Metroid Prime 4: Beyond ~ Full Beginning

During the Treehouse Live stream on Thursday there was one segment dedicated to Metroid Prime 4: Beyond. Here they play the full beginning of the game, which features everything seen in the announcement trailer from last year, up to the point where you first encounter Sylux. And this is giving us a number of new insights to the game, starting with the story introduction:

It is the cosmic year 20X9.

Determined to defeat Samus and the Galactic Federation, Sylux and his army of Space Pirates launched a series of attacks on Federation Research Facilities.

It is believed that the Space Pirates are being controlled by Metroids that have the ability to fuse with other life-forms and control their minds.

Now, on Planet Tanamaar in the Desolan System, another Federation Research Facility is being attacked.

Galactic Federation HQ received their distress call and dispatched Samus, who was on a reconnaissance mission nearby.

So, this right away confirmed what we saw in the Nintendo Direct from last week: Metroids now are fusing with enemies, which is a thing with different bosses in this game. The first one is Aberax, reminiscent of the first Berserker Lord encounter in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, but with some Mogenar mixed in for an overall tougher battle.

Anyway, the Galactic Federation has found a mysterious artifact somewhere in the Desolan system, which is the thing that you can see in the game's logo and also what Sylux is after. He shoots the artifact and this causes some gigantic eruption, swallowing Samus and everyone around her, in fact most of the research facility.

What happens next, that we don't know, but we can make some educated guesses. Right in the middle of this tutorial section there is this gigantic mecha getting controlled by a soldier, which – unlike those in Federation Force – is actually threatening and impressive. This mecha also gets swallowed by the artifact's burst and in the Viewros footage from last week we could spot it hanging in the trees:

So, what seemed like another crashed ship actually comes from the research facility seen in the intro. However, it looks like it all has been there for quite some time, meaning that Samus arrives on Viewros long after everyone and everything else.

It's an interesting premise and also gives Sylux the chance to grow as a villain, should he also arrive before Samus. In the intro he gets knocked over by a single charged shot and this is to be expected, since he is canonically about as strong as Samus in her most basic suit, which gets portrayed quite accurately here.

The threat mainly comes from him partnering with Metroids that are controlling Space Pirates. And you have to respect a villain, who isn't some grotesque force of nature, like the Metroid, the X, or Phazon, and therefore really tries his hardest to overcome both Samus and the Galactic Federation with some evil schemes. I'm curious to see where this will lead and how they will utilize him as a villain.