I haven't had much experience with the Metroid series, or even the entire Metroidvania genre for that matter. I've only played a couple hours of Prime 1, and I've played through most of the Shantae games and a little bit of Shadow Complex, if those count. My point is, I don't know much about this genre and I haven't really given it much of a chance.

Metroid Dread changed that.

While I was frustrated at the beginning of the game, I found myself loving every minute of it. The exploration and combat are nothing less than perfect. It's rare to find a game so satisfying, from a gameplay, narrative, and even cinematic standpoint. Despite only finishing it in 8 hours, this game felt like a momentous journey, and one I'll be happy to go on again.

I did find myself getting tilted at some of the bosses, but beating them made me feel so extremely satisfied that I ended up loving the difficulty by the end. The final boss is a great example of this, while I was frustrated as all hell during the fight, once I won, I could swear I've never felt so satisfied in my entire life.

There are a few drawbacks, the biggest of which being the controls. I don't think they're badly mapped or anything, but my hands did end up hurting during some of the longer lasting boss fights. I had to actually take breaks and stretch my hands out just to be safe. If you're worried about causing damage to your hands, you may want to take this game slow.

Overall though, I absolutely loved this game, and now I have a craving to experience all the other games in the Metroid series. I'm now looking forward to Prime 4, whenever that will come out.

Wasn't much of a Metroid fan before, but I sure as hell am now.