Video games are my favorite medium of artistic expression because they allow you to explore and exist in fully realized worlds. The Metroid franchise persists and is important to longtime game fans because it was an early touch-point for this kind of interactive experience. From its beginning, Metroid excelled at making you feel like you were in a science-fiction world that you were exploring at your own pace. Metroid Prime 4: Beyond maintains the high standard set by previous games in the series with incredible atmosphere and subtle touches that make the planet of Viewros look and sound real, but it is not without a handful of annoyances that hinder the immersion.
For the fourth entry in the Prime sub-series, Samus finds herself at the service of the Lamorn, an ancient race of aliens that are not the Chozo, but are certainly similar. She is the prophesied warrior that will help them recover, and that means exploring a large desert flanked by a handful of fascinating locations each housing upgrades and teleportation keys.
There are perhaps Nintendo games with more striking art direction, but Metroid Prime 4, with the support of Switch 2, is arguably the best-looking game the publisher has ever released. The industrial settings glow with impressive lighting and effects, and looking out into the natural environment is stunning. Developer Retro Studios is an expert at setting a lonely, alien mood and I was always enamored by the impressive mechanical animations of all the otherworldly hardware. My favorite location, the floating motorcycle factory energized by perpetual lightning storms, feels genuinely dangerous and scary. I was less enthused by locations like the snowy laboratory or the bland mines, but moving through them all is exciting and rewarding.
The first-person action gameplay is familiar to previous Prime games and feels good. Samus’ new psychic powers don’t radically change the fun lock-on, shooter gameplay, but I enjoyed remote controlling the Control Beam at opportune times in boss fights and to solve puzzles. The pacing and unfolding of each location are immaculately designed, funneling you toward objectives while consistently planting seeds that make you want to return later with expanded abilities. The desert hub area where Samus drives her motorcycle between objectives is the perfect size: Big enough that the motorcycle feels necessary, but not so big that you are ever driving for too long.
A recurring task assigned to Samus throughout the game in the desert is collecting green crystal energy. I enjoyed ping-ponging between the crystals and running over them with my motorcycle, but didn’t love that I hit an end-game roadblock where I had not collected enough to proceed and had to spend time growing my bank before I could pursue the finale.
And it is in the finale where I hit most of my road bumps. Narratively, the conclusion is underwhelming, and the story lead-up isn’t particularly compelling either. The small cast of Federation soldiers Samus encounters is generally charming and stays out of your way after their introduction. I was grateful I could call them when I wasn’t sure where to go, but they become burdens when they enter the action. Instead of being grateful for their help, I was annoyed that they would trigger game overs when I didn’t revive them fast enough. Thankfully, instances of their “help” in combat are rare. The vast majority of the game is spent in lonely silence.
Perhaps most disappointing, however, is the inability to re-enter your save before the point of no return after beating the game. I adore mopping up all the power-ups and turning over every last stone after seeing credits in this genre, but unless you create a back-up before the final area (something the game does not encourage you to do), your only way to collect what you may have missed is to restart, which I did on the unlocked hard difficulty, but I was not happy about it.
My annoyances with Beyond are vastly overshadowed by a pristine, rock-solid science-fiction exploration experience. Discovering all Viewros has to offer is incredibly rewarding and delivers an unmatched sense of alien ambiance. The wait for a new Metroid Prime has been long, but it only takes a few minutes in Beyond to remember why we have been so eager to re-enter this universe for the past 18 years.
