Stupid Chain of Command.
September 10, 2010
Today's comic finishes off my Metroid: Other M mini arc, and today the comic is within the game world, so expect that usual giant leap in art style that comes with my in game comics.
Today's comic is about the interesting way the game designers decided to handle Samus' traditional task of reacquiring her tools and arsenal. Instead of having your powers stripped by an enemy ambush, system shock, or just plain starting with a new power suit you technically have all your powers open to you for the entire game, only thing is you don't have "permission" to use them.
"But Samus is a bad ass bounty hunter who answers to no one!" You may say, howeve in this game she does answer to someone, and its the target of a lot of debate, one I will put my own spin on and try to explain at least my reasons for why the game works the way it does.
In this game you are led to a space station by a distress signal, when Samus lands in the docking bay she sees that a Galactic Federation ship was already there. A team of Federation soldiers had also heard the distress signal and had already set up operations. Also The team of soldiers were led by Adam Malkovich, Samus' old Commanding Officer back when she was in the Federation Army.
Samus is told by Adam that they had the problem handled and her assistance is not needed, but Samus decides to say and help. Because she stays Adam decides he needs to limit Samus' powers so that she doesn't interfere or endanger his mission, allowing Samus access to further powers when he finds them necessary. Thus Other M's power upgrade system is made.
Now a lot of people have problems with how Adam strips Samus of her powers, and they have even more problems with why Samus goes along with them without question. While I find this a flawed system here's what I think is the reasoning behind it.
Samus is a bounty hunter, and while she is commissioned by the Galactic Federation numerous times, she does not directly work for them. When she arrives on the space station an actual Galactic Federation team had already arrived, thus making it an offical Federation mission, meaning Samus had no jurisdiction on the ship. Just like how in the real world actual bounty hunters aren't affliated with real law enforcement and have no jurisdiction when actual police are on hand. Meaning if Samus wants to stay on the space station she'd need to follow Adam's orders, however this doesn't mean all of his orders are smart ones.
Not allowing Samus access to her power bombs makes complete sense, they are highly destructive, and seeing that this is a rescue mission, use of power bombs could lead to collateral damage. However baring access to the Varia Suit, the theme of today's comic makes little to no sense. The Varia Suit has no offensive or damaging purpose, it only serves to protect Samus from taking damage from extreme heat, and has served that purpose in every game it has been in, starting with the original Metroid. So when Samus first enters the sweltering Pyrosphere she isn't given instant access to the Varia Suit it makes no sense. The Varia Suit can't endanger the mission, it can only help it by giving Samus protection from the lava filled area. What makes even less sense is that Samus doesn't just activate the suit herself without Adam's permission. That was the first thing that ran through my mind when I first burned to death in a lava flow.
Had the game designers just had Adam do something like, use a mini EMP on Smus, or hacked into her system directly blocking her access to her powers would have made a lot more sense than him just saying she can't use her powers until he said. This would even add to the actual story as it would add another layer in the rocky relationship between Adam and Samus.