Metroid: Other M Review
Overhated
In case you might have misread the title of this review, it is overHated; not overRated. Yes, Metroid: Other M is overhated. It is also misunderstood.
Is this game sexist? No. In fact, it is the opposite. Samus is the only female warrior in the game. However, that makes her ascension to the top of the ranks all that more impressive. Her commanding officer, Adam Malkovich, decides when she can activate her suit's latent abilities. People have a huge problem with this, and can't get over it. Think of it this way. Although Samus Aran is an independent bounty hunter, for this mission on the Bottle Ship, she allows herself to obey Adam Malkovich as if she was one of his soldiers. Also, the game gives an example of why certain abilities should not be used indiscriminately. Early on, Adam prohibits the use of the Power Bomb because it might have dire implications for the structural stability of the ship. Use that example and apply it to all Samus's other abilities. Also, the way that your abilities are unlocked are kind of epic. For example, you will be struggling against a boss, and then BAM, Adam authorizes a new ability and you mop the floor with it. Also, remind yourself that if this operation is to go as smoothly as possible, she will have to obey his orders to an extent, just like all his other soldiers. You are not alone. Also, from a gameplay standpoint, this is always how Metroid games have functioned: start off as a weakling, and slowly gain new powers, and by the end of the game, you're a bad-ass. This power-acquisition protocol actually makes much more logical sense than finding powers inside monsters or in hidden, out-of-the-way locations. Also, at the end of the game, you learn more about Samus's mental and emotional reasons for following Adam's orders.
This game and Samus Aran are both highly misunderstood. In the Western world, strength is colloquially assigned masculine attributes: rudeness, boldness, loudness, physical heftiness, etc. Samus Aran possesses a quiet, inner strength that the less perceptive people will not be able to catch. If you look at Mass Effect and choose to create a female Shepard, she behaves in the exact same way that the male Shepard does. So what does that say about sexism? Bioware is implying that a "strong" female protagonist must behave like a male protagonist to be strong. Now that is sexist. Mass Effect is more sexist than Metroid: Other M. By showing a different way to be strong: inner strength, bravery, non-flashiness, a lot of people mistook that for weakness. It flew right over their heads. No. Samus Aran is a strong individual in Metroid: Other M. She doesn't need to act like a jackass (like Jack from Mass Effect 2) to be strong. We need to shed the stereotypes of strength and look beyond the exterior and feel the interior: the heart, the soul. You can even hear Samus talking to herself during the game. How can you not see that she is a strong character?
The game itself is very good; it feels like a Metroid game. I thought that auto-aim might make the game too easy. I was pleasantly surprised to find that this was not the case. In fact, this is the second-most difficult Metroid game in the series, next to the first Metroid, which honestly is not saying much because Metroid games have traditionally been concerned less with difficulty and more with level design and exploration. This difficulty comes in three parts: boss battles, Search View, and basic adventuring.
Some of the boss battles in this game are fantastic. They will make you think, and have you dying over and over again while you figure out the right strategy for beating them. Oddly enough, I found this to be fun. When something is difficult but in the realm of perceptibly surmountable, it is good.
There are parts of the game that put you into a mandatory first-person view mode, called Search View. You can also activate this mode manually. But in the mandatory Search Views, you must search the environs and lock onto the correct thing in order to proceed through the game. It is ridiculous how hard it is to figure out some of the tiny, obscure things you have to look at to advance the game. This is the only bad thing about the game, and why it didn't get five stars from me.
What I meant by "basic adventuring" was basically "figuring out what to do next" - a staple of action/adventure games. On first glance, I did not think this game would be very difficult to figure out what to do next, and be as creative and extensive as the Prime games, but it is. This game is very dark (as in brightness), so early on, I was baffled at times, looking at the dark environments trying to figure out what to lock onto and do next. Later on, I would get stuck, only to find I had to go into first-person mode at a weird location, but I did not think all this ambiguity detracted from the game. The only part that I did think detracted from the game was when I had to backtrack to get an item to advance, when it was not obvious I had to. This only happened once, so it is more or less forgiven. Overall, I was impressed with how "organic" the "puzzles" felt. I figured out that there was a morph-ball hole from Zoomers crawling out of the wall. Metroid Prime 2 had all these weird morph-ball puzzles (that were cool, don't get me wrong), but seemed out-of-place. Metroid: Other M keeps everything believable.
Another thing that helps keep everything believable is the awesome soundtrack. Metroid: Other M is as moody and creepy as ever. Other than the menu theme, I didn't like Metroid Prime's music. Some of the tracks were too whimsical for a Metroid game. Metroid: Other M doesn't suffer from this whimsy at all. Subtle and effective would be two words to describe its tracks. Also, there are some remixed songs that play at just the right moment that pump you up. It's awesome.
The controls are great. Although you auto-aim, you must be facing the enemy within 90 degrees on either side of it or you won't target it. This basically means that you can't be facing away from an enemy, press the "1" button, and expect to hit it. This is great because it balances the ease afforded by the auto-aiming.
In Metroid Prime, you could lock onto a target, hold either left or right, and tap B to dodge. In Other M, you can dodge attacks by tapping the d-pad (this move is called SenseMove). It works well, and its animation is very stylish. This has been balanced by making enemies attack more frequently at times. Thus, for instance, you will be mashing that d-pad during a fierce attack barrage, and when the barrage concludes, you will be able to attack.
Search View has been unfairly criticized. Sure, you can not move, but you can shoot incoming projectiles, preventing them from hitting you, and also SenseMove out of it. It is not too cumbersome to go from NES-style Wiimote mode to Search View. If you need to shoot a missile, there is always an adequate window of time in which you can do so, where the boss or enemy is not attacking you.
The graphics are fantastic for a Wii game. Sometimes, when a pre-rendered cutscene ended and gameplay started, I could not tell the difference. Also, the game is very stylish, like Metroid: Zero Mission was. You will be proud to guide the sleek and sexy Samus Aran to victory.
The story, if you can understand that it is not sexist, as explained above, is very good. The story sequences, told with both pre-rendered movies and in-game graphics, work very well in that they explain the past, the current situation and motivate you to keep playing the game and find out more.
This game is very similar to Metroid Fusion in that respect. Some of the save-points here operate like the Navigation Rooms of that game, and both tell and show you where you need to go next. This is fine because it points you in a general direction, but not the necessary steps to get there. Even with this help-system, I got stuck numerous times; don't worry, it won't baby you or annoy you.
Overall, this feels like a Metroid game. This game could have been called Metroid Fusion because it fuses the 2D games with the 3D games and makes an excellent hybrid. If I could improve this game, I would make the mandatory SenseViews more intuitive, have an analog stick controlling Samus (Wiimote + nunchuk), and make it so that I am able to move in Search View. Metroid: Other M is a more than worthy addition to the Metroid franchise and is a great game - worthy to be played.
