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.
2 Comments
@ListlessWitch thank you very much!!
ListlessWitch
4 months ago