This review contains spoilers
For personal reference more than anything else.
First time playing through this after playing the demo like twice. Played on normal mode.
Through playing a lot of games over the years I'd usually find stuff that felt like it was very much my thing and stuff that was very much not my thing. I think that this is the first instance where its both and it lead to a kind of confused experience even if I did end up enjoying the game. One of the biggest problems is that I don't think there's much about the game that I can say I only liked or only disliked, most things I think I had a more complex opinion on.
Combat in the game had things that I really liked, like the parry which was always satisfying to do and some power-ups feel good to use and helped make Samus feel like she was getting more and more powerful. But then on the other hand there was the aiming, something I think I've noticed since I got my Switch is that for certain things the sticks don't feel like they really work all that well. When I replayed Celeste I was a little confused as platforming felt harder to do than when I was playing on the PS4 and then I replayed Hollow Knight (which I also first played on the PS4) and just not being able to do the downward slash jump thing unless I used the directional buttons, it became apparent that it was a Switch thing. After these occasions I chalked it down to the sticks not protruding from the device enough (fuck, I hope this makes sense) and so I'd just use directional buttons when I could but when aiming in this game you have to use the stick and this game requires not only quite precise aiming at times but to do it quickly as well, so I pretty regularly had issues with this.
Another problem I had was how much of the latter half of this game felt like it depended on a really quick reaction time from the player, multiple bosses and enemies need you to be so on the ball that you can respond to something incredibly quickly and while I felt that I was usually ready, I still wasn't fast enough to react in the correct way most of the time.
Just before I get on to bosses I need to talk about power-ups. For a while I was having quite a good time getting them, I really like the music that played when you got one and while I do kind of wish that there was a bit more pizzazz or something when you get one, I did actually quite like how simplistic it was with just some words in a text box. Some of the power-ups are really fun to use or feel so good as they would help out with a problem that I had been having for a while. Also, it may be explained in an earlier game or something (at the time of writing this, Dread is the only game in this franchise that I have played for longer than 20 minutes) but I have no clue why Samus can turn into a ball and honestly I kind of love it even if it grosses me out a bit thinking about how she'd even physically be able to do that.
After a while though, the power-ups just started to get kind of old, there are so many and not all of them feel like they bring about the same level of excitement. I'd even forget about some eventually as I just didn't use them and then would get very confused a few hours later when I needed to use one to progress in an area. The biggest problem I had though was with the double jump and later upgraded infinity jump, rather than be a simple press once to jump and then press again to jump whilst already in the air kind of deal, instead when doing the second or subsequent jump(s) it has to be timed correctly. No matter how many times I tried it I could not get it to click and had about a 60-75% success rate trying to do one of these, but while that sounds high, the latter half of the game relies on it so much during platforming & bosses that I kept fucking up and failing to do it. This caused a lot of frustration for me.
But with that I can properly talk about bosses and generally I liked them, I really enjoyed the first couple and Experiment No Z-57 as they felt fun yet kind of difficult which made them an engaging experience. There were a couple that I wasn't quite as keen on due to issues I was having like, Drogyga because of the issues I was having with precise aiming and the Robot Chozo Soldier Twin battle after acquiring the storm missile as I just could not keep the missiles charging without getting hit or the charge cancelling. Raven Beak was both decent but also quite annoying as the fight does rely on being able to do the multi-jump a fair bit.
E.M.M.I were initially kind of cool but after a while they just became annoying as due to each new one being an upgrade in some way it made it a bit too hard to navigate the areas they were in without getting caught and also because there were a few of them they were getting kind of repetitive. The design of the E.M.M.I was pretty neat and looked like something out of Portal but then they just started using the same design but making them a different colour which felt kind of weird and at first reminded me of the multi-coloured Daleks in that one Doctor Who episode and then reminded me of the multi-coloured Krabby Patties in Patty Hype which didn't really help me feel all that threatened by them. I did enjoy the eye-brain thing fights though and never really got tired of them.
Locations in the game were something I feel mostly positive about though as they all looked really cool and distinctive, I loved how Artaria looks once its frozen over and despite it being kind of annoying to move around in for a while, I also really liked how Burenia looks as well which is helped by the music being really good in that area. Due to the way the map works and a fair few places that can first be normally moved around in but then later on are not anymore, overall the game felt a bit like the Infected Crossroads from Hollow Knight which I was not a fan of, but admittedly I didn't actually end up having too much of a problem with this game doing that so its not the biggest deal.
I did have to use a guide quite often though as I just had no idea what I was supposed to be doing and where I was supposed to be a lot of the time as the game (and ADAM) doesn't really explain it to you and as there are a lot of situations where you have to progress by destroying a block which is hidden in the terrain, I was just really confused. It did make me realise though just how linear this game is, maybe if I'd played more of one of the older ones I would have known going in but my best point of reference is Hollow Knight as they're kind of similar games and I thought it'd be more like that where there's usually multiple viable options for you to choose when deciding on what area to do next. I don't have an issue with it or anything and I really like the whole certain areas and sections being locked off until you get the correct power-up thing but the linearity just came as a surprise to me.
I wasn't really into the story admittedly and as someone who hasn't played the rest of the games it was a bit of a struggle trying to remember (lore-wise) which one is the X and which one is the Metroid. Samus is kind of boring as a character as she only has like one line in the game but I was enjoying her more towards the end when she started doing cool shit like draining an entire spaceship of its energy and her facial expressions got more and more expressive and angry. ADAM might go down as having the most annoying voice I have ever heard in a game as it sounds like someone speaking through some crap robotic filter or a cheap voice changer toy, after a few meetings with him I just muted the game before he started to talk and would read the text just so I didn't have to hear him.
The other characters I also didn't really care about and considering that Quiet Robe, gets introduced, turns off the E.M.M.I, expositions a lot to Samus, dies, has his corpse possessed so that the E.M.M.I can be turned back on and then for some reason comes back at the end of the game as a ghost X thing (?) so he can act as a Deus Ex Machina and Samus can get her ship working, I don't exactly think he was the best character going. Raven Beak was just boring in all honesty.
Singular scattered thought:
• The power-up music, Burenia music and main menu music were the only parts of the soundtrack that really stood out to me and I really liked. I did enjoy some of the other music in different areas but that was about it.
I did enjoy this game and I think if I had less issues with it, I would've really enjoyed it (no shit) but unfortunately the issues I did have were just annoying and at points made me wish that the game was over like 1 or 2 hours before it actually was and because of that I don't think I can really regard the whole thing any higher and I don't think I should ever come back to it. But I think despite this I will remember this game more fondly than negatively and I do think its a good game.
First time playing through this after playing the demo like twice. Played on normal mode.
Through playing a lot of games over the years I'd usually find stuff that felt like it was very much my thing and stuff that was very much not my thing. I think that this is the first instance where its both and it lead to a kind of confused experience even if I did end up enjoying the game. One of the biggest problems is that I don't think there's much about the game that I can say I only liked or only disliked, most things I think I had a more complex opinion on.
Combat in the game had things that I really liked, like the parry which was always satisfying to do and some power-ups feel good to use and helped make Samus feel like she was getting more and more powerful. But then on the other hand there was the aiming, something I think I've noticed since I got my Switch is that for certain things the sticks don't feel like they really work all that well. When I replayed Celeste I was a little confused as platforming felt harder to do than when I was playing on the PS4 and then I replayed Hollow Knight (which I also first played on the PS4) and just not being able to do the downward slash jump thing unless I used the directional buttons, it became apparent that it was a Switch thing. After these occasions I chalked it down to the sticks not protruding from the device enough (fuck, I hope this makes sense) and so I'd just use directional buttons when I could but when aiming in this game you have to use the stick and this game requires not only quite precise aiming at times but to do it quickly as well, so I pretty regularly had issues with this.
Another problem I had was how much of the latter half of this game felt like it depended on a really quick reaction time from the player, multiple bosses and enemies need you to be so on the ball that you can respond to something incredibly quickly and while I felt that I was usually ready, I still wasn't fast enough to react in the correct way most of the time.
Just before I get on to bosses I need to talk about power-ups. For a while I was having quite a good time getting them, I really like the music that played when you got one and while I do kind of wish that there was a bit more pizzazz or something when you get one, I did actually quite like how simplistic it was with just some words in a text box. Some of the power-ups are really fun to use or feel so good as they would help out with a problem that I had been having for a while. Also, it may be explained in an earlier game or something (at the time of writing this, Dread is the only game in this franchise that I have played for longer than 20 minutes) but I have no clue why Samus can turn into a ball and honestly I kind of love it even if it grosses me out a bit thinking about how she'd even physically be able to do that.
After a while though, the power-ups just started to get kind of old, there are so many and not all of them feel like they bring about the same level of excitement. I'd even forget about some eventually as I just didn't use them and then would get very confused a few hours later when I needed to use one to progress in an area. The biggest problem I had though was with the double jump and later upgraded infinity jump, rather than be a simple press once to jump and then press again to jump whilst already in the air kind of deal, instead when doing the second or subsequent jump(s) it has to be timed correctly. No matter how many times I tried it I could not get it to click and had about a 60-75% success rate trying to do one of these, but while that sounds high, the latter half of the game relies on it so much during platforming & bosses that I kept fucking up and failing to do it. This caused a lot of frustration for me.
But with that I can properly talk about bosses and generally I liked them, I really enjoyed the first couple and Experiment No Z-57 as they felt fun yet kind of difficult which made them an engaging experience. There were a couple that I wasn't quite as keen on due to issues I was having like, Drogyga because of the issues I was having with precise aiming and the Robot Chozo Soldier Twin battle after acquiring the storm missile as I just could not keep the missiles charging without getting hit or the charge cancelling. Raven Beak was both decent but also quite annoying as the fight does rely on being able to do the multi-jump a fair bit.
E.M.M.I were initially kind of cool but after a while they just became annoying as due to each new one being an upgrade in some way it made it a bit too hard to navigate the areas they were in without getting caught and also because there were a few of them they were getting kind of repetitive. The design of the E.M.M.I was pretty neat and looked like something out of Portal but then they just started using the same design but making them a different colour which felt kind of weird and at first reminded me of the multi-coloured Daleks in that one Doctor Who episode and then reminded me of the multi-coloured Krabby Patties in Patty Hype which didn't really help me feel all that threatened by them. I did enjoy the eye-brain thing fights though and never really got tired of them.
Locations in the game were something I feel mostly positive about though as they all looked really cool and distinctive, I loved how Artaria looks once its frozen over and despite it being kind of annoying to move around in for a while, I also really liked how Burenia looks as well which is helped by the music being really good in that area. Due to the way the map works and a fair few places that can first be normally moved around in but then later on are not anymore, overall the game felt a bit like the Infected Crossroads from Hollow Knight which I was not a fan of, but admittedly I didn't actually end up having too much of a problem with this game doing that so its not the biggest deal.
I did have to use a guide quite often though as I just had no idea what I was supposed to be doing and where I was supposed to be a lot of the time as the game (and ADAM) doesn't really explain it to you and as there are a lot of situations where you have to progress by destroying a block which is hidden in the terrain, I was just really confused. It did make me realise though just how linear this game is, maybe if I'd played more of one of the older ones I would have known going in but my best point of reference is Hollow Knight as they're kind of similar games and I thought it'd be more like that where there's usually multiple viable options for you to choose when deciding on what area to do next. I don't have an issue with it or anything and I really like the whole certain areas and sections being locked off until you get the correct power-up thing but the linearity just came as a surprise to me.
I wasn't really into the story admittedly and as someone who hasn't played the rest of the games it was a bit of a struggle trying to remember (lore-wise) which one is the X and which one is the Metroid. Samus is kind of boring as a character as she only has like one line in the game but I was enjoying her more towards the end when she started doing cool shit like draining an entire spaceship of its energy and her facial expressions got more and more expressive and angry. ADAM might go down as having the most annoying voice I have ever heard in a game as it sounds like someone speaking through some crap robotic filter or a cheap voice changer toy, after a few meetings with him I just muted the game before he started to talk and would read the text just so I didn't have to hear him.
The other characters I also didn't really care about and considering that Quiet Robe, gets introduced, turns off the E.M.M.I, expositions a lot to Samus, dies, has his corpse possessed so that the E.M.M.I can be turned back on and then for some reason comes back at the end of the game as a ghost X thing (?) so he can act as a Deus Ex Machina and Samus can get her ship working, I don't exactly think he was the best character going. Raven Beak was just boring in all honesty.
Singular scattered thought:
• The power-up music, Burenia music and main menu music were the only parts of the soundtrack that really stood out to me and I really liked. I did enjoy some of the other music in different areas but that was about it.
I did enjoy this game and I think if I had less issues with it, I would've really enjoyed it (no shit) but unfortunately the issues I did have were just annoying and at points made me wish that the game was over like 1 or 2 hours before it actually was and because of that I don't think I can really regard the whole thing any higher and I don't think I should ever come back to it. But I think despite this I will remember this game more fondly than negatively and I do think its a good game.