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Hynad on 07 April 2015
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Samus Aran said:
Hynad said:

Oh, you're right. I had the final portions of Prime 1 mixed up with Prime 2. The effect of playing the games back to back without pause...

I remember switching beams more often in Prime 2, or at least being more annoyed by it, like for the doors that are of different colors for no reason. There are places that you can't access from any other sides, yet you open one door with the dark beam, and then, you have to switch to the light beam (or vice versa) further in that room to progress. That's making the player switch for switching sake, and that's poor design decision. A rarity in Retro Studios games.

That's not counting the switching that you do when fighting different enemies. Some are weak against light, some are weak against Dark.

The control scheme for switching beams in Prime 1 and 2 were, to me, the only blemish compared to the Cube versions. 

Yeah, it's definitely annoying, but I remember it being more prevalent in Prime 1.

How did you kill the Dark Pirate Commandos? Not with a light beam I hope. :p

I prefer stacked beams, both in the 3D and the 2D games tbh.


I don't recall particularly. Probably with the Dark beam. I usually find what works better and faster and stwitch accordingly.

Like you, I also much prefer the beams to stack like in Prime 3 and Super Metroid. And I love that in Prime 3, once you opened a "cold" door, you don't have to use your missiles on them anymore. They turn blue, just like the missile doors in Super Metroid.

I am not sure which game in the series I prefer. After playing Prime, I felt Prime 2 was better. The exploration was really good, and the atmosphere unmatched, with the environments even more beautifully designed than in the near flawless Prime 1. I really didn't like the suits though. They looked horrendous in Prime 2. I felt the Dark suit had a very uninspired design, and I feel the suits should never make Samus look bad. But the Dark suit made her look bad. The color scheme is in major part responsible for that. All black and an ugly hue of brown.. No contrast. Dark Aether was black, blue and burple, mostly. So I feel they should have designed the Dark Suit with those colors instead of making it look bland with only black and brown. Then you get the Light suit and it's a little better, but still share the same flaw. The design of the PED suit in Prime 3 is godly in comparison. Finally a suit that looks baddass, as it always should.

But I digress. I then jumped into Prime 3 for the "first time" (I had tried the game some years ago but didn't get far before returning it to my friend), and I was a little skeptical at first. The inclusion of the Galactic Federation in the gameplay with Samus interacting with them and getting orders/guidelines from them had me worried it was going to be just a bit too similar to Other M (a game I still liked in the end, btw). But I was quickly appeased by the non- intrusive way all this was handled. You still feel isolated on the planets you visit. Everything is also made more streamlined making the gameplay faster and smoother.

The maps are also smaller, making them less confusing to navigate than in prior games, yet the game doesn't feel smaller for it because there are just more locations to explore. I also greatly enjoyed all the little fan service. Like the Valhalla that reminded me of the Wrecked Ship in Super Metroid. Any nod to that game is good in my book. I should also mention the theme that plays on the Pirates Homeworld... Glorious. One thing that stood out in a bad way though: Bryyo felt bland and colorless to me. All was yellow/brownish and I felt there was a lack of contrast and detail in the environment. Nothing "poped" the way the environments in Prime 2 do. So I was worried the graphics design and art-direction had gone downhill. But the locations after that make up for it and fall in line with what I've been used to with the prior games.

All in all, I was greatly surprised by the design of Prime 3 and how it improved just about everything from the prior two games. I still can't say which on I like more, but playing them back to back feels cohesive and I think that's the way I'll replay the games from now on. It's a 45-60 hours long game when taken like this, making it a crazy good value for only 20 bucks. Anyone should get it if they don't at that price. It's a no-brainer.