Sunday, September 05, 2010

Metroid: Other M

Hot Damn, my Wii is doing overtime!

And I don't mean in the Ashley vs. Leon kind of way either.

I'm STILL playing Xenoblade, which has just given up counting my play time and stopped at 99 hours and 59 minutes (kinda stupid for a game that big) but I'm guessing I'm around 130 hours or something.
I hope I'll get some kind of report at the end of the game but it's doubtful.

Anyway, Metroid: Other M.

I haven' finished it yet, but I'm kinda torn on it, I guess.
On one hand, I really like what they've done to the combat, it's very fast-paced and action-packed, and you really have to stay on your toes.
You can tell it's by Team Ninja since it kinda feels like they want you to fight in close quarters, instead of staying at a distance shooting.
You can also tell it's by Team Ninja because it's kicking my ass into next week. I don't even want to think about how many times I've died.

On the other hand, I don't like how it's paced.
Far too many times you'll hit a dead end, and you'll have to track back only for some event to happen in a room you already visited.
It keeps confusing me by locking me into rooms to fight enemies and then NOT giving me something but just expecting me to walk back the way I came. It seems counter-intuitive and, frankly, kinda boring.
I also HATE the bits where you are forced into First Person to look for something really damn tiny in the environment. They totally take the speed and fun out of the game.
And that's pretty much all there seems to be to the puzzles as well.

I can recall the Prime series doing some really great and clever stuff with the morph ball, but in this game the morph ball is just a way to move through narrow corridors and nothing more. It feels like there's something missing...

So in other words, yeah, great combat, some awesome boss fights, but lousy pacing and puzzles.

Sometimes you just gotta take your buds out for a drink