4/5 ★ – TheHBJK's review of Metroid Prime 4: Beyond.

A troubled development but how did it pan out? I’ve been a Metroid fan for about 6 months now and that’s partially due to the trailer for this game that dropped during the last ever Switch 1 Direct we got. I was amazed, I loved the psychic abilities, the gunplay looked great and the graphics were fantastic. Fast forward to release and I’ve got some thoughts…for starters, this game somehow looks even better on Switch 2, at times I’d even say this is the best looking game on the platform, but that’s where some of my issues already start. The Sol Valley area is an ugly bland desert that really doesn’t look any better than the trailers, which really sucks because I was optimistic that they’d have some surprises waiting for us there both visually and activity wise. The main areas look great though, Volt Forge is beautiful with its rain and stormy weather, and Ice Belt looks gorgeous, but that damn desert really drags the game down. This goes on for the whole game too, visually it’s boring, but it’s also an incredibly boring hub too. It offers nothing to do except for a few ramps to jump across with the bike and green crystals to collect. These green crystals are mandatory to collect and are an absolute chore to go through, it can take HOURS of constant side swiping them on your bike to get enough to complete the game, and the upgrade you get for doing all of them isn’t even anything substantial. I digress, as I wanna be a bit positive here, because I do actually think the game is really good, despite its major flaws. The Ice Belt area is one of the best Metroid areas ever made, the Flare Pool is really cool to traverse, and so is Volt Forge. I love how fluid the movement and combat feels now, it’s definitely a step in the right direction for the 3D side of the series and I’m glad Retro seem to have nailed everything on that side of the spectrum. The boss fights early on are really cool too, they’ve absolutely nailed what a good Metroid fight should have and how it should look aesthetically, with my favourite being the monster at the bottom of the Flare Pool for sure. However, this brings me back to being a little let down once again, as I feel the bosses get a little more half baked as the game progresses, they get explained less and less and it leads to a frustrating experience, even visually nothing stands out in the latter half of the game except for Sylux. Also, those great areas I mentioned before? They stick around until you hit the Mines, which is such a drab section of the game that involves constant Griever fights every 5 seconds, as they’re attracted by noise and you constantly have to fire off missiles to progress. My least favourite part of Prime 1 was the spamming of metroid’s near the end and this felt the same. One thing it didn’t have though, was the difficulty of Prime 1. Up until the final boss fight, which is actually fairly difficult, this game can be mind numbingly easy, I’ve never breezed through a Metroid game like I have with this one. Not once did I feel the same despair I felt while facing the Pirates in the Mines in Prime 1 or during the EMMI sections in Dread, it’s just smooth sailing for the most part. This is only made worse by the games constant hand holding at some points, the companion character that’s in your ear for the entire game constantly pesters you on where to go and it’s fucking annoying every single time. You aren’t allowed to explore here, you’re slapped on the wrist if you explore for too long. I feel crazy for complaining about a game I like, but I like it so much because the peaks are fantastic, the bike riding is really fun, the boss fights are mostly really good, I love how the game feels and looks, and the best sections like the Ice Belt and Flare Pool are classic fun Metroid, but this game stumbles whenever it tries to push you to try out its new half baked open world mechanics, or when it pushes the new companion character onto you, it’s a game of peaks and valleys and even though it’s far from perfect…I’m glad it exists, it’s still a great game and when it hits its stride it’s absolutely sensational. The atmosphere here & tbe cinematics are fantastic, the sound design is excellent and music is arguably the best in tbe series? I hope for Retro’s sake and for all of us fans that were able to get a Prime 5 that focuses back on what made the series great and innovates in ways that aren’t anything open world or adjacent to the ideas displayed here at times, it shows glimpses of Prime 1s greatness and while it lacks the perfect polish of Dread, the experimentation here is still really fun at times, and I’m gonna miss riding my bike around and using the psychic abilities. Even if the game has its dips, I still pray we get a Prime 5 sooner than later.