So here we are, six years and finally a Nintendo sanctioned Metroid game. Recently beaten by me with only a handful of curse words thrown out at partners not doing what I wanted them to do or disconnecting during the middle of a mission. So how does this thing stand up?
Right off the bat, I'm inclined to avoid tossing the "not a real Metroid game" complaint at this game the same way I did Other M, because Federation Force actively goes out of its way to make it clear that this is not a regular Metroid game. Fed Force is very much aware that it is a spin off, which is good, and I'm usually all for spin offs so long as they're not trying to usurp the main series. And while spin offs don't need to be all that similar gameplay wise, I do feel that they should make an effort to expand the universe in some way. A good spin off, like Metal Gear Rising, takes the change in gameplay as an opportunity to tell a story that would be difficult to tell within the series' usual formula.
Sadly, Fed Force misses a number of opportunities to do this. I had kind of hoped that with the focus on Federation troopers and the 100% ending of Metroid Prime 3, that we would get to see some interplay between Sylux and the Federation, and perhaps a look into why the former hates the latter, but sadly, that's nowhere to be seen (at least, not until the teaser ending). On that note, it is kind of disappointing that the main villain is still the Space Pirates, as opposed to tackling a new enemy, like, say, the Kriken race mentioned in Hunters, or someone new altogether. For what it's worth, the game does make the effort to explain how the Pirates are a threat after having their homeworld occupied at the end of Prime 3, but at the end we're still left with the Federation and Samus vs. the Pirates, a conflict we've seen played out numerous times before. It's all very familiar and doesn't do anything to expand the universe as we know it.
So about those Federation troopers; the main gimmick of the game is that we're not playing just as random troopers, but as troopers with giant mech suits. But wearing giant mech suits demands giant enemies as a result, and it almost becomes comical how the game has to keep making up excuses as to how all the buildings in an area are designed for giants, and how all the monsters are as big as bosses from Prime. The Space Pirates in particular get the award for most contrived explanation, and I have to wonder; if everything is going to be giant, then what purpose does being big serve in the first place? Why not just have it be about a bunch of normal sized soldiers fighting normal sized enemies?
As for the gameplay, it's, well, functional. It works reasonably well, and despite what certain reviewers have said, the enemies are most definitely not bullet sponges, at least unless you try taking them on by yourself without the special mod that balances the game for solo play. And on that note, it is a little disappointing that the game doesn't give you an option to activate that when one of your friends leaves during the middle of a mission. I had a couple of occasions where I was halfway through a mission only to have an ally disconnect and find myself plinking away at a boss's seemingly endless health bar.
The usual niggles about Nintendo's online can be applied here. There's no voice chat, so you have to communicate entirely through pre made texts, which actually wasn't too constricting in game but did make trying to do strategic item placement before a game nearly impossible. The game's levels themselves are generally pretty simplistic, which I don't mind too much, as again, it's a game clearly designed to not be Metroid gameplay. It's largely dumb fun, which is ok. The big problem is that there's nothing that makes it stand out. Everything is average. The controls are functional, the environments aren't bland but ultimately unmemorable, and with one exception that I actually liked quite a bit, the bosses never require much strategy beyond "aim at the weak spot when it's vulnerable."
And perhaps that's all Fed Force could really hope to be; a co-op shooter without voice chat, assigned to a hand held with functional but not amazing controls. It certainly won't be remembered as negatively as Other M was, nor do I find it insulting in the same way I did Other M, because while both games had issues with gameplay, Fed Force actually does quite a bit to portray Samus as a competent asset to the Federation's cause, unlike in Other M where she was consistently getting outsmarted by robot women and poorly thought out conspiracy theories. Although one final niggle in that department is the ending, which has attracted a fair amount of controversy in its own right...
About two thirds of the way through the game, Samus goes silent while off on a particularly dangerous mission, and isn't seen again until the final mission, where it's revealed that she was captured and then...somehow...mind controlled. So, yeah, you end up fighting Samus for the final boss. For what it's worth, throughout the game, Samus is consistently portrayed as more competent than the Fed Force, saving them on three separate occasions throughout the game, so I don't think this is a "slap in the face" as some people have described it. With that said, it's a very clumsy ending, and, for Samus' first appearance as a boss fight, it's about the lamest way it could possibly be done.
All in all, Federation Force is an inoffensive title that doesn't really change much in the universe. We learn nothing knew about the Federation, about the Pirates, or about anything of significance in the universe. Gameplay's not bad, and if you can get some friends around, it can be a fun time. It's a holding pattern game along the lines of Hyrule Warriors or Triforce Heroes; it inoffensively passes the time while we wait for another real Metroid, but it does nothing to actively push the series forward in its own right.
