Metroid Prime: Federation Force Reviews
Metroid's first outing in years strips away the series' isolation and exploration for a serviceable co-op experience.
Though riddled with frustrating sequences, the campaign is fun to play through solo or with friends, and Blast Ball is a fun distraction
With or without friends, Metroid Prime: Federation Force is a slog
Metroid Prime: Federation Force plays it safe and drops the ball.
It's actually very good! A smartly-designed and surprisingly-strategic shooter best played in co-op.
Normally, I try to shy away from recommending games based on your ability to play with others, but it’s a necessity when it comes to Metroid Prime: Federation Force. If you’re planning on tackling it solo, Federation Force is a much tougher pill to swallow, with its prohibitive level of difficulty. On the other hand, if you have a friend or two who are willing to take the plunge with you, Federation Force can make for a good time, especially if you’re all playing together in the same space.
We look forward to seeing what the future of this particular spin off holds, because as it stands right now Federation Force is an impressive and solid foundation; it's more than able to satisfy hardcore Metroid fans until the inevitable return of Samus Aran.
A decent team-based shooter that will disappoint hardcore Metroid fans, but is enjoyable enough for those who don’t have lofty expectations of what this game should be.
Hidden underneath the wonky control scheme and irreverent use of the source material, Metroid Prime: Federation Force is overall a good game, held back by limitations of the console as well as bizarre design choices. Fans of FPS’s will likely enjoy not only the experimentation the game has to offer, but also the fun you will find with friends.
For the few things it does right, like some variation in the mission structure and a control scheme that makes sense (even in a hurty way), it's just not that good. For a series that has worked so hard to make a great solo experience, even—especially—in its first-person outings, it’s incredibly unbalanced with a difficulty spike I don’t think I’ve ever experienced before. And not in a challenging way, but in a “yup, I need multiple other people to cover me/back me up” way. Some of us enjoy playing FPS titles by ourselves sometimes, and I don’t want to feel relegated to a small handful of missions I might be able to work through on my own. Scaling the difficulty has been done since this genre began, so why it’s being bypassed now I have no clue.
If Metroid Prime: Federation Force is anything to go by, I am fearful of the future of the 30 year old franchise. The controls do take some getting used to on the New 3DS, but those with the standard 3DS should avoid this like the plague, due to the terribly optimised controls for that hardware. It’s certainly not fun on its own and only marginally more so with others. This is not the Metroid game we’ve been waiting for.
A co-op Metroid seemed like a bad idea from the start, but while Federation Force has its moments they’re overshadowed by sloppy implementation and bland design.
Metroid Prime: Federation Force is akin to games like LBX: Little Battlers' Experience or the Custom Robo games in that you get these powerful mechs to customize and traverse several different missions with, all the while able to bring friends to join in on the fun. It's chock full of Metroid lore, even if it's not the Metroid game you think you should have gotten after all this time. Had it been released under a different name, it'd be a perfectly serviceable mutliplayer mech adventure, but even with the Metroid name it's well worth picking up for a fun little weekend jaunt, especially if you're the type to return again and again to a game to best your previous scores and advance from there, you'll find an excellent entry in the Metroid series here.
I was holding out hope for Metroid Prime: Federation Force, but at this point, there are so many other dungeon crawlers that are worth your time. Just like Hunters on the original DS, the main questline of Federation will probably fade out of the limelight over time and become a whisper in hardcore Metroid crowds -- though I can see Blast Ball having longer legs.
Metroid Prime: Federation Force is a clever game, full of personality and with a great control scheme. But playing online without the voice chat is a real bore.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Metroid Prime: Federation Force's greatest crime was its name. Had the game not tagged itself with the moniker of one of the greatest games of all time, it could have stood on its own merits quite well. If you take all those pre-conceived notions of what a Metroid game should be and set them aside, Metroid Prime: Federation Force will easily surprise you with its quality. It's nowhere near the all time greats, but it can deliver some enjoyable moments, and will definitely entertain for some time. Just make sure you have some friends to tag along though, because the solo experience is quite a different story.
If you are planning to play Metroid Prime: Federation Force alone or even online it leaves a lot to wish for. However, with three friends playing together in the same room it can be pretty great. Just do not expect much of a “Metroid” experience.
Review in Swedish | Read full review
Metroid Prime: Federation Force is enjoyable once you learn the controls, but it feels like it was more geared towards multiplayer. The ammo capacity and mod restrictions force you to think strategically about what to take on each mission which can be both good and bad depending on how you look at it. As long as you don’t mind the exploration aspect of the series removed and replaced with linear missions, fans of the series should enjoy Federation Force.
Metroid Prime: Federation Force could have been a whole new entry in the Metroid Prime series but unfortunately its fine control system and variety of game modes (including online multiplayer) are not enough to save it from the overall lack of interest of its missions, lacklustre bosses (for the Metroid series, at least) and simply unfitting art style and visual environment.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review