Metroid Prime 2: Echoes
Main game
4.01 average rating based on 1005 ratings
- Developers
- Retro Studios
- Publishers
- Nintendo
- Franchises
- Metroid
- Series
- Metroid, Metroid Prime
- Events
- Nintendo E3 2004 Press Conference, Nintendo E3 2003 Press Conference
- Platforms
- Nintendo GameCube
- Genres
- Adventure, Platform, Shooter
- Themes
- Action, Science fiction
Release Dates
User Stats
How Long Is Metroid Prime 2: Echoes?
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tylerisrandom's review of Metroid Prime 2: Echoes
The difficulty level is frustrating and arbitrary. The world and enemies are bland to the point of blurring together. The dark world gimmick feels a lot less rewarding than it did in Soul Reaver. The story does not earn any of its uncharacteristically clumsy exposition. The exploration, puzzles and unlockables feel like "echoes" of the original.
I adore the first Metroid Prime, which is why I've tried playing this twice... once via the Trilogy, and again using PrimeHack with cheats to reduce some of my frustrations. But as badly as Echoes wants to be Empire Strikes Back, it lands much closer to RoboCop 2. Moving on!
Echoing a Classic
This is a good game. It's not a great game, but it is a good game. Never before have I played a game and felt "middle child syndrome" more strongly. The plot is entirely irrelevant to the things set up in MP1. The gameplay is largely the same only with less interesting places to visit and less interesting (and less consistently thought out) lore.
Like is there any explanation to why the Luminoth have Chozo artifacts? Why couldn't Samus just be forced to use Luminoth Artifacts? The darkworld feels like padding in a game that already feels like filler. It has the worst conveyance in any metroid game I have ever played. The Luminoth are one note, the Ing are cartoonishly dull, and the space pirates are literally irrelevant to the plot. Dark Samus feels creatively bankrupt from the super interesting Metroid Prime she came from, and compared to the SA-X lacks any narrative or gameplay heft (but dang if her final form doesn't look cool). So plot wise this game is 110% skipable and as a stand alone story it doesn't have much of anything special about it that can't be found in Prime 1 (Sans the cliffs which …
This is a good game. It's not a great game, but it is a good game. Never before have I played a game and felt "middle child syndrome" more strongly. The plot is entirely irrelevant to the things set up in MP1. The gameplay is largely the same only with less interesting places to visit and less interesting (and less consistently thought out) lore.
Like is there any explanation to why the Luminoth have Chozo artifacts? Why couldn't Samus just be forced to use Luminoth Artifacts? The darkworld feels like padding in a game that already feels like filler. It has the worst conveyance in any metroid game I have ever played. The Luminoth are one note, the Ing are cartoonishly dull, and the space pirates are literally irrelevant to the plot. Dark Samus feels creatively bankrupt from the super interesting Metroid Prime she came from, and compared to the SA-X lacks any narrative or gameplay heft (but dang if her final form doesn't look cool). So plot wise this game is 110% skipable and as a stand alone story it doesn't have much of anything special about it that can't be found in Prime 1 (Sans the cliffs which are AMAZING). In short is has all of the flaws of Prime 1 and almost no unique benefits.
So why does it still get a 4/5? Because the base on which it is built (Prime 1) is SO GOOD that even inferior copy is a DANG fun game to play. If you enjoyed Prime 1 you are likely to enjoy this (even if not as much) but if you didn't like Prime 1 I sincerely doubt this will be the game to change your mind.
Edit: After reflection i think the quality of the ending over-hyped my score....the overall experience is really a 3/5.
A good sequel
Compared to the first game this one is darker and a little bit more difficult (specially on some bosses). It maintains all the good things of
the first metroid prime while also adding some other game mechanics and powerups. As always, in the metroid series, exploration is paramount and rewarding, the level design of this game is superb for that regard. Combat is only engaging in boss fights, while normal enemies are for the most part avoidable (which should be done in most cases)
It is a compelling game and really worth playing, even today. It may be difficult for newcomers but for a metroid fan is an obligation.
nicklip__gv's review of Metroid Prime 2: Echoes
This review is for the Nintendo GameCube version
I've never felt more conflicted about a game. I absolutely adored Metroid Prime 1 - it's a masterpiece that stayed with me for years. Prime 2: Echoes, on the other hand leaves me with mixed feelings. While the fundamentals I loved about Prime are still intact, some of the design changes, although intriguing in concept, ultimately felt more frustrating than rewarding.
Dark World: Introduces interesting new monsters and environments, but navigating between worlds quickly became tedious rather than fun. Managing two separate world maps felt cumbersome, especially given how sparsely portals were placed. The repeated loading animation between worlds also quickly lost their charm. If we ever get a Switch 2 remaster, improved loading times could hopefully eliminate these interruptions.
Backtracking: Usually, I enjoy Metroid’s exploration and discovering where to go next, but in Echoes, the backtracking was too much. I often found myself stuck and tempted to use a walkthrough. The game at times, genuinely felt like it didn't respect my time. Clearer or more frequent direction could have significantly improved this.
Sky Temple Keys: Everyone mentions the Sky Temple Keys, and for good reason: they really disrupt the pacing toward the end. Hunting for keys felt unnecessary and …
I've never felt more conflicted about a game. I absolutely adored Metroid Prime 1 - it's a masterpiece that stayed with me for years. Prime 2: Echoes, on the other hand leaves me with mixed feelings. While the fundamentals I loved about Prime are still intact, some of the design changes, although intriguing in concept, ultimately felt more frustrating than rewarding.
Dark World: Introduces interesting new monsters and environments, but navigating between worlds quickly became tedious rather than fun. Managing two separate world maps felt cumbersome, especially given how sparsely portals were placed. The repeated loading animation between worlds also quickly lost their charm. If we ever get a Switch 2 remaster, improved loading times could hopefully eliminate these interruptions.
Backtracking: Usually, I enjoy Metroid’s exploration and discovering where to go next, but in Echoes, the backtracking was too much. I often found myself stuck and tempted to use a walkthrough. The game at times, genuinely felt like it didn't respect my time. Clearer or more frequent direction could have significantly improved this.
Sky Temple Keys: Everyone mentions the Sky Temple Keys, and for good reason: they really disrupt the pacing toward the end. Hunting for keys felt unnecessary and ultimately uninteresting. By the time you reach this point, the game already feels complete and satisfying; having an extra fetch quest like this adds little value and instead just dragged the experience down. Should a remaster happen, I hope the developers streamline or simplify this.
Despite these criticisms, I still felt compelled to finish the game, which is more than I can say for many others. Echoes might even be one of those rare games that’s actually better the second time around, now that I've done it once before, know roughly where I'm going and can just enjoy the gameplay loop that makes Metroid so addictive .
Ultimately, while it wasn't my favourite Metroid experience, Echoes still has its charms, and I can definitely see myself revisiting it in the future.
I don't get the hate for the Sky Temple key hunt. People say that the clues are too obtuse, but if that's a problem for you, check the Keybearer lore rather than A-Kul's clues. It's much more explicit with there keys are. That and the level design being much more cohesive makes this key hunt an improvement over Prime 1.
Me fighting all bosses except for Flaaghra in Metroid Prime 1: :(
Me fighting Metroid Prime 2's bosses up until Amorbis(thats how far I am): :))))))))))))))))
I really like Metroid Prime 2's bosses. :)
More of the same isn't a bad thing until you get into the 15th + hour of the game. Finally finished Metroid Prime 2 and it held so much frustration for me in multiple areas. Going to take an extended break and then play Corruption to finish off the trilogy.
Nearing the end and to be honest I'm keen for it to finish. Some bits are quite frustrating, some design choices annoying. I'm 15 hours in so I know I'm not too far off. I've also become aware that there's an endgame fetch quest. Was the fetch quest in Prime welcomed at the time? Is that why there's a repeat? Either way, I'm not looking forward to it.
Got up to the Spider Guardian. Had a panic attack from frustration. Good times. Honestly feels like I might not even finish the game now given that I was having such a hard time with the controls. Flicking the Wii Mote isn't as intuitive as I'd like and I missed countless jumps from it (at one point I was onto the last node but flicking the remote did nothing and by the time I used a bomb my window of opportunity was gone). The Nunchuck also doesn't feel that precise when moving the ball. After my panic attack I turned the TV off, took a break, played some guitar for an hour then came back and my heart rate picked back up and my hand started trembling. I'm actually quite amazed given that I have never had a panic attack before. I was hoping to finish Metroid today or tomorrow given how long is left in the game but the controls and puzzle have given me such a hard time I have no idea if I can now.
One thing that I absolutely loved about the first Prime game was that they added a puzzle element to the fights against the pirates with the different weapon types. Echoes goes a bit further and makes ammo for the light and dark beams only appear when the other is used. I think this is a fantastic layer added over the already intuitive puzzle/combat hybrid.
Still enjoying this game immensely. I didn't want to use a guide but it feels necessary in places given that I don't fancy spending hours backtracking and I would like to finish the game by the end of my holidays.
Level design is too good. Saw a grating with cracks in it, chalked it up to level design details and then spent 2 hours backtracking trying to find out out to progress. Broke down finally and used a guide and realised I had to use a bomb to break the grate. 10/10 level design would play (and cry) again.
Finally started playing it. Already noticing some appreciated tweaks such as objects being highlighted depending upon their scan status. Looking forward to spending the next 20 hours on Aether.
This really fills like a filler game..the light and dark world stuff is generic as heck..Dark Samus is super generic too...the Luminoth just feel like discount Chozo...the only interesting thing are the ing which aren't explored at all and feel like the corrupted twilight from Zelda... The game majorly lacks proper sign posting and save points are kept nowhere near difficult bosses. I have never been as completely lost with 0 clue where to go nor had to repeat as many sections because of death in any other metroid game. It's still fun because it's metroid but it feels like a real step down in quality from nearly every perspective from game 1 and that is a huge disappointment to me. It's still GOOD...but when everything else in metroid up to this point was AMAZING just good is shockingly disappointing by comparison. Maybe it will pick up by the end.
So I am still really enjoying this so far, but the locations are a bit more dull than the first game imo. I also find I care about the Luminoth much less than the Chozo. Game 1 felt like it was building to a grand reveal and I was uncovering a story. Game 2 feels much more...standard...so far.