Since this place is fairly small and there’s no game discussion or Metroid communities I thought I’d post a mini-rant regarding Metroid Prime 2’s lack of diegetic UI compared to the first Prime.
I just finished playing Metroid Prime Remastered on the Steam Deck (hooray for Yuzu), and then went on to play MP2 on PrimeHack.
I was kinda surprised by how in MP2 there’s no more helmet-UI for anything other than the HUD. Both the pause menu and the map screen have been replaced with just random floating windows that background-blur the game underneath, including the helmet parts of the HUD. In 1 they were basically like, the menu and map screens of Samus’ power suit, they were, with basically the exception of the settings menu (although the helmet itself probably did have some settings in-universe), actually there for Samus.
In 2 they’re just, video game menus that appear on top of the video game. Metroid Prime is one of if not the most immersive games I’ve ever played, and I’m just sad to see this not be a thing in the sequel. Haven’t played 3 yet though, and nobody knows what 4’s gonna be like, but here’s hoping it’s gonna go back to diegetic UIs 😅
I think this is a totally valid complaint and felt the same way playing MP2 when it came out. I feel that first person games in general benefit from integrating HUD elements and menus into the game world more than other genres. MP1 was a masterclass in that areas, so MP2 was surprising.
I love it when the player UI is integrated into the game world. Shame Prime 2 dropped it. I haven’t played it in coming on 20 years, so I’m wondering if I noticed that back then.
The 3D rotating menu picker is cool in concept but I can attest that it took me longer to rotate it the right way the first few dozen times I tried using it. It does make a lot of sense how they broke down the log entries by a hierarchy instead of having all “research” in one long list though.
I think Prime 3’s got the same lack of diegetic UI as Prime 2, mostly because they want to support having a mouse cursor style of control with the Wii pointer. Also they really liked hexagons when designing all the UI in that game.
I went and launched MP3 specifically to look at the UI, and actually it does have the diegetic UI! The menus and map and stuff show up inside of Samus’ helmet unlike in 2
The not in visor menu didnt bother me so much but that weird hologram style rotating around a ball type menu was tricky to navigate
Metroid Prime 3 really lacks the atmosphere of the first two Prime games, so you’re probably going to be disappointed with that one. (Still a great game though IMO)
I never had an issue with the menus in MP2. Personally I think the weird floaty rotating interface is really cool and I like it. My main problem with MP2 is the ammo system, which makes the game a lot less enjoyable to me.
Yeah, I really didn’t like the menu change. Honestly Prime 1 is the best of the series in my opinion. 2 does have some impressive boss fights though.
