several gameplay systems also feel as though they were altered during development without being fully reconsidered afterward, such as the mostly-vestigial Aeion meter, spin boost, and cross bombs. Of particular note, the Phantom Cloak only works against EMMI robots for some reason, meaning its only utility is to cover for sloppy play during specific sections. Samus herself embodies this feeling of one step forward, two steps back, spending most of the game communicating through angry body language and little else. While her fierce sense of justice is important, her compassion, empathy, and sense of responsibility receive comparatively little attention. The result isn't bad characterization, but it is extremely limited in its appeal. Dread is often treated as a flawless modernization of classic Metroid, but many of its most celebrated features are substantial shifts in emphasis. Several work very well, but I don't think the tradeoffs receive enough scrutiny. Despite my criticisms, it remains a strong game. The environmental art is excellent, the controls are best-in-class, the bosses are memorable, and the intended sequence breaks add replay value. I strongly recommend it! I simply found myself wishing that the same level of expansion had been applied to the series' atmosphere, worldbuilding, characterization, and sense of place. Dread adds a great deal to Metroid's action gameplay, but many of the elements I personally find most interesting about the franchise feel reduced in the process.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

I've been a Metroid fan for almost 30 years. I've seen new fans come and go. I've seen the games pull off what they're known for best. I've seen them try new things. Prime 4 is a Switch 1 game that started development in the pandemic, and looking at the credits one can see this severely impacted development. So, I'll tell you what the real problem with this game is: It's too short. Some will say it's the level design not being non-linear, however the previous Prime games were all pseudo non-linear compared to the 2D games, this one just happens to be as well. The problem is that there aren't enough rooms in the game to actually build out that illusion of non-linearity, not that the design itself is terrible; 'cause this game does have some traditional Metroid moments in the parts that survived the cuts. Okay, what's left? This game's animation, music, sound effects, environment art, all wonderful. And the storytelling; even the detractors who said having a story would kill Metroid have come around to the story's quality and what stories like it can add to Metroid. The gameplay as well; Samus moves far better than she ever did in the old Primes, closer to how she does in the main series. You have dashing in four cardinal directions rather than a finnicky system that just let you do left/right. The morph ball shrinks you down and gives you control almost instantly; compared to the delay of around 2 seconds before you could do anything in the old games, this feels amazing and is actually needed as a dodge maneuver in some fights. And the return of beam ammo, but done better and with each beam filling a different role of stun, dps, dot, and freeze. Combat encounters, particularly bosses, are now highly engaging from these changes! Brilliant stuff. So all that's left is the desert and bike. As with everything else the franchise purists said would fail, the bike feels great, and the open zone hub is both inoffensively small and with -almost- enough content. There'll probably be some interesting speedrun testing around this. Metroid isn't just a style of gameplay, it is a style of game and a context. Purists need to let go of judging Metroid games based on what they want them to be, and instead on their own merits. This game's biggest flaw is leaving us wanting more; that's one of the best criticisms you can levy at such a title.