It's the best official way to play Metroid 2, I'll say that much. Mercury Steam did add a lot of QoL to this game to buff out some of the edges that show up in the franchise. 360 degree aiming, fast traveling between warp points, adding pins to the map and the wonderful new Aeon abilities are great additions to the formula that really improve QoL. The new bosses are also really fun and challenging, and I really enjoyed learning their patterns and beating them.

Despite everything they added, it's a lot of little things that combine to make it just an alright experience overall. The new counter wears out its welcome and gets tedious for like 70% of the game, environments can be drab and new music is uninspired. The worst part of this game for me is how bloated it can be. After halfway through the game you start to feel worn out and just ready for it to end. This is made even worse by the fact that it's one of the most linear games in the series. I don't think linearity is a bad thing at all, but the same gameplay loop happens so much that I start needing to take breaks.

At the end of the day, I still enjoyed this more than the original game, and in that sense they succeeded. However, it's pretty much been a one and done situation since I've beaten it.

No.

It started off fine, the simplicity of the early map design fit well with the simplicity of the mechanics. There were some moments I thought were annoying but remembered it was a late 80's game, so I let it slide cause I was still enjoying myself. Pretty quickly, that shit just started getting worse and more prevalent. The horrible checkpoint system, full base alerts, the game just straight up not telling you critical information for some reason, the horrible way you're supposed to beat Metal Gear and you're not even told the full way how, which if you guess incorrectly, you have to start all over again, I could go on for ages.

Fuck giving MGS or MGS3 a remake, this needs a one more than any other game in the franchise by an uncontested mile. If given a from-the-ground-up remake with a heavily re-written script, gameplay, etc. to make it more inline with the Solid series, I'd love to re-experience it.

The one thing I did really like about the Substance version that I played was an added post-credits scene that had Big Boss say he would come back, since that wasn't in the original. Very cute and cool, ty Konami

Gameplay wise, this is LEAGUES above the first. It’s insane how much was fixed and tweaked to make this undoubtedly the better playing game. Better physics, gunplay that encourages headshots with actual feedback, a tweaked bullet time, more effective healing that gives you a “last chance” in bullet time if you die with at least one painkiller on you in exchange for all of them, etc. However, I do kinda miss a bit of the charm the first game had. The new actors for Max and Mona are fine, but their original portrayals were more human. This time they feel a bit more like generic action hero characters which is a shame, especially with Mona.

It feels like the limits of the first game really paid off and contributed to the experience (biggest example I can think of is all the characters being portrayed by Remedy employees rather than professional actors) while this bigger budget feels like it stripped away some of what made the original enjoyable. It’s still a great game though.