Metroid Prime 4: Beyond

Finally got a gameplay trailer and it looks pretty glorious imo. It's no nonsense, shows gameplay, it is exactly like before but with some minor tweaks and "grab the best of all fronts". Glad to see the narrative is actually moving forward too with following up on the MP3 cliffhanger. Even the morphball physics are the same.

In a sense it might be too similar for 18± years between games, but honestly I'm just so happy to get another entry... and I do hope future trailers show more things going on.



Few notes:

• multiple missile types?
  They finally fixed the visor, it was changed on the outside in previous games but not the inside, cool to see fixed
  They brought back the artwork when scanning which I think is super cool, those 3d models never did it for me, this feels way more alien with these scary bodyhorror drawings.
  Not a fan of the bright red flashing when enemies are hit, then again the previous games had this as well but it is far more noticable here

I'm excited to see it, but I won't lie, I'm pretty underwhelmed by how identical it looks to the first game. Like, did they show off a single new mechanic, besides the enemy radar, I guess? Really hoping we see more than sets it apart. I'm not enthused by lock-on in a FPS returning in 2024. The emphasis on enemy spawns and such suggests that there'll be more of an emphasis on combat, but what challenge are they going to provide if the game aims for you?

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely adore the single stick controls of the first two games (hell, I played Prime 1 Remastered with them because I love them so much), but unless they're going with single stick controls in current year (a bold move; I'd be down with it), I'm not sure why we need the game to aim for us in a shooter with dual analog sticks.

I will say this: The spectacle and the explosions and all make this look like the most Xbox 360 game I've seen in a long time, and I mean that as a compliment lmao.

> combat emphasis
It's most likely the opening-stage, which is always combat heavy. We saw the same in MP1 and MP3 (especially MP3). So I'm not too worried. Auto-aim I'm honestly glad for, Prime wasn't about aiming, it was about positioning and what weapon you use; landing a hit wasn't the point if you get me. I'm mostly curious about what the 'beyond' means, maybe some sort of dimensional travel? Plane shifting?

> xbox360
For some reason it really reminded me of Halo, in a fun way.

The war setting looks great, I love war settings in games.