There is lots to say about Other M, and as I kept playing, both positive and negative thoughts remained in my mind. First, the good stuff:
+A variety of gameplay, obviously because of the different perspectives, including first person shooting, 2,5D and 3D action and least of all a 3rd person over the shoulder view. I said least of all because this mode is only viewed when Samus refuses to speed up. I suppose it is included to feel some kind of suspense towards the current situation, but I could had lived without it. But the rest of the different modes are good entries, giving us a bit of both Prime and classic gameplay (In 3D mostly though).
+It plays fast and smoothly. You gotta get used a bit to the controls and the responses towards each action but eventually I could get the hang out of it and control the gameplay.
+Cutscenes are impressive, well designed and fancy visuals.
Then, the bad stuff:
-Although I have no problem that there is no longer an isolation feeling, just like with Corruption mostly, the story and the direction it takes is ultimately just not interesting. It feels like someone thought it was needed to keep the player interested with familiar stereotypic characters and typical science fiction dialogue to support the game. Yes, the cut scenes are pretty as well as the voice cast, but believe it or not, Metroid never really needed to go steps beyond just logging in reports made by Samus herself in older games. Still, a nice try, but if you're gonna make a story around Samus's latest adventure, might as well make something thrilling out of it.
-The dodge system is your best friend in Other M. It's so good that is is abuseable in ridiculous ways. The 3D gameplay suffers from this system because it is always rewarding to get to those invincible moments of dodging and jumping on a creature in order to blast it to death.
-The authorization excuse of not being able to use late game advantages for Samus is at first cleverly introduced, but then becomes stupid. A good example is when Samus refuses to use the Varia Suit in the heat based stage until Adam allows it. As minor as this whining is, it still does count.
-Forgettable enemies and environments. Yes, some classic creatures return (I honestly forgot their specific names) but it is most of all bland stuff. Plus the locations felt very generic, none stood out for me.
-Stupid sudden moments when Samus forces you to scout the area in first person and then randomly find a spot where her scan visor activates. This was not executed in an exciting manner, in fact, I miss that great scan visor from the Prime trilogy. Not that it's needed for a Metroid game, but if you are gonna use that visor, might as well share the content of each scanned object.
-Proceeding through the game can be confusing, because the backgrounds are often blurred as to how to manoeuvre using Samus's jumps and morph ball. Some of the bomb blasts in the game also felt far too hidden for me.
-I really, really missed the ambience music here. For crying out loud, where was the good music Nintendo!?
Strangely, Other M reminds me of Star Fox Adventures on the Nintendo Gamecube, for they are both a new take for each franchise and both have dissapointed me. Unfortunately to say that but it is true. It's really sad that Other M has become my least liked Metroid game yet (I am not taking Hunters into consideration because I instantly disliked it the moment I played that demo years ago) , what a shame, after so many excellent titles, it seemed that the franchise would always be strong. But sometimes, too much chance can hurt the overall game.
EDIT: After beating the game plus that extra mission, not much has changed from what I already percieved positively and negatively. There are some returning bosses such as the inevitable Ridley, but also a cloned Queen Metroid, Nightmare and even Phantoon, but it's sad that they were reused in this poor title. It truly is a dissapointing game for me. Let's hope that Nintendo will notice the critic points surrounding the title and for example give us a great 2D Metroid title again, with Metroid Dread as most likely the canditate.
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