Entry 017: "Metroid: Other M" Pt 2

Dear Internet,

                "Metroid: Other M" does not fail my further continued expectations.  What I mean by that is the story continues to get worse.  The character of Samus continues to spiral down into mediocrity, or even worse stupidity.  Two quick examples occur that paint her as such.  One occurs when she meets a larva Metroid to her surprise, not ours.  There was enough foreshadowing to paint a barn, so it really comes as no shock.  What does come as a shock is Adam firing at Samus just as the Metroid is about to attack her.  When asked why he says, "You can't destroy these Metroids."  He says it like it is an excuse for attacking Samus, which really just paints him further as a jerk as I have told you about, Internet.  If he really is playing as a double-agent, which is yet uncertain since this story likes to pull 180s sometimes right after another, then at least an ulterior motive would make more sense than half cooked up reasons.  What makes it worse is that Samus accepts this as an answer.  She could have killed the small Metroid with ease, which is shown by how Adam kills it.  Adam could still have told Samus about the new breed of Metroid without making her suit power down.  Instead, what happens is he forced her suit to power down so he could go on an apparent suicide mission.  But the story is not done, so he might turn out OK.

He shot her on a hunch?

                The other thing that marks a flaw against the "Other M" Samus is her hesitation against the reborn Ridley, a space dragon for all intents and purposes.  When he appears, Samus recalls a moment in her childhood when the creature attacked her people.  What makes this all around silly is that she has already  fought him two to three times depending if you count a robot version.  Making her still trying to overcome a childhood trauma that she has already faced numerous times discounts the personal growth that would have already occurred.  Pushing character development and personal growth is something that this game bleeds of.  However, by not taking Samus as she had already been presented before causes the game to cherry pick what it wants out of her.  "Other M" wants Samus to be both frail and hardened, but it fails in its delivery.  A character cannot display bravery without having fear.  Samus takes a step back because she allows her fear to seep back despite repeatedly confronting it already.   

                Internet, perhaps I have been overly negative so far with this game.  I have only been talking about the story and how it comes across as a poor man's fan-fiction.  The game play is something completely different.  The basic controls are simple but stress highly upon the skill of the player.  Third person perspective segments have a fixed camera for each room and mostly prevent awkward camera angles.  First person segments are entered with a twist of the wrist by pointing to the screen, which makes Samus stay still while firing which creates an awkward transition.  The platforming is well done with only a few questionable jumps presented.  There are a few puzzles whose solutions are less obvious mostly due to little to no hints given and really dark rooms, but the latter might be my brightness settings set too low.  The enemies are merciless.  I found myself time and time again having to retry bosses in this game, but they never once felt broken.  Instead, they were based upon the tested and true pattern formula.  The player has to learn how to fight them, in my case through trial and error.  

                "Other M" will continue for at least one day more.   That means more whiney Samus, more terrible narration, and more terrible plot.  Is everything going to be a clone?  Metroids get cloned.  Ridley gets cloned.  Space pirates get cloned.  This better be a cloned Samus if the story wants to redeem itself with its liberal use of a overly emotional bounty hunter.  Oh, yes, internet, before I forget.  Let us keep to a minimal Samus' decision to nickname the mysterious assassin "the Deleter."  Was being an assassin not good enough?  Traitor is a strong enough word already.  Why give a nickname that sounds like a ten year old would make?  Frankly, Internet, I do not care.

                Also, crappy story prediction, Madeline is the AI program Mother Brain.  Why do I say this?  She has the same initials.  I hope I'm wrong.

Yours in digital,

BeepBoop