Phazon, Phazoff

I've been getting into Metroid a bit more. Bit by bit, which is how I think the rest of the game is gonna go. But now I anticipate playing when I'm not playing, instead of thinking of it as a chore, so that's a step up. When I am actually playing, the game is incredible, and I love every minute of it. Except when I have to open doors, but more on that later.

Blogging my progress in this game is way more difficult than it was for Resident Evil 4. That game was very linear, and I could easily tell the story on my quest to get from Point A to Point B, and then to Point C, and so on. Metroid is obviously far less linear. If I were blog about my gameplay in as detailed a manner as I did with RE4, it would be like so:

Then I entered a room. I looked around. I didn't know how to get out of the room. I tried jumping to a platform. I couldn't reach it. I scanned the platform. Nothing happened. I looked around. I looked around. I looked around. I shot random things to see what would happen. I turned into a ball. I couldn't fit anywhere. I took a cigarette break. I looked around. I jumped. I cried.

...and so on. Pretty boring.

Anyway, since last time, I got the ability to freeze fire, which is pretty fun. My favorite is freezing horrific flaming waterfalls and then using them as platforms. I also met a lot of golems, who helped me in various ways. I like the golems. I destroyed the first energy signature on Bryyo, and fought a pretty cool boss. The boss was a space pirate with a giant alien beast as a mount. It was a pretty perfect boss, because defeating him was a multi-step process, but not too difficult to figure out. It also didn't take 3 hours and leave my arm a limp mess like the last boss. I killed the pirate rider, and then focused on the beast itself. I shot it in the mouth until it got stunned, then I bombed the shit out of its belly. Then I pulled its tail, which caused it to expose its belly again, at which point I shot it repeatedly. This was fun.

So next, I have to destroy the second energy signature on this planet, which is in the Thorn Jungle. I'm looking forward to it.

One thing I don't particularly care for in this game is the Phazon system. For those who don't know, this is a process by which you can temporarily give yourself massive offensive power, at the expense of a full bar of energy. Also, when you're in this powered-up state, the system can overload, eventually killing you. Perhaps I just don't have my mind wrapped around the mechanic yet, but I find it terribly frustrating to decide when to use this. The hit your energy takes is fairly large, and the power boost lasts such a short time, that I usually try to go without it, especially if there's no nearby save point. But then, I feel like I'm wasting time needlessly. And it IS an immensely satisfying rush to activate this power and see how quickly and efficiently normally tough enemies can be plowed through. Meh, I'm sure I'll learn to enjoy this ability once I learn to gauge its practicality more precisely.

Another HUGE problem in this game is load times when opening doors to new rooms. Now, I'm a pretty patient dude, and normally I don't mind load times. The problem here is that the game does not acknowledge that a period of "load time" is taking place. I guess they wanted to avoid the stigma of the "Loading..." message, but it seems pretty fucked up to me. There were times in the game where I shot a door to open it, and then it took literally a full minute to open. That's pretty unacceptable, especially in a game like Metroid, where some doors are locked and whatnot. One time, I shot a door, and it didn't open, so I assumed it was locked to me and I went around the whole level searching for another way to progress. Eventually I discovered that the door was unlocked, but that it just didn't fucking open when I shot it. It's really annoying, and I can't believe this is such an issue in a game from the year 2007. But anyway, the rest of the game is so magnificent and beautiful that this issue much easier to forgive.

See you next time.