One of the first things you will notice about Metroid Prime is how amazing it looks and how detailed it is. Retro Studios left nothing out! Samus's visor has plenty of effects alone, bug guts can splatter on it, steam will fog it up to the point where you can hardly see, rain drops will land on it, the HUD itself can be effect by electronic interference and can even get temporarily disrupted. There are a few more touches like that, but the Visor also has a few user initiated effects, including an X-ray visor, which allows you to see invisible enemies, and when on you can even see Samus's bones in her gun arm changing weapon modes! The Heat Visor, helps you see in the dark by giving warm and hot objects a warm colored glow, it is really pronounced when you are in a cold metal room and the only the floor that used to have lights is glowing orange. Living beings also glow, so you can see cloaked enemies, and enemies in the dark. But as with most of MP, the details are apperent, if a light source is bright enough it will overload the heat visor, forcing you to reset it by, switching it off.

The world of Tallon IV is also extremly detailed. Every room, every passage is detailed in it's own unique way, alot of the graphic models are simple but with textured details it make the world seem that much more real. And also contributing to the realness of the world are the load times, that allow you to go from one room to another with out pause, Tallon IV is just one big continuous world. The enemies also look very good, especially some of the lager ones. One of the other cool effect is one the Space Pirates, the rag-doll effect. You'll see dead space pirates tumble from hanging walkways, slide down ramps and even sickingly thud from one platform to another. It is a very real looking effect. The other effects look great as well, Samus's weapons for instance, her power beam, looks very cool and leaves a smoking barrel, complete with heat waves. The Ice beam leaves a huge icesheet on what ever it hits. MP has some of most detailed graphics on any console, if you are looking for great graphics then MP is a good place to look.

The Controls in MP have taken a bit of abuse from different people. Mostly people who think that Metroid Prime is a straight-up FPS. Which I believe it is not. If you go into this thinking the above, then you will have trouble at first. The controls are like this, the A button fires your selected gun mode, B makes Samus jump(more on this later), Y fires missles, and activates your super cannon mode. X activates the Morph Ball, allowing you to roll into small places. The Control Pad changes visor modes and the C-Stick changes Weapon modes (this can be reversed). L allows you to lock-on to enemies and then circle strafe them, you switch targets by sqeazing L. L also activates your grapple beam(in cirtain locations) and activates your scanner. R allows you to look around, and if you combine it with L holds you view point. Because of the way the game controls, most of the time you will need take cover, after you lock on to an enemy espcially, the Space Pirates, you'll want to hide behind a object for cover, only to pop out when it's clear or after you've charged a shot. If you go head on with these pirates you'll find that they are the toughest regular enemies in the game, and will probably have trouble. This is one of the things that deferentiates MP from other FPS's where you can just go mostly head on with enemies. Metroid Prime is also a fairly difficult game, but nothing that can't be worked out after a couple of deaths.

The actually gameplay is still very simular to the Metroid roots, you still search the world for E-tanks, missles, bombs and other upgrades. And even from the first person view point the game still is more of a FP-Platformer that a FPS. You will be jumping alot, and thankfully it is quite easy, you'll very rarely miss a jump and if you do it was probably your fault. Unlike other Metroids you will need to use all your weapons, some space pirates wear suits that protect them from anything but the same colored weapon. You will also need to use your Visors to their full use as well, most importantly the Scan Visor, which you will use to scan 100's of objects to gain information, unlock doors, and generally keep a log of all important info. Metroid Prime controls and plays very well once you get used to the controls.

Metroid Prime is quite the game in the terms of sound as well. The music is quite well done and fits with the Metroid theme very well. You'll hear many new tracks as well as quite a few of your old favorites remixed as well, most promently the Norfair Music from Super Metroid that plays while you are in Magmoor Caverns. The sound effects are all well done as well the shooting of Samus's weapons, the screams of the dead enemies, the effects of Samus big metal suit on landing from jumps, walking and even the hiss of your jet boosters when you Space Jump. There are also tons of other ambient noises that you hear as you walk through the world.

Metroid Prime is Metroid almost perfectly realised in a first-person view. There are a few classic Metroid moves that where left out because the just wouldn't work in the FP perspective, namely the Wall-jump and spinning spacejump and Screw attack. But only hardest of core Metroid fans will hate MP for missing those things, every other fan should enjoy this game as well, just don't go in expecting a cookie-cutter FPS and you'll enjoy Metroid Prime.

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