M is for mechanics...

Well a little more of the lot is revealed. It turns out that the space station was a military facility that was doing large scale illegal animal research to find what animal in the universe could be turned into a bio-weapon (Metroids must be high on their list). The leader of the team investigating the place (Samus' former commander) also happens to be very strongly against misusing animals as tolls or weapons, so may not be a coincidence that he's there. There is also some mysterious animal running around that at first looked like an evil rabbit, but has since shed that from and is running around in a more deadly unknown from. Plus there may be a cold resistant Metroid around too (maybe connected to the rabbit creature).

I'm getting more use to the odd play mechanics of the game, and the wall jumping is a lot more painless than in the Prime games, but there are still some frustrating bits. The way that Samus gains abilities is not that she finds power ups (like in previous games) but that the leader of the rescue group tells her what equipment she can use. While this avoids the rather silly issue of every strange plant Samus visits just happening to have weapons compatible with her unique suit lying around after she conveniently loses them at the start of the game, it still makes little sense. Not using super bombs and super missiles in a space station that is already falling apart is very reasonable, but what possible reason is there to ban the use of the Varia suit until after Samus nearly dies form over heating in a lava environment? Also Samus isn't given permission to use ice beam until hours after the rest of the team is given permission to. Basically no ability is allowed until it is completely necessary to progress in a particular path, and not even that some times. At one point Samus comes to a room with lava in it and needs the hook beam to get to her destination, but instead of giving permission to use a completely non-destructive tool, the commander tells her to go to a different location.

I could imagine a conversation like this:
Saums: "Commander, I see a energy tank next to a computer terminal but I need to use screw-attack to get it, requesting permission."
Commander: "no."
Samus: "But that tank can help me survive and ensure the suscess of this mission"
Comander: "no."
Samus: "That computer may also hold valuable information about what happened here and what we are up against..."
Commander: "no."
Samus: "This is about me giving up the baby Metroid as a power source isn't it?"
Commander"...yes."