Metroid Prime 4 Reminds Me Of Another Sci-Fi Shooter, Which Isn’t A Good Thing

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Fans are already decrying this desert area for its perceived low graphical quality and emptiness. In contrast, others argue that we haven’t seen enough of this apparently overworld and how it functions in the final game to make any snap conclusions. Regardless, there’s been an increase in hand-wringing online for Beyond as we get closer to release.

Watching the brief footage of Samus zooming through that desert and ultimately dismounting her bike to enter a more traditional Metroid Prime-y corridor brought me unfortunate flashbacks to a certain 2019 game. Hopefully, developer Retro Studios handles Prime 4 a lot better than what I’m thinking about.

Gears 5 Used Empty, Open Overworlds To Connect Missions

Remember Gears 5? Not too many people do, even though the game was totally fine. But what really grinded my gears (of war) was the inclusion of large hub worlds in the single-player campaign, specifically the frigid tundra of Kadar Valley and the red sand-filled dunes of Vasgar.

Playing as Kait Diaz and Del Walker, the player (or players in co-op) would explore these overworlds with a sail-powered skiff, traveling to different spots to find collectibles, embark on side quests, and initiate story missions, which played like traditional, linear Gears of War campaign missions.

That’s really all you could do in those two areas, and for the most part, these overworlds were desolate. The hub worlds felt unnecessary, as if the game wanted to give you more control and choice within the narrative instead of just playing cutscenes of Kait and Del going from one location to the next, but it didn’t know how to make it fulfilling.

This kind of overworld generally works fine for The Legend of Zelda, which generally has some sort of Hyrule Field area from Ocarina of Time onward, or for the last two God of War games. Your mileage may vary on how immersive and engaging those overworlds were, but Gears 5 was very barren in comparison, and I fear that Metroid Prime 4 might suffer the same fate.

Metroid Prime 4 Having A Dull Overworld Would Be Damaging

The good news is that the latest trailer showcased plenty of traditional Metroid Prime gameplay, with all of the exploration, combat, and scanning that one should expect from one of these. Even if this desert overworld is just a boring connection hub between the different biomes of the planet Viewros, perhaps the usual trappings of a Prime game will still be of high quality.

But if that ends up being the case, having such a large (if only by square footage) part of the game be a bust would be bad for Metroid Prime 4. Nintendo fans are accustomed to major games from the company being rather polished and airtight. Even if the rest of the game is great, having a large component of the game be a failure would bring the rest of the experience down.

We’re still months away from the game’s release, and we still don’t know a lot about it, so all of this debate and speculation may look foolish by then. But after such a long wait for Metroid Prime 4: Beyond and the high expectations that have been built over the years, you can’t blame anyone for being skeptical and hoping for the best.