Metroid Prime 2: Echoes is an action-adventure game in which the player controls the protagonist Samus Aran from a first-person perspective. it takes place in an open-ended world with interconnected regions. Gameplay involves solving puzzles to uncover secrets, platform jumping, and shooting enemies. Progress requires both dimensions to be explored, using power-ups that Samus acquires over time. Equipment players collect include the Screw Attack, which allows Samus to somersault in midair and off certain surfaces, and new beam weapons that have limited ammunition.[1]
The head-up display simulates the inside of Samus's helmet and features a radar, map, missile ammunition meter and health meter.[2] Several visors are available, and each performs a different function. One, also seen in the previous game, is a scanner that searches for enemy weaknesses, interfaces with mechanisms such as force fields and elevators and retrieves text entries from certain sources. The others reveal and highlight interdimensional objects or cloaked enemies, and create a visual representation of sound.[3]
Echoes features the parallel dimensions Light Aether and Dark Aether; changes in either dimension often reflect changes in the other. Although the maps in both dimensions have the same general layout, rooms often vary in their designs, creatures, and objects. Dark Aether's atmosphere is caustic and damages Samus's Power Suit, requiring the player to move between "safe zones" that allow Samus's health to slowly regenerate. Safe zones are either permanent, or need to be activated by firing certain beam weapons at force field generators.[4] Power Suit upgrades can reduce or nullify damage caused by the atmosphere.[5]
Echoes also features a multiplayer mode that allows up to four players to engage in combat using a split screen. It has six arenas and two modes: Deathmatch, in which players attempt to kill their opponents as many times as possible within a set amount of time; and Bounty, which focuses on collecting coins that injured characters drop.[6] Multiplayer in Echoes features the same control scheme as the single-player mode, including the lock-on system for circle strafing while targeting.[7]
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