Metroid Prime 4 review verdicts are in and fans are crestfallen: 'Not what I was expecting'

Metroid Prime 4: Beyond reviews have been published and fans have been left crestfallen at the ratings given, with one summing it up by saying "that's a big ooof".

Metroid Prime 4: Beyond is the latest instalment in Nintendo's renowned first-person acton adventure series. It's the first entry since Metroid Prime 3 released on Nintendo Wii in 2007.

The first three Metroid Prime games all have MetaCritic ratings of 90 or above. Metroid Prime has 97, Metroid Prime 2 has 94 and Metroid Prime 3 has 90.

But at the time of writing, the MetaScore for Metroid Prime 4 is down by 10 points on Metroid Prime 3. It currently stands at 80.

It seems critics have praised the game for its gameplay, how it looks, its performance and how it sounds.

But they've not been so keen on the open world connecting these different locations, saying it feels empty and enemies are not varied, the difficulty feeling a bit too easy and some of the companions being too much.

As Metroid Prime fans have been waiting 18 years for a brand new game in the series, and with expectations being lofty considering how well the original trilogy was rated, most fans are crestfallen at the current rating.

In the comments on a Metroid Prime 4: Beyond Review MegaThread in the NintendoSwitch Subreddit, gamers have been commenting with their thoughts.

One said: "Yea, as a Metroid fan I'll take an 8. Can always be worse but anyone saying waiting eight years for an 8 is at least SOME level of disappointing."

"Not what I was expecting tbh," a second declared.

A third commented: "No surprise that the bike / desert was a fumble and a poor addition to the game."

A fourth said: "That's a big ooof... And the most common points of criticism are exactly what I was worried about: too much handholding and the open desert area is a slog that drags the game down. It hurts to say this about a Metroid Prime game but this is one I'm probably not gonna get at full price. 😢"

"I'm convinced that Nintendo saw the $$ after they went open world with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and now they're trying to force it into every IP," a fifth theorised. "Mario Kart World didn't benefit from it and now Metroid..."

But not everyone is downbeat about the score.

"Looks like it's gonna settle around an 8/10 on MetaCritic," said a sixth. "I know expectations are high but people here are acting like the sky is falling. This isn't a bad score."

And another agreed: "I'd like to take a moment to remind people that 8/10 is still a very good score, it's not the end of the world if your game isn't a masterpiece."

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