This was my experiment to test whether I dislike Metroidvanias, or simply dislike Hollow Knight. After a disappointing experience with Hollow Knight, I was greatly entertained by Metroid Dread. It started out strong by establishing some light exposition, giving me a functional map, and introducing satisfying combat maneuvers. I knew WHERE I was and WHY. This, along with the smattering of short cutscenes, went a long way towards getting me to keep playing.
Each subsequent upgrade-- beyond its exploration utility-- felt like a big deal. Things like no longer needing to charge a blast, or being able to shoot through walls were accompanied by a sense of accomplishment and power. The Pulse Radar in particular put to rest one of my least favorite things about this genre: accidentally missing hidden paths. With the radar, I really got to enjoy the exploration component of this game, which never really happened for me in Hollow Knight.
The weakest part of Metroid Dread, for me, were the EMMIs. While defeating them required solving a nice little spatial puzzle, the process of gathering the unique energy and actually damaging them was repetitive and not as satisfying as the other boss fights.
Speaking of boss fights, they were really good in this game. The difficulty felt perfect, and each attempt felt like I had improved. The attack patterns of pretty much every enemy in the game were not hard for me to memorize, so when I was struggling with a fight, it was mostly due to my own reckless/impatient/overconfident play.
The verdict is that if every Metroidvania was exactly like this game, I'd probably like them. But that's not a realistic expectation. Running around in hopes of finding your next hidden path forward, having to walk right past useful loot because you don't have a certain upgrade, useless maps, the constant backtracking... Metroid Dread does a lot of things to make these otherwise tedious elements feel worthwhile and fun. But I'm not sure the same can be said for its Metroidvanian cousins.
Each subsequent upgrade-- beyond its exploration utility-- felt like a big deal. Things like no longer needing to charge a blast, or being able to shoot through walls were accompanied by a sense of accomplishment and power. The Pulse Radar in particular put to rest one of my least favorite things about this genre: accidentally missing hidden paths. With the radar, I really got to enjoy the exploration component of this game, which never really happened for me in Hollow Knight.
The weakest part of Metroid Dread, for me, were the EMMIs. While defeating them required solving a nice little spatial puzzle, the process of gathering the unique energy and actually damaging them was repetitive and not as satisfying as the other boss fights.
Speaking of boss fights, they were really good in this game. The difficulty felt perfect, and each attempt felt like I had improved. The attack patterns of pretty much every enemy in the game were not hard for me to memorize, so when I was struggling with a fight, it was mostly due to my own reckless/impatient/overconfident play.
The verdict is that if every Metroidvania was exactly like this game, I'd probably like them. But that's not a realistic expectation. Running around in hopes of finding your next hidden path forward, having to walk right past useful loot because you don't have a certain upgrade, useless maps, the constant backtracking... Metroid Dread does a lot of things to make these otherwise tedious elements feel worthwhile and fun. But I'm not sure the same can be said for its Metroidvanian cousins.