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There is just so much cool in this game, it is oozing from every possible orifice. What amazes me most is how it continues to better itself at every opportunity. This is a design tactic that Retro has excelled at in the previousPrimes as well, but Corruption starts with such a high bar, and ramps up so sharply, that it has yet to cease impressing me.
After putting Rundas to rest and taking care of some other legwork, I was able to enter the phazon meteor - or 'Leviathan,' also often referred to as a 'seed' due to its ability to spawn a planetwide corruption of phazon - that landed on Bryya, which looks a little like, and has the same creepy music as, the impact crater from the first Prime. In the center was a highly corrupted mogenar war golem, one of the machines the Bryyans used in their magic-technology war. Epic boss fight ensued!
Once the golem was thoroughly defeated, the massive amount of phazon it had been containing was unleashed, directly into Samus (who prior to this, had a 10% corruption level of phazon, according to the in-ship bioscanner; after this event, the meter shot up to 25%). This overwhelming charge of phazon came in handy when the core of the Leviathan descended, its protective barriers finally weakened, and Samus levitated in a manner somewhat reminiscent of her Dark counterpart, then projected the pure energy directly into the core, utterly destroying it. She proceeded to fall to the ground, and staggered forward, then deactivated her helmet and vomited phazon onto the plagued ground beneath her.
It's worth mentioning at this point that the visor reflection is more evident in Prime 3 than it was in the other two, such that her eyes and the bridge of her nose are fairly apparent just by bringing up the scan visor. After this event, the reflection also began to include what looks like a slight bleed from her forehead, but the blood is a distinct phazon-blue.
The next planet, Elysia, isn't quite a gas giant but is coated in eternal stormclouds; it is basically uninhabitable. Enter the Chozo, who in millenia past, constructed a floating city out of jet-suspended platforms: Skytown. The whole place is Steampunk-inspired, with holograms and jet propulsion intermingled with big brass gears and morph ball cannons and grapple-beam ziplines. It's a very cool city.
According to lore, the Chozo built this city to act as a staging point for probing the farthest reaches of space in their ongoing quest for knowledge. But since the Chozo are like the rich white folks of the galaxy, they got lazy and built a sentient robotic race to run and maintain the city for them. Throughout the city are little rolling and flying robots just welding things together and generally keeping things tidy. There are also a few guard-type robots that are really fun to fight, including some that I got a Friend Voucher for when I bowled into them with my new boost ball upgrade.
Lore reveals that the Chozo were able to learn of the existence of a living planet, but thus far had been unable to locate it, and though their helper robots continued the search after the Chozo moved on from Skytown, they, too were unsuccessful. However, once they learned of the tragedy that befell Tallon IV (the first phazon meteor impact), it was clear to them that the Leviathans were part of this living planet - and that the planet is hostile by its very nature, attempting to overtake the entire galaxy with its phazon plague.
Ghor, the cyborg, was of course the hunter sent to Elysia to try and take out the seed. So he went nuts and screwed up the local Aurora Unit's network connections when I tried to inoculate it against the corruption virus. Then he went and started beating up on my ship! So I kicked his ass, and the Dark Samus avatar appeared again to do its menacing thing. I stole his plasma beam, and went on to, under the guidance of the Skytown AU, construct a thermonuclear explosive to drop on the shield of the Leviathan.
Inside, I beat up a corrupted flying robot sentry, and its powers corrupted Samus (now at 50% phazon corruption, and with more phazon visible in the visor reflection). But this time, she didn't really falter at all. In fact her body language even seemed a big smug as she defeated the seed core and marched off. I think she may be starting to like it.
The plasma beam, in addition to being the already-awesome plasma beam, is used in MP3 for welding puzzles. Sometimes you'll come across an external circuit panel that's been wrecked up by some weaponry or another, and you can use the plasma beam to weld it back together, by pointing the Wii remote at the breaks. There's really no difficulty here at all, but it is pretty cool.
After stopping the spread of corruption on Elysia, the news is that a GFed communication capsule has just been recovered, with a message from Gandrayda: she's found the Space Pirate homeworld. Furthermore, a Leviathan has crashed onto this planet as well, and is by all reports turning the planet into phazon. This + space pirates = not good.
There's a lot more I haven't mentioned; like I said, there is so much cool in this game, I couldn't possibly cover it all. And I've still got a good portion of the game to go yet, somewhere between 1/3 and 1/2 based on my pickup and rooms-visited percentages.
Samus's new orders, after waking up from her month-long phazon coma, are to investigate and deal with space pirate shenanigans on other planets. The other three hunters were already on these cases, but they all mysteriously broke contact with the Federation one week ago....
The first planet, Bryyo, is a classical ruined homeworld. As the native lore scans indicate, the Bryyans were once a primitive people, until their scientist caste unlocked the secrets of the rich Fuel Gel deposits in their planet (Fuel Gel is apparently the standard in interplanetary fuel). They reached for the stars, and touched with both the Chozo and the Luminoth, sharing technology with each of them. But this bred discontent, as there were some Bryyans who preferred the ancient traditions to the new wave of science.
Tensions rose until a breaking point, where a prominent scientist insulted the conservative Bryyans, and then there was strife - the scientists constructing battle golems and other machinery of war, and the traditionalists delving deep into their darkest clan secrets, using forbidden magicks. In the end, most of the planet was ruined by their war, save for one city, where most of the survivors relocated. The architecture really evokes this duality, as the high technology, powered by volatile fuel gel, weaves in with Chozo-like magical constructs.
But this safe-haven city is where Samus landed; where are the survivors? As you explore, you find them all encased in ice, an obvious sign of Rundas's presence. But when Rundas appears to save Samus from marauding pirates, he then turns on the bounty hunter he had previously assisted. An image of Dark Samus is projected over him, and it is apparent that he is possessed by it. A boss fight ensues!
After defeating Rundas, he, exhausted, appears about to recompose himself - but large spikes of ice shoot up from under him, fatally impaling the hunter. Yes, the game confirms that he is fucking dead! The image of Dark Samus, with black winglike appendages extending from its back (the angel of death), flies from his lifeless body.
At 17%, MP3 is already almost as exciting as the entirety of the first Prime. Not to mention, I already have Ice Missiles, and the game is basically handing Energy Tanks out like candy. So far I haven't needed most of them, but you never know what's at the next landing site. Things are really looking fantastic.
Samus's ship plays a much larger role in this title than it has before, which is to say, it plays a role. First of all, this is not the same gunship she piloted in Primes 1 and 2; this thing has teeth. Not literally mind you, but it looks like it could take out a capital ship if the GF ever renegged on a bounty. One of Samus's new visors allows her to call the ship to her at specific points, e.g. to land, and as in the other games the ship is a save point that fully restores ammunition. Samus can also enter the ship, which opens a number of other functions.
The ship's primary ability is to transport between landing sites, any number of which exist on a given planet. Think of landing sites as a single, interconnected elevator. It doesn't exactly make getting around a breeze - forging your way through the map is just as much a part of the game as ever - but as a mechanic, it seems much more useful and convenient than hopping from elevator to elevator, or having a world hub area.
Most of the other functions of the ship, I honestly don't know how to explain. One of them measures how 'corrupted' Samus is, which is an indication of phazon infection, but has yet to be useful. Another displays in-game statistics like Enemies Defeated and Shots Fired. Another deploys and un-deploys the ship's blast shields, with yet another enabling weapon systems, but thus far there have been no ship battles or any other instances where these would be used. There is also a lever for engaging the thrusters, which I pulled in the beginning of the game and haven't looked at since.
Another cockpit instrument is used for communication. Activating it brings up a bunch of symbol-buttons to click on (aim at and hit 'A'). This is another thing I used in the beginning - to confirm my security code with the Feds - and haven't been required to use again. But there do appear to be some easter eggs hidden in it.
An upgrade I just got is actually for the ship - air-to-ground missiles! Now with the command visor, in designated areas, I can call the ship to do a bombing run. I've already taken out a shield generator and messed up a space pirate cannon installation. Sweet.
One last thing: if Hypermode (via the PED) is engaged too long, Samus begins to succumb to phazon corruption. While under normal circumstances the Hypermode bar will deplete over time - and with shots fired - until emptying, in this corrupted hypermode the bar actually begins to fill itself. If it fills all the way, ... bad things happen. So the only cure is to go berserk and keep firing until the bar goes down. And! the Space Pirates have a new weapon, some sort of phazon grenade, that will engage a corrupted hypermode if it detonates near Samus! Combat becomes even more intense with all this phazon flying around.
This month's Nintendo Power has a short preview feature on BWii, which, aside from some bare plot hints and a unit overview (naval units having already been revealed last year), confirms online multiplayer. Two players can play online in three different modes: a co-op objective battle, a competitive objective battle, and an all-out skirmish. Awesome.
When I started into MP3 again this evening, planning out this glog entry in my head, I thought about comparing it to the buildup of the previous games - where the introductory phase is slow, but necessary for driving the ramping excitement as the game continues. Then I engaged a boss in epic battle, saved a planet, and was knocked unconscious. "One month later," the screen says, and Samus wakes up in an infirmary, completely changed. Now, I can use the power of Phazon for good, instead of evil (also some evil).
Following are some spoilers if you haven't followed previews of MP3 in the media already: The mission upon landing on Norion is to reactivate the energy reactors that were, until the pirate attack, powering the planet's primary defenses. Halfway through this exercise, comm chatter from the fleet above reveals that a massive meteor (evident to the viewer as comprised largely of Phazon) is headed straight for the defense control tower. A friendly hunter, Rundas, who has abilities similar to Iceman, even helps you on your mission - maybe I wasn't doing good enough? - by going off on his own to activate the second of three generators.
At the third generator, after another friendly hunter (Gandrayda the shapeshifter) takes out some hostiles, a morph ball puzzle is of course required to fix some broken machinery. Then the generator falls back into place - oh hi Meta Ridley! The mechanically enhanced space dragon pounces on Samus, shattering the floor beneath them and initiating a boss fight while falling, with your rapidly decreasing height displayed as a time limit for the encounter.
Eventually Meta Ridley is incapacitated, and Rundas uses his ice-surfing powers to rescue Samus from the shaft. Then the hunters (including a fourth I hadn't mentioned, the cyborg Ghor) make for the elevator to the control tower. But just before they can activate the planet's defenses, Dark Samus crashes in, wipes them all out with a powerful Phazon blast, and flies away. Samus manages to drag herself to the control panel and turn on the automated defense system to destroy the meteor just before falling unconscious.
In the infirmary, a nurse (...technician?) informs the just-awakened Samus that after the blast, she and the other hunters now have some mysterious bodily mechanic that produces Phazon. Siezing the opportunity to create a powerful weapon of war, the Galactic Federation took the liberty of equipping Samus with a Phazon Enhancement Device in her power suit.
The PED is activated by holding the + button for about half a second, and turns Samus into a mad killing machine, firing blasts of superpowered Phazon to and fro. But 'Hypermode' consumes life energy, and according to the multilingual instruction manual ("HYPERMODO"), has other, more dire risks as well.
I've been playing it slow, getting all the scans that I can (see below), but I'm already stoked to progress farther in what promises to be a grand space opera.
So, last time I promised to elaborate more on MP3's achievement-like system. There are four kinds (colors) of tokens: red, blue, yellow, and green. Red tokens are earned from scanning Creatures, and Blue from scanning Lore; these are the same kinds of logbook entries that appeared in Samus's previous outings. Yellow tokens are earned by defeating bosses. Green tokens are where it gets interesting, as you get these when your friends (from your Wii's friend list) send them to you - at least I think this is how it works, since I really have no one to test this with at the moment.
Throughout the game, certain accomplishments will bring up a black logo and a message, e.g. "GFed Trooper Saved" or "100 Enemies Defeated." These are Friend Vouchers. From the game's Extras menu, you can send a Friend Voucher to anyone in your list of friends. This list displays a number for 'Sent' as well as a number for 'Received' next to each name, thus my inference on the operation of the green tokens.
In any event, the game's extras are purchased by way of these tokens, each item having a specific cost of each type. In addition to art galleries, you can purchase each track of the game's soundtrack, and other miscellany with titles like "Screen-Shot Tool" (!!) and "Mii Bobblehead." I look forward to getting some green tokens and trying these babies out.
The pending release date is next Monday, 8/27, but being employed by Nintendo has some serious benefits.
I haven't gotten very far into MP3 - just past the intro level - so my opinions may change over the course of the game. So far, it's very similar to the first two, in focusing heavily on exploring and paying attention to your surroundings. The primary difference is that there's a lot more going on. The first game was a classical Metroid situation, where Samus was more or less the only sentient non-pirate on the planet; the second tried to spice things up with the Luminoth, but they were so scarce that the effect was negligible.
Contrarily, the introductory stage of Metroid Prime 3 takes place in a Galactic Federation command ship, complete with crew - and then it gets attacked by space pirates! The ship and its fleet are in orbit above a populated planet, so there is a ton of stuff going on outside as, inside the ship, Samus navigates corridors rapidly being boarded by invading pirates. And after finally getting back to the docking bay and landing on the planet below (I'll do more on piloting the ship in a later post), GFed troopers and pirate fighter craft exchange laserfire endlessly just outside. Much of the ambience of the first game came from its mysterious, serene environment, and I think it will be interesting to see how MP3 fares with what is thus far the polar opposite.
Controlling Samus was really awkward at first. This is the first time I've played a first-person game for Wii, so being completely new to the point-and-aim mechanic might have something to do with that. I was also one of those guys who really relied on being able to lock-on to targets in the other Primes because I just can't aim to save my life. Anyway, I'm starting to get used to it. In general you shoot where you aim; the nunchuk's Z button can be used to lock on to an enemy and keep it near the center of your view, but aiming precisely at it is still up to the wiimote.
Some of the most interesting stuff I've come across so far isn't even in the game proper. You may remember that in Prime 1 and 2, extra art galleries could be unlocked by meeting certain conditions, e.g. completing the game on X difficulty, or attaining Y percent of all logbook scans. In MP3, the Extras - and there are way more than just art galleries - are unlocked by spending points on each one, points that are earned through certain in-game accomplishments and landmarks (reminiscent of the Xbox's 'Achievements,' but much more frequent). I still haven't figured this out completely, but will be sure to explain it in more detail when I can.
The same simple gameplay that I previously lauded is the reason I haven't picked the game up in weeks. It just isn't engaging anymore. It's fun enough, but gets old quick, and it doesn't help that the game itself seems quite long - 13 and a half hours in, I still only have three of the eight gym badges. And the third badge was enough of a pain that I really don't look forward to the rest (I had to go through like three or four different cities to actually find the next gym leader, due to recurring "Sorry, but our gym leader is in another castle" scenarios).
I may return to it eventually, but I currently have no drive to continue this game.
It is clear to me now that (the majority of) God of War was made extremely well, with an impeccable plot and excellent level design. The game doesn't shy away from very challenging trials, but at the same time, the last checkpoint is never far behind, and so it is difficult without being frustrating - most of the time anyway. A few schlocky lines and awkward segues aside, the cinematic elements are extremely good. But, I say the 'majority' is made well because, again, the first part of the game is just not very fun; it feels like filler, added to a short but otherwise great game, that simply doesn't cut the mustard.
After fighting a giant mechanically-armored minotaur in Hades' wing, I made my way to the Cliffs of Madness, the final area of Pandora's Temple. It isn't really as difficult to navigate as its name suggests, but is a rather fun change of scenery from all the interior dungeon rooms in the rest of the temple. At the end of this area is the tomb of the architect who designed Pandora's Temple, and a final puzzle room before reaching Pandora's Box itself, which will grant Kratos the power to kill Ares.
However! Just when Kratos is about to remove the box from the temple, Ares, with godly omniscence, hurls a stray pillar at the hero, impaling and killing him. The next part of the story is about Kratos's escape from Hades, complete with the absolute evillest areas of any game I can recall. Eventually, upon escaping from the underworld, the final showdown with Ares is had, wherein Pandora's Box gives Kratos the power of the gods - extreme largeness - and an epic battle is had.
In the end, the gods thank Kratos for his service in destroying the reckless and destructive Ares, and invite him to replace the former god of war in Olympus. Awesome.
At some point I'll have to get to the sequel, which I hope has kept the good of this game while neglecting the poor.
Getting through the first third of the game was a chore. After the boat escapade, Kratos is tasked with finding the Oracle of Athens, which first requires he wander around the town forever. This part of the game - running down streets and slashing up swarms of enemies - felt a lot like EA's The Two Towers and Return of the King, but without the levelling up, which was really the only fun part of those games. There was nothing more to it than mindless button holding and tapping, and I was severely underwhelmed.
Then, when Kratos finally managed to find the Temple of the Oracle, things started to turn around. An NPC gives Kratos a mysterious message. More of his blood-soaked backstory is revealed. A new quest: to find Pandora's Box, hidden in a temple in the desert. This is where things became less dumb and much more interesting. At this point there are finally enough enemies that combat has some level of variety. The puzzles have become better too; where before that point, there was perhaps one puzzle in the game (and I never would have figured it out in a million years had I not looked it up), they're now of the caliber that I feel proud of myself for unraveling them.
It helps that so much of the game (after some cool desert stuff) is in Pandora's Temple, which is really a giant puzzle consisting of several smaller puzzles, and has really tested my battle skills several times so far. I'm about two-thirds of the way through the game now and still not done with this massive dungeon. Branching off of the central temple structure are a few different wings, each representing a challenge from a different figure: first some warmups in the Atlas wing, then underwater adventuring in the Poseidon wing, and now I'm just entering the Hades wing, which has fire and lava and shit. Cool stuff.
Two things that are particularly striking about God of War are the level of violence and the amount of nipples. By 'level of violence' I refer to impaling zombie warriors, beheading minotaurs, slaughtering townsfolk, and sacrificing Roman soldiers to progress; it is really quite astounding. And by 'amount of nipples' I do not refer to male nipples - there is a perhaps surprising amount of breast non-coverage, in cutscenes and gameplay. In the early game these factors really enhanced how cheap and trite I felt the whole thing was, but now they are just cool tertiary features.
I've done dozens of group quests. I've been to Heroic dungeons, and Karazhan. I've gathered the money to buy the ultimate riding skill, allowing me to fly the fastest flying mounts around. But despite having completed so much - and in spite of the misgivings of any online game - I still really enjoy playing. This is nothing like level 60, where I felt like I was forcing myself to keep going.
There is so much to do, and the design is really quite brilliant. Old dungeons are reused as "heroic" versions, with difficulty and rewards ramped up to keep things fresh. Intricate chains of quests lace Outland and all its locales - every time I think I've finished them all, I find that they're still going. There are two endless sources of quests: one that requires maximum riding skill, and has you disguised as a fel orc, winning the favor of the nether drakes (which you can eventually ride); the other brings a caste of superintelligent ogres to your doorstep, and has you bombing demon camps and completing Simon-esque trials. And there is so much more that I haven't even touched, in the raiding game beyond Karazhan - The Eye of Tempest Keep, Mt. Hyjal, the Black Temple and others.
It is boggling how much there is to do in Burning Crusade, for players of all tastes and preferences. And all of it is designed having learned the lessons of the original. All of it is more fun. Level 80? I can't wait.
As I've gotten more time with the game, I've learned more advanced moves and tricks. Items - gained by being hit - are used with the nunchuk's C button. Holding Z while passing will lob the ball in the air. Holding down the B button will charge your shot, giving it more speed, or culminating in a power-shot unique to each character. The D-pad can be used for character-specific deke moves (some players will move ahead, others will perform an offensive move) while you have the ball, or while you don't, to do a slide-tackle and a steal.
Charging and passing are integral to success as the AI (or human) opposition becomes more difficult. A charged lob, if intercepted with the B button, can be headbutted or air-kicked for a super goal shot. Charging makes the ball go faster, so volleying before an attempt on the goal helps too. And some of the dekes can actually be used to skip past the otherwise-inpenetrable goalie and into the net.
The game is kept lively by a great amount of variety. In items - there are green shells, red shells, ice shells, bananas, chain chomps, and even bob-ombs. In characters - in addition to team captains (Mario, Peach, and DK to name a few) with superpowerful special abilities, each of the selectable team members (including Dry Bones, Toad, and Monty Mole) has its own moves, and everyone has different stats for running speed, tackling, passing and shooting. And in stadiums - every one has its own special tricks, from the slow turf and dropping Thwomps in Sand Tomb, to the wall-less and windy Thunder Island, in which the occasional flying tractor or fish will knock players off for a period of time.
Strikers Charged has great, fast and fun gameplay, with a fantastic challenge, and enormous multiplayer potential. Unfortunately it doesn't look like you can play online with more than two Wiis, but this is a perfect companion to your otherpartygames.