Metroid Prime 3 Corruption Review

Samus is back, but you've never played with her like this before

INTRODUCTION:

Have you ever played Half-Life 1 or 2? If so, you know how you can move/carry objects and interact with the environments. Half-Life was considered one of the best games of its time and the gameplay was a big reason for this. Why am I talking about Half-Life you ask? Well, Metroid Prime 3 Corruption takes the idea of interactivity that Half-Life had and adds to it and so much more. The immersion in MP3 in incredible, never has a game felt so connected to the person that is playing it. The Wii remote and Nunchuck deserve all the credit for this. Your right hand is Samus' right hand and your left hand is also Samus' left hand, it works wonders to say the least. The story in MP3 is also a lot more immersing than previous Prime games, not Final Fantasy immersion but still a lot more than just scanning and reading like the first two games. Real time Cut-Scenes tell the story well and keeps you feeling like you are playing the game rather than just watching a movie in-between levels.

CONTROL/GAMEPLAY:

Control is essential to Wii games and Metroid on the Wii nails the control on many levels. You will be using the Grapple Beam a lot, and with a flick of the wrist you will be swinging around and also pulling and yanking a lot of objects you'll encounter. It feels natural and doesn't seem like the Nunchuck is being used as gimmick by any means. The Wii remote is your main Hand Cannon and this is your main weapon and also used for many arm movements as well. Looking around, aiming, shooting, turning, touching and moving objects is all done with the Wii remote. Never has a First Person Shooter or any game for that matter given you more freedom of control. The FPS controls work better than any Wii game attempted thus far. Aiming is really easy as it should be with the Wii remote, but many gamers (myself included) have been surprised at how bad the controls have been for games like Red Steel and Medal of Honor. Aiming in those games felt really "out of wack" so to speak and movement was really not comfortable at all and even glitchy. MP3 solves all those problems with past experiences and gives you an extremely smooth and hassle free aiming and turning experience. Hopefully more games in the not too distant future can really learn from this. The control is not perfect however but it is forgivable since the issues I have are really minor. First I would have liked to turn a bit faster or at least have the option to up the sensitivity to my liking, the game is just a tad too slow in the turning department. Its nice to hear that Medal of Honor Heroes 2 will have a fully customizable control scheme with turn speed and bounding box size, but we'll have to wait and see if the all important aiming is as smooth as MP3. Second, I thought that the Morph Ball jumping with the Wii remote could have been more responsive. Many times I would do the motion and jump each time and then sometimes it would not read my motions. It wasn't a big problem but it was consistent through out the game so I must mention this. All the other motion controls you do in the game worked flawlessly for me. For those other reviews that said they had trouble with them, here is a word of advice: If the game tells you to pull back on the Wii remote and then push in, make sure that your hand is not already pulled back before it asks you because if it is, you obviously won't be able to pull back as far as the game wants you too thus making it not work. Just follow the instructions and really you shouldn't have any problems. Metroid Prime 3 has outstanding control regardless of those very minor issues.


SOUND:

The Dolby Pro Logic II sound is again very well done. You'll hear everything extremely clear and crisp coming at you from all angles. The voice acting is very good considering this is Retro's first attempt to put a lot of voice into the Prime series. The characters sound very believable and not too over the top as a lot of Nintendo games in the past seem to have been (We don't need Slippy in this Sci-Fi game). The music is wonderful and moody like past Prime games and Super Metroid. Most people will probably choose Sky Town as their favorite track, but I like the more subdued tracks. There is a recurring "song" or "mood theme" that plays through out the game that I like very much, it can be heard on the Galactic Federation Ship in the beginning of the game and much later on as well. The serious yet relaxing tone reminded me of the StarCraft main menu music, which is always a good thing in my opinion. Overall I would say that the music is not quite as memorable as Metroid Prime 1, but it's better than Prime 2 (Although Torvous Bog and the Underground Sewer were incredible).


GRAPHICS:

You'll notice pretty much right away that Metroid Prime 3 looks better than any Prime game before it. High Dynamic Range Bloom Lighting is used so well in this game that it has to be seen to be believed; screen shots and even videos will never, ever do this game justice- trust me. The levels are the real stars of the show as they glow and beam throughout and make you just look at them in awe for minutes on end. It's funny but I remember just wanting to kill every enemy in the room just so I could get back to looking at all the detail in the levels that Retro Studio's had made. Let me explain something to you all about how this game can look every bit as good as an Xbox 360 or PS3 game to a lot of people. Take Gears of War, the upcoming Crysis for the PC and the just released Bioshock. All those games (especially Crysis) have some of the best graphics gamers have no doubt ever seen. How could Metroid Prime 3 compare with those you ask? A game like Crysis probably has the most realistic graphics ever put into a videogame and it is extremely impressive to say the least. Crysis looks real, but Metroid Prime 3 looks beautiful and breath-taking. Really though its the lighting that just gives this game a "wow, this looks pretty" feel. It doesn't matter how powerful your PC is or how many "Next Gen" games you've seen so far, Metroid Prime 3 will impress you a great deal with its graphics and gigantic scope of the levels you'll be exploring.


CONCLUSION:

Sadly, this game has to eventually come to an end. The good news is that there is an extra hard difficulty setting that can tried after you beat the game on Normal (Veteran is always a choice). Normal setting is easier than past Prime games, so if you think you're "so hardcore" you should just start the game on Veteran and you'll be more than happy with the challenge that this game will give you. Also, I will absolutely not take points off Prime 3 for not having a Multiplayer mode. Since when were Metroid games about having any type of Multiplayer? Besides, if they want to put multiplayer in a Metroid game on the Wii they would have to do it the same way the did Hunters on the DS and just make a full Multiplayer game out of it. Would you rather have four levels and a couple characters to choose from, or a fully fledged out Multiplayer game with 30 levels and 15-20 characters to choose from? The latter no doubt. You know that if Retro put Multiplayer in this game it would have certainly been more limited just like Prime 2's Multiplayer was. Metroid Prime 3 is more about concluding the Trilogy, and I totally understand Retro's reason for making this game the way they did. This is the best Metroid Prime yet and I highly recommend it to fans of the series and to new people that never played a Metroid game before.

Metroid Prime 3 Corruption will long be remembered as a truly incredible experience.


PRESENTATION: 10

GRAPHICS: 9.5

SOUND: 9.5

CONTROL: 9.0

GAMEPLAY: 10


OVERALL SCORE: 9.8