If you gave me enough beers, put this on a boxy CRT and told me "This is the secret Metroid Nintendo made in 2005 for the gamecube", I'd like to think I'd believe you. The kindest thing I can say about Dread is that it really just feels like a natural successor to Fusion without... caveats. Mercurysteam have got their own flair in parts (dear lord do they love their parry QTEs), but the thing I was worried with most about Dread - that it'd feel like this unnatural weird growth on the core Metroids, was unfounded. Dread really just in Fusion 2.
And the core of that is the control I feel. Fusion, to this day, is still one of the nicest 2D games to just move about and do stuff in. It's gamefeel is just spectacular. I'm not convinced Dread is better, but it's close enough for this to just feel like a wonderful game to just run about in. It's absolutely wonderfully animated too, with loads of little things - Samus putting her hand above morph ball holes when you're nearby them, for instance - that add up to the game just feeling wonderful to play outright.
As a Search-Action game, it takes much more from Fusion than any of the other Metroids, with more of a focus in putting the player in areas to puzzle through rather than leaving more of the map open at any one time. There's plenty of points of no return and theres way fewer means to sequence break, and lot more square hole-square peg problems than in Super, at least from what I can tell. Which is fine. What it loses in the sheer freedom, it gains a lot in pacing and direction, and does a much better job of conveying the goals and "plot" than Super does.
And clumped in the middle of all that is the EMMI. They're pretty good! Whilst they never get close to the sheer fear of death the SA-X put in my 8 year old's heart, they provide a good degree of tension and a neat obstacle in the middle of the zones. The generous respawns the game has undercuts it, and the (mostly pretty great) boss fights a bit, but I think it's a reasonable concession to the fairly difficult nature of both the EMMI encounters and portions of the game in general.
The way the game ups the power of the EMMI, through letting them start seeing through walls, freeze samus and walk freely through water she can't, is pretty good, but the facade definetly does wear thin towards the end of the game when samus has about a dozen different movement options and can easily outpace them, especially after you get Gravity suit and Space jump. Fortunately though, they take a backseat in the last few hours and honestly they're not as much of the game as it seems.
Honestly the best thing they offer in my opinion is the psychological effect. Triumphing over an EMMI basically completely gives you the reins to each zone, especially as they're tied to key progression items. It helps create a great flow of rising and lowering tension throughout the game, and help reinforce your progress in a game that has nothing else like Super Metroid's 4 bosses to kill or Fusion's sectors.
There are faults here. I'm not going to pretend to care about the Metroid storyline, but I think it's fair to say it lacks one of the exceptionally strong beats which kinda characterises Metroid 2 and Super in particular, outside of some pretty good characterisation of Samus through her actions. There's not enough new abilities really, and the placement of some powerups is extremely strange to the point they almost feel like they're put in out of obligation. I really like what the game does in mixing up the original item order but it does feel kinda stupid to get Power bombs so damn late and they're near completely useless, for instance. And it would have been nice if they could have gotten rid of the loading screens and elevators between zones, which feels like a pure technical constraint.
But honestly, I don't really care. I just know first time I stopped playing it, I realised I felt exactly the same way Fusion made me feel all those years ago. There's a certain thrill to a wonderfully paced, fun controlling search action game. Countless devs have tried in the wake of Metroid. Some of them have managed to scratch that itch, most of them fall pretty dang flat. There's frankly just not enough games that feel like Fusion and Super. That drip feed of satisfaction and thick tension thats so wonderful, that knows not to overstay its welcome. I honestly did not think that the developers of Castlevania Lords of Shadow 2 could come close. I am very happy to be wrong.
Dread probably isnt going to be my favourite Metroid. But if someone told me it was - I'd get it. It's a game that slots right in among some of the best games Nintendo have ever made in Fusion and Super. And that's really something.
And the core of that is the control I feel. Fusion, to this day, is still one of the nicest 2D games to just move about and do stuff in. It's gamefeel is just spectacular. I'm not convinced Dread is better, but it's close enough for this to just feel like a wonderful game to just run about in. It's absolutely wonderfully animated too, with loads of little things - Samus putting her hand above morph ball holes when you're nearby them, for instance - that add up to the game just feeling wonderful to play outright.
As a Search-Action game, it takes much more from Fusion than any of the other Metroids, with more of a focus in putting the player in areas to puzzle through rather than leaving more of the map open at any one time. There's plenty of points of no return and theres way fewer means to sequence break, and lot more square hole-square peg problems than in Super, at least from what I can tell. Which is fine. What it loses in the sheer freedom, it gains a lot in pacing and direction, and does a much better job of conveying the goals and "plot" than Super does.
And clumped in the middle of all that is the EMMI. They're pretty good! Whilst they never get close to the sheer fear of death the SA-X put in my 8 year old's heart, they provide a good degree of tension and a neat obstacle in the middle of the zones. The generous respawns the game has undercuts it, and the (mostly pretty great) boss fights a bit, but I think it's a reasonable concession to the fairly difficult nature of both the EMMI encounters and portions of the game in general.
The way the game ups the power of the EMMI, through letting them start seeing through walls, freeze samus and walk freely through water she can't, is pretty good, but the facade definetly does wear thin towards the end of the game when samus has about a dozen different movement options and can easily outpace them, especially after you get Gravity suit and Space jump. Fortunately though, they take a backseat in the last few hours and honestly they're not as much of the game as it seems.
Honestly the best thing they offer in my opinion is the psychological effect. Triumphing over an EMMI basically completely gives you the reins to each zone, especially as they're tied to key progression items. It helps create a great flow of rising and lowering tension throughout the game, and help reinforce your progress in a game that has nothing else like Super Metroid's 4 bosses to kill or Fusion's sectors.
There are faults here. I'm not going to pretend to care about the Metroid storyline, but I think it's fair to say it lacks one of the exceptionally strong beats which kinda characterises Metroid 2 and Super in particular, outside of some pretty good characterisation of Samus through her actions. There's not enough new abilities really, and the placement of some powerups is extremely strange to the point they almost feel like they're put in out of obligation. I really like what the game does in mixing up the original item order but it does feel kinda stupid to get Power bombs so damn late and they're near completely useless, for instance. And it would have been nice if they could have gotten rid of the loading screens and elevators between zones, which feels like a pure technical constraint.
But honestly, I don't really care. I just know first time I stopped playing it, I realised I felt exactly the same way Fusion made me feel all those years ago. There's a certain thrill to a wonderfully paced, fun controlling search action game. Countless devs have tried in the wake of Metroid. Some of them have managed to scratch that itch, most of them fall pretty dang flat. There's frankly just not enough games that feel like Fusion and Super. That drip feed of satisfaction and thick tension thats so wonderful, that knows not to overstay its welcome. I honestly did not think that the developers of Castlevania Lords of Shadow 2 could come close. I am very happy to be wrong.
Dread probably isnt going to be my favourite Metroid. But if someone told me it was - I'd get it. It's a game that slots right in among some of the best games Nintendo have ever made in Fusion and Super. And that's really something.