We Got Our Hands on Metroid Prime 4: Beyond

It seems incredible, but Metroid Prime 4: Beyond is less than a month away from arriving on Switch 2. Announced all the way back at E3 2017 with a simple logo that sent the crowd present and those at home into a frenzy, Samus Aran's new adventure has had to overcome several obstacles before nearing its arrival on our screens. Originally in development at partner Bandai Namco Studios, the game was subsequently entrusted by Nintendo to Retro Studios, the team already responsible for previous installments, with the aim of overcoming the production difficulties that had complicated development up to that point. Obviously, at that point, work restarted from scratch, which at least partially explains why we had to wait until 2025 to get our hands on it. The wait, however, is almost over; Metroid Prime 4: Beyond is arriving on December 4th, and in recent days, we were guests of Nintendo to try it out in advance. 

Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, you again!

The first part of our test allowed us to once again tackle the mission of the attack on the Galactic Federation base, which we had already played at the Nintendo Switch 2 Milan Experience, but in a much more relaxed and calm context, and above all in handheld mode (on Switch 2). This is one of the very first phases of the game, and when we take control of Samus, the base has just been attacked by Sylux, a villain who has previously appeared in the saga: he is a sharpshooter who has a group of space pirates at his service, but above all, he viscerally hates the Federation and Samus in particular, for unknown reasons. The objective of his attack is to seize an artifact, guarded by the Federation and obviously very powerful, for purposes that are still unclear but certainly evil. 

It's the classic tutorial mission, designed to illustrate all the game mechanics and Samus's potential to new players. In these first few minutes, we only have to move through the base's corridors, open its doors, and precisely eliminate all the pirates we encounter along the way, often almost completely unaware of our presence; on several occasions, we came right behind a group of enemies engaged in a firefight with Federation soldiers: probably everything will be clearer when we play the full game. There are also sections that require switching to Samus's alternative form, the Morph Ball, which in some quick passages accompanied by some small puzzles allows us to enjoy an elevated view of the base and the ongoing clashes. At the end of a rather simple boss fight, things escalate, and as a consequence of a gigantic explosion, an anomaly engulfs everything. Even after a few months, the sensations reminiscent of Halo persist in this section.

Samus in the Jungle

We don't know much about what happened after the explosion, but in the next section of the game, we discover that Samus has lost some of her abilities acquired in a previous cut-scene at Chrono Tower, in a desert scenario, after coming into contact with a mysterious crystal. We find her in the Feral Wilds, a pleasant and alien place, populated by creatures as fascinating as they are aggressive. Our chances of survival in this decidedly inhospitable environment are linked first to the basic attack and then to the Psyche Gauntlet, an object that allows us to handle and move Psyche Objects to solve puzzles: for example, you might find pairs of statues topped by a Psyche Object to move towards the "lock" that opens a door. 

The initial part of this mission is predominantly exploratory, punctuated by ambushes from alien creatures here and there, while orienting oneself on the map and assessing the elements of the scenario to understand how to overcome the different zones where some kind of blockage prevents access to the next area. Once familiar with the Psyche Gauntlet and its possibilities, and having finally found the narrow side passage that we had missed, Samus encountered a fortuitous meeting with a Federation technician (Myles McKenzie), who had been isolated on the planet. The subsequent phase, spent in his company, proved to be more reflective and denser with puzzles, linked to the alien technology with which Samus somehow seems able to interact, and a new power-up, the Control Beam, which allows us to control the missile just fired via R, enabling it to follow much more complex paths than a straight line. At this point, however, time constraints forced us to stop, so with the desire to play Metroid Prime 4: Beyond still lingering and the awareness that we are facing a game that cannot hide its cross-gen nature (the water doesn't forgive), we refer you to the full review of the game, which you will find on our pages in the coming weeks.