Metroid Prime 4: Beyond – How a Misguided Open World Betrayed the Prime Formula
- Antal Bokor
- 8 minutes ago
- 3 min read
I’m still working on my 2025 back catalog through January, and I’m going to try to review everything that I played that I haven't written about yet. Starting with Metroid Prime 4.
I originally preordered Metroid Prime 4 way back in 2017.
I held onto that preorder all the way until the retailer purged old SKUs and canceled it in January of 2025. But when Metroid Prime 4: Beyond finally did hit store shelves, its negative buzz kept me away. Did I really want to ruin my mental image of Samus and the Metroid series with annoying Federation NPC allies and a useless open world? I mean, look at the damage Other M did to the Metroid series. The early buzz practically made it sound like Metroid Prime 4: Beyond will be the last Metroid game we’ll see in a while–and probably the last Prime game ever.
It’s too bad, because Metroid Prime 4: Beyond does have some good stuff going for it. The controls are good–it retains the Prime-style lock on mechanics while feeling like a first person shooter that is more in-line with what contemporary players might expect. Visually, it looks like a Metroid Prime game, but with more modern-ish graphics (this is debatable, I realize.) And the psychic suit looks flippin’ cool, even if the upgrades just tack on giant gems rather than adding any cool sci-fi flair to the silhouette.
But there’s a whole lot of bad, too.
The open world is probably the thing you see complained about the most. The confusion about what an “open world” game can look like is palpable. It was possible to make Prime 4 open world without having a huge open, meaningless sand pit that stands in the middle of all of the areas. The original Dark Souls, for instance, was considered “open world” back in its day, even though it has a somewhat metroidvania style way to advance through that world.
Sure, you’re not unlocking abilities to get past new obstacles, but you are overcoming obstacles to unlock new areas all the same. I was hoping that Metroid Prime 4 would be closer to this than what we got.
The biggest downside for me wasn’t the open world, however. It was the lack of innovative or new abilities. All of the abilities you have in the game are abilities you used in other games, just with a “psychic-something” moniker slapped onto it. From “psychic visor” to “psychic bombs” it seems like the developers just didn’t have any creative fuel left in their tank–or they were restricted by Metroid’s strange timeline. But I have a feeling it’s the former, because timeline inconsistencies were never a problem in Nintendo IPs before.
I know a lot of complaints were levelled at the Federation NPCs that accompany Samus on her journey. They’re not exactly scarce, but their appearances are sporadic and mostly tolerable. My problem isn’t with their characterizations, but rather the stakes they represent and fail to have any meaningful commitment to. Characters are left to die multiple times, and by the time a similar moment comes up during the game’s finale, it had no more emotional impact. I mean, spoilers, but not spoilers because the moment is done so poorly that I wish I was warned about it beforehand.
My point is, Metroid Prime 4: Beyond would have been much better with less extra, and more focus on Samus, the planet and its hazards/obstacles, and whatever cool new power-ups that can be attained. Instead you get a completely mute Samus–which feels like a huge overcorrection from her portrayal in Other M–and a whole bunch of filler that just isn’t Metroid Prime worthy. Even if we got a purely by the numbers Prime sequel it would have fared better.
Metroid Prime 4: Beyond isn’t all bad. The psychic suit is very cool looking, and I didn’t hate how the motorcycle handles–but it exists only to solve a problem the developers created: a hub world that is too big and empty to walk across. The boss fights were mostly interesting spectacles. Except for the final Sylux boss fight that was just a mess.
I think this is going to kill the Prime series for at least another decade–and that’s if it’s not dead for good. Without a Donkey Kong Bananza sized revival, which would include new and daring ideas that already run against what fans want with Metroid, I don’t see the Metroid Prime series continuing anytime soon. It was already a request by Nintendo of America, and with its troubled development culminating in a big “womp womp” Nintendo will probably steer clear of any more adventures with the Amazonian-like bounty hunter. Well, I say to that: fie!