I was never really a huge Metroidvania fan, so I'm surprised to say this but I was completely hooked from start to finish. This game was way better than I expected. Almost everything in this game is masterfully designed, the environments, the animations, the difficulty, the power up progression and the challenging bosses (though some reskinned bosses can be annoying).
There are so many little touches to the point where you could tell the developers really cared about making this game great, which they did. Honestly, I think this game just made me a Metroid fan.
There are so many little touches to the point where you could tell the developers really cared about making this game great, which they did. Honestly, I think this game just made me a Metroid fan.
goated. For my first 2D Metroid, this shit did not disappoint.
Pure fucking kino. Incredible atmosphere combined with an interesting as shit story and slick gameplay
please bring Samus Returns to switch
please bring Samus Returns to switch
Metroid Dread takes it away with an outstanding sense of progression as you're again stuck on a new planet to explore through every nook and cranny. The area maps are logically tied together with enough open space to navigate and branch out through seperate routes more and also less optimally, while the main path is apparent enough with very little handholding.
Samus is speedy and nimble, a pure joy to navigate around with just like it was in Samus Returns for the 3DS.
Level design and fluidity aside, the environments of planet ZDR weren't really anything beyond the series usual attire, and some sub bosses were recycled just a little too much on the final stretch. The OST was certainly there and added the needed ambience and intensity, but compared to the rest of the series iconic pieces these compositions are my least favourites, still alright, just not very memorable.
Beyond it all, Dread's killer variations of enemy designs and bossfights is another force to be reckoned with and the narrative dropped my jaw to the floor a good couple of times with some of its directions, I really love how grand of a narrative leap Dread took tying in to the preceding games.
In the end apart from being a bit bland with its environmental tropes, Dread is simply amazing to play, it is both intuitive and challenging, beautiful in seamless motion, ultimately a structural masterpiece with great replayability.
Samus is speedy and nimble, a pure joy to navigate around with just like it was in Samus Returns for the 3DS.
Level design and fluidity aside, the environments of planet ZDR weren't really anything beyond the series usual attire, and some sub bosses were recycled just a little too much on the final stretch. The OST was certainly there and added the needed ambience and intensity, but compared to the rest of the series iconic pieces these compositions are my least favourites, still alright, just not very memorable.
Beyond it all, Dread's killer variations of enemy designs and bossfights is another force to be reckoned with and the narrative dropped my jaw to the floor a good couple of times with some of its directions, I really love how grand of a narrative leap Dread took tying in to the preceding games.
In the end apart from being a bit bland with its environmental tropes, Dread is simply amazing to play, it is both intuitive and challenging, beautiful in seamless motion, ultimately a structural masterpiece with great replayability.
this game is fusion done right. not that fusion is bad but every single idea that game had is reintegrated here PERFECTLY. The X are more interesting and come later in the game, letting you see the actual enemies change and having the original to compare to the parasitized versions for context, as well as having powered up respawning enemies serve as more of a gradual transition in challenge. The Adam AI acts more as a chill hint machine and story recapper rather than a waypoint placer, and the SA-X role is replaced by the cool emmis. I don’t even have to talk about how fucking amazing and perfect the emmi encounters are. But I will. They encapsulate everything about why I love videogames and life. Well, I don’t love life as much as I love the emmi fights in this game but whatevs. The boss fights in this game all rule, and though maybe they lean too heavily on the parry mechanic, at least 99% of them are beatable without it and it's pretty generous with its timing and visibility. You just have to play the game on its own terms and it works.
It did take me a little while to get used to it. This is my first time controlling a 2d samus with a stick and it felt weird to say the least. But there is a button you can hold to stand firmly in place and point your gun with a red laser. So if you play it like RE4, it's a bit easier.
This game is, in my opinion, a good compromise between linear style and super style. I kind of prefer the super style in general, but at this point in the series I had to realize that only the first one, super, and prime 1 seem to use this formula that everyone including me fellatiaizes. This is a good compromise. It's very clear at all times where you need to go, and at the end of every area an elevator or tram pops up with the next room ready for you.
The sheer amount of items in this game and how filled to the brim the controller feels with combos and inputs and items was a blessing and a curse. Firstly, there's really cool shit like the seeker missiles from the prime games (renamed storm missiles which is way cooler) as well as this awesome dash that you'll be using in every boss.. but there's also stuff like the cross bomb. Which... kind of pointless... and boring... and you use it like three times. It seems cool in theory to have 500 gadgets but all of them overlapping on one measly dainty little switch controller means im gonna be fumbling around trying to do zl+y+quartercircle+flip the controller upside down like... idk. But its interesting that the two best metroid games both have bad controls. shoutout to the select button.
The story in this game is also my favourite since the 2/super wombo combo silent tragedy. The chozo have always felt like the only thing these games cared about (xcept echoes) but this game expanded their lore a shit ton. That whole ending sequence is just.... i hate this phrase but theres no other way to say it so im gonna whisper it. /whisper Peak fiction.
The environments though, are completely terrible. Why's every metroid game gotta have the fire world, the ice world, the cave world, the factory world, like have some cooler and more creative places? Echoes sucks ass but at least it had new settings like... swamp, and.. factory but in the sky. Corruption had factory but STEAMPUNK SKY ISLANDS!!!! Even so, the other games did interesting stuff with their locations. The water world in fusion was like an aquarium, the factory world in am2r was a water treatment facility, (BTW don't get up in my face about me treating am2r as a mainline entry. She's an adopted sibling and she counts just as much as the others.) Yeah, the environments are bland and the art direction is too. I suppose you'd WANT interactibles to clash with the environment, but it wasn't the best game to look at. The graphics are fine, but the areas weren't really that well put together. The music as well, was nothing to write anywhere about. The only songs I remember from this was the use of samus' theme and the one for this bug boss that reminded me of flight of the bumble bee.
Last thing im gonna complain about is the save rooms. They kind of feel redundant. There’s save rooms, and you can also save in map rooms and Adam rooms. It makes me wonder, though. Why? This game has an insanely generous checkpoint system. If you die to an emmi you respawn just outside the last door you used. And it extends to more than just emmi encounters. So many times I thought I had lost progress only to find out a checkpoint brought me 20 seconds back. Which is nice, but lost progress is the only tangible threat to the player in game design and while frustrating, the game doesn’t seem to mind some intentional frustration baked into its (awesome) design. You can keep the checkpoints outside boss rooms, or maybe just put the save room close to them, but EVERY emmi door is a checkpoint? I see one on the side, what’s the reason not to pop in and out just to save my progress? This makes me less engaged in the current life i'm at, I remember in other games when I was low and struggling and aware that any death would lose me 20 minutes of my irl time I was super on edge and invested with a capital i. Speaking of investment and capital, someone emailed me last month and told me the save rooms are there if you wanna save and leave the game, because restarting the game will lose your checkpoint. To you I say; No one does that. You press the home button to return to the home screen and turn off the switch. It’s not like you need to swap between games. The switch isn’t exactly a console where you’re playing more than one game at a time, I sold my copy of tears of the kingdom to buy dread and the sales tax still nearly bankrupt me. Boom, capital and investment setup paid off.
It did take me a little while to get used to it. This is my first time controlling a 2d samus with a stick and it felt weird to say the least. But there is a button you can hold to stand firmly in place and point your gun with a red laser. So if you play it like RE4, it's a bit easier.
This game is, in my opinion, a good compromise between linear style and super style. I kind of prefer the super style in general, but at this point in the series I had to realize that only the first one, super, and prime 1 seem to use this formula that everyone including me fellatiaizes. This is a good compromise. It's very clear at all times where you need to go, and at the end of every area an elevator or tram pops up with the next room ready for you.
The sheer amount of items in this game and how filled to the brim the controller feels with combos and inputs and items was a blessing and a curse. Firstly, there's really cool shit like the seeker missiles from the prime games (renamed storm missiles which is way cooler) as well as this awesome dash that you'll be using in every boss.. but there's also stuff like the cross bomb. Which... kind of pointless... and boring... and you use it like three times. It seems cool in theory to have 500 gadgets but all of them overlapping on one measly dainty little switch controller means im gonna be fumbling around trying to do zl+y+quartercircle+flip the controller upside down like... idk. But its interesting that the two best metroid games both have bad controls. shoutout to the select button.
The story in this game is also my favourite since the 2/super wombo combo silent tragedy. The chozo have always felt like the only thing these games cared about (xcept echoes) but this game expanded their lore a shit ton. That whole ending sequence is just.... i hate this phrase but theres no other way to say it so im gonna whisper it. /whisper Peak fiction.
The environments though, are completely terrible. Why's every metroid game gotta have the fire world, the ice world, the cave world, the factory world, like have some cooler and more creative places? Echoes sucks ass but at least it had new settings like... swamp, and.. factory but in the sky. Corruption had factory but STEAMPUNK SKY ISLANDS!!!! Even so, the other games did interesting stuff with their locations. The water world in fusion was like an aquarium, the factory world in am2r was a water treatment facility, (BTW don't get up in my face about me treating am2r as a mainline entry. She's an adopted sibling and she counts just as much as the others.) Yeah, the environments are bland and the art direction is too. I suppose you'd WANT interactibles to clash with the environment, but it wasn't the best game to look at. The graphics are fine, but the areas weren't really that well put together. The music as well, was nothing to write anywhere about. The only songs I remember from this was the use of samus' theme and the one for this bug boss that reminded me of flight of the bumble bee.
Last thing im gonna complain about is the save rooms. They kind of feel redundant. There’s save rooms, and you can also save in map rooms and Adam rooms. It makes me wonder, though. Why? This game has an insanely generous checkpoint system. If you die to an emmi you respawn just outside the last door you used. And it extends to more than just emmi encounters. So many times I thought I had lost progress only to find out a checkpoint brought me 20 seconds back. Which is nice, but lost progress is the only tangible threat to the player in game design and while frustrating, the game doesn’t seem to mind some intentional frustration baked into its (awesome) design. You can keep the checkpoints outside boss rooms, or maybe just put the save room close to them, but EVERY emmi door is a checkpoint? I see one on the side, what’s the reason not to pop in and out just to save my progress? This makes me less engaged in the current life i'm at, I remember in other games when I was low and struggling and aware that any death would lose me 20 minutes of my irl time I was super on edge and invested with a capital i. Speaking of investment and capital, someone emailed me last month and told me the save rooms are there if you wanna save and leave the game, because restarting the game will lose your checkpoint. To you I say; No one does that. You press the home button to return to the home screen and turn off the switch. It’s not like you need to swap between games. The switch isn’t exactly a console where you’re playing more than one game at a time, I sold my copy of tears of the kingdom to buy dread and the sales tax still nearly bankrupt me. Boom, capital and investment setup paid off.
The circumstances surrounding this game's release are fascinating to me. For much of the 2000s and early 2010s, the Metroidvania seemed like a dead genre, but around the mid-2010s we started to get a deluge of non-linear 2D platformers with a focus on combat and exploration, driven largely by indie developers. A 2D Metroid coming out in 2012 would have seen miraculous, and even in 2021 the return was welcome, but it was also having to compete with a number of titles that took direct inspiration from Metroid: Hollow Knight, the Ori Series, Axiom Verge, etc.
I don't think Metroid Dread is at the top of the list of best Metroidvanias of the last 10 years, but it's still a very well-made and impressive game in its own right. This game nails the key element of feeling like you are getting consistently more powerful as the game progresses. Even though this is a video game with some genuinely challenging boss fights and sequences, there's still a strong sense of momentum, and I felt extremely compelled to keep pressing on. This game also contains some of the best 2D boss fights across gaming, and I felt a palpable sense of victory after finally taking out some of the harder bosses.
Where this game falls short for me is on the atmosphere side of things. Super Metroid and Metroid Prime have some of the most realized vibes in all of gaming, creating a sense of place. Metroid Prime looks very good for a Switch game, but the artstyle feels a little safe and sterile. I never got the feeling I was venturing too deep into the planet, with each abandoned outpost or ruined settlement highlighting the inhospitable nature of the world Samus was travelling through.
I would still recommend this game, however, even if only for the final boss, which is one of the most memorable encounters of this generation. I hope MercurySteam is given additional chances to work on 2D Metroids, as I feel like the franchise is in good hands.
I don't think Metroid Dread is at the top of the list of best Metroidvanias of the last 10 years, but it's still a very well-made and impressive game in its own right. This game nails the key element of feeling like you are getting consistently more powerful as the game progresses. Even though this is a video game with some genuinely challenging boss fights and sequences, there's still a strong sense of momentum, and I felt extremely compelled to keep pressing on. This game also contains some of the best 2D boss fights across gaming, and I felt a palpable sense of victory after finally taking out some of the harder bosses.
Where this game falls short for me is on the atmosphere side of things. Super Metroid and Metroid Prime have some of the most realized vibes in all of gaming, creating a sense of place. Metroid Prime looks very good for a Switch game, but the artstyle feels a little safe and sterile. I never got the feeling I was venturing too deep into the planet, with each abandoned outpost or ruined settlement highlighting the inhospitable nature of the world Samus was travelling through.
I would still recommend this game, however, even if only for the final boss, which is one of the most memorable encounters of this generation. I hope MercurySteam is given additional chances to work on 2D Metroids, as I feel like the franchise is in good hands.
The triumphant return of Nintendo's Third Pillar. A masterclass in level and upgrade design. The E.M.M.I. are a great concept and the natural evolution of Fusion's already fantastic SA-X. Such a step forward in a series that has been on Nintendo's fridge for way too long.
Metroid Dread is the first 2D Metroid game I completed, and it is what got me into the Metroid Series. The atmosphere of this game is incredible, and I think that it offers a snappy gameplay loop and is such a joy (as opposed to dread) to boot up and play. Super polished and clean.
My 8th playthrough really highlighted just how many loading screens there are. This wouldn't be a problem if they didn't take so long. Playing this on Nintendo's next gen console will be amazing.
Replayed this game dozens of times, but still amazes me how much of a comeback it is for this series. Best game in the series, best boss fights of the series, best ending of the series, and best portrayal of Samus in the series with only 2 lines, the second being her just screaming in animalistic rage.
Retro has a lot to live up to with Metroid Prime 4 after this.
Retro has a lot to live up to with Metroid Prime 4 after this.
This review contains spoilers
Back on my Metroid grind after taking like a 3 month break.
I enjoyed Dread a lot, combat is probably the best it's ever been, the movement is fluid and super fun to fuck around with, and it's probably the most terrifying Metroid experience I've played so far.
The E.M.M.I. all give off such an intense energy any time you're around them, especially when you're just seeing them and haven't yet figured out what all they can do. Though, I can't say I wasn't a little disappointed when the final one just... died in a cutscene immediately.
The gameplay is cool, liked it a shit ton. The way the game is played, though? Got kind of annoying. I could probably find a better way to word it, but...
One thing that really started getting to me after a few maps was the way it does progression. The game is pretty linear, but not in the way that Fusion did it where you're being told where to go every so often. More often than not, it's them locking up whatever room you're in after collecting a cool new power-up that makes it so you have to head straight for the next elevator. I had several instances where I grab the new item, think 'wow i cant wait to go back and collect some more upgrades with this' only to immediately find out that my way in is just blocked, be it by pitfall blocks, closed access doors, whatever else they could think of. It just kinda sucks having that sense of exploration taken away so quickly so many times.
I still had a good amount of fun, though. All (most) of the 2D Metroids seem to be pretty consistent in quality, I'd maybe put this one just a little over Fusion, a little under Zero Mission. some of those speed booster puzzles were some bullshit though lmao
Item collection rate was 100%, I liked wandering around the map collecting everything after obtaining that final power-up. 8/10 game.
I enjoyed Dread a lot, combat is probably the best it's ever been, the movement is fluid and super fun to fuck around with, and it's probably the most terrifying Metroid experience I've played so far.
The E.M.M.I. all give off such an intense energy any time you're around them, especially when you're just seeing them and haven't yet figured out what all they can do. Though, I can't say I wasn't a little disappointed when the final one just... died in a cutscene immediately.
The gameplay is cool, liked it a shit ton. The way the game is played, though? Got kind of annoying. I could probably find a better way to word it, but...
One thing that really started getting to me after a few maps was the way it does progression. The game is pretty linear, but not in the way that Fusion did it where you're being told where to go every so often. More often than not, it's them locking up whatever room you're in after collecting a cool new power-up that makes it so you have to head straight for the next elevator. I had several instances where I grab the new item, think 'wow i cant wait to go back and collect some more upgrades with this' only to immediately find out that my way in is just blocked, be it by pitfall blocks, closed access doors, whatever else they could think of. It just kinda sucks having that sense of exploration taken away so quickly so many times.
I still had a good amount of fun, though. All (most) of the 2D Metroids seem to be pretty consistent in quality, I'd maybe put this one just a little over Fusion, a little under Zero Mission. some of those speed booster puzzles were some bullshit though lmao
Item collection rate was 100%, I liked wandering around the map collecting everything after obtaining that final power-up. 8/10 game.
Metroid Dread is a superb game
It builds on everything that the previous games established storywise and gameplay wise, the controls are super tight and easily the best the series has to offer, absolutely thrilling bosses, fucking beautiful graphics, and overall just a really great experience.
The one thing I’ll say this fails on compared to the other Metroid games is the atmosphere, it’s still there, helped tremendously by how beautiful the game looks, but what I think holds it back compared to like Super Metroid is the soundtrack, it’s just kinda forgettable, no track really pops up in my mind aside from the intro theme (which is in every game) and the third phase of the final boss theme.
Oh speaking of, I praised Super Metroid’s final boss a lot, buuuuuut this game’s final boss is just far superior in like every way, maybe except for the cinematic aspect (which even then this fight still excelled at that), it’s an enormously challenging fight even for this series standards, I love how this is the first fight in the series where you finally face an opponent who’s superior to you, I mean before the only ones who came close were like SA-X who was just equal to samus at full power, and I guess Dark Samus idk I haven’t played Prime 2 or 3, but this fight definitely proves why this opponent is just vastly superior to you, it’s a three phase gauntlet that never slows down at any point, the only way to win is to focus, learn, and ultimately get good.
Metroid Dread is phenomenal, and a fantastic way to end my adventure into this series’ 2D entries.
Now onto the 3D ones, starting with Metroid Prime.
It builds on everything that the previous games established storywise and gameplay wise, the controls are super tight and easily the best the series has to offer, absolutely thrilling bosses, fucking beautiful graphics, and overall just a really great experience.
The one thing I’ll say this fails on compared to the other Metroid games is the atmosphere, it’s still there, helped tremendously by how beautiful the game looks, but what I think holds it back compared to like Super Metroid is the soundtrack, it’s just kinda forgettable, no track really pops up in my mind aside from the intro theme (which is in every game) and the third phase of the final boss theme.
Oh speaking of, I praised Super Metroid’s final boss a lot, buuuuuut this game’s final boss is just far superior in like every way, maybe except for the cinematic aspect (which even then this fight still excelled at that), it’s an enormously challenging fight even for this series standards, I love how this is the first fight in the series where you finally face an opponent who’s superior to you, I mean before the only ones who came close were like SA-X who was just equal to samus at full power, and I guess Dark Samus idk I haven’t played Prime 2 or 3, but this fight definitely proves why this opponent is just vastly superior to you, it’s a three phase gauntlet that never slows down at any point, the only way to win is to focus, learn, and ultimately get good.
Metroid Dread is phenomenal, and a fantastic way to end my adventure into this series’ 2D entries.
Now onto the 3D ones, starting with Metroid Prime.
absolutely amazing return of the metroid series after a long time. maybe 1-2 EMMI zones too many but it was still so amazing.
Despite having a control scheme devised by a lunatic, this managed to be one of the smoothest and most thrilling gaming experiences of my life. It's no Super Metroid, but at this point aspiring to be that when it's a monolith of game design, the face of speedrunning, a king of randomisers and mods... well, it would just be foolish.
Instead we have Metroid sped up. Everything moves faster, you need to react quicker, counter attacks, execute some truly bananas speed boost puzzles, and memorise the attack patterns of some truly heinous bosses.
I got every item. I died EIGHTY times. I'm not a speedrunner, and love exploring, so this was just under ten hours, which will do fine. I've never cared for the ending screen stuff and never will. I just want Metroid, forever. And this is that.
Instead we have Metroid sped up. Everything moves faster, you need to react quicker, counter attacks, execute some truly bananas speed boost puzzles, and memorise the attack patterns of some truly heinous bosses.
I got every item. I died EIGHTY times. I'm not a speedrunner, and love exploring, so this was just under ten hours, which will do fine. I've never cared for the ending screen stuff and never will. I just want Metroid, forever. And this is that.
This review contains spoilers
Samus could shoot me with her Hyper Beam and I would thank her for disintegrating me :)
This is my first 2D Metroid game since Fusion and has now got me extremely invested in the franchise as we eagerly wait for Prime 4 to cook. I was a tiny brainlet child back when I picked up Fusion, so I completely failed to understand anything about the Metroidvania structure which resulted in dropping it. I then picked up the Prime series much later as a more competent human and kinda breezed through those and Other M without much thought put in, so I need to replay those too.
Something I loved about playing Dread is that it doesn't hold your hand with exploration, it doesn't tell you where to go within the UI but instead leads you to those next objectives through dialogue, this forces you to pay attention to the exposition through Adam as well as observing your surroundings and glancing at the hidden areas on your map. If you ever happen to miss dialogue from Adam, the game has a neat logging system to retrace everything that was said which I appreciate in games.
As this is a Metroid game - its obviously got great level design that can really get your brain going, locking you off from certain obstacles until you have the upgrades to get past them. The new enemy type E.M.M.I. have some amazing zones that really make you clench your butthole since they are a 1 hit kill. They push you to think quickly utilising all of your abilities to either evade them or kill them, and man, killing them feels so good at point blank with the Omega Cannon. If the E.M.M.I. catch you, there are very tight windows for parries that will temporarily stun them, doing this is like doing crack (not that I have done crack) which has me addicted to parrying in this game, its just that satisfying.
The abilities you unlock are so much fun to use, especially the Flash Shift so you can go fast, Speed Booster that makes you go even faster, Space Jump for infinite jumps, and Screw Attack which is just OP.
The 2.5D interactive cutscenes/QTEs with parrying was one of my favourite aspects of the gameplay, I always felt engaged and on my toes during these moments compared to standard cutscenes with other games. These sequences where they played with 3D space also occured during uses of certain abilities like the Shinespark jump, and were always cool when they happened.
Playing through Dread's story was great for how short the game is. Reveals like Quiet Robe being an X and helping Samus was really cool and a nice callback to Fusion (yes I watched a story video before playing), as well as the reveal with Raven Beak and how he was posing as Adam to lure in Samus to get some of that DNA.
Loved this game, I would give it a 4.7/5 but we can't do that here so I'll just give it a 5. This is a must play especially now that we have a 2D Metroid on Switch.
This is my first 2D Metroid game since Fusion and has now got me extremely invested in the franchise as we eagerly wait for Prime 4 to cook. I was a tiny brainlet child back when I picked up Fusion, so I completely failed to understand anything about the Metroidvania structure which resulted in dropping it. I then picked up the Prime series much later as a more competent human and kinda breezed through those and Other M without much thought put in, so I need to replay those too.
Something I loved about playing Dread is that it doesn't hold your hand with exploration, it doesn't tell you where to go within the UI but instead leads you to those next objectives through dialogue, this forces you to pay attention to the exposition through Adam as well as observing your surroundings and glancing at the hidden areas on your map. If you ever happen to miss dialogue from Adam, the game has a neat logging system to retrace everything that was said which I appreciate in games.
As this is a Metroid game - its obviously got great level design that can really get your brain going, locking you off from certain obstacles until you have the upgrades to get past them. The new enemy type E.M.M.I. have some amazing zones that really make you clench your butthole since they are a 1 hit kill. They push you to think quickly utilising all of your abilities to either evade them or kill them, and man, killing them feels so good at point blank with the Omega Cannon. If the E.M.M.I. catch you, there are very tight windows for parries that will temporarily stun them, doing this is like doing crack (not that I have done crack) which has me addicted to parrying in this game, its just that satisfying.
The abilities you unlock are so much fun to use, especially the Flash Shift so you can go fast, Speed Booster that makes you go even faster, Space Jump for infinite jumps, and Screw Attack which is just OP.
The 2.5D interactive cutscenes/QTEs with parrying was one of my favourite aspects of the gameplay, I always felt engaged and on my toes during these moments compared to standard cutscenes with other games. These sequences where they played with 3D space also occured during uses of certain abilities like the Shinespark jump, and were always cool when they happened.
Playing through Dread's story was great for how short the game is. Reveals like Quiet Robe being an X and helping Samus was really cool and a nice callback to Fusion (yes I watched a story video before playing), as well as the reveal with Raven Beak and how he was posing as Adam to lure in Samus to get some of that DNA.
Loved this game, I would give it a 4.7/5 but we can't do that here so I'll just give it a 5. This is a must play especially now that we have a 2D Metroid on Switch.
Eu não sou fã de metroidvania. Joguei muitos poucos, e zerei só o Metroid: Zero MIssion (passei mais raiva do que diversão). Mas esse é um caso beeem diferente.
A gameplay é muito gostosinha, e acho que o que contribuiu pra eu gostar bastante é o design das fases ser um pouco mais intuitivo, indo na direção oposta do que eu não gosto nos que joguei desse subgênero.
Outro ponto que curti muito foram os bosses. Pega uma cutscene de entrada deles e dá até pra enganar que é de Elden RIng. Isso sem falar nas batalhas muito intensas.
Não esperava gostar tanto assim desse.
A gameplay é muito gostosinha, e acho que o que contribuiu pra eu gostar bastante é o design das fases ser um pouco mais intuitivo, indo na direção oposta do que eu não gosto nos que joguei desse subgênero.
Outro ponto que curti muito foram os bosses. Pega uma cutscene de entrada deles e dá até pra enganar que é de Elden RIng. Isso sem falar nas batalhas muito intensas.
Não esperava gostar tanto assim desse.
You need to buy this game NOW or else everyone will die.
Samus Aran is to date the only Nintendo character to ever achieve the prestigious EGOT:
The E.M.M.I.
The Gorea
The mOther brain
and the Tony Award, for her stunning work in the recent Broadway revival of Kiss Me, Kate
The E.M.M.I.
The Gorea
The mOther brain
and the Tony Award, for her stunning work in the recent Broadway revival of Kiss Me, Kate
This review contains spoilers
It’s not bad. Decent, even. Catch me on a nice day and I’ll tell ya it’s good! But as much as I enjoyed my time with Metroid: Dread (and I did enjoy it, mostly), I can’t help but feel like it plays things way too safe while also somehow fumbling a lot of the fundamentals. I think the clamoring for a new Metroid game may have overshadowed any priorities for what that game should be. Truthfully, the Metroid name has a lot of baggage. When I hear that name, I think of the NES original’s ambitious nonlinear structure, Return of Samus’s willingness to make you uncomfortable, Super’s masterful sense of immersion and player freedom, or Fusion’s total disruption of series tradition. Dread on the other hand is just… another Metroid. A fine Metroid, but there’s nothing here that really even attempts to be as innovative or transgressive as the 4 games it’s a sequel to, and that to me is the biggest disappointment here.
World design is once again Mercury Steam’s downfall. The linearity isn’t what bugs me –only 2 outta 7 games in this series truly dedicated themselves to the concept, if we’re being honest –but the way it’s implemented is pretty lame, I think. The map always spits you out exactly where you need to be, with any attempts to move off the beaten path usually met by dead ends. I never felt super connected to ZDR in the way I still do to Zebes or SR-388 or the BSL station, and I think it’s because the game never provides any incentive or really any opportunity to familiarize yourself with its layout. It doesn’t help that, while not as egregious as Samus Returns, the level design is still quite cramped and blocky. This doesn’t feel like a living, breathing world as much as a backdrop for a computer entertainment game. It’s also just a really obnoxious approach to building a Metroidvania, if you ask me. I decided to do some backtracking for items before the final boss, and had a pretty terrible time because so many of these screens are so tight and obstructive that they seem intentionally designed to hinder player traversal. The fact each major area is only connected by elevators and teleporters, each one equipped with their own lengthy, demotivating loading screen only makes things worse. And speaking of making things worse, the EMMI zones only serve to compound Dread’s issues with map design. The way each one has to gut whatever area it’s in to make room results in those areas feeling so much less cohesive. It doesn’t help that these zones each look identical, making a by all accounts very pretty and aesthetically diverse game feel visually samey in my head.
The EMMIs themselves also, uh, suck? I think these suck. Relegating each one to their own clearly-demarcated sections that you can freely walk in and out of immediately deprives them of any sense of oppressive spontaneity that something like the SA-X had. Then, once you actually get inside, it’s a formality. Either you effortlessly make it to the other side without hassle, or you get insta-killed immediately and respawn right outside the door. If these were more substantial sections with a little more leeway there might be interesting conflict here. But as is, I’m either gonna skate by mindlessly or I’m getting stuck repeating the same 10 seconds of gameplay over and over again, each loading screen killing the pace and my patience more and more. The omega cannon segments, a genuinely creative new idea, at least have some compelling puzzle design and an exciting flashiness to them. But for me they ultimately get really bogged down by an overly cumbersome control scheme and that same trial & error tedium. The EMMIs also lack any of the thematic resonance that made the SA-X or the Space Pirates of past games so memorable, which is like, the best part of these type of encounters??? I think even the devs get bored of these guys after a while, since they go largely absent from the mid-to-late game only for the final EMMI to be killed off unceremoniously in a cutscene. I dunno man, a big swing and a miss for me.
A lot of Metroid: Dread has this weird give-and-take to it. The power-ups are really cool and satisfying to use, but the way they’re implemented is shockingly unimaginative. Outside of a few optional missile tanks (the only optional collectible you’ll find 80% of the time), you’re mostly only using these upgrades as specialized keys for specialized doors, the grapple beam and ice missiles being the biggest offenders. Boss fights are fantastically frenetic, but so many of them are copy-and-pasted, particularly in the late game, that they lose a lot of their initial impact. I actually really like the attempt at a steeper difficulty, but while some challenges feel really tense and gratifying, others like the EMMIs just feel like banging your head against a wall until it cracks. The game is fucking stunning to look at, easily one of the best graphical showcases for the Switch, but the environments themselves are just kind of bland and forgettable to me. Outside of some novel Chozo structures, it all felt like more of the same caves, plant areas, waterworlds and Norfair clones I’m used to.
This review seems really mean and that’s because yeah, it is. But as I said at the start, I did enjoy my time here. For all that I think Dread gets wrong, I think it gets Samus very, very right. Her controls feel wonderfully agile, and the way she moves in cutscenes is just…so fucking cool like holy shit wow. While I don’t think her moveset here has as much depth as it did in Super or as much crunchiness as in Fusion/Zero Mission, I can’t deny how satisfying the simple act of moving and shooting is in Dread. This was the thing that really ruined Samus Returns for me, but fuck dude, even the counter and Aeion system don’t make me want to kill myself now! It’s a remarkably fun game to play considering how unremarkable so many of it’s design decisions are. And hey, as nitpicky as I can get here, I can’t deny how great the sense of spectacle is here. Sure it’s fanservice, but that Kraid fight had me a hootin’ and a hollerin’, and moments like that go a long way in the final analysis. I have a lot of grievances with Metroid Dread, but I don’t think it’s a bad game per se, and I’d easily recommend it to any aspiring Metroid fan. Just, y’know. Play the other ones first.
“But schlocky,” you cry, “Does all this redeem Mercury Steam for Samus Returns?” Hahaha absolutely not. Are you fucking kidding me? Have you read the articles about what they put their developers through? No way man. Burn that shit to the ground.
World design is once again Mercury Steam’s downfall. The linearity isn’t what bugs me –only 2 outta 7 games in this series truly dedicated themselves to the concept, if we’re being honest –but the way it’s implemented is pretty lame, I think. The map always spits you out exactly where you need to be, with any attempts to move off the beaten path usually met by dead ends. I never felt super connected to ZDR in the way I still do to Zebes or SR-388 or the BSL station, and I think it’s because the game never provides any incentive or really any opportunity to familiarize yourself with its layout. It doesn’t help that, while not as egregious as Samus Returns, the level design is still quite cramped and blocky. This doesn’t feel like a living, breathing world as much as a backdrop for a computer entertainment game. It’s also just a really obnoxious approach to building a Metroidvania, if you ask me. I decided to do some backtracking for items before the final boss, and had a pretty terrible time because so many of these screens are so tight and obstructive that they seem intentionally designed to hinder player traversal. The fact each major area is only connected by elevators and teleporters, each one equipped with their own lengthy, demotivating loading screen only makes things worse. And speaking of making things worse, the EMMI zones only serve to compound Dread’s issues with map design. The way each one has to gut whatever area it’s in to make room results in those areas feeling so much less cohesive. It doesn’t help that these zones each look identical, making a by all accounts very pretty and aesthetically diverse game feel visually samey in my head.
The EMMIs themselves also, uh, suck? I think these suck. Relegating each one to their own clearly-demarcated sections that you can freely walk in and out of immediately deprives them of any sense of oppressive spontaneity that something like the SA-X had. Then, once you actually get inside, it’s a formality. Either you effortlessly make it to the other side without hassle, or you get insta-killed immediately and respawn right outside the door. If these were more substantial sections with a little more leeway there might be interesting conflict here. But as is, I’m either gonna skate by mindlessly or I’m getting stuck repeating the same 10 seconds of gameplay over and over again, each loading screen killing the pace and my patience more and more. The omega cannon segments, a genuinely creative new idea, at least have some compelling puzzle design and an exciting flashiness to them. But for me they ultimately get really bogged down by an overly cumbersome control scheme and that same trial & error tedium. The EMMIs also lack any of the thematic resonance that made the SA-X or the Space Pirates of past games so memorable, which is like, the best part of these type of encounters??? I think even the devs get bored of these guys after a while, since they go largely absent from the mid-to-late game only for the final EMMI to be killed off unceremoniously in a cutscene. I dunno man, a big swing and a miss for me.
A lot of Metroid: Dread has this weird give-and-take to it. The power-ups are really cool and satisfying to use, but the way they’re implemented is shockingly unimaginative. Outside of a few optional missile tanks (the only optional collectible you’ll find 80% of the time), you’re mostly only using these upgrades as specialized keys for specialized doors, the grapple beam and ice missiles being the biggest offenders. Boss fights are fantastically frenetic, but so many of them are copy-and-pasted, particularly in the late game, that they lose a lot of their initial impact. I actually really like the attempt at a steeper difficulty, but while some challenges feel really tense and gratifying, others like the EMMIs just feel like banging your head against a wall until it cracks. The game is fucking stunning to look at, easily one of the best graphical showcases for the Switch, but the environments themselves are just kind of bland and forgettable to me. Outside of some novel Chozo structures, it all felt like more of the same caves, plant areas, waterworlds and Norfair clones I’m used to.
This review seems really mean and that’s because yeah, it is. But as I said at the start, I did enjoy my time here. For all that I think Dread gets wrong, I think it gets Samus very, very right. Her controls feel wonderfully agile, and the way she moves in cutscenes is just…so fucking cool like holy shit wow. While I don’t think her moveset here has as much depth as it did in Super or as much crunchiness as in Fusion/Zero Mission, I can’t deny how satisfying the simple act of moving and shooting is in Dread. This was the thing that really ruined Samus Returns for me, but fuck dude, even the counter and Aeion system don’t make me want to kill myself now! It’s a remarkably fun game to play considering how unremarkable so many of it’s design decisions are. And hey, as nitpicky as I can get here, I can’t deny how great the sense of spectacle is here. Sure it’s fanservice, but that Kraid fight had me a hootin’ and a hollerin’, and moments like that go a long way in the final analysis. I have a lot of grievances with Metroid Dread, but I don’t think it’s a bad game per se, and I’d easily recommend it to any aspiring Metroid fan. Just, y’know. Play the other ones first.
“But schlocky,” you cry, “Does all this redeem Mercury Steam for Samus Returns?” Hahaha absolutely not. Are you fucking kidding me? Have you read the articles about what they put their developers through? No way man. Burn that shit to the ground.
É literalmente tudo que metroid tem direito de ser, só que absurdamente bom.
Exploração? uma das mais complexas e gigantes da franquia inteira, com um level design incrível de tão intuitivo. Gameplay? a mais viciante, fluida, complexa e DELICIOSA de jogar, principalmente contra bosses.
TUDO, é muito bom. Os bosses são bem dificeis e épicos, principalmente o último. As areas são bem distintas e acho que é o melhor conjunto que a franquia já teve. A trilha combina bastante, não é tão reconhecivel, mas passa o sentimento perfeito pra area, e principalmente, pra situação.
A ideia dos E.M.M.I é uma das coisas mais geniais do jogo, torna ele um verdadeiro survival horror, um extremamente assustador.
Não vou ficar me estendendo, simplesmente incrível.
Exploração? uma das mais complexas e gigantes da franquia inteira, com um level design incrível de tão intuitivo. Gameplay? a mais viciante, fluida, complexa e DELICIOSA de jogar, principalmente contra bosses.
TUDO, é muito bom. Os bosses são bem dificeis e épicos, principalmente o último. As areas são bem distintas e acho que é o melhor conjunto que a franquia já teve. A trilha combina bastante, não é tão reconhecivel, mas passa o sentimento perfeito pra area, e principalmente, pra situação.
A ideia dos E.M.M.I é uma das coisas mais geniais do jogo, torna ele um verdadeiro survival horror, um extremamente assustador.
Não vou ficar me estendendo, simplesmente incrível.
fun as hell. apparently giving samus a parry in fact is an incredible idea. easily the best combat in a 2d metroid game. its a far more guided experience than super metroid, which is not necessarily better or worse imo. I like both approaches and at least while playing dread, I found its world/level layout to be really enjoyable.
9/10.
Truly gorgeous.
Absolute Great.
A experiência mais divertida e marcante que tive num jogo metroid.
O level design disso é sem duvida maravilhoso
A atmosfera pega legal até a região de burenia, depois desanda um tanto.
Num geral foi uma excelente experiência, o fator exploração me pegou demais, a progressão também se fez excepcional e somou com o bom gameplay.
Porém não gostei de 3 coisas.
A forma como o plot twist/explicação da trama acontece.
A droga do free aim e sua sensibilidade 1000
E a fase final.
Truly gorgeous.
Absolute Great.
A experiência mais divertida e marcante que tive num jogo metroid.
O level design disso é sem duvida maravilhoso
A atmosfera pega legal até a região de burenia, depois desanda um tanto.
Num geral foi uma excelente experiência, o fator exploração me pegou demais, a progressão também se fez excepcional e somou com o bom gameplay.
Porém não gostei de 3 coisas.
A forma como o plot twist/explicação da trama acontece.
A droga do free aim e sua sensibilidade 1000
E a fase final.
really hoping we don’t have to wait another two decades for metroid 6
After the hype cycle on this game ended, I started to turn on the game. I watched other people play it and complain about it. I also took a lot of time away from it and it's problems escalated in my head. I thought it was another game like Samus Returns. Something that was cool and refreshing at the time only for it to fall short from the other games in the series I love so much.
Funny enough, the reason I started to appreciate this more is because I am replaying Samus Returns. It does not hold up, and I find it to be one of the most monotonous and characterless metroid experiences out there. Metroid Dread pretty much corrects everything that Samus Returns did wrong and then some.
Dread is so well designed. Everything about it feels like a top shelf Nintendo/Metroid experience which is just so impressive for Mercurysteams second attempt. The game just feels SO good to play. It feels slick and modern in all the right ways. I don't think Samus has controlled better (though I have a soft spot for the weight and momentum of Super Metroid). They really polished the enemy design here. There will be a samey enemy counter here and there, but most of them are varied and have clever attack patterns. Most importantly, the combat is fluid. Countering and shooting feel effortless and fun. The game just has an excellent pace to it as well. It never feels like you are fighting or exploring too much, it knows exactly what it wants you to feel and when. It's a really sharp experience that just gets better and better as it goes on. It also feels quite different in terms of its power up progression. You often don't get items in the order that you'd expect them to and it creates a really interesting feeling if you are a fan.
I really love the narrative of this game. I would prefer Metroid to be a "planet of the week" type story as opposed to one continuous story. But in terms of tying up the 2D games it was everything I wanted. I loved seeing the Chozo being expanded on here. It's something I have always wanted to see, and it's done very well. It definitely takes a page from Metroid Fusion in its own way, where it feels like the environments can change in clever ways depending on where you are at in the story. I LOVE the X parasite infestation near the midpoint. The way the enemies change to reflect the mechanics of Metroid Fusion is so cool and feels really justified in the plot. Raven Beak is also one of my favorite villains in the series if not my favorite. You are a rat in his maze at all times. He is a manipulative and scheming villain. He has that DMC Vergil power dynamic going on that I really enjoy in games. I love how the environments reflect his character. His Chozo warrior pride is represented in the top parts of the map with all the mythic and ancient architecture. But on the lower end of the map you see the experiments and cold labs that show his disregard for life and villainy. It's all great stuff in my opinion.
The game has its issues that I'd like to see further ironed out if they get to make another one. While I enjoy the map design a lot more than in Samus Returns, there are a few setbacks that make it frustrating to explore, especially early on. The game has this kind of adherence to a flowstate. It is always guiding you in subtle ways to get you cleanly to its next objective. While some would say this is brilliant design, I find this to be counter to the way I play Metroid games. I like sussing my way through a map, hitting dead ends and that feeling of triumph when I can finally clear them with a newfound power up. This is something I feel Prime 1 does so well. It is a smaller map and it makes you backtrack a lot. But it is memorable, and each time you backtrack between areas it always feels good being able to explore just that little bit more to find secrets. Metroid Dread never feels like this to me. While you certainly can go off the beaten path, the levels can often feel winding and confusing if you do that, especially in the first half. They are huge maps, and I don't think Mercurysteam have quite nailed the memorable layouts of the previous games that just stick in your head. It also does something I really dislike where you make your own shortcuts that end up blocking sections of the map that you could explore before. This is the most frustrating in Ghavoran. There is one section in particular where you could potentially enter from a different area only to be faced with an ice missile grapple hook combo that you can't clear from that side. There are little stuff like that all over, and I wish the maps were less rigid overall.
I think the emmi are really cool on paper and there is clearly a lot of work that went into them. But their tension is ruined by the slap of the wrist checkpoint system. It's a concept that I'm not sure how they could've executed well. They all just kind of feel the same in their little clean lab rooms. They can't ever be that surprising because they are sanctioned to their own areas. And they are all taken down in the same way. The SA-X, despite its scripted nature, holds up a lot better for the fact that it feels like it can appear anywhere in the map and it's implied that it's actively hunting you down. I appreciate that they are there but they are definitely the weakest part of the game.
These flaws all sound damning, and on top of the poor soundtrack, it feels like it shouldn't click together. But it's just so solid regardless of that. The good heavily outweighs the bad here. The issues I have with the map design start to melt away the more it goes on, it has this incredible finale to it thats so satisfying and cool. Despite it's issues it's a really brilliant metroid game that is made with a lot of admiration for the series. It always sticks in my head and I'm very glad I had a positive experience going back to it.
Funny enough, the reason I started to appreciate this more is because I am replaying Samus Returns. It does not hold up, and I find it to be one of the most monotonous and characterless metroid experiences out there. Metroid Dread pretty much corrects everything that Samus Returns did wrong and then some.
Dread is so well designed. Everything about it feels like a top shelf Nintendo/Metroid experience which is just so impressive for Mercurysteams second attempt. The game just feels SO good to play. It feels slick and modern in all the right ways. I don't think Samus has controlled better (though I have a soft spot for the weight and momentum of Super Metroid). They really polished the enemy design here. There will be a samey enemy counter here and there, but most of them are varied and have clever attack patterns. Most importantly, the combat is fluid. Countering and shooting feel effortless and fun. The game just has an excellent pace to it as well. It never feels like you are fighting or exploring too much, it knows exactly what it wants you to feel and when. It's a really sharp experience that just gets better and better as it goes on. It also feels quite different in terms of its power up progression. You often don't get items in the order that you'd expect them to and it creates a really interesting feeling if you are a fan.
I really love the narrative of this game. I would prefer Metroid to be a "planet of the week" type story as opposed to one continuous story. But in terms of tying up the 2D games it was everything I wanted. I loved seeing the Chozo being expanded on here. It's something I have always wanted to see, and it's done very well. It definitely takes a page from Metroid Fusion in its own way, where it feels like the environments can change in clever ways depending on where you are at in the story. I LOVE the X parasite infestation near the midpoint. The way the enemies change to reflect the mechanics of Metroid Fusion is so cool and feels really justified in the plot. Raven Beak is also one of my favorite villains in the series if not my favorite. You are a rat in his maze at all times. He is a manipulative and scheming villain. He has that DMC Vergil power dynamic going on that I really enjoy in games. I love how the environments reflect his character. His Chozo warrior pride is represented in the top parts of the map with all the mythic and ancient architecture. But on the lower end of the map you see the experiments and cold labs that show his disregard for life and villainy. It's all great stuff in my opinion.
The game has its issues that I'd like to see further ironed out if they get to make another one. While I enjoy the map design a lot more than in Samus Returns, there are a few setbacks that make it frustrating to explore, especially early on. The game has this kind of adherence to a flowstate. It is always guiding you in subtle ways to get you cleanly to its next objective. While some would say this is brilliant design, I find this to be counter to the way I play Metroid games. I like sussing my way through a map, hitting dead ends and that feeling of triumph when I can finally clear them with a newfound power up. This is something I feel Prime 1 does so well. It is a smaller map and it makes you backtrack a lot. But it is memorable, and each time you backtrack between areas it always feels good being able to explore just that little bit more to find secrets. Metroid Dread never feels like this to me. While you certainly can go off the beaten path, the levels can often feel winding and confusing if you do that, especially in the first half. They are huge maps, and I don't think Mercurysteam have quite nailed the memorable layouts of the previous games that just stick in your head. It also does something I really dislike where you make your own shortcuts that end up blocking sections of the map that you could explore before. This is the most frustrating in Ghavoran. There is one section in particular where you could potentially enter from a different area only to be faced with an ice missile grapple hook combo that you can't clear from that side. There are little stuff like that all over, and I wish the maps were less rigid overall.
I think the emmi are really cool on paper and there is clearly a lot of work that went into them. But their tension is ruined by the slap of the wrist checkpoint system. It's a concept that I'm not sure how they could've executed well. They all just kind of feel the same in their little clean lab rooms. They can't ever be that surprising because they are sanctioned to their own areas. And they are all taken down in the same way. The SA-X, despite its scripted nature, holds up a lot better for the fact that it feels like it can appear anywhere in the map and it's implied that it's actively hunting you down. I appreciate that they are there but they are definitely the weakest part of the game.
These flaws all sound damning, and on top of the poor soundtrack, it feels like it shouldn't click together. But it's just so solid regardless of that. The good heavily outweighs the bad here. The issues I have with the map design start to melt away the more it goes on, it has this incredible finale to it thats so satisfying and cool. Despite it's issues it's a really brilliant metroid game that is made with a lot of admiration for the series. It always sticks in my head and I'm very glad I had a positive experience going back to it.
Samus Aran is basically a walking nuclear bomb with all the powerups this game lets her acquire but all you gotta do is bonk her on the head and they just start falling out of her ass.
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As someone who hasnt played very many (or I guess any) Metroid games, and as someone who kind of dislikes the trappings of Metroidvanias, I was actually pretty surprised to find how much I enjoyed Dread.
Heres a few thoughts:
- I think I ultimately share the main criticism everyone has of Dread: exploration feels incredibly constrained and boxed in, like Im bowling and the guard rails are put up. This of course accomplishes its main goal, youre never lost, youre never frustrated, youre constantly being rewarded and can be certain no matter what you do youre making progress. As someone who dislikes “You Cant Go Over Here Until You Get Very Convenient Ability To Do So” in Metroidvanias, this is benefiting me directly - but I also couldnt help but constantly feel the guard rails all around me for most of the game.
- However, its also extremely impressive how intricate and complex the way the world progresses with each event. It would have taken a tremendous amount of work on Nintendos / the devs part to plan all of these sequences out in a way that makes sure all these moving parts make sense and work together while also excluding ways players could accidently softlock themselves with user error.
- Along with that, Metroid Dread also feels like an incredible achievement sidescrolling presentation. There is a cohesive and consistent world happening in the background, with areas being logically connected together in very thoughtful ways. Theres a very elegant merging of what is otherwise a very Video-Game-Ass-Video-Game style of level design with an interesting and compelling environment where characters and monsters conspire to harm and impede Samus - and its all very pretty to look at the whole time as well.
- Alot of the marketing around Dread focused on the “dread” the EMMI were supposed to introduce to the game but the EMMI are probably the least thoughtful part of the game. Theyre caged in specific sectors, your options for dealing with them are essentially "trial and error", and you end up defeating half a dozen of them by the end. To me, these design decisions add up to "tedious" and not "dread", and for the last 50% or 30% of the game you are not thinking about them at all. Im certainly not feeIing "dread". feel like the EMMI wholly failed in what they were designed to do and I feel like that dev time would have been better spent on making more of the rest of the game instead - cuz a single EMMI that could chase you through the whole game would have likely been an impossible design challenge as well.
- I think its fun and bold that the game lets you get as powerful as it does. Forgive me if this is the standard Metroid experience but typically games are afraid to give players this much control over the gameplay
- To go along with that tho, I think there are way too many upgrades. Paired with how the level design works, there are several instances where you will only use an upgrade once or twice before getting an upgrade that completely dissolves the mechanic into dust. Some people might like this but I think it cheapens the game. Makes me care less, makes me think less about the game. The last 2 upgrades are basically not used for anything other than bonus missile upgrades in older areas. That feels wasteful to me.
- Similarly, and this is just me talking but: Im not a huge fan of the gamefeel. Alot of weird button schemes paired with 12 different functions very often has me fumbling around on a ledge or getting smacked 3 or 4 times in a corner. You can absolutely practice the nuances and get good at it and show off some cool moves. Its just not my cup of joe, and some rebinding options might have helped but I also see how difficult that would have been to do when you try to fit a dozen things onto like 6 buttons.
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As someone who hasnt played very many (or I guess any) Metroid games, and as someone who kind of dislikes the trappings of Metroidvanias, I was actually pretty surprised to find how much I enjoyed Dread.
Heres a few thoughts:
- I think I ultimately share the main criticism everyone has of Dread: exploration feels incredibly constrained and boxed in, like Im bowling and the guard rails are put up. This of course accomplishes its main goal, youre never lost, youre never frustrated, youre constantly being rewarded and can be certain no matter what you do youre making progress. As someone who dislikes “You Cant Go Over Here Until You Get Very Convenient Ability To Do So” in Metroidvanias, this is benefiting me directly - but I also couldnt help but constantly feel the guard rails all around me for most of the game.
- However, its also extremely impressive how intricate and complex the way the world progresses with each event. It would have taken a tremendous amount of work on Nintendos / the devs part to plan all of these sequences out in a way that makes sure all these moving parts make sense and work together while also excluding ways players could accidently softlock themselves with user error.
- Along with that, Metroid Dread also feels like an incredible achievement sidescrolling presentation. There is a cohesive and consistent world happening in the background, with areas being logically connected together in very thoughtful ways. Theres a very elegant merging of what is otherwise a very Video-Game-Ass-Video-Game style of level design with an interesting and compelling environment where characters and monsters conspire to harm and impede Samus - and its all very pretty to look at the whole time as well.
- Alot of the marketing around Dread focused on the “dread” the EMMI were supposed to introduce to the game but the EMMI are probably the least thoughtful part of the game. Theyre caged in specific sectors, your options for dealing with them are essentially "trial and error", and you end up defeating half a dozen of them by the end. To me, these design decisions add up to "tedious" and not "dread", and for the last 50% or 30% of the game you are not thinking about them at all. Im certainly not feeIing "dread". feel like the EMMI wholly failed in what they were designed to do and I feel like that dev time would have been better spent on making more of the rest of the game instead - cuz a single EMMI that could chase you through the whole game would have likely been an impossible design challenge as well.
- I think its fun and bold that the game lets you get as powerful as it does. Forgive me if this is the standard Metroid experience but typically games are afraid to give players this much control over the gameplay
- To go along with that tho, I think there are way too many upgrades. Paired with how the level design works, there are several instances where you will only use an upgrade once or twice before getting an upgrade that completely dissolves the mechanic into dust. Some people might like this but I think it cheapens the game. Makes me care less, makes me think less about the game. The last 2 upgrades are basically not used for anything other than bonus missile upgrades in older areas. That feels wasteful to me.
- Similarly, and this is just me talking but: Im not a huge fan of the gamefeel. Alot of weird button schemes paired with 12 different functions very often has me fumbling around on a ledge or getting smacked 3 or 4 times in a corner. You can absolutely practice the nuances and get good at it and show off some cool moves. Its just not my cup of joe, and some rebinding options might have helped but I also see how difficult that would have been to do when you try to fit a dozen things onto like 6 buttons.
Yeah this game had the sauce. Platforming schmoved and the boss fights went hard. The story was uncomplicated but it wasn't uninteresting either. I actually kinda liked the simplicity in the story.
The E.M.M.I.'s were sick as hell, too. I thought the horror aspects of the game were really intriguing. I do wish they would've went harder on the horror, but I understand that it was just a T-rated Nintendo game.
The metroidvania style map flowed from one part of the story to the next in a smooth way... for the most part. There were a few times that I didn't have any idea where to go and it was frustrating. The map layout was good but not not perfect; I understand why they didn't have fast travel but I think I would've appreciated it at parts. Having to run across the map to get somewhere got a little annoying at times.
Also, I absolutely hated the double jump feature. Having to time it just right was annoying and caused me to die in many instances.
Overall I'd recommend this game to anyone who wants some really fun gameplay without caring too much about a deep story.
75/100
The E.M.M.I.'s were sick as hell, too. I thought the horror aspects of the game were really intriguing. I do wish they would've went harder on the horror, but I understand that it was just a T-rated Nintendo game.
The metroidvania style map flowed from one part of the story to the next in a smooth way... for the most part. There were a few times that I didn't have any idea where to go and it was frustrating. The map layout was good but not not perfect; I understand why they didn't have fast travel but I think I would've appreciated it at parts. Having to run across the map to get somewhere got a little annoying at times.
Also, I absolutely hated the double jump feature. Having to time it just right was annoying and caused me to die in many instances.
Overall I'd recommend this game to anyone who wants some really fun gameplay without caring too much about a deep story.
75/100
ela é muito bruta eu amo ela
Full disclosure, I did not play Samus Returns, so I went straight from Fusion to this game. And my goodness what an insane leap in quality this is. I absolutely love this game.
The controls feel perfect, this game just feels amazing to play, and it takes full advantage of how many movement options you have and integrates the upgrades you pick up in fun ways. Bosses are tough as nails, but are so fun to fight and it's when the controls feel the best, requiring quick reaction time and constant adjustment of Samus's position.
Speaking of Samus, this is her best appearance no question. In every other Metroid game apart from maybe Fusion, that I've played anyway, Samus doesn't have much of a character at all, she's pretty much a blank slate. Here though, she actually feels like a character and one I want to see succeed with her mission, adding to this is the finale of the game which I wouldn't dare spoil here.
Exploring feels pretty nice in Dread. The game is great at naturally guiding you in the right direction and it always feels like progress is being made. Enemies are fun to take down, for the most part.
I do have some little gripes.
Firstly, while the game is very straightforward as long as you stay on the beaten path that the game lays out for you, should you step away from that path and explore, remembering where to go is the worst. The map is information overload to the point where figuring out what's what is kind of overwhelming, even with a key.
Secondly, the map just isn't memorable, it's really cool how the map will change after making progress through the game, but areas just blend together, they don't stick out at all. There's no memorable music either outside of returning tunes and some boss encounters.
And speaking of boss encounters, the Chozo warriors are not fun to fight with how many times they're thrown at you. It gets old.
Finally, EMMI zones. I'm mixed on these. At first, they are very stressful and bring back that feeling of fear from Fusion but even more intense. After a while though, they get kind of old. They're more annoying to get around than they are scary once you're used to how they work. That said, that feeling of narrowly escaping an EMMI and making it out of its zone is unparalleled. On top of that, finally getting the omega beam is super satisfying.
So I do have my gripes with this game, but I do still love it and had a blast with it. It's not my favorite Metroid, that goes to Super, but this is definitely my second favorite!
The controls feel perfect, this game just feels amazing to play, and it takes full advantage of how many movement options you have and integrates the upgrades you pick up in fun ways. Bosses are tough as nails, but are so fun to fight and it's when the controls feel the best, requiring quick reaction time and constant adjustment of Samus's position.
Speaking of Samus, this is her best appearance no question. In every other Metroid game apart from maybe Fusion, that I've played anyway, Samus doesn't have much of a character at all, she's pretty much a blank slate. Here though, she actually feels like a character and one I want to see succeed with her mission, adding to this is the finale of the game which I wouldn't dare spoil here.
Exploring feels pretty nice in Dread. The game is great at naturally guiding you in the right direction and it always feels like progress is being made. Enemies are fun to take down, for the most part.
I do have some little gripes.
Firstly, while the game is very straightforward as long as you stay on the beaten path that the game lays out for you, should you step away from that path and explore, remembering where to go is the worst. The map is information overload to the point where figuring out what's what is kind of overwhelming, even with a key.
Secondly, the map just isn't memorable, it's really cool how the map will change after making progress through the game, but areas just blend together, they don't stick out at all. There's no memorable music either outside of returning tunes and some boss encounters.
And speaking of boss encounters, the Chozo warriors are not fun to fight with how many times they're thrown at you. It gets old.
Finally, EMMI zones. I'm mixed on these. At first, they are very stressful and bring back that feeling of fear from Fusion but even more intense. After a while though, they get kind of old. They're more annoying to get around than they are scary once you're used to how they work. That said, that feeling of narrowly escaping an EMMI and making it out of its zone is unparalleled. On top of that, finally getting the omega beam is super satisfying.
So I do have my gripes with this game, but I do still love it and had a blast with it. It's not my favorite Metroid, that goes to Super, but this is definitely my second favorite!
Metroid in general has an incredible amount of care put into the games and this one is no exception.
Samus is everything she can be.
Samus is everything she can be.
I've finally reached the end of my 2D Metroid binge, and I have to say, I am floored, Dread did not disappoint at all. It fixed pretty much all of my complaints with Fusion, and somehow cherrypicked all of the best aspects from every previous 2D Metroid and fused them into a single game to make what's in my opinion the best Metroid game, and a fantastic climax to the 2D series. You have the fast, fluid and responsive gameplay of Zero Mission, the quality of life improvements of Samus Returns with its Block Scanner, Map Markers, Free Precision Aiming, and Teleporters, the atmosphere, exploration and sequence breaking of Super, and the more spooky, story heavy nature of Fusion, all in one game. This entry leans more heavily into the difficult action game nature the series has only briefly touched upon in earlier games, and I love it for that as a big fan of action games with tough bosses that you have to react to on a dime and counter effectively.
That said, holy crap this game is even less suited for newcomers than Fusion was, it really should not be your first Metroid game unless you're familiar with Metroidvanias and are adept at action games in general. Not to mention the story is essentially the climax of Samus's journey throughout the series and a lot of things will come out of nowhere without the proper context.
As always, I'll start by talking about the gameplay and game as a whole, then segue into my thoughts on the story later, with a spoiler warning when I reach that part. You have been warned.
First things first, holy crap this game looks like an actual Playstation 4 game graphically, which is somehow running on Switch hardware in 1080p 60 FPS flawlessly! I was floored when I saw Dread's presentation, the big budget action cutscenes paired with the amazing artistic direction for the planet of ZDR look and feel amazing. I played this game entirely on handheld mode, and it STILL looked that good! I can only imagine it somehow looks even more immaculate on a big screen HD TV. If this is the new direction Metroid is going to go into with future games, I'm all for it.
Now for the gameplay. As I said before, Samus has never felt better to control than in this. She moves so fluidly and her animations also have so much polish and nuance to them that say a lot about her demeanor and character. The bosses are no slouch in this department either, and they're way more fun to fight than they've ever been. Not that I think Metroid boss design in previous games has ever been bad, but I always felt they could've leaned harder into the action aspects where you're bobbing and weaving around enemies a lot better, when usually that's not the case. But as soon as this game introduced the Flash Step dodge mechanic to complement the dodge slide, I knew that I was in for a treat. No good action game is complete without a solid dodge option to make evading bosses that much more feasible and smooth, and Dread doesn't disappoint here.
Dread thankfully is very good at providing Samus very great spacious arenas to fight her opponents in, which makes the game very fair despite its great challenge. There was only one mini boss in the forest jungle area where I struggled to beat them because of the arena being a lot more confined which made it super hard to avoid their red arm attacks, but other than that I didn't have any complaints with the bosses in this game. The final boss especially takes the case as not only the most epic and satisfying final boss in the series, but also as the most fun. Such an incredibly designed multi-phase fight that really puts everything you've learned throughout the game to the test, and it was really fun for me to figure out and react to the patterns. I only died three times to it (twice in the first phase, and once in the third), but I chalk that up to my experience with other equally as tough action games that require precision aiming and high maintenance reaction time, those games being Kid Icarus Uprising's 9.0 difficulty and Hardest Boss Rush mode, and Kingdom Hearts 2 Final Mix's Critical Mode and incredible boss design.
The level design is still the standard Metroid fare but polished to a shine. You have your great cool looking alien environments, with incredible level design of gently guiding you in the right direction to go without holding your hand too hard. This is the first Metroid game where I was able to complete the entire game without ever getting stuck and needing a guide to complete the story! I chalk that up to my previous experiences with the series however, as every previous game had me stumped at one point where I needed outside help. (In Zero Mission, I got stuck because I couldn't find one block I needed to bomb to progress. In Samus Returns I got stuck since I didn't realize this one area could be grapple beamed. In Super I got stuck since I didn't realize the glass tunnel could be power bombed. And in Fusion I got stuck since I didn't realize you could literally shoot through blocks with the laser and not missiles.) So to finally beat a Metroid without needing any outside help felt so satisfying, especially since you don't get the Aieon Pulse scan to find hidden blocks until really late into the game, so everything else was all on my own exploration and intuition, and it felt very rewarding.
The item power up progression in Dread was as satisfying as usual, even moreso in this game with all the tools you get to have different options in battle, which enhanced the usual sense of empowerment Metroid gives you in a new and more expanded fun way.
The EMMI encounters were also very exhilarating, naturally I died a lot of times to them, but it was really rewarding learning their patterns and figuring out how to best evade them. I even got pretty decent at countering them when they pinned Samus down, and I felt they were a lot more of an active threat and scary to face compared to the stealth/jump scare segments in Fusion which were scripted and only happened like 2-3 times the entire game.
The one criticism I have of the game itself is that I found the soundtrack fairly lacking, especially compared to previous games. Even Samus Returns had a good amount of more interesting atmosphere tracks and really great boss themes to complements its battles compared to Dread. But that's the only real complaint I have with the gameplay and presentation, otherwise it's immaculate and I couldn't have asked for anything better.
Now it's time for me to talk about my thoughts on the story, this is your LAST chance to stop reading and avoid being spoiled on the game's narrative, so turn back now if you wish.
This game is a fantastic followup to Fusion's story and expands upon the lore of Metroid in a lot of great ways, while making things feel fresh and not like a typical Metroid retread this time. For once, Ridley doesn't get ressurrected for the millionth time, and the Metroids aren't the primary threat. Instead the Chozo take the forefront of the plot for the first time which I really liked, and the main threats are its warrior tribe leader and the X-Parasites from Fusion. Not only that, Samus has to make her way up the planet to get back to her ship rather than making her way into the depths and returning this time. Having Adam as her guide once again was nice, as he's no longer bound by the whims of the Federation and instead just wants to help Samus because he cares about her.
This game threw a good amount of twists at me that I wasn't expecting, but also made me glad I'd read the Metroid manga beforehand again. We finally found out more about the ever mysterious Chozo and their history with how the peaceful Troha tribe created the Metroids, lived to regret it, and were eliminated before they could undo their mistake, yet Samus was raised by them and lived to carry out what they could not.
The twist with Raven Beak being the other Chozo to integrate his DNA into Samus was really genius (and also a cool Darth Vader-esque moment), it explains why Samus is so incredibly combat capable despite the Troha tribe not being warriors. Samus's Metroid DNA turning her into a human Metroid also made so much sense in retrospect, and that her Chozo Troha genes only delayed the inevitable. This also ties into the genius ending twist with the X-Parasite that took over Quiet Robe's body, and why that X-Parasite being absorbed by Samus turned her back to normal. It reinforced the Troha genes in her and set back the Metroid progression in her body, though the fact that Samus is now going to be hunted down for her Metroid power and the fact she's a threat to the galaxy is something that I think could be followed up and played with very interestingly in future games.
The entire climactic fight with Raven Beak going blow for blow with Samus, and culminating in her awakening to her new Metroid suit and obliterating him with a Hyper Beam that's essentially the Zero Laser she has in Smash Brothers was anime as heck and I loved it. The epic high stakes escape from the planet afterward was also awesome, using the hyper beam to blow up new exits for her to escape through.
My one complaint with the story is that I wish Samus got to talk more. She got a lot of dialogue in Fusion and Other M, and I was hoping to see more into her headspace in this game, but I'm guessing Other M's bad reception is what caused the higher ups at Nintendo to make Sakamoto not write any real dialogue for her outside of 2 lines when she talked to Quiet Robe.
That said, I do like what bits of characterization we got from her facial expressions and actions alone in this game, it reminded me a lot of the "Show Don't Tell" nature of Super's story and I respect that artistic choice. It also makes sense given Samus's arc of accepting her mistakes and working to atone for them ended with Other M and Fusion, so here in Dread she's moved past her reservations and is strong in her convictions to the protect the galaxy to the bitter end now, which makes sense and is probably part of why Sakamoto was okay with having her take less of a speaking role this time around. Though even despite all that, I do hope later games aren't afraid to make more of an effort to show Samus's character more overtly though.
Overall, Dread is an incredible climax to an already fantastic series and I have no real major issues with it. Easily my favorite Metroid game and one I'll remember fondly for years to come, and likely replay a lot. I'm excited to tackle the boss rush mode later today too! Big props to Mercury Steam for including that, their incredible boss design lends itself very well to a mode like that, and I love Boss Rush modes in games like this, so that's just the cherry on top of this masterful sundae for me. Hard Mode will also be a fun challenge in the future. (Last thing, but another small thing I love is that they added a Total Play Time counter to account for game overs, since the Switch's playtime counter kinda sucks.)
EDIT: Beat Boss Rush mode about 3-4 hours after writing this review, I refused to finish it in full until I got through every boss without dying and I managed to in 19 minutes and 58 seconds! Was incredibly fun and I'll likely replay this a lot going forward.
Also, big props to Mercury Steam for making probably one of the best boss rush modes in any game I've played. It's very fair as you will heal from most boss fights if you play them correctly so you don't have to go for completely damageless runs, though obviously perfecting fights help. It's also very forgiving in that you can continue the run even if you die, you don't have to do it all with no deaths, I just did that myself personally to challenge myself.
Not only that, but for any boss you beat (and even bosses you die to) in boss rush mode, you're able to "practice" the boss again by itself via the menu, which is a fantastic two-fold Quality of Life options I've never seen another boss rush mode do and wish more would. If you die to a late game boss and want to practice it to get better at that one boss specifically, you can do so immediately and not have to go through the entire gauntlet again just to get to that one boss and likely die again before you learn it.
But if you also just want to replay some specific fun boss fights without needing to replay the entire gauntlet, you can do so with the practice mode just fine! That's incredibly refreshing and thoughtful of the developers to do, so kudos to Mercury Steam for thinking ahead and making in my opinion one of the best boss rush modes I've ever seen in a video game.
Total Game Overs: 111 deaths.
Total playtime (including game overs): 20 hours, 53 minutes and 6 seconds.
Total playtime from in-game file counter: 14 hours, 23 minutes and 23 seconds.
Item Collection Rate: 100%.
See you next mission!
That said, holy crap this game is even less suited for newcomers than Fusion was, it really should not be your first Metroid game unless you're familiar with Metroidvanias and are adept at action games in general. Not to mention the story is essentially the climax of Samus's journey throughout the series and a lot of things will come out of nowhere without the proper context.
As always, I'll start by talking about the gameplay and game as a whole, then segue into my thoughts on the story later, with a spoiler warning when I reach that part. You have been warned.
First things first, holy crap this game looks like an actual Playstation 4 game graphically, which is somehow running on Switch hardware in 1080p 60 FPS flawlessly! I was floored when I saw Dread's presentation, the big budget action cutscenes paired with the amazing artistic direction for the planet of ZDR look and feel amazing. I played this game entirely on handheld mode, and it STILL looked that good! I can only imagine it somehow looks even more immaculate on a big screen HD TV. If this is the new direction Metroid is going to go into with future games, I'm all for it.
Now for the gameplay. As I said before, Samus has never felt better to control than in this. She moves so fluidly and her animations also have so much polish and nuance to them that say a lot about her demeanor and character. The bosses are no slouch in this department either, and they're way more fun to fight than they've ever been. Not that I think Metroid boss design in previous games has ever been bad, but I always felt they could've leaned harder into the action aspects where you're bobbing and weaving around enemies a lot better, when usually that's not the case. But as soon as this game introduced the Flash Step dodge mechanic to complement the dodge slide, I knew that I was in for a treat. No good action game is complete without a solid dodge option to make evading bosses that much more feasible and smooth, and Dread doesn't disappoint here.
Dread thankfully is very good at providing Samus very great spacious arenas to fight her opponents in, which makes the game very fair despite its great challenge. There was only one mini boss in the forest jungle area where I struggled to beat them because of the arena being a lot more confined which made it super hard to avoid their red arm attacks, but other than that I didn't have any complaints with the bosses in this game. The final boss especially takes the case as not only the most epic and satisfying final boss in the series, but also as the most fun. Such an incredibly designed multi-phase fight that really puts everything you've learned throughout the game to the test, and it was really fun for me to figure out and react to the patterns. I only died three times to it (twice in the first phase, and once in the third), but I chalk that up to my experience with other equally as tough action games that require precision aiming and high maintenance reaction time, those games being Kid Icarus Uprising's 9.0 difficulty and Hardest Boss Rush mode, and Kingdom Hearts 2 Final Mix's Critical Mode and incredible boss design.
The level design is still the standard Metroid fare but polished to a shine. You have your great cool looking alien environments, with incredible level design of gently guiding you in the right direction to go without holding your hand too hard. This is the first Metroid game where I was able to complete the entire game without ever getting stuck and needing a guide to complete the story! I chalk that up to my previous experiences with the series however, as every previous game had me stumped at one point where I needed outside help. (In Zero Mission, I got stuck because I couldn't find one block I needed to bomb to progress. In Samus Returns I got stuck since I didn't realize this one area could be grapple beamed. In Super I got stuck since I didn't realize the glass tunnel could be power bombed. And in Fusion I got stuck since I didn't realize you could literally shoot through blocks with the laser and not missiles.) So to finally beat a Metroid without needing any outside help felt so satisfying, especially since you don't get the Aieon Pulse scan to find hidden blocks until really late into the game, so everything else was all on my own exploration and intuition, and it felt very rewarding.
The item power up progression in Dread was as satisfying as usual, even moreso in this game with all the tools you get to have different options in battle, which enhanced the usual sense of empowerment Metroid gives you in a new and more expanded fun way.
The EMMI encounters were also very exhilarating, naturally I died a lot of times to them, but it was really rewarding learning their patterns and figuring out how to best evade them. I even got pretty decent at countering them when they pinned Samus down, and I felt they were a lot more of an active threat and scary to face compared to the stealth/jump scare segments in Fusion which were scripted and only happened like 2-3 times the entire game.
The one criticism I have of the game itself is that I found the soundtrack fairly lacking, especially compared to previous games. Even Samus Returns had a good amount of more interesting atmosphere tracks and really great boss themes to complements its battles compared to Dread. But that's the only real complaint I have with the gameplay and presentation, otherwise it's immaculate and I couldn't have asked for anything better.
Now it's time for me to talk about my thoughts on the story, this is your LAST chance to stop reading and avoid being spoiled on the game's narrative, so turn back now if you wish.
This game is a fantastic followup to Fusion's story and expands upon the lore of Metroid in a lot of great ways, while making things feel fresh and not like a typical Metroid retread this time. For once, Ridley doesn't get ressurrected for the millionth time, and the Metroids aren't the primary threat. Instead the Chozo take the forefront of the plot for the first time which I really liked, and the main threats are its warrior tribe leader and the X-Parasites from Fusion. Not only that, Samus has to make her way up the planet to get back to her ship rather than making her way into the depths and returning this time. Having Adam as her guide once again was nice, as he's no longer bound by the whims of the Federation and instead just wants to help Samus because he cares about her.
This game threw a good amount of twists at me that I wasn't expecting, but also made me glad I'd read the Metroid manga beforehand again. We finally found out more about the ever mysterious Chozo and their history with how the peaceful Troha tribe created the Metroids, lived to regret it, and were eliminated before they could undo their mistake, yet Samus was raised by them and lived to carry out what they could not.
The twist with Raven Beak being the other Chozo to integrate his DNA into Samus was really genius (and also a cool Darth Vader-esque moment), it explains why Samus is so incredibly combat capable despite the Troha tribe not being warriors. Samus's Metroid DNA turning her into a human Metroid also made so much sense in retrospect, and that her Chozo Troha genes only delayed the inevitable. This also ties into the genius ending twist with the X-Parasite that took over Quiet Robe's body, and why that X-Parasite being absorbed by Samus turned her back to normal. It reinforced the Troha genes in her and set back the Metroid progression in her body, though the fact that Samus is now going to be hunted down for her Metroid power and the fact she's a threat to the galaxy is something that I think could be followed up and played with very interestingly in future games.
The entire climactic fight with Raven Beak going blow for blow with Samus, and culminating in her awakening to her new Metroid suit and obliterating him with a Hyper Beam that's essentially the Zero Laser she has in Smash Brothers was anime as heck and I loved it. The epic high stakes escape from the planet afterward was also awesome, using the hyper beam to blow up new exits for her to escape through.
My one complaint with the story is that I wish Samus got to talk more. She got a lot of dialogue in Fusion and Other M, and I was hoping to see more into her headspace in this game, but I'm guessing Other M's bad reception is what caused the higher ups at Nintendo to make Sakamoto not write any real dialogue for her outside of 2 lines when she talked to Quiet Robe.
That said, I do like what bits of characterization we got from her facial expressions and actions alone in this game, it reminded me a lot of the "Show Don't Tell" nature of Super's story and I respect that artistic choice. It also makes sense given Samus's arc of accepting her mistakes and working to atone for them ended with Other M and Fusion, so here in Dread she's moved past her reservations and is strong in her convictions to the protect the galaxy to the bitter end now, which makes sense and is probably part of why Sakamoto was okay with having her take less of a speaking role this time around. Though even despite all that, I do hope later games aren't afraid to make more of an effort to show Samus's character more overtly though.
Overall, Dread is an incredible climax to an already fantastic series and I have no real major issues with it. Easily my favorite Metroid game and one I'll remember fondly for years to come, and likely replay a lot. I'm excited to tackle the boss rush mode later today too! Big props to Mercury Steam for including that, their incredible boss design lends itself very well to a mode like that, and I love Boss Rush modes in games like this, so that's just the cherry on top of this masterful sundae for me. Hard Mode will also be a fun challenge in the future. (Last thing, but another small thing I love is that they added a Total Play Time counter to account for game overs, since the Switch's playtime counter kinda sucks.)
EDIT: Beat Boss Rush mode about 3-4 hours after writing this review, I refused to finish it in full until I got through every boss without dying and I managed to in 19 minutes and 58 seconds! Was incredibly fun and I'll likely replay this a lot going forward.
Also, big props to Mercury Steam for making probably one of the best boss rush modes in any game I've played. It's very fair as you will heal from most boss fights if you play them correctly so you don't have to go for completely damageless runs, though obviously perfecting fights help. It's also very forgiving in that you can continue the run even if you die, you don't have to do it all with no deaths, I just did that myself personally to challenge myself.
Not only that, but for any boss you beat (and even bosses you die to) in boss rush mode, you're able to "practice" the boss again by itself via the menu, which is a fantastic two-fold Quality of Life options I've never seen another boss rush mode do and wish more would. If you die to a late game boss and want to practice it to get better at that one boss specifically, you can do so immediately and not have to go through the entire gauntlet again just to get to that one boss and likely die again before you learn it.
But if you also just want to replay some specific fun boss fights without needing to replay the entire gauntlet, you can do so with the practice mode just fine! That's incredibly refreshing and thoughtful of the developers to do, so kudos to Mercury Steam for thinking ahead and making in my opinion one of the best boss rush modes I've ever seen in a video game.
Total Game Overs: 111 deaths.
Total playtime (including game overs): 20 hours, 53 minutes and 6 seconds.
Total playtime from in-game file counter: 14 hours, 23 minutes and 23 seconds.
Item Collection Rate: 100%.
See you next mission!