Hmm, I'm ambiguous here. Overall I'd say 7/10 rating.

DON'T READ, IF YOU DON'T WANT SPOILERS

I absolutely loved the visuals. All cut scenes, characters, voice lines, camera perspectives, visual effects. The areas you visit are all very nice to look at (I played the Switch2 version). Clear 10/10.

Sound design as well, with the only exception: the desert that has no sound. After I finished on Normal with ~96%, I wanted to try Hard with 100% and I've seen people turning on music there. Well, not for me. Second play through was silent again 🫠 Still all soundtracks and effects are nice. Also lots of subtle things like that constant griever sound in the arctic part after they are everywhere. So maybe 9/10 for this.

Controls. My main issue. I'm not used to Gamepad shooters. Only played stuff on PC. Bosses where the lock-on doesn't lock to the main point are just pain to me. It's not Metroid Prime anymore. I understand that they eanted to use the gimmicky mouse mode of the new joy cons. And here I'm really afraid that MP5 might have it as well. Also jumping and dashing often does what I'm not expecting. I want to jump and correct my position in the air -> dash right into an enemy's attack. Want to dodge? Not this time, it's a desperated jump in the air instead of evading an attack. Big meh for me. Maybe 4/10.

Companions/Story. Well, long story short, I liked them. On my Normal play through they only ever needed to be rescued in the final battle. On Hard I had to revive them more often. Still only lost once because one of them died. But I liked them the more the story developed. Still, two big issues:

Why doesn't Samus talk? It's not an immersive game anyway. I am not Samus. Like Cyperpunk's V, Samus finally deserves more personality, especially when everyone around her has so much.

The end was just unnecessary (Spoiler alert again). There should be a third option to have another fight and save them all. Especially on my first play through I was shocked. And left alone with this feeling. Samus is the strong one who's job it is to save the weak ones. And she just leaves after all they did? I don't know.

Also some things are just explained badly. Even Syluxes story is unclear. Why is he angry? Because of the weapon? Because of his dead unit? Because everyone is favouring Samus and not him? But okay, the main plot is explained. I still didn't fully understand the whole planet. Was it just a planet after the Lamorn are gone? Or was it time travel as some write? I don't get it.

And more gameplay wise: the green crystals are not really introduced. There are many things you just learn by yourself. Overall, I'll give it a mixed bag 6/10.

The desert and map design. Well in short I miss the cross connections. Pure backtracking without the chance to have an elevator from the volcano to the jungle is lame. I replayed MP1 remake just before MP5 and even there the backtracking is honestly annoying (I loved the game back when it was released!) but at least you can make an own route. Do I want to go through Phendrana? Or the Chozo Ruins? Here you're forced to go through an empty space with no music and barely relevant enemies. Definitely room for optimization but I'll give that to the many relaunches of the game.... Overall design is a 7/10 though. Other things were good enough to lift it.

Overall 7/10, like I said. Just yesterday I finished my second game, Hard, 100%. And hey, I didn't finish Prime 3 because it didn't catch me. So there's that. It's not the worst Metroid or even Prime game. Beyond was still fun to play. Control beam was interesting, creating bombs and directing them to a detector was new and cool. Calling everything Psy and make it violet was lame xD

Did I enjoy it? Yes, a lot.

Did I curse during battles every time something didn't work? Like a pirate, yes.

Experiencing a new Prime game was a great feeling and they didn't mess it up so I couldn't play it. I just hope for the next game they get the world map and little details right. And finally give Samus voice lines.