Did not enjoy as much as the first prime. The ammo system really rubbed me the wrong way. It was most annoying when you needed ammo to go through a door but it also felt like a lazy attempt to make prime 2 more like an fps than a metroidvania. Speaking of metroidvanias, The dark world mechanic made it very difficult to find where to go next, as it essentially doubles the map size for backtracking. Personally, I found it more annoying than innovative. Finally, the implementation of some things felt janky and/or there to be there. Screw attack was cool initially, but it does not work well in 3D, and the sonar puzzles were irritating when you had limited ammo for the annihilator beam and shots didn't always register. The third jump underwater was super underused and just kinda existed. Also, why did they multiply the chozo artifacts as dark/light keys!?

I finished with 86% and I don't have the compulsion to try for completion unlike most metroidvanias I've played. Prime 2 is a genuinely good game with issues that I personally cannot get past, but finishing it was worth the experience.

I think this is a pretty hot take, but Echoes has to be one of my least favorite Metroid games. They just took the worst thing from Metroid Prime (Chozo Artifacts) and made it the main progression tool, not good. The second world is just a lazy way to double the smallest Metroid world since the NES days (with the terrible health losing system ruining exploration), the zones are not meaningfully interconnected and look almost the same, the power ups are not very inspired and the story is just the Chozo all over again but as insects. The best thing about it is just how good it captures Samus' personality and huge heart.

Prime 2 improves on nearly every problem I had with the original... but not without cost.

Once again, the environment design is stellar; every area is atmospheric and well realised, from the dank and mossy Torvus Bog, to the arid, pirate-infested Agon Wastes, to the dusty sprawling web of the Temple Grounds, and topped off by the incredibly striking Sanctuary Fortress.

The world design and structure is, in my opinion, a major improvement over its predecessor. Every area makes effective use of loops and branches to cut down the time spent backtracking, without significantly reducing world size. Prime 2 also doesn't ask you do remember all four areas (and their Dark counterparts) at the same time; progression within an area is mostly restricted to that area (aside from the Seeker Missiles and Power Bomb, an unfortunate callback to Prime 1's ping-ponging). Finding the area's Temple Keys within an area is a great non-linear exploration challenge too, and the interconnectedness of the whole world... ungh. Prime 2 utterly spoils Prime 1 in that regard, to the extent that I would honestly consider making a cheat code or a mod that makes Prime 1 as seamless to traverse.

But alas, not all was fixed. Smaller things first: boss design is generally improved, but it's a higher highs & lower lows situation. Quadraxis is the go-to, and potentially the best and most interesting boss in the whole Prime trilogy, making use of a wide array of upgrades. But on the other hand... Chykka, Grapple Guardian, Emperor Ing... what went wrong in playtesting? Who wasn't bored to tears by these bosses?

Next, the Dark world. I like this concept and I think from an exploration point of view, it's fairly well realised. The radiation damage makes the early game feel very oppressive, instilling a fear of the Dark that will stick with you even after you become resistent and then immune to the damage entirely. But, in the end... it's not really utilised much. Puzzles that are "split between dimensions" are really just "what is the fastest/easiest way to get to the opposite dimension" challenges. I think this could've been explored more if Prime 2 wasn't afraid to make you remember part of a puzzle solution, or if the Gamecube was capable of switching between Light and Dark much more quickly.

And now... the Sky Temple Key hunt. These MacGuffins are scattered around the whole world, and the kicker is that even if you know where they are (there are Keybearer corpses that mark their locations), you can't pick any of them up until you have the Dark Visor, which you get from Chykka. Thanks Chykka. Even then, only 3 of the 9 are available at this point; 1 of 9 is gated behind Power Bombs and the last 5 are locked behind the final upgrade.

Now, in all fairness, this MacGuffin hunt wasn't as painful as it initially seemed it would be. 9 is nicer than 12, and backtracking to get them is only moderately tedious thanks to the fairly gratuitous hints (again, Keybearer corpses are in the Light equivalents of the Dark room that the key will be in, and you can get hints for all the keybearer's locations in the Seeker Missiles room). But it plus the bland Emperor Ing fight meant Prime 2 trailed off a tad unceremoniously for me. Thank goodness the surprise Dark Samus boss was straightforward and decent.

All in all, I think Prime 2 was both a good game and a good sequel, fixing many issues with the series' first entry whilst also standing on its own.

I feel about Prime 2 what the rest of the world feels about Prime 1. I adore this game. It's everything the first game did done better. Near perfect sequal. I'll admit that the endgame key hunt is still kinda lame, but that's it. The scan system is better. The combat is better. the story is better. The atmosphere is gloomy yet engrossing. Running through the dark world while hopping from safe point to safe point is just so cool. And the way the world is connected is just so much more convenient than in the previous game (I'm sorry but magmoor caverns is a chore to constantly be traveling through).I just think it's such a great sequal, and it's really cool, and epic, and I love it, and The End.

Prime 2: Echoes is a fantastic follow-up to Prime. While still using the first-person perspective that Prime pioneered for the Metroid series, Echoes introduced several new mechanics that centred around the navigation of and combat on a planet that has the unique feature of existing in two planes of existence at once, with one world focused around light and the other darkness, sharing some features with one another and differing in others. Think like Hyrule and the Dark World in A Link to the Past. As such, the world that you explore essentially doubles.
The story once again is great, adding a bit more intrigue this time 'round. The music is fantastic in this one as well. Just like Prime 1, this game also has songs that reoccur in the Metroid games, the most notable being a version of Red Soil Wetlands in the Torvus Bog Subterranean area. Red Soil Wetlands is one of my favourite Metroid songs, of not my favourite. The final bosses of this game were a bit of a bitch to get through, but the game was still a lot of fun to play through. I even 100% it and got the Zero-Suit ending. I'm not sure if nowadays the Zero-Suit endings are still tied to how quickly you get through the game or if it's tied to completion percentage now, but one of those things did it here. Definitely worth a go.

A hostile game with little relief. I've never beaten it. Feels like more of the worst parts of Prime 1 with stressful gauntlets and backtracking.

This time I found it to be very rigid, but that's probably due to the sorcery it requires to get a game like this to run on gamecube. More open and exploratory games weren't possible.

The moth people rock.

One of the most difficult and action-packed games in the Metroid series, Prime 2 focuses more on the moment-to-moment challenge than its predecessor. The game starts strong with an incredibly well directed "post-disaster" scene that is much more engaging than the equivalent in Prime 1. This strength in directing holds for all the cinematics and location reveals in the game, with my favorite portrayal of Samus as a character through animations.

The light/dark world spin this game has on the Metroid formula is interesting, though it detracts from the exploration aspect a bit. The game asks you to retread similar but changed level layouts, with toxic air and stronger enemies doubling the already high danger of the light world counterparts. It means you do less "discovery" than most Metroid games, but instead use your memory of recent layouts in a sort of challenge mode. All in all I think it's not a bad idea, and only in late game item retrieval did I find annoyance in how sparse portals often make you travel long distances to get many places.

Combat in this game in general is decent, but the bosses here are an absolute treat. There are straightforward shooting matches with Dark Samus, enemies that use your own abilities against you, and the major area bosses that are long battles that often make use of multiple abilities at once. The variety and creativity is stellar, and the combat is enhanced a bit with the beam ammo system imo. You can't just choose your strongest beam, you have to balance enemy weaknesses with your current ammo count and try to get ammo with kills of the opposite beam. It's easy to get scared and just use the power beam all the time, but if you get the ammo upgrades and try to use the beams more often you may find some fun in the system.

Thankfully this game has many area shortcuts to get around easily during the end game macguffin search, though the light/dark world portal placement can often lead to tedium in retreading areas at times. However, the finale is the best in the Prime series by a long shot. Overall I think this game is almost as good as Prime 1 but rougher around the edges.

Piggy backing off Prime 1, Prime 2 takes a more dark atmosphere and decides to take a much more hard approach in difficulty. The addition of the dark world and Ing make for some interesting world design and enemies. Sadly I feel this game's set pieces aren't as memorable compared to Prime 1 so I feel myself getting lost a bit. The endgame quest with the Sky Temple is also a whole lot worse than Prime 1's artifacts. The addition of weapon ammo is also annoying and I really feel like it doesn't add much to the game. Cons aside this game is still loads fun to play!

An excellent game overall marred slightly by a few difficulty-spike bosses. Otherwise I consider the first two primes to be on par with each other.
Edit: I now quite certainly dislike this game on Hard/Hypermode. Similar problem as Prime 1 where the bosses are just uninteresting bullshit healthsponges. The final boss encounter for a game shouldn't be a trial upon the players patience waiting for their opportunity to do damage with the only threat of defeat, even on Hard, being from the boss wasting so much time that the escape timer expires. The greatest challenge in the game shouldn't be a result of the penultimate boss having a dogshit hurtbox that can only take damage from specific angles on the model that said boss routinely plays peekaboo with.
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The trek all the way back to Torvus Bog from Sancutary Fortress to get the power bombs then immediately head back is laughable and annoying.
Also: "What if we made the chozo ghosts even more annoying and forced players to fight them over and over when they re-tread through rooms by locking the doors? Yeah we should do that!"
Emperor Ing on Hypermode is one of the most infuriating things I've suffered through in gaming. Retro is really good at creating absolute dogshit bosses for their games.
The beam ammo is cool and good and allows for all the beams to be powerful. This is not sarcasm I actually believe this. Crate management is clearly too much for ammo haters for whatever reason.