Overview:

You continue the story of Samus Aran as she travels from world to world in search of what is messing up planets and causing their civilizations to collapse.  To be honest, I couldn’t really tell you the overall story of the game since it’s been a fuck long time since 3 and even that the story was rather sparse.  Either way, you control Samus in the Prime’s signature first person perspective with you scanning the world and fighting enemies utilizing your bag of tricks you build upon as you explore the world.  The added “bonus” to this game is you’ll have a motorcycle for you to traverse a VERY barren desert to get from zone to zone.  Get used to it as you’ll spend the majority of the game here fighting the same 3 types of enemies over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again.

Visuals:

Prime 4’s visuals are kind of a mixed bag.  When the game starts everything seems pretty sharp and so unique.  The game’s opening hits off with a bang and even the first level hits very familiar territory with the lush greenery.  The second level opens strong but then turns into just you going from small corridor to small corridor.  This happens again and again as you go through other levels looking for the next objective.  You are then forced to spend your time in the aforementioned desert which is as visually uninteresting as it sounds.  No civilizations.  No cool life.  No cool enemies.  Nothing.  Just little green blocks for you to smash into and do nothing.  If I were to grade Prime 4 on an average, this desert would bring the game well below a passing grade.

Audio:

It’s the same with the audio.  It starts strong but by the end you just want nothing more than to shut up everything.  The beauty of Metroid games was the isolation you felt as Samus as she was on a moody world exploring and coming to grips with the world.  Now…you got annoying ass sidekicks chiming in every couple of minutes telling you where to go.  It makes Samus look like an idiot.  They also try to either be funny, religious, or tough and it all comes off terrible.  The music is the same.  You don’t get beautiful music or familiar melodies.  Instead you just get what seems like the same 5 second loop on repeat for each level.  The desert, again, just has the most bland background music/noise ever and you have to endure that for hours.

Completion:

Fuck this game.  Waited forever long for this game only to get this mess.  It starts off so good but when you look at the whole you realize what a mess this was.  Gone are the open areas for you to explore and, instead, you’re met with a corridor shooter with every level looking the same.  Even the abilities you get along the way have no meaning since you really don’t even use them.  I need to rant.

I couldn’t finish this game because, at the end, you’re tasked with collecting the pointless Green Crystals that you ignore throughout the world [because they don’t do anything that you know of] with you having to fill up a tank in order for you to start the final run.  What the fuck.  In one portion of the game I was combing the desert looking for someone for, what seemed like, an hour.  During this time I was collecting the crystals, because why not, only to have to go back to an arbitrary bank in a portion of a level they constantly make you go to in which you see the same two enemies only to deposit said crystals and getting a quarter of the way to what I needed.  Fuck that.  I ain’t spending my time, at the end of the game I was already kind of done with, collecting stupid ass crystals, listening to annoying dumb chatter, listening to dull ass music, on a boring as fuck motorcycle, in a boring ass fucking environment, fighting the same dull 2 enemies, then having to go back to the same fucking bank, through which I have to endure lame loading screens, run past the same two enemies I don’t want to fight, endure more tired chatter, just to maybe see if I have the required crystals needed to start the end game.  If not, do that in reverse and rinse and repeat.  Fuck that.  Fuck this game.  I’m done with Metroid Prime.