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.
v
v
v
v
v
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.
2 Comments
@Weatherby
What jumps out at me is that they could have implemented the EMMI using some methods for other things.
Maybe elements in the background alert you to an EMMI trap on that screen.
Maybe the EMMI ambush you like the Chozo Warriors do on select screens.
Maybe the various screen-altering events could be the result of you closing off a path from the EMMI.
Theres alot of ways they could have re-thought the execution so in some ways it feels like a failure for them to think outside the box - which is a shame with how clever they were in other areas.
What jumps out at me is that they could have implemented the EMMI using some methods for other things.
Maybe elements in the background alert you to an EMMI trap on that screen.
Maybe the EMMI ambush you like the Chozo Warriors do on select screens.
Maybe the various screen-altering events could be the result of you closing off a path from the EMMI.
Theres alot of ways they could have re-thought the execution so in some ways it feels like a failure for them to think outside the box - which is a shame with how clever they were in other areas.
Weatherby
7 months ago