Review: Metroid Other M
- Thread starter Steve Butts
- Start date
Recommended Videos
Well, at least they didn't use the "a tap on the shoulder shorts out all of your abilities" trope.
I'll probably rent this first, but it still looks good. I'll decide whether to take or leave the character development. If all else fails, I can always say later games see Samus grow beyond the excess angst and submissiveness.
I'll probably rent this first, but it still looks good. I'll decide whether to take or leave the character development. If all else fails, I can always say later games see Samus grow beyond the excess angst and submissiveness.
I liked the game. Sure, samus is much weaker now that she cant do anything without the ok from Adam. It isnt even like Fusion (which i found this game to be similar to) where she still was "allowed" powers, but even those were actually given and ones that she didnt have. My biggest complaint is the First person controls. They suck a lot. If they just did corruption/trilogy controls, and allowed us to MOVE instead of just aim and shoot awkwardly...
I am well aware. The point was that there was an obvious shift in quality between them.Gigaguy64 said:
And yeah, people were critical of the Prime trilogy, but their criticisms were a bit different than what we're dealing with this time around.
Samus has been turned into, "Just another frilly woman." She has to be told by her damn ex to put on the right suit. This isn't the character we're familiar with, and the attempt to flesh out the tall dark and silent personality ends up producing a new one altogether.
You know what? I'll actually take your word for that and maybe buy the game.Daystar Clarion said:
If she were "Just another frilly woman" she wouldn't be fighting at all. She'd be hiding out while the men do all the work.
And for the last time, Adam is not her ex, and he didn't force her to do what he said. She CHOSE to follow his directions because she RESPECTED HIM as a FATHER FIGURE. Try actually paying attention to the cutscenes, maybe you'll understand.
P.S. Thanks
And for the last time, Adam is not her ex, and he didn't force her to do what he said. She CHOSE to follow his directions because she RESPECTED HIM as a FATHER FIGURE. Try actually paying attention to the cutscenes, maybe you'll understand.
P.S. Thanks
It does have the whiff of a Final Fantasy drama, and it was never going to be as good as the prime games. It starts off a little slow in terms of combat but as soon as harder enemies come along, you'll be jumping all over the place and blasting the crap out of everything.Fanta Grape said:
Why am I not surprised that this argument does nothing to improve my opinion of the situation?Covarr said:
She's going to purposefully handicap herself in a manner that pointlessly risks her life out of respect? That's not respect, that's downright stupidity. And Samus is nowhere near that stupid.
Agreed, when Team Ninja makes a female character it's usually an uninteresting, oversexualized bimbo who the "manley man" must protect and if not she's usually taking orders from one. Why they put the Metroid franchise in their hands is beyond me, too much drugs, sex and alcohol fucking with the minds of the higher ups in Nintendo, perhaps?Xiado said:
I mean seriously, you don't put a franchise with a strong female lead into that hands of perverted sexists like Team Ninja.
You really don't get the impression that they've ruined her character, she isn't oversexualised and I don't think it's sexist by any means. The only gripe I have is the voice actor, she's about as wooden as catholic priest at a boyscout convention.Blatherscythe said:
Didn't say they did that to Samus, even though they made her personality contridict everything she's done in the past (you kick someone's ass 4 times even if they did horrible things to you in the past it would probably become therapudic, killing the bastard who killed your parents over and over) they wouldn't be able to get away with that much bullshit. And why did they not get Jennifer Hale to do her voice again?Daystar Clarion said:
Ok, i just wasent sure from the way you worded it.acosn said:
And while i do see the shift in quality between the games, its kind of back and forth so im expecting the next one to be awesome.
And i don't think MP Pinball counts because...its a Pinball game that was made for fun, and it does what it does well IMO
And while i don't agree that Samus has been turned into just another frilly Woman, i agree that the attempt to build on Samus's character didn't turn out quite right.
But im just glad that its over and done with so now the next game hopefully wont have as much Characterization as OM.
Just please.....Adam is her Ex-Commanding Officer, not Boyfriend.
While yes she is submissive to him, it makes sense to me because she respects him Greatly as her Former CO and as a Father figure.
The implementation is stupid yes, but i like it better than lose powers find moar!
Anyway, just my opinion.
Everyone needs to calm down about the whole can't use weapons and upgrades until you're authorized thing. It may not make much sense, but was the old system that much more logical? You still obtain power-ups at steady pace and are granted them when they are needed to progress, just like older Metroids. The only major flaw with this new system is that it seems to not match up with the rest of the games emphasis on story and communication. It doesn't break the game; It only induces a few eye rolls and makes obtaining power-ups slightly less exciting. At it's core, this is a true Metoid game. I was never expecting it to be as mind-blowingly awesome as Metroid Prime or Super Metroid, but the successful implementation of being able to switch your view from 2d to 3d and run through 2d and 3d environments alike makes this game a hugely successful experiment, as well as a fresh take on the franchise. I'm sure that if this game was a new IP, it would be receiving heavy praise and scoring higher in reviews.
What drives me crazy about this is that it's making me realize how much of a Metroid nerd I actually am. I figured the game would probably turn out kind of stupid, based on what I saw in the interviews and trailers leading up to this, but I had no idea it would piss me off this much. I honestly feel sort of betrayed, and I hate the fact that I care so much.
Oh well. Same thing happened with the Alien movies. I can always go into denial about it I suppose. Other M is my Alien 4. I'll just pretend it doesn't exist.
Oh well. Same thing happened with the Alien movies. I can always go into denial about it I suppose. Other M is my Alien 4. I'll just pretend it doesn't exist.
It's a good game, but man, I don't know how they let what solid potential it had not be properly executed on. The controls could almost be completely remedied with the addition of the nunchuck, which would add a great level of fluidity in the options of what you can do. If they fixed that the gameplay would be much better, and then we'd only have to worry about Samus' bad voice acting.
You can see glimpses of potential in Other M but overall it takes a while for those moments to shine through.
You can see glimpses of potential in Other M but overall it takes a while for those moments to shine through.
The people complaining Samus is acting out of character, you're just wrong. She isn't out of character, she's just not the character that you wanted her to be. Because prior to this game, she didn't HAVE any character. The only character she's ever had prior to this come from the manga which next to no one has ever read, and Fusion, and quite frankly, the way she acts in Other M syncs up with both fairly well.
Furthermore, Adam isn't her ex, he's her father figure.
That's not to say the plot doesn't have it's strange moments (the thing with the Varia suit being chief among them), but when they happen, they tend to be very minor in the grand scheme of things. The only complaint that has any genuine merit is her reaction to seeing Ridley, which, most likely, it's a reaction the developers chose in A. a flimsy attempt to make Ridley look more threatening, and B. because they wanted to show her having that reaction ages ago (like in the first Metroid or Super) but couldn't for one reason or another (lack of cutscenes probably) and figured they'd never have another opportunity. Afterall, it's pretty much exactly what happened when she encountered him in the manga as well. A weak excuse, but meh, to be fair, if you had to deal with a big giant space dragon who kept coming back no matter how many times you kill him, always being on the verge of getting killed by it (because usually, Ridley tends to be one of the harder bosses in any given game), always fearing that someday he'll catch you off guard or in a moment of weakness and finally get the better of you, before going on to set the universe ablaze and conquer it, that could scare the piss out of you. And emotional traumas do have a tendency to occasionally resurface at the strangest and most unfortunate of times in real life.
Also, when Samus is speaking in a monotone, that's not bad acting, because that's exactly what the developers told her to do. That monotone was a conscious decision on the creator's part, so acting wise, it's pretty much exactly the way it's supposed to be.
EDIT: Apparently I'm not done venting about this...
Samus is still a badass. She still massacres aliens without hesitation, in even flashier and more badass ways than before. All this 'crying' and 'whining' she does? She keeps it to herself, in an internal monologue, save for one emotional moment closer to the end. It's not like she's imposing her problems on anybody else. And you're telling her she's not allowed to do that. You're basically saying that she's not allowed to be a goddamned human being, because that ruins your illusion of her being a bloody robot. Ignoring the one strange aforementioned incident with Ridley, she never hesitates, she's never afraid, she never lacks confidence in combat. She lacks confidence in what Adam thinks of her because, oh my god, real people worry about disappointing their parental figures! Especially when said parental figure is probably the only person in the universe left she actually cares for. She also spends a fair portion of the game in emotional shock that people are sacrificing their lives for her, starting with the baby metroid. Even when she allows Adam to refuse her access to her abilities, she doesn't complain, she just keeps going and kicks ass without them, because she doesn't need them. When she DOES need them, she doesn't hesitate to use them, regardless of whether she has authorization, like when she gets the space jump and screw attack, sarcastically asking 'Any objections, Adam?', or when using the power bomb at the end of the game. The more abilities you have, the less badass she comes off as anyway, because the most awesome things she does are the overblasts and lethal kills she does near the beginning, that she can't do near the end because you're just one-shotting everything, which, running around with an overpowered gun isn't really the most awesome thing ever.
To me, all this complaining and bitching about how Samus doesn't act the way you want her to, even if the way she acts is actually perfectly logical for a real human being or is a completely in-character moment, all your whining is far far worse than anything Samus does in this game. I'd rather play as a character who has problems but doesn't let them get in the way of kicking ass instead of some hyper manly silent killing machine who doesn't bother with emotions because they're for women and pussies, and at least she doesn't let her problems get the better of her, instead of everyone who's actually refusing to play an otherwise great game just because they don't wanna hear her talk to herself.
EDIT the second: And while I'm ranting and bitching myself, I never once had any problems with the controls. Maybe I'm just magical that way, but they struck me as perfectly fine. Even the supposed difficulty of switching between 3rd and 1st person was easy, what with the fact that the game even has the courtesy of going into slo-motion when you switch. The fact that you can't dodge in 1st person just means you actually have to think about when to switch instead of just doing it whenever. You're giving up mobility for power, it's supposed to actually be a decision to make.
Furthermore, Adam isn't her ex, he's her father figure.
That's not to say the plot doesn't have it's strange moments (the thing with the Varia suit being chief among them), but when they happen, they tend to be very minor in the grand scheme of things. The only complaint that has any genuine merit is her reaction to seeing Ridley, which, most likely, it's a reaction the developers chose in A. a flimsy attempt to make Ridley look more threatening, and B. because they wanted to show her having that reaction ages ago (like in the first Metroid or Super) but couldn't for one reason or another (lack of cutscenes probably) and figured they'd never have another opportunity. Afterall, it's pretty much exactly what happened when she encountered him in the manga as well. A weak excuse, but meh, to be fair, if you had to deal with a big giant space dragon who kept coming back no matter how many times you kill him, always being on the verge of getting killed by it (because usually, Ridley tends to be one of the harder bosses in any given game), always fearing that someday he'll catch you off guard or in a moment of weakness and finally get the better of you, before going on to set the universe ablaze and conquer it, that could scare the piss out of you. And emotional traumas do have a tendency to occasionally resurface at the strangest and most unfortunate of times in real life.
Also, when Samus is speaking in a monotone, that's not bad acting, because that's exactly what the developers told her to do. That monotone was a conscious decision on the creator's part, so acting wise, it's pretty much exactly the way it's supposed to be.
EDIT: Apparently I'm not done venting about this...
Samus is still a badass. She still massacres aliens without hesitation, in even flashier and more badass ways than before. All this 'crying' and 'whining' she does? She keeps it to herself, in an internal monologue, save for one emotional moment closer to the end. It's not like she's imposing her problems on anybody else. And you're telling her she's not allowed to do that. You're basically saying that she's not allowed to be a goddamned human being, because that ruins your illusion of her being a bloody robot. Ignoring the one strange aforementioned incident with Ridley, she never hesitates, she's never afraid, she never lacks confidence in combat. She lacks confidence in what Adam thinks of her because, oh my god, real people worry about disappointing their parental figures! Especially when said parental figure is probably the only person in the universe left she actually cares for. She also spends a fair portion of the game in emotional shock that people are sacrificing their lives for her, starting with the baby metroid. Even when she allows Adam to refuse her access to her abilities, she doesn't complain, she just keeps going and kicks ass without them, because she doesn't need them. When she DOES need them, she doesn't hesitate to use them, regardless of whether she has authorization, like when she gets the space jump and screw attack, sarcastically asking 'Any objections, Adam?', or when using the power bomb at the end of the game. The more abilities you have, the less badass she comes off as anyway, because the most awesome things she does are the overblasts and lethal kills she does near the beginning, that she can't do near the end because you're just one-shotting everything, which, running around with an overpowered gun isn't really the most awesome thing ever.
To me, all this complaining and bitching about how Samus doesn't act the way you want her to, even if the way she acts is actually perfectly logical for a real human being or is a completely in-character moment, all your whining is far far worse than anything Samus does in this game. I'd rather play as a character who has problems but doesn't let them get in the way of kicking ass instead of some hyper manly silent killing machine who doesn't bother with emotions because they're for women and pussies, and at least she doesn't let her problems get the better of her, instead of everyone who's actually refusing to play an otherwise great game just because they don't wanna hear her talk to herself.
EDIT the second: And while I'm ranting and bitching myself, I never once had any problems with the controls. Maybe I'm just magical that way, but they struck me as perfectly fine. Even the supposed difficulty of switching between 3rd and 1st person was easy, what with the fact that the game even has the courtesy of going into slo-motion when you switch. The fact that you can't dodge in 1st person just means you actually have to think about when to switch instead of just doing it whenever. You're giving up mobility for power, it's supposed to actually be a decision to make.
