Topic: Games like Metroid Prime

I can come up with a fair number of good 2D metroidvania titles off the top of my head, but I'm drawing a blank when it comes to Prime-like games. The games that more closely gave me a similar experience, if only at times, were immersive sims. The Half-Life, Portal, Deus Ex, BioShock and Dishonored series. Still, as great as those titles are, the similarities were mostly superficial. Since I don't think there's anything quite like Prime, I'm willing to settle for something similar. I'm looking for the following:

• First person perspective
• Exploration of an open environment
• Sci-fi roots
• Eerie atmosphere
• Low-key, non-intrusive narrative (environmental storytelling and/or logbook entries)
• Any degree of combat, from Doom to Proteus

I've seen people recommend titles like PowerSlave/Exhumed, Strife (1996) and Hard Reset, but I have little to no knowledge of those titles. The new Prey might do the work too, and maybe No Man's Sky as well. Does anyone know of more titles?

@MarcelRguez You should seriously consider playing System Shock 2.

@Ralizah Can't believe I forgot that one, considering BioShock was the one that approached that Prime feel the most for me.

I tried getting into SS2 a couple of years ago, but it hasn't aged that gracefully, to be honest. Still, it might be the time to give it another chance. Thanks for the reminder, it's a great recommendation.

@MarcelRguez You might also consider waiting for System Shock 3, which is actually in development right now. Might be up your alley.

Almost nothing is actually like it. Just play Half-life 2 because it's incredible, and ignore the very weak comparison.

@Ralizah I'm keeping my eye on it, since Warren Spector is involved. Seems like it's still a long way off, they've just entered pre-production. I'm tempted to wait for the remake of the first one so I can play the series in order. Not sure when that one might come out, but I'd imagine sooner than later.

@Dezzy I refuse to believe that. This is an incredibly derivative industry, there has to be something.

What about walking simulators? I've heard Event 0 is good.

The new Tomb Raider games are the closest you're going to get to Metroid Prime Trilogy in the AAA space. They have the metroidvanian progression, female protagonist, and survival theme; but they're ultimately their own thing. Different to Metroid, they're third-person shooters in part, and loot / craft survival games in another.

There's nothing quite like Prime, but ReCore gave me a lot of Metroid Prime vibes. That game was pretty awesome, I don't care what anyone says.

And probably because it was so similar to Prime (such as backtracking) it got dinged for it in this modern era. But ya, play ReCore.

@Haru17 I've played the first one in the new series. While I liked it, it didn't give me Prime vives at all. Way too different in terms of setting, theming and aesthetics.

@JaxonH ReCore I hadn't considered, mainly because of the third-person perspective. I thought performance issues were the main point of criticism, were they not?

In any case, I'm adding it to the list, thanks. This reminded me that I haven't played any Turok games; I'm guessing something of Retro's core design traits might be present there.

@MarcelRguez
Eh, loading took a tad long, but aside from that the game ran flawlessly.

And it gave me a TON of Prime vibes, I even went on a spiel over on PushSquare forums about how similar the games were in so many respects. But the lock on combat and slower bullets that homed in really set the tone. It felt like Prime combat through and through. Think the backtracking wasn't popular with reviewers in this modern era, and I wonder if Prime released now if it wouldn't be similarly attacked for it.

My brother watched me play and liked it so much he decided to buy an X1 just to play ReCore (I'm sure other games helped but this was the one that pushed him over, nevermind the fact I snuck in and bought on for him instead since it was close to Christmas).

People don't derive from all genres equally.

Arkham Asylum has a lot in common with metroidvania style games.

While it doesn't quite hit all the marks you have, MegaMan Legends has always given me a Metroid-vibe. It has exploration with its underground dig sites (complete with eerie atmosphere!), hidden items to find that you turn into weapon and/or armor upgrades, and just overall is a blast to play through!

@MarcelRguez if you have a way to play wii games I highly recommend dead space extraction. It got mediocre reviews at the time due to not being a typical dead space game but it's quite good and ticks all of the boxes. In the us you can get a new copy for about 10 bucks. Personally I think it's as good as the weakest mainline prime game. That's still pretty friking good. Don't listen to the negative Nancy's and you'll enjoy it.

I'm just going to provide a list of qualified to edge-cases.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl/Call of Pripyat: Semi-open world survival horror FPS games (immersive sims, but foremost aspects are compared to these genres). They take place in a weird alternate-universe version of the Chernobyl exclusion zone where a second nuclear meltdown and other elements have riddled the area with mutants, physics anomalies, and other unusual elements. It also has some conspiracy-esque (think Project MK Ultra) aspects to it.

Fallout (3/NV/4): I imagine you know enough about these already. Post-nuclear apocalypse wasteland with heavy retrofuturistic theming. Technically the games are open-world-ish FPS WRPGs.

Dead Space 1: While the later two games emphasize the action and story moreso, my understanding is that the first game's story isn't too heavyhanded in its delivery. Of course, it's a survival horror TPS.

(I'll be adding more, but these are a few games that are generally liked in the "immersive sim" fan community. And for the record, Half-Life and Portal aren't considered Immersive Sims at all. Half-Life is generally classified as a "thinking man's shooter", take that for what you will, but not a Immersive Sim, and doesn't really fit into that category at all. As best I can describe the criteria for an Immersive Sim, it is a game which was designed to be heavily systems-based, typically simulating many real-world systems and placing a heavy emphasis on player agency. Typical elements of Immersive Sims are large, sprawling levels, problems with multiple solutions (which are not necessarily intended by the developer, but are rather a result of the many interactions in the game's systems), and multiple approaches/playstyles (aggressive/combative and stealth being one of the most common, with varied toolsets for each playstyle as well). Basically, if the game shares DNA with System Shock (or one of Looking Glass Studios' other games), there's a reasonable chance it'll be classified as one.)

@MarcelRguez Well, considering that you already know about Bioshock and Dishonored, all I can think about is:

Dying Light. It's an open world with eerie atmosphere, however it's the classic zombie game and you may consider it's narrative a bit intrusive. It's really fun to play though, specially if you explore with a friend, but I guess that would mess the eerie feeling.

Resistance games. They aren't open world, but they do have the eerie atmosphere and sci fi theme. Story is a bit intrusive, but entertaining.

I think there's a Far Cry game that came out with an 80s sci fi vibe, named Blood Dragon or something like that. I haven't played it but I heard good things about it. Nothing eerie abut it from what Iv'e seen though, since as I said it looks like an 80s sci fi movie, completely focused on action and no suspense.

Maybe the Metro games? Haven't played them either but from what I know they have survival horror and first person shooter elements. Same with S.T.A.L.K.E.R.

Or any open world shooter after eating mushrooms or tripping on acid

@JaxonH Sounds good. Hopefully I'll be able to get it on sale at some point.

@PanicPuppet92 MML is another one of those series that I always think about playing but never actually do. With that said, these third-person recs have lower priority than first-person ones on my list. There's a bigger chance for those games to 'click' with me in the same way Prime did.

@faint Dead Space Extraction and the original are the only Dead Space titles I enjoy. I wouldn't say Extraction ticks all the boxes, though, since it's on rails. Nevertheless, I agree, it's genuinely great.

@SomeBitTripFan I thought STALKER was a straight FPS with splashes of horror here and there. That's great, another one consider. Fallout I know very well. Have played both 3 and New Vegas to death, but I have little interest in 4. And about your addendum, I don't disagree with your definition at all, but since I've seen many people talking about those games as borderline cases of immersive sims and I had already played them, I decided to include them so people had a broader idea of what I'm looking for.

@roy130390 Lots of open world recommendations there. The thing is, the more focus on the open world feature the game has, the less Prime-like it feels to me. It's a bit difficult to explain, but the map design in Prime is much more focused, more constrained. It's the reason I didn't list Fallout games on the OP, they're not corridory enough. A quick search tells me the Metro games don't feature an open world, I'll keep an eye for them, thanks.

@JaxonH I definitely remember performance issues being the main point of criticism but of course most reviewers don't return back to their reviews if updates fix or largely improve the situation. So like for example if a Mario Kart 8 Deluxe review was negative due to no new race tracks compared to the Wii U version, the reviewer likely wouldn't update their review if say a free update added a few new cups hence the damage is already done.

Which is why it's helpful to have other sources than just reviews. Whether that's demos, people you actually know who have played the game or even communities like here.