The Air Lock is a room found at the start of Metroid Prime, the Frigate Orpheon. It is a small room connecting the exterior landing dock of the frigate to its interior. When it is entered, Samus must scan a panel to pressurize the room in order to proceed to further rooms. Later, while escaping during the reactor meltdown, the room depressurizes before the outer door becomes usable. When the frigate crashes on planet Tallon IV, this room is inaccessible along with many other rooms.
Dead Parasites can be seen floating in the Air Lock, along with other debris. They can be shot and destroyed, but not scanned. Pressurizing the Air Lock causes these objects to fall, indicating that the room and all others inside the frigate have an artificial gravitational field in place.
Connecting Rooms[]
- Main Docking Bay (via Blue Door)
- Deck Alpha Access Hall (via Blue Door)
- Deck Alpha Mech Shaft
Scans[]
Air lock
Door
Door cannot be opened until air lock is repressurized. Use the activation panel to repressurize room.
Panel
Air lock repressurization successful.
Entrance to Deck Alpha Access Hall
Onscreen Messages[]
"Door cannot be opened until room is repressurized."
"Room is depressurizing.
Depressurization complete."
Development Data[]
The room is known internally as 01_intro_hanger_connect.
The Metroid Prime demo does not feature the large vault door by the side of a wall, instead it is a square wall of pipes. The floating Parasites cannot also be shot at.[1]
Scientific accuracy[]
Somehow, Samus does not seem to be affected by the lack of gravity in the room unlike the rubble and the Parasites, despite not having the Gravity Suit at that point in the game. When Samus enters the Air Lock for the first time, and the room pressurizes, she can still turn around and walk right back out to the depressurized areas. A more egregious case occurs during the escape sequence, when the doorway to the Deck Alpha Access Hall is blocked by fire that somehow persists after the room depressurizes. Metroid Prime tech lead Jack Mathews acknowledged in a livestream that the gravity discrepancy made no sense, but said it could not be helped. The second depressurization acted as a hidden loading screen, with the room re-pressurizing once the Exterior Docking Hangar had loaded.[2]
Trivia[]
- The "Intro Space" theme plays in this room.
- In Metroid: Other M, there is a room in the Biosphere which has a similar premise to the Air Lock. In this hallway, the door is locked, and when a Sensor is shot, the room is repressurized and the door unlocks.
Gallery[]
.jpg "Air Lock (2).jpg (70 KB)")
References[]
- ^ Metroid Prime Demo - Timestamped at Air Lock entrance.
- ^ (2015, December 1). Extra Life 2015 (Part 2) [Stream]. Crackdown. Twitch. Archived from the original on June 10, 2022.