For a series whose monumental reputation rests largely on its worlds and a game saddled with the weight of doing right by that reputation, Metroid Dread surprised me in just how much it ended up being about its protagonist. Stuck in suspended animation character-development-wise since the disastrous Other M (discounting the proof of concept found within MercurySteam's Metroid 2 remake), Samus Aran emerges here more as the collectively imagined version of herself than any actual past iteration. She's faster, nimbler, punchier, cooler; cutscenes showcasing these traits feel closer to how Monty Oum and Smash Bros trailers depict her than even Team Ninja's extravagant take, let alone her decidedly unflashy feats in Metroids 1-4.
As a result, the world of ZDR is built more to showcase Samus than vice versa. This feels like the edge on which people's reactions to Dread will split; likely not into a strict love it/hate it dichotomy but rather into "love it" and several variations on "I enjoyed a lot/some of it, but..." Samus is polished to such a sterling state that only a purist or freak (no offense to freaks, they're great) would find fault in and of herself. It's a deviation, sure, but every 2D Metroid has deviated from the previous one in terms of handling and abilities. Furthermore, most of the moments that approach extreme "this ain't your parents' Samus" territory are brief and limited to cutscenes. But the other deviations Dread takes, deliberately or not, have their drawbacks.
The music is my biggest gripe. Since its NES title screen, Metroid has featured some the moodiest tone-setting tracks in video games. Dread's soundtrack serviceably quickens the pulse but is largely forgettable. Nothing grooves like the surface theme of SR388 or pounds like Norfair Ancient Ruins or chills like Crisis Mission. It's often too loud for its own good, detracting from some stellar sound design of enemies and environments (play this game with over-ear headphones). Mechanical crunchiness elevates the EMMI from what it looks like on its own (a DARPA robot circa 2027) to what it feels like in-game (a cyberhellhound sicced on you by MechaSatan himself). Usually a series that wields silence and ambient noise beautifully, Dread's soundtrack abhors a vacuum to its own detriment; only when deep underwater does it briefly approach the ambiance of its predecessors. It just doesn't have the range, sorry.
Relatedly, Dread is a game that struggles to slow down and soak things in. Samus literally cannot walk (without turning invisible first), and you can breeze along the equator of an area without much thought and at times without much memory of what you went through. I found that when I first ventured off the critical path to wander for upgrades and background details in other areas, merging back onto the game's central highway was disorienting. You're better off leaving a marker at your location when you decide to deviate than using them to identify potential new openings. This speaks to a solid structural core in Dread's design, but one that feels like it must be enjoyed primarily on its terms rather than your own. I intend to replay this game and 100% it on hard, so it remains to be seen if there's richer exploration possibilities that didn't occur to me first time around.
These issues combine to diminish the sense of atmosphere. ZDR is gorgeously rendered and has a lot to compliment aesthetically, but it mostly plays things safe in its inspiration. Zones follow basic elemental patterns and come with the expected hazards: lava hurts, leaves don't support your weight, water limits your ability to jump. The fact that many of the biomes are mediated by facility structures makes sense plot-wise, but mitigates the sense of dynamism and nature; it also largely drops the early premise of environmental puzzles requiring inter-room thinking. It was disappointing to enter a powered-down area, finally feeling a change of pace and tone, only to find the light switch pretty quickly with no surprises or consequence. Environments each have stories to tell but, like Super before it, they don't contain much mystery in and of themselves (Ferenia and Elun being exceptions that prove the rule). ZDR is thus more a playground for Samus than an alien world seeking to thwart her at every turn. To be fair, "playground" undersells it--unless you grew up with a full Disneyland in your backyard--but you see my point. Again, another playthrough with greater attention to the background may offer more than I appreciated this time around.
But let's return to Samus as a character in a fiction. MercurySteam and Nintendo were likely both understandably wary of a more vocal Samus, though I think that choice undermines Dread as the plot sequel to Fusion. The game seems nervous to let her be as reflective as that game, leaving Adam in an awkward middle ground where he has a much less active role yet also feels overbearing. Control is repeatedly wrested away in moments where previously you would have had an organic in-game reaction (albeit within fairly restrictive circumstances) like Super's iconic scenes with the matured Last Metroid. Why did I watch from the sidelines as an EMMI suddenly shut down when I would have lost my mind seeing it happen in real time as I fled? Why didn't the opening fight with Raven Beak happen under my control like Ridley in Super, motivating me to best him from the jump and letting me get a preview of his moveset and mine? There is a sense that the AAA budget separating Metroid from its indie successors must be wielded hard and loud via cutscenes and QTEs, and while the spectacle is often dazzling it grates somewhat against the titular dread we're supposed to be feeling. The overall arc is just thorny enough to feel engaging and it wraps up the Frankenstein arc of the Chozo, Metroids, and X parasites fairly neatly, but there is none of the poignancy that Super and Fusion achieved and only some of the resonance.
I'm being forthcoming with my critiques because the many strengths of this game feel so obviously self-evident and already well-documented. A successful EMMI counter feels like dunking on your bully and shattering the backboard. You tell Kraid to say hi to Crocomire. Every boss is at least engaging and many are thrilling; the reveal of a duo of RoboChozos had me particularly stoked, and defeating the second pair first try had me howling. Each area unfolds thoughtfully and holds plenty of secrets. The arsenal is just familiar enough with satisfying remixes and additions, and essentially everything has multiple applications throughout the entire game. The sense of momentum and flow through ZDR's critical path will be sorely missed in any replays of prior games. The map screen is finally good, and football-plotting routes through EMMI zones before entering provides an excellent shift in rhythm from typical exploration. This game rules from the word 'go' to the word 'screaming as you drain the life from your alien bird dad and crash his ship back to terra firma.'
In so many ways, Dread fulfills the long-held dreams of what 2D Metroid could be. It nails so many qualities that it's hard to feel its shortcomings cheapen the overall experience, but they're there and merit thoughtful conversations. It stands atop my personal 2D Metroid ranking and rivals the best the Metroidvania genre has to offer, but it does leave me wanting something more novel, less traditional, more atmospheric, with the same propulsive momentum. Hopefully Retro Studios can breath a little easier: Dread gave us what we wanted, so take some big swings.
20/03/2022: observations from my first hard mode playthrough (about a half hour shy of the 4 hour ending reward cutoff, speedrunning but without engaging in any sequence breaks):
- playing in this style made the game worse, though not uniformly so. Navigation is largely sapped of its intrigue/problem solving and few zones make moment-to-moment movement interesting as in Super or Fusion; the only thing to trip you up will be some random enemy hitting you like a truck near a checkpoint where you have little health. That said you do feel genuinely fast and nimble even as a casual player, and EMMI zones are somewhat improved as the stakes are unchanged but you enter more prepared and capable of getting out of tights spots. Most bosses become spongy while you become fragile and only a few offer chances to recover HP, meaning if you take a hit early enough in the fight you might as well give up and retry. Having done a leisurely normal 100% run, I wish I instead started with a normal speed run.
- the few control oddities stick out more: being unable to walk/accelerate is annoying, speed boost activation on the left stick sucks, etc. The deeper issue is not being able to remap as in Super.
- shinesparking is a godsend for bosses and if I ever figure out how to hit Experiment with it I'll be satisfied with my abilities in this game.
- having played in long stretches and soaking things in first time around, I think I underestimated the extent to which Dread fits into the Switch era design ethos of always being able to accomplish something within ten or fifteen minutes of playing. As fruitful as it's been, I really hope something like Breath of the Wild's sequel is structured with more time commitment in mind.
Some more comments:
-lol at me saying people probably won't fall into a love/hate split with this game and then two of the hosts of my favourite video game podcast both hate it
-with more distance I think I like Fusion better than Dread, though it's extremely close
As a result, the world of ZDR is built more to showcase Samus than vice versa. This feels like the edge on which people's reactions to Dread will split; likely not into a strict love it/hate it dichotomy but rather into "love it" and several variations on "I enjoyed a lot/some of it, but..." Samus is polished to such a sterling state that only a purist or freak (no offense to freaks, they're great) would find fault in and of herself. It's a deviation, sure, but every 2D Metroid has deviated from the previous one in terms of handling and abilities. Furthermore, most of the moments that approach extreme "this ain't your parents' Samus" territory are brief and limited to cutscenes. But the other deviations Dread takes, deliberately or not, have their drawbacks.
The music is my biggest gripe. Since its NES title screen, Metroid has featured some the moodiest tone-setting tracks in video games. Dread's soundtrack serviceably quickens the pulse but is largely forgettable. Nothing grooves like the surface theme of SR388 or pounds like Norfair Ancient Ruins or chills like Crisis Mission. It's often too loud for its own good, detracting from some stellar sound design of enemies and environments (play this game with over-ear headphones). Mechanical crunchiness elevates the EMMI from what it looks like on its own (a DARPA robot circa 2027) to what it feels like in-game (a cyberhellhound sicced on you by MechaSatan himself). Usually a series that wields silence and ambient noise beautifully, Dread's soundtrack abhors a vacuum to its own detriment; only when deep underwater does it briefly approach the ambiance of its predecessors. It just doesn't have the range, sorry.
Relatedly, Dread is a game that struggles to slow down and soak things in. Samus literally cannot walk (without turning invisible first), and you can breeze along the equator of an area without much thought and at times without much memory of what you went through. I found that when I first ventured off the critical path to wander for upgrades and background details in other areas, merging back onto the game's central highway was disorienting. You're better off leaving a marker at your location when you decide to deviate than using them to identify potential new openings. This speaks to a solid structural core in Dread's design, but one that feels like it must be enjoyed primarily on its terms rather than your own. I intend to replay this game and 100% it on hard, so it remains to be seen if there's richer exploration possibilities that didn't occur to me first time around.
These issues combine to diminish the sense of atmosphere. ZDR is gorgeously rendered and has a lot to compliment aesthetically, but it mostly plays things safe in its inspiration. Zones follow basic elemental patterns and come with the expected hazards: lava hurts, leaves don't support your weight, water limits your ability to jump. The fact that many of the biomes are mediated by facility structures makes sense plot-wise, but mitigates the sense of dynamism and nature; it also largely drops the early premise of environmental puzzles requiring inter-room thinking. It was disappointing to enter a powered-down area, finally feeling a change of pace and tone, only to find the light switch pretty quickly with no surprises or consequence. Environments each have stories to tell but, like Super before it, they don't contain much mystery in and of themselves (Ferenia and Elun being exceptions that prove the rule). ZDR is thus more a playground for Samus than an alien world seeking to thwart her at every turn. To be fair, "playground" undersells it--unless you grew up with a full Disneyland in your backyard--but you see my point. Again, another playthrough with greater attention to the background may offer more than I appreciated this time around.
But let's return to Samus as a character in a fiction. MercurySteam and Nintendo were likely both understandably wary of a more vocal Samus, though I think that choice undermines Dread as the plot sequel to Fusion. The game seems nervous to let her be as reflective as that game, leaving Adam in an awkward middle ground where he has a much less active role yet also feels overbearing. Control is repeatedly wrested away in moments where previously you would have had an organic in-game reaction (albeit within fairly restrictive circumstances) like Super's iconic scenes with the matured Last Metroid. Why did I watch from the sidelines as an EMMI suddenly shut down when I would have lost my mind seeing it happen in real time as I fled? Why didn't the opening fight with Raven Beak happen under my control like Ridley in Super, motivating me to best him from the jump and letting me get a preview of his moveset and mine? There is a sense that the AAA budget separating Metroid from its indie successors must be wielded hard and loud via cutscenes and QTEs, and while the spectacle is often dazzling it grates somewhat against the titular dread we're supposed to be feeling. The overall arc is just thorny enough to feel engaging and it wraps up the Frankenstein arc of the Chozo, Metroids, and X parasites fairly neatly, but there is none of the poignancy that Super and Fusion achieved and only some of the resonance.
I'm being forthcoming with my critiques because the many strengths of this game feel so obviously self-evident and already well-documented. A successful EMMI counter feels like dunking on your bully and shattering the backboard. You tell Kraid to say hi to Crocomire. Every boss is at least engaging and many are thrilling; the reveal of a duo of RoboChozos had me particularly stoked, and defeating the second pair first try had me howling. Each area unfolds thoughtfully and holds plenty of secrets. The arsenal is just familiar enough with satisfying remixes and additions, and essentially everything has multiple applications throughout the entire game. The sense of momentum and flow through ZDR's critical path will be sorely missed in any replays of prior games. The map screen is finally good, and football-plotting routes through EMMI zones before entering provides an excellent shift in rhythm from typical exploration. This game rules from the word 'go' to the word 'screaming as you drain the life from your alien bird dad and crash his ship back to terra firma.'
In so many ways, Dread fulfills the long-held dreams of what 2D Metroid could be. It nails so many qualities that it's hard to feel its shortcomings cheapen the overall experience, but they're there and merit thoughtful conversations. It stands atop my personal 2D Metroid ranking and rivals the best the Metroidvania genre has to offer, but it does leave me wanting something more novel, less traditional, more atmospheric, with the same propulsive momentum. Hopefully Retro Studios can breath a little easier: Dread gave us what we wanted, so take some big swings.
20/03/2022: observations from my first hard mode playthrough (about a half hour shy of the 4 hour ending reward cutoff, speedrunning but without engaging in any sequence breaks):
- playing in this style made the game worse, though not uniformly so. Navigation is largely sapped of its intrigue/problem solving and few zones make moment-to-moment movement interesting as in Super or Fusion; the only thing to trip you up will be some random enemy hitting you like a truck near a checkpoint where you have little health. That said you do feel genuinely fast and nimble even as a casual player, and EMMI zones are somewhat improved as the stakes are unchanged but you enter more prepared and capable of getting out of tights spots. Most bosses become spongy while you become fragile and only a few offer chances to recover HP, meaning if you take a hit early enough in the fight you might as well give up and retry. Having done a leisurely normal 100% run, I wish I instead started with a normal speed run.
- the few control oddities stick out more: being unable to walk/accelerate is annoying, speed boost activation on the left stick sucks, etc. The deeper issue is not being able to remap as in Super.
- shinesparking is a godsend for bosses and if I ever figure out how to hit Experiment with it I'll be satisfied with my abilities in this game.
- having played in long stretches and soaking things in first time around, I think I underestimated the extent to which Dread fits into the Switch era design ethos of always being able to accomplish something within ten or fifteen minutes of playing. As fruitful as it's been, I really hope something like Breath of the Wild's sequel is structured with more time commitment in mind.
Some more comments:
-lol at me saying people probably won't fall into a love/hate split with this game and then two of the hosts of my favourite video game podcast both hate it
-with more distance I think I like Fusion better than Dread, though it's extremely close