Fans of Metroid threw up their hands in agony when the next game in the Metroid Prime series was announced at E3 2015. It wasn’t the next chapter of the story of Samus Aran, but a FPS game starring the galactic police force of the world.
There’s no Samus, just box-shaped police officers in armor blasting stuff.
So it was understandable when Federation Force was met with fan ire; it also didn’t help that the demo available at E3 was not the full experience, but just a mini-game called Blast Ball that’s just soccer with guns.
But at PAX East, Nintendo had a working demo of Federation Force and we got our hands on the game. Here’s some information that prospective players should know:
1. Gameplay is very smooth
The controls of Federation Force are simple and harken back to past Metroid Prime games. There’s a lock-on button to allow for some accurate and quick shooting, and even the different power weapons like Missiles are easily accessed.
Nintendo 3DS players will have an easy time navigating through the buttons and if you’ve played a lot of Metroid Prime, the control schemes are exactly the same. While locking on to an enemy, you can strife the side like Samus did in Metroid Prime to avoid incoming attacks.
In that regard, even though there’s no Samus it feels like a Metroid Prime game.
There are times when you are forced to use the motion control of the 3DS to attack certain weak points on a boss but it worked pretty seamlessly.
2. Playing with friends will be what makes Federation Force the most fun
There are three game modes. There’s a campaign mode that your character will have to go solo and complete missions. There’s a local multiplayer (the mode that was demoed at PAX East) where up to four players can go on a single mission.
The demo mission took your team into a compound where you navigated through while fighting some security bots and then find a boss.
Having local multiplayer will make Federation Force a blast to play. Going to different maps and talking to your friends while mowing down enemies gives the experience of playing a game like Destiny with a living room full of friends.
You can yell at a friend who is going the wrong way or yell out when you need some quick healing.
On that note, I wish there was a better way to navigate through maps. Some of the Nintendo employees (who happened to be on our team) were constantly telling us to follow Player 1 so there’s that.
I’m curious to see how Online Play works and if you can talk to your team, but I highly doubt it, knowing the way Nintendo tends to do things.
3. Nostalgic, old-school graphics
There’s plenty of gameplay footage of Federation Force online, so you should know how the game looks. And while it doesn’t utilize the engine of the Nintendo 3DS to the extent of games like Fire Emblem and Monster Hunter, Federation Force has a nostalgic feel to it.
Your character’s boxy look and the way the environments are rendered made me feel like I was playing the first Metroid Prime on the GameCube. That may sound sacrilegious, but that was my initial thought while playing.
4. Promising RPG-style customization and gameplay elements
Federation Force is not just a FPS game; it also has a bit of an RPG element to it. You’ll notice when playing that you can mod your character with different attributes and weapons. While the PAX East demo didn’t have any mod options to look through, you do find them while completing missions in all game modes.
We also learned that all the mods you pick up during your solo campaign run, or in local multiplayer, will stay with you even if you die.
And with four players to a team, the job of each character can vary. You can have a healer, a tank and so on, theoretically, and I can’t wait to explore this aspect in the future.
Overall, Metroid Prime: Federation Force gets a bad rap for not being the Metroid game fans wanted. However, taken for what it is, the game may be a surprise hit for fans of the franchise and those new to the series.
I was pleasantly surprised with the game and would definitely recommend giving it a chance.
