Below is a detailed breakdown, or walkthrough if you will, of the entire
Metroid Prime demo shown at E3.
The Intro Cut Scene
The demo starts off very simply with a shot of Tallon IV, a multi-environment planet. The camera then pans to the Space Pirate ship. It sits there for a couple seconds, when Samus' helmet shaped craft flies comes in from the side of the screen and heads for a landing area on the Space Pirate ship. The scene changes to the landing pad and her ship lands. She rises from a pad on the top of her ship. The camera moves to her as she jumps to the platform below her. Her chest plate moves up and down as the camera spins around to the back of her helmet before the gameplay starts.
The Main Level
Now we get to the actual demo gameplay. This part flows fluidly from the intro cut scene and you're outside on the platform. Tallon IV can be seen if you look into space and there's a force field right in front of you with 4 lights, all of which are red. Lock onto the lights one after another and shoot them to turn them green. When all 4 are green, the force field collapses and you can proceed. If you look to your left, there's another force field, but the lights have no colour. If you try shooting them, nothing happens. Solution? If you go back a few steps, there's an icon on a panel that you can scan. Once you scan it, there's a cut scene that shows Samus looking over at the force field and the light turn red. This panel has 6 lights. Lock onto and shoot the 4 bottom ones, then free look up with R. While using free look, you can lock onto the remaining higher up lights and shoot them to turn them green. Just like before, the force field collapses. You jump up to the platform, head up a ramp and then take a right turn and you'll be facing a door. At this point, you've got a couple choices, shoot a few asteroids (which you can't lock onto by the way) or head inside.
Once you've blasted a few asteroids outside, shoot the door and it'll open. Of course, you have to be in close proximity to open it. Otherwise, you'd be able to see what inside from a distance. When you first enter, a couple of little creatures known as Parasitic Larva scatter out of the way. This happens in plenty of places during the demo. They don't attack you during these parts because they are harmless in small numbers. If you do manage to hit one though, it'll splatter into green innards and hit you in the face, covering your visor. As you head through the corridor, there are little sparks flying and things hanging from the ceiling. Obvious signs of damage. There's actually a little spot that you can scan on the side of the wall that says that the ship is currently in an evacuation process. As you head through the next door, you'll notice a few metal pieces floating in front of you. There's also a force field active. Scan a panel near the force field to repressurize the area. Once you do this, those bits of metal that used to be floating will drop to the ground and the force field will deactivate, allowing you to proceed. You then walk into an open room with some flaming wreckage and a gigantic dead creature, later revealed to be a Parasitic Queen. As you walk through the room, around the queen, you'll head past the fire. As you walk past, you'll notice your "Environment Hazard" meter going up. If you get too close, it'll get really high and you'll actually start to take damage. It's quite obvious that the queen forced her way in. There are definite holes in the wall and there's a near-dead Space Pirate alien lying on the ground. He'll start shooting at you but probably wont hit. Just finish him off, then collect the health that comes in the form of floating, little, purple spheres with black bands around them. Head through the door.
When you walk into the corridor, you'll notice that your path is completely blocked by some rubble. This is the first time you'll need your charge option. Just hold down the A button until your power beam is fully charged. Now you can let it go. The blast actually distorts the view in front of you as the shot heads toward the rubble. It hits the rubble and clears it out easily. Now would be a good time to mention the lighting effects of the charged up blast. If you walk up to a good solid wall, charge up your power beam and take a shot, Samus' face will actually be reflected in the visor (shown
here and
here). Once you clear the rubble, you'll notice a door right in front of you. But if you look on the right side, there's a small hole on the bottom of the floor. Hit X to change into the morph ball and go through. You'll end up in a little room where you can collect the
map. If you're curious, the highlighted area of that map is where you've been so far and the map was collected in the little room at the top that looks out of the way. Roll out and change back into Samus form. Head through the door and you'll end up in an elevator. Scan the panel to activate it and enjoy the ride down. When you reach the bottom after a few seconds, you'll head through a few more doors. Eventually, you'll make it to a part where there's rubble everywhere in front of you. Unfortunately, there's too much to blast. What's a bounty hunter to do? Change into morph ball form of course. But be careful, the spot before you enter has an electrical current going off and on before the hole. Time it right and then roll on through.
After you get through the small area, change into Samus form and head through the door. You'll enter a room with a gigantic tank containing another Parasitic Queen. There are two Space Pirates in there, one of which is near-death (like the other open room you were previously in) but the other one is fairly alive. According to a scan, he's suffered some brain trauma, causing his accuracy and intelligence to be lowered, but he can still shoot and hurt you. Take him out and make your way for the next door. Take out the auto-defense gun that's around the corner, probably best to just use a charged shot. There's a door just beyond the auto-defense gun. When you walk in, there's a panel right to the left of you. If you scan it, the auto gun that's in the other part of the room will be deactivated. Or you can just walk passed the tank to shoot the gun. To the right of the gun is a lift that can be activated by scanning a panel. Head on up and kill off 4 Space Pirates (2 of which are near death). Head through a corridor, then proceed into a room where there's an auto gun. After you destroy it, you'll notice that there's an elevator in front of you, but it's glass and runs down at an angle. Scan the panel to activate it and hop in.
As soon as the door opens and you walk into the open room, a Space Pirate jumps down and attacks you. Unlike the previous Space Pirates, this one isn't suffering from brain trauma. He'll hit you most of the time and actually jump around strategically. He can use the walls to jump off of too. Once you've taken him out, scan the panel. A morph ball shaped hologram will appear in the centre of the room. Change form, roll in and the massive door will unlock. The next room is exactly the same with two minor differences. First, there are two auto-defense guns instead of a Space Pirate. Second, there's a small door on the left. What's inside? A save point. It obviously wasn't usable at the E3 demo, but it's nice to know it's there. Scan the panel and do the morph ball thing again. The massive doors will open in front of you and you can head on in.
The Boss Battle
Samus walks into a giant circular room. As the atmosphere changes, so does the music. Things become brighter and the music tempo picks up. The unreachable
centre shaft of the circular room comes into view and a crying roar is heard. The
Parasitic Queen climbs down with green coloured acid dripping out of her mouth. The camera will move in behind Samus' helmet and take you to the first person view. Now would be an excellent to start scanning the beast while strafing, because she will start attacking. Switch back to your combat visor and now you can lock onto the weak spot, her head. You can actually beat her by not scanning, but having the weak spot information makes life much easier. You also get a life bar for the queen. While strafing, you have to dodge the queen's steady attacks of green acid. They'll blast out at you from her mouth. You can jump it most of the time, but just changing directions works best. A limited number of force field blocks are set up to protect the queen, as shown
here. Sometimes the blocks will be flying around the circular area on a horizontal plane, one line on top of the other, leaving very little to shoot at. You might get lucky and hit the queen through a hole, but more than likely, your shots are just going to bounce off the force field and hit something else (most likely the upper wall behind you). This keeps up for a bit, but eventually, the blocks will line up to form two giant semi-circular columns. This leaves two giant vertical slots open. The blocks are still moving, but there are ample amounts of room for you to shoot if you're lined up correctly. Use these times to fire off as much as you possibly can. She'll eventually die and fall to the bottom of the shaft while things are exploding all around her.
The Escape
The camera will fly around behind you and go into first person view. You'll notice a little timer at the bottom of the screen. You've got 6 minutes to escape before everything goes kablooie. Open the door in front of you and head into the corridor. You'll hop up a couple of platforms and then head through another door. Walk in and activate the elevator. Then when you exit, take out the auto gun in front of you. Enter the next room and you'll see some Space Pirates around and a giant hibernating Parasitic Queen. Suddenly, everything explodes, killing the Space Pirates. The Parasitic Queen will fall out of her hibernating chamber and die over the edge of the now broken glass encasing. Beyond the chamber is a spot that you can hop up to the upper level in the room. At the top is a Space Pirate that you can take out easily from the lower level. Once dead, he'll fall over the edge and land on the ground below. Grab the health, head on up and make your way to the other corner of the room. Another Space Pirate will be standing there, shoot it and advance towards the wall. A wall will explode, making an opening into a small corridor. Jump up and change into morph ball mode.
For a little bit, you'll be rolling through corridors with large groups of Parasitic Larva swarming towards you. Now that they're in large numbers, they will indeed attack and hurt you. Most of this time will be spent going down, but eventually you'll reach a spot where you start going up when you get passed a point where you have to use a morph ball bomb to get through a blocked door. This is where most people died in the demo. They rolled right into the room in front of them and were blasted by the auto guns. The simplest (and best) thing to do is to change forms
before you head in. Lock onto one gun, take it out and then move to other side of the corridor and take out the other one. Head through a couple more doors until you reach a blue coloured, open room. Now you'll get to try out the grapple beam. A little icon will appear, press L and the beam will activate. You'll go flying across the gap in first person view until another icon appears. Hit L again to release and start off on the next one then release again when you've crossed the gap. In the demo, it didn't matter if you fell into the gap or not, you could just jump out. Walk in through the door in front of you and scan the panel to disable the auto gun. Walk through the next door, scan the panel in front of you and step into the elevator. A little cut scene will show Samus looking around as she ascends in the elevator and then you'll be told that the Space Pirate ship has been destroyed and how long it took you to complete the demo. The average time went from anywhere between 8-14 minutes, depending on whether it was your first time or not.
