= Metroid Vanguard = Samus Aran in SRB2 [v1.5c]

[Open Assets] = Metroid Vanguard = Samus Aran in SRB2 [v1.5c] v1.5c

Oh boy, where do I even begin with this mod? This is simply one of THE best SRB2 mods I've ever played, period.

I'm a sucker for anything Metroid, especially Metroid Prime, and this mod is a beautiful hybrid of both the 2D Metroid and Metroid Prime gameplay formulas.

The core gameplay is just as amazing as the 2.1 version, made even better by 2.2's better level design and new engine features, the revamped bosses are amazing, the new art is amazing, the new levels and bosses are amazing, simply put, everything about this mod is amazing.

I've played the campaign on both the normal and Hypermode difficulty's, Hypermode definitely spiced things up, though it shared the same flaw as hard mode in the Metroid Prime games, the bosses are bullet sponges, especially the final boss, it took me nearly 15 minutes to beat it.

I also experienced some performance issues with a few of the Beam Combo's, and the secret weapon, they would drop the game to single-digit framerates until the effects were off-screen.

But other than those two issues, you have exceeded my expectations with this update Shine.
Golden Shine
Golden Shine
Glad you had fun, I'm sure you in particular were ecstatic for the ACZ4 boss!

Sorry about the lag, though! Software mode in particular can be a big offender. Right now enemy rolling is also enabled, which lags like crazy on 2.2.8 but not 2.2.9 and beyond. Making different code to be cross-compatible with SRB2's different versions and renders is a pain. I've made a temporary fix for it in v1.1.

Though you kinda NEED the beam combos and fancy powerbomb explosions to take down the final boss. It's designed to only take 2~3 minutes, but that can easily become 10+ if you mainly use the basic beams.
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i really really want to type out a huge, overdetailed review as to why this mod is as good as it is...but i can't do it justice like that, so i'll keep it brief. this mod completely reinvents the way you play sonic robo blast 2 and is, in my opinion, an immersive masterpiece of a mod.
if you enjoy metroid as a series, play it. if you enjoy first person shooters, play it. if you enjoy metroid prime, play it. actually, you know what, just play it, regardless of your interests. you'll immediately see how much time, effort, love and care for the metroid series was included in this mod.
Golden Shine
Golden Shine
Thank you so much! I'd be more than honored if this got some people to give the Metroid series a shot!
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I seriously love the concept of giving modded characters their own story and events. This mod is one of my favorite ones so far actually.

The events in the bonus levels definitely caught me off guard, really made me feel like I was playing something truly special.
Golden Shine
Golden Shine
Samus in a Sonic fangame is a weird concept in retrospect, so I'm glad the added story wasn't total cringe. Its seemed more fun to do than the usual "Spongebob is here to kill Eggman for stealing the crabby patties"
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Samus has a variety of moves at her arsenal, and the new 2 stages for her makes it feel like SRB2 is a different game for her!
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Bruh, swap out the Sonic-themed objects and give it original levels and you have an all-out Metroid TC right here. A Metroid TC for a Sonic mod for Doom. I'd buy THAT for a dollar.

My biggest two complaints are the performance which gets REALLY BAD in DSZ and CEZ (probably not your fault but still, it was so bad I was able to charge the gun by tapping instead of holding) and the acceleration. Samus feels more like a ball than a person. I don't know much about Metroid but I figure that Samus isn't a ball *all* the time... probably...

The first original boss and the bonus boss also have an issue where they don't give off the right feedback to successful attacks, so they feel like damage sponges that take 10+ minutes to take down. At least, I'm *assuming* it's a feedback issue and they aren't as resilient as a planet.

But this was incredibly enjoyable overall. I've played it in Hyper Mode and it just transformed SRB2 entirely, and the potential for greatness really came through in certain sections and in the original stages. You could totally make a Metroid TC out of this - as it is, it blurs the line between a character mod and a custom gametype to absolute nil. Beautiful.
Golden Shine
Golden Shine
I did like seeing the original levels come to life, but this would become a full-time job for many, many years if I had to make an SRB2-sized campaign from scratch. I had to get realistic somewhere. Plus, we wouldn't need the monitor upgrade system, right?

The ACZ4 and DSZ4 bosses can be beaten in less than a minute. There's even a trick to skip the ACZ4 boss entirely. You're practically required to use beam combos, though. You can use the Lock-On to check enemy health and see how much damage each attack is really doing.
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I would say that Samus is the best FPS Character of SRB2 yet since Tailsguy and Duke Nukem, but it would be better if there were cutscenes, more Metroid enemies and a boss battle against Ridley could be added in the game.
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I lack the ability to comprehend Shine's work ethic. As a Metroid fan myself since childhood, to say that this mod is more than I could have hoped for, let alone dreamed of, is a vast understatement. I just finished it last night at 100%, and I still can't get over how many little things you put into this. Though, I suppose I shouldn't surprised when this is coming from the maker of SMS Reborn. It's not perfect obviously, as nothing in life is, but it sure is close.

My two biggest critiques are:

1) The arm cannon fires lower than the cross-hair in 1stP mode. This is probably the most egregious issue, and one that I would STRONGLY urge you to fix whenever you can.

At first I wasn't sure if this was just a hold-over from Ringslinger modes and I just wasn't used to it, but as I watched some other people play, they too also commented on the targeting discrepancy, so I know i'm not the only one who finds this annoying. It also often makes it finnicky to fire at targets on the ground in front of you, as you shots will often just hit right into the ground. Obviously you can just say "lol just remember to aim above them its ez", but it'd be nice to not have to remember to do that all the time.

^^^ Fix this at your earliest convenience, cuz I have a feeling that doing so will greatly boost the QoL of this mod.

2) Egg Guard's hyper mode ability sometimes makes traversing CEZ 2 a literal kaizo-esque NIGHTMARE.

And I know why this is happening, too: It's a combination of A) the unique level design of CEZ 2, and B) the fact that enemy LoS calculations don't take the Z axis into account. What this all MEANS (as i'm sure you recognize, since I imagine you must have play tested all levels extensively during development) is that: If you hit a spring while high above in a certain room, and there are Egg Guards on the floor of that room, they will teleport to you, and due to your momentum, you more than likely wont have a chance to kill them before they kill all of your aerial momentum, condemning you to plummet back down to the bottom of the room.

As far as how to fix this WITHOUT nerfing the Egg Guard? Honestly, all I can think of is to literally just move Egg Guards away from rooms that have vertical or diagonal springs. Cuz the problem isn't necessarily the ability itself: It's the level design of CEZ 2 that causes this phenemona to happen, along with the lack of Z-axis checking in LoS calcs.
Golden Shine
Golden Shine
You're using "Cross", I assume? Switch to the "Angle" Crosshair, that one's intended for Samus. I can't force players to use it without messing with their in-game settings, and I'd prefer not to do that.

I'll keep the Egg guard thing in mind, though! Shouldn't be too hard to make a little less infuriating for a future update.
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absolutely perfect, one of the greatest mods of srb2
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As someone who loves Metroid but didn't get to play 2.1 Samus too much, I have a lot to talk about after playing this. I have yet to do anything related to multiplayer, but I still have a bit to say about it anyway.


The new graphical assets are quite pretty, and the care put into them certainly shows. Some prime examples are the dialogue art and custom menu assets. Some of the smaller touches also help it that extra bit, such as the dialogue art matching the player's current suit/visor colors and subtle differences in shading/lighting between the suit variants for said art.

Samus happens to be the first character that I have ever rebound my controls for, and in a positive way. The controls never once felt frustrating to me after moving some keys around, and all mistakes related to platforming/combat/etc. felt like they were 100% on my end. Sometimes I was even pleasantly surprised at how well Samus controls, the big example being the walljump.

From a gameplay standpoint, this is probably the most fun I've had with SRB2 in a pretty long time. Being able to string together certain actions (i.e. Ice Beam into Missile) felt as smooth as butter and streamlined the experience quite nicely. All of the special interactions Samus has with the environment/enemies also gave the playstyle even more identity and charm than it already had.

Item collection was extremely fun and gave me a reason to thoroughly explore levels again after ages of "knowing the layout." Gathering all the emeralds was also interesting with how the no hit system works and I found myself benefiting quite heavily from knowing more than a handful of token locations.

I was very satisfied with how the story was handled here. The dialogue is written pretty well despite the plot being relatively simplistic in nature, and the extra levels were a very nice treat that helped give the experience a bit more atmosphere along with strengthening the overall impression I was left with by the end.

Overall, Samus is fun, unique, and probably one of the best experiences I've had with SRB2 perhaps ever. The effort put in radiates from it in every direction, and is one of the only mods I can currently 100% recommend.

5/5. One of the best mods ever made for 2.2 so far.
Golden Shine
Golden Shine
Oh wow! Thanks for the big fancy review! Appreciate that alot. Superglad you managed to get into it despite the lack of experience!
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Verygood indeed , you putted a lot of effort with this excellent mod!
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Just finished up with my 1st playthough and I got to say I'm very impressed with the story and the overall support with this mod.

It was overwhelming at some points and kept me on edge but its really cool to play.
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This is one of THE BEST mods I have ever played and it is extremely immersive its clear you went all out with this just based on the attention to detail. Thank you for this masterpiece.
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It's returned from 2.1 and it's WAAAAY better than it needs to be. Wonderful work, everyone should give this a go
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Y cant metroid crawl?

In all honesty being my favorite addon from the 2.1 era, im really glad it got updated to 2.2 and the new additions are extremely great as well, it might be my favorite mod of 2.2 as well
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This is simply one of the best mods i have ever played. This doesn't even feels like SRB2 anymore, here, you deserve this 5 stars.
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This was such an exhilarating experience. I have a few 100% run saves under my belt and I still keep finding small lil nuggets of extra stuff and fun new things to experience and explore. Samus' kit is so diverse and customizable I can't even begin to explain how good of an ebb and flow it has. It becomes instinct, you reach a point of immersion where you completely zone out of this being a friggin .pk3 and not a full game conversion.

From the save system to the clever story-telling through Samus' very in-character dialogue and Metroid's classic visual story telling tie this all up into one of, if not the best mod experience I've had in SRB2. There's so much love and passion put into this that I'm a little sad to see it completed and released.
I have much yet to finish, however - And I know I'll be playing this over and over again to finally complete this mission. Godspeed, Shine - absolutely stellar work! A true magnum opus.
Golden Shine
Golden Shine
You've been very motivating to have around, testing things, giving feedback, randomly showing up with firework sprites, etc. Thank you! And I'm happy it's finally out there.
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One of the most fully featured character mods I have ever seen. Even more than ChrispyChars. This is just a different game now, holy shit.
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