I think he is absolutely 100% spot on, except for the distain.  The game is good, but he is right it isn't Metroid.  Metroid is about mapping out and connecting a planet's multiple paths.  Prime 4 is a linear experience with a focus on gun fights.  It is more like Halo than Metroid.  It should have been called something other than Metroid.  Still enjoyed it, once I stopped expecting Metroid because it isn't Metroid.  

Oh and **** Nintendo for hiding desert music behind an Amiibo.  That is gross and disgusting.  Music would have helped the desert not feel so boring but I'm not paying $40 to get music.  I have for a while, and will continue, to view Nintendo is the most anti-consumer game company other there.  Like Mario 3D All Stars missing Galaxy 2 so they could sell it later + separately, which is bad.  But it being a limited digital release, WTF?  And for the love, where is WWHD and TPHD ports to the Switch?  Oh right, not happening so they can lock the GC versions behind a subscription paywall.  I love and hate Nintendo.  Their games are good enough to keep me coming back for their top titles, but I also feel zero guilt in emulating their old stuff.      

Just beat it. The story had a terrible ending, which is ridiculous and out of character for Samus. Sylux is a bad main villain. We never get much for his motivations and the final boss fight with him is nothing more than unfair tedium.

Otherwise, I enjoyed it. Solid 8/10 Metroid game with a 4/10 final ending that resolves none of the plot that was set out over the course of the game.

I saw the price reduction at Amazon UK where it was priced around 25 pounds for a day and the Switch 2 upgrade was 7 pounds. So 32 pounds for a very recently released first party game. I think the suggested selling price for the Switch cartridge was 50-55 pounds so basically about half price. I suspect we will see further reductions. Generally there has been a lot of price reductions recently across many formats, its clear games are not selling that well overall.

Playing for about 4 hours now

Finding it to be aggressively mid. Very poor as metroidvania, and simply boring as an action game

I'll keep playing for maybe another 3 to 4 hours, if it don't become any better I'll probably drop it

I have to say, in hindsight I really did not enjoy the game. I think it's inferior to the other Prime games in almost every aspect. I absolutely adore Prime 1 and I love Metroid, but Prime 4 just wasn't a Metroid game. The ice region was really cool and I remember thinking "oh, this is where the game picks up! Feels a lot more like Metroid now!" ...unfortunately later areas become more linear again and it really felt like baby's first Metroid in some aspects. I was very disappointed to see that the last big area was just another linear pathway. And when the final boss fight rolled around, I just wanted it to end lol.

The bike sections and the desert in general were just bad in my opinion and totally out of place in a Metroid game. Some of the upgrades you can collect just felt ridiculously useless to me. The game lacked the magic of Prime 1 and 2. It was even more linear than 3 and that game got criticized a lot for being too linear.

All in all, the bike sections combined with the empty overworld, the linearity, the disconnected world design (each area is basically a silo, completely disconnected from everything else) and the many side characters just made this feel like some sort of generic shooter and not like a Metroid game at all. It's a bit like the Paper Mario situation: You may think the newer entries are good games in their own right, but they are not what you would expect from a Paper Mario game. With Prime 4, it may say Metroid on the box, but there's not Metroid in the box.

Eh. I found the game to be very fun FWIW. It really reminded me of…well…almost any Sonic game: You can tell this isn’t a modern masterpiece, and in many respects, it’s just downright terrible in its story and gameplay design, BUT I still love the game in spite of its flaws. (I didn’t even mean to get 200% Green Crystal shards. Everyone complaining about how tedious it is to get these things, meanwhile I just got all the shards just by simply messing around and having fun riding the bike lol.)

Tbh, Metroid Prime 3 was already more of a linear action game than a Metroidvania, Prime 4 just continued in the same direction.

I'm not a purist so I don't mind if a game deviates from series tradition so long as it's enjoyable, I had a good time with DMC 2013 for instance despite fans hating it, and I had a good time with Prime 4 as well.

I did end up enjoying the game, but I do agree, it wasn't a metroid game.  Nintendo should have called it something else.  

I hated the desert and the lack of connection between areas.  It just left me wanting.

Yeah, it's interesting that people like Curl and Firebush enjoyed the game so much. I guess it's a lot about how much you've been craving that classic "Metroid Prime feeling". If you wanted a game in that vein you wer probably more likely to be disappointed.

@curl-6 and @firebush03 : How would you rate the game compared to other games in the Prime series? I'm curious to find out! 

While I did enjoy Prime 4, I would rank it well below Prime 1-3; those are 10/10 and 9.5/10 games for me, whereas Prime 4 I felt was an 8/10.

The pacing and voice acting/writing were flaws in my view, but I felt they were overall outweighed by its atmospheric and beautiful environments, smooth and precise game feel, and boss fights.