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Metroid Prime 2: Echoes
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Metroid Prime 2: Echoes is the sequel to Metroid Prime, also released on Nintendo GameCube, in 2004. It was the first Metroid game to feature a multiplayer mode.
Gameplay
Metroid Prime 2: Echoes is a first-person shooter and action-adventure video game that revolves around combat, puzzle-solving, and platform-jumping. The game takes place on the fictitious planet Aether, home to a race of moth-like people called the Luminoth. Assuming the role as Samus Aran, players must navigate an expansive map of interconnected regions in order to uncover secrets, collect items, and ultimately win the game. In addition to the overworld map, there is also a parallel "dark" realm that bears a strong semblance to the light world. The atmosphere of Dark Aether is detrimental to Samus's health, but much of the damage can be negated or reduced by use of light beacons or light crystals and various suit upgrades. Exploring Dark Aether is necessary, which forces player to continually warp between the two worlds via portals in order to progress.
The heads-up display (HUD) simulates Samus's visor. Samus's health bar, weapon selection, map, radar, and visor are displayed around the edges of the screen at all times. Throughout the game the player collects various visors that change the way Samus views Aether. The Combat Visor is the default visor used for most navigation; the Scan Visor collects information on enemies and landmarks; the Dark Visor can be used to locate inter-dimensional objects; the Echo Visor makes supersonic activity and sound visible to the player.
Echoes and the original Metroid Prime are very similar in terms of controlling Samus and her weapons and visors. However, while the core gameplay remains in tact, Retro Studios modified a large number of existing elements and added quite a few new ones. Samus gradually acquires new power suit upgrades: the Dark Suit, which decreases the rate at which Dark Aether's harmful atmosphere deteriorates Samus's health bar, and the Light Suit, which eliminates that threat entirely. Additionally, new or returning weapons have been introduced to the Prime series, such as the Screw Attack.
Perhaps the most notable change is the introduction of an ammunition system. Whereas the first Prime limited only explosive ammo, Echoes implements and ammo system for its two new beams - the Light Beam and the Dark Beam - which use light and dark ammo respectively. The third new Arm Cannon upgrade, the Annihilator Beam, uses both light and dark ammo. The player initially starts out with 50 ammo slots for each weapon but can increase that clip size if they are able to locate ammo upgrades hidden throughout the game.
Plot
Mission File 02543
Samus is hired by the Galactic Federation to locate and render assistance to Federation Marines that went missing in the Dasha Region 8 days prior.[1] She arrives at Aether, the planet from which their last transmission was received, and heads for the coordinates 78.67.563. As she enters the atmosphere, her gunship is damaged by a lightning storm and she becomes effectively stranded while her ship repairs itself.[2] Continuing her search on foot, Samus discovers dead Marines scattered within a hive of indigenous creatures called Splinters. Amidst searching for survivors, she comes across a unknown biomass that reanimates many of the corpses, which engage her in combat.[3] Soon thereafter the bounty hunter comes across her twisted doppelgänger, Dark Samus. Samus pursues Dark Samus through a Portal into another dimension with a poisonous atmosphere, where she is attacked by a group of dark creatures. They steal most of her weapons and she is flung back into Aether with only her most basic suit functions and the rift disappears.
After she leaves the hive, Samus discovers the Communication Area where the Troopers attempted to set up a communications array and that atmospheric interference is scrambling outgoing distress beacons.[4] When she arrives at the GFMC Compound, where the downed G.F.S. Tyr was undergoing repairs by Force One of the squad Bravo, she finds the remainder of the troopers dead and a final report left by Captain A. Exeter.[5] In the final report, Exeter reveals that the crew was pursuing a Space Pirate frigate that crash landed on Aether after a skermish, but their ship was also damaged by a strange storm.[6] The trooper's comm systems were unable to penetrate the interference and the task force split into two divisions: one ordered to set up an Ops base and the other focused on repairing the ship.[7] Depicted in the report is some sort of dark variant of Splinters slaughtering the task force, and Samus travels to the nearby Great Temple in search of clues.
The Luminoth
There she meets U-Mos, the last remaining Luminoth sentinel. U-Mos explains that the Ing have stolen the life source of Aether - called the Light of Aether - and are hording it in their contorted Dark world. He sends Samus on a mission to recover the lost Light of Aether.
Samus ventures to several different regions of Aether: Agon Wastes, Torvus Bog, and the Sanctuary Fortress. She recovers the keys to the regions' specific temples and defeats the Ing in the parallel Dark portions of the levels. Along the way she encounters Space Pirates, who are harvesting Phazon to use to increase firepower. The pirates keep Metroids in captivity in order to test the Phazon on them.
Ultimately, Samus transfers all of the energy back to Light Aether, save for the last unit protected by the Emperor Ing itself. U-Mos gifts Samus the Light Suit and sends her back to Dark Aether one last time, where she combats the Emperor Ing. Upon acquiring the last fragment of the Light of Aether, Dark Aether becomes unstable and threatens to collapse within minutes. Samus flees from the Sky Temple and attempts to return to Light Aether, but is balked by Dark Samus, who has absorbed Phazon to critical capacity. Samus overcomes her adversary and warps back to Light Aether mere moments before Dark Aether ceases to exist. She returns to U-Mos, who has awoken the previously slumbering Luminoth. The Luminoth thank Samus, who then leaves in her repaired gunship. Should the player finish the game 100%, they are rewarded with a post-credits cutscene depicting Dark Samus reforming herself in outer space.
Multiplayer
Metroid Prime 2: Echoes was the first Metroid title to implement a multiplayer game mode. The multiplayer mode could be played with two to four people on any of six maps. There are two gameplay modes: Deathmatch (in which players fight one another until a score or time limit is reached), and Bounty (players fight and kill one another to earn coins).
Combatants control colored variations of Samus and use her powers similarly to how they appeared in the single player campaign. Several of Samus's upgrades were stripped for the multiplayer mode, but several unique and temporary power-ups were added to supplement this. These new abilities include a Death Ball mode, Hacker Mode, invulnerability, invisibility, damage boosts, and unlimited ammo. These new powers are granted to a player if that player is able to locate them on the maps.
All combatants begin the rounds with the same basic abilities:
- Arm Cannon
- Space Jump Boots
- Gravity Boost
- Boost Ball
- Morph Ball Bombs
- Spider Ball
- Dark Visor
- Grapple Beam
In addition to these, Power Bomb and Missile upgrades can be found in crates scattered across the maps. Players may also obtain the Light, Dark, and Annihilator Beams by collecting their respective tokens. All of these weapons are limited in ammo, just as they are in the single player mode.
List of the Multiplayer Maps:
- Sidehopper Station: A mix of outdoor and indoor combat. Several Kinetic Orb Cannons are on this stage.
- Spider Complex: A tight indoors arena with a Spider Ball orb in the center of the stage.
- Shooting Gallery: There is a single turret gun on the map - use the Morph Ball Bomb slot to destroy it.
- Crossfire Chaos: Small but open fighting space. A Super Missile upgrade rests in the middle.
- Pipeline: The only underwater level has an open atrium and tight tunnels.
- Spires: This level is divided by a huge pitfall. Kinetic Orb Cannons can be used to cross the chasm.
It should be noted that Pipeline and Spires are unlocked through playing and completing the one-player adventure.
Trivia
- In the PAL region, it remains the only Nintendo-published game not to be compatible with the PAL-50Hz mode, which means it cannot be played on older PAL TVs except for the Metroid Prime: Trilogy version.
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- ↑ "--- Mission File 02543 --- 8 days ago, contact with Galatic Federation trooper squad Bravo was lost.
--- Contract Agreement --- Locate Federation troopers and render assistance.
--- Data Confirmation --- Last transmission received from a rogue planet located in the Dasha region called Aether." —Samus Mission File (Metroid Prime 2: Echoes) - ↑ "Your ship has been damaged. Auto-repair function initiated." —Scan Data (Metroid Prime 2: Echoes)
- ↑ "Bioscans indicated terminated lifesigns in this trooper, and the presence of an unknown biomass with parasitic tendencies." —Logbook (Metroid Prime 2: Echoes)
- ↑ "The engineer tells me there's no way we'll get the ship's engines online, and the atmospheric interference is scrambling our distress beacon." —Trooper Log for PFC L. Brouda (Metroid Prime 2: Echoes)
- ↑ "Datecycle 07.014.2 (Cosmos) Final report, GFMC Task Force Herakles. Exeter, A.C. commanding." —Captain A. Exeter (Metroid Prime 2: Echoes)
- ↑ "While on patrol in the Dasha system, we engaged an unknown Space Pirate frigate. The enemy frigate was crippled, and it crashed on the planet Aether. We followed the Pirates, but our ship was damaged by a storm as we entered Aether's atmosphere." —Captain A. Exeter (Metroid Prime 2: Echoes)
- ↑ "Heavy magnetic activity during the storm disabled our comm systems. Upon landing, we split into two units: one to set up an Ops base, the other to repair the ship. Each unit was doing fine, no problems... ...until they appeared." —Captain A. Exeter (Metroid Prime 2: Echoes)
