Along with today’s Overview Trailer, the gaming press have shared their impressions of Metroid Prime 4: Beyond after having the chance to play over an hour of it at events last week. They played on Nintendo Switch 2, first doing the Tanamaar invasion sequence we’re very familiar with at this point, and then finally getting to try out Viewros. Rolling Stone implies that between the Tanamaar incursion and Samus’s arrival on Viewros, there is some story set-up, but Nintendo prohibited any details of that from being disclosed.

The segment the press played represents the first 90 minutes of the game, after Samus arrives in the Fury Green jungle area of Viewros. She encounters a nervous Federation specialist, Myles MacKenzie, who she has to defend from a group of vicious creatures, and acquires the Psychic Glove ability.

You have to shoot down the vines holding up the ship MacKenzie’s standing on top of to rescue him. For saving MacKenzie, he rewards you with the Missile upgrade. IGN‘s Logan Plant had concerns about MacKenzie becoming a tagalong companion, which would break from the isolation we expect from Metroid. MacKenzie seems to have something to say about everything when you’re with him, which Logan found annoying. If a soldier is downed in battle, you need to use your Psychic abilities to heal them, or else it’s a Game Over. You can reload from your last save or checkpoint.

Once you acquire the Control Beam, you don’t have to escort MacKenzie anymore. The demo ended with the fight against Carvex, which rewards the Bomb. You can use your Psychic Abilities to turn Bombs into Psychic Motes for use in puzzles. Samus will need five Master Teleporter Keys to escape Viewros, the first of which is rewarded shortly after. MacKenzie restores communications and asks Samus to return to base camp, where he tells her that Viewros is an uncharted planet that could be anywhere.

Logan was impressed by the visuals and gameplay. He noted that Nintendo didn’t give them the chance to try Vi-O-La, the new bike that some fans have expressed consternation over. Logan was less taken by the Psychic puzzles and animations, at least from what he played, though he expected they would be more engaging as the game went on. There’s another glimpse of the crawling worm creature seen in the Survive trailer, who some fans thought could be Kanden, but this footage disproves that. It’s simply another creature.

According to Nintendo Life‘s Alex Olney, Samus will lose her abilities at the start of Beyond, because of course she will. You can’t hurt MacKenzie either, and Alex tried. From their footage, we can see that the in-game Inventory includes your item percentage and elapsed in-game time. That’ll be useful for  speedrunners. He praised the graphics, and was also annoyed by MacKenzie, but complimented Samus for not responding to his annoying quips at all apart from a single nod. Although Alex didn’t get to try Sol Valley, the desert area where you ride Vi-O-La, he likened it to Hyrule Field.

Polygon‘s Ari Notis, VGC‘s Andy Robinson, Eurogamer‘s Alex Donaldson, Engadget‘s Nathan Ingraham and Gizmodo‘s Kyle Barr, Mashable‘s Alex Perry, TheGamer‘s George Foster all shared in the criticism of MacKenzie’s role, and Gaming Bible‘s James Lynch is concerned it won’t live up to the hype. Many of them have expressed concern that the game is a departure from what makes Metroid appealing: the sense of isolation, while expressing that the gameplay is very familiar to those who’ve played Metroid Prime before. Many of them also likened MacKenzie’s humor to a Marvel Cinematic Universe character.

More positive impressions came from GameSpot‘s Steve Watts,  MobileSyrup‘s Brandly Shankar, Tom’s Guide‘s Tony Polanco, GamesRadar‘s Ashley Bardhan,  Checkpoint Gaming‘s Charlie Kelly, Game Informer‘s Eric Van Allen, CG Mag‘s Philip Watson, GoNintendo‘s Quence, ScreenRant‘s Kyle Gratton, T3‘s Max Freeman-Mills, Restart‘s Jesse Vitelli, .

Keep in mind, the press only played a slice of the introduction. MacKenzie will not be with you all throughout Beyond, and there will still be a feeling of isolation for most of the adventure.

This is a developing story…