I've finally reached the end of my 2D Metroid binge, and I have to say, I am floored, Dread did not disappoint at all. It fixed pretty much all of my complaints with Fusion, and somehow cherrypicked all of the best aspects from every previous 2D Metroid and fused them into a single game to make what's in my opinion the best Metroid game, and a fantastic climax to the 2D series. You have the fast, fluid and responsive gameplay of Zero Mission, the quality of life improvements of Samus Returns with its Block Scanner, Map Markers, Free Precision Aiming, and Teleporters, the atmosphere, exploration and sequence breaking of Super, and the more spooky, story heavy nature of Fusion, all in one game. This entry leans more heavily into the difficult action game nature the series has only briefly touched upon in earlier games, and I love it for that as a big fan of action games with tough bosses that you have to react to on a dime and counter effectively.
That said, holy crap this game is even less suited for newcomers than Fusion was, it really should not be your first Metroid game unless you're familiar with Metroidvanias and are adept at action games in general. Not to mention the story is essentially the climax of Samus's journey throughout the series and a lot of things will come out of nowhere without the proper context.
As always, I'll start by talking about the gameplay and game as a whole, then segue into my thoughts on the story later, with a spoiler warning when I reach that part. You have been warned.
First things first, holy crap this game looks like an actual Playstation 4 game graphically, which is somehow running on Switch hardware in 1080p 60 FPS flawlessly! I was floored when I saw Dread's presentation, the big budget action cutscenes paired with the amazing artistic direction for the planet of ZDR look and feel amazing. I played this game entirely on handheld mode, and it STILL looked that good! I can only imagine it somehow looks even more immaculate on a big screen HD TV. If this is the new direction Metroid is going to go into with future games, I'm all for it.
Now for the gameplay. As I said before, Samus has never felt better to control than in this. She moves so fluidly and her animations also have so much polish and nuance to them that say a lot about her demeanor and character. The bosses are no slouch in this department either, and they're way more fun to fight than they've ever been. Not that I think Metroid boss design in previous games has ever been bad, but I always felt they could've leaned harder into the action aspects where you're bobbing and weaving around enemies a lot better, when usually that's not the case. But as soon as this game introduced the Flash Step dodge mechanic to complement the dodge slide, I knew that I was in for a treat. No good action game is complete without a solid dodge option to make evading bosses that much more feasible and smooth, and Dread doesn't disappoint here.
Dread thankfully is very good at providing Samus very great spacious arenas to fight her opponents in, which makes the game very fair despite its great challenge. There was only one mini boss in the forest jungle area where I struggled to beat them because of the arena being a lot more confined which made it super hard to avoid their red arm attacks, but other than that I didn't have any complaints with the bosses in this game. The final boss especially takes the case as not only the most epic and satisfying final boss in the series, but also as the most fun. Such an incredibly designed multi-phase fight that really puts everything you've learned throughout the game to the test, and it was really fun for me to figure out and react to the patterns. I only died three times to it (twice in the first phase, and once in the third), but I chalk that up to my experience with other equally as tough action games that require precision aiming and high maintenance reaction time, those games being Kid Icarus Uprising's 9.0 difficulty and Hardest Boss Rush mode, and Kingdom Hearts 2 Final Mix's Critical Mode and incredible boss design.
The level design is still the standard Metroid fare but polished to a shine. You have your great cool looking alien environments, with incredible level design of gently guiding you in the right direction to go without holding your hand too hard. This is the first Metroid game where I was able to complete the entire game without ever getting stuck and needing a guide to complete the story! I chalk that up to my previous experiences with the series however, as every previous game had me stumped at one point where I needed outside help. (In Zero Mission, I got stuck because I couldn't find one block I needed to bomb to progress. In Samus Returns I got stuck since I didn't realize this one area could be grapple beamed. In Super I got stuck since I didn't realize the glass tunnel could be power bombed. And in Fusion I got stuck since I didn't realize you could literally shoot through blocks with the laser and not missiles.) So to finally beat a Metroid without needing any outside help felt so satisfying, especially since you don't get the Aieon Pulse scan to find hidden blocks until really late into the game, so everything else was all on my own exploration and intuition, and it felt very rewarding.
The item power up progression in Dread was as satisfying as usual, even moreso in this game with all the tools you get to have different options in battle, which enhanced the usual sense of empowerment Metroid gives you in a new and more expanded fun way.
The EMMI encounters were also very exhilarating, naturally I died a lot of times to them, but it was really rewarding learning their patterns and figuring out how to best evade them. I even got pretty decent at countering them when they pinned Samus down, and I felt they were a lot more of an active threat and scary to face compared to the stealth/jump scare segments in Fusion which were scripted and only happened like 2-3 times the entire game.
The one criticism I have of the game itself is that I found the soundtrack fairly lacking, especially compared to previous games. Even Samus Returns had a good amount of more interesting atmosphere tracks and really great boss themes to complements its battles compared to Dread. But that's the only real complaint I have with the gameplay and presentation, otherwise it's immaculate and I couldn't have asked for anything better.
Now it's time for me to talk about my thoughts on the story, this is your LAST chance to stop reading and avoid being spoiled on the game's narrative, so turn back now if you wish.
This game is a fantastic followup to Fusion's story and expands upon the lore of Metroid in a lot of great ways, while making things feel fresh and not like a typical Metroid retread this time. For once, Ridley doesn't get ressurrected for the millionth time, and the Metroids aren't the primary threat. Instead the Chozo take the forefront of the plot for the first time which I really liked, and the main threats are its warrior tribe leader and the X-Parasites from Fusion. Not only that, Samus has to make her way up the planet to get back to her ship rather than making her way into the depths and returning this time. Having Adam as her guide once again was nice, as he's no longer bound by the whims of the Federation and instead just wants to help Samus because he cares about her.
This game threw a good amount of twists at me that I wasn't expecting, but also made me glad I'd read the Metroid manga beforehand again. We finally found out more about the ever mysterious Chozo and their history with how the peaceful Troha tribe created the Metroids, lived to regret it, and were eliminated before they could undo their mistake, yet Samus was raised by them and lived to carry out what they could not.
The twist with Raven Beak being the other Chozo to integrate his DNA into Samus was really genius (and also a cool Darth Vader-esque moment), it explains why Samus is so incredibly combat capable despite the Troha tribe not being warriors. Samus's Metroid DNA turning her into a human Metroid also made so much sense in retrospect, and that her Chozo Troha genes only delayed the inevitable. This also ties into the genius ending twist with the X-Parasite that took over Quiet Robe's body, and why that X-Parasite being absorbed by Samus turned her back to normal. It reinforced the Troha genes in her and set back the Metroid progression in her body, though the fact that Samus is now going to be hunted down for her Metroid power and the fact she's a threat to the galaxy is something that I think could be followed up and played with very interestingly in future games.
The entire climactic fight with Raven Beak going blow for blow with Samus, and culminating in her awakening to her new Metroid suit and obliterating him with a Hyper Beam that's essentially the Zero Laser she has in Smash Brothers was anime as heck and I loved it. The epic high stakes escape from the planet afterward was also awesome, using the hyper beam to blow up new exits for her to escape through.
My one complaint with the story is that I wish Samus got to talk more. She got a lot of dialogue in Fusion and Other M, and I was hoping to see more into her headspace in this game, but I'm guessing Other M's bad reception is what caused the higher ups at Nintendo to make Sakamoto not write any real dialogue for her outside of 2 lines when she talked to Quiet Robe.
That said, I do like what bits of characterization we got from her facial expressions and actions alone in this game, it reminded me a lot of the "Show Don't Tell" nature of Super's story and I respect that artistic choice. It also makes sense given Samus's arc of accepting her mistakes and working to atone for them ended with Other M and Fusion, so here in Dread she's moved past her reservations and is strong in her convictions to the protect the galaxy to the bitter end now, which makes sense and is probably part of why Sakamoto was okay with having her take less of a speaking role this time around. Though even despite all that, I do hope later games aren't afraid to make more of an effort to show Samus's character more overtly though.
Overall, Dread is an incredible climax to an already fantastic series and I have no real major issues with it. Easily my favorite Metroid game and one I'll remember fondly for years to come, and likely replay a lot. I'm excited to tackle the boss rush mode later today too! Big props to Mercury Steam for including that, their incredible boss design lends itself very well to a mode like that, and I love Boss Rush modes in games like this, so that's just the cherry on top of this masterful sundae for me. Hard Mode will also be a fun challenge in the future. (Last thing, but another small thing I love is that they added a Total Play Time counter to account for game overs, since the Switch's playtime counter kinda sucks.)
EDIT: Beat Boss Rush mode about 3-4 hours after writing this review, I refused to finish it in full until I got through every boss without dying and I managed to in 19 minutes and 58 seconds! Was incredibly fun and I'll likely replay this a lot going forward.
Also, big props to Mercury Steam for making probably one of the best boss rush modes in any game I've played. It's very fair as you will heal from most boss fights if you play them correctly so you don't have to go for completely damageless runs, though obviously perfecting fights help. It's also very forgiving in that you can continue the run even if you die, you don't have to do it all with no deaths, I just did that myself personally to challenge myself.
Not only that, but for any boss you beat (and even bosses you die to) in boss rush mode, you're able to "practice" the boss again by itself via the menu, which is a fantastic two-fold Quality of Life options I've never seen another boss rush mode do and wish more would. If you die to a late game boss and want to practice it to get better at that one boss specifically, you can do so immediately and not have to go through the entire gauntlet again just to get to that one boss and likely die again before you learn it.
But if you also just want to replay some specific fun boss fights without needing to replay the entire gauntlet, you can do so with the practice mode just fine! That's incredibly refreshing and thoughtful of the developers to do, so kudos to Mercury Steam for thinking ahead and making in my opinion one of the best boss rush modes I've ever seen in a video game.
Total Game Overs: 111 deaths.
Total playtime (including game overs): 20 hours, 53 minutes and 6 seconds.
Total playtime from in-game file counter: 14 hours, 23 minutes and 23 seconds.
Item Collection Rate: 100%.
See you next mission!
That said, holy crap this game is even less suited for newcomers than Fusion was, it really should not be your first Metroid game unless you're familiar with Metroidvanias and are adept at action games in general. Not to mention the story is essentially the climax of Samus's journey throughout the series and a lot of things will come out of nowhere without the proper context.
As always, I'll start by talking about the gameplay and game as a whole, then segue into my thoughts on the story later, with a spoiler warning when I reach that part. You have been warned.
First things first, holy crap this game looks like an actual Playstation 4 game graphically, which is somehow running on Switch hardware in 1080p 60 FPS flawlessly! I was floored when I saw Dread's presentation, the big budget action cutscenes paired with the amazing artistic direction for the planet of ZDR look and feel amazing. I played this game entirely on handheld mode, and it STILL looked that good! I can only imagine it somehow looks even more immaculate on a big screen HD TV. If this is the new direction Metroid is going to go into with future games, I'm all for it.
Now for the gameplay. As I said before, Samus has never felt better to control than in this. She moves so fluidly and her animations also have so much polish and nuance to them that say a lot about her demeanor and character. The bosses are no slouch in this department either, and they're way more fun to fight than they've ever been. Not that I think Metroid boss design in previous games has ever been bad, but I always felt they could've leaned harder into the action aspects where you're bobbing and weaving around enemies a lot better, when usually that's not the case. But as soon as this game introduced the Flash Step dodge mechanic to complement the dodge slide, I knew that I was in for a treat. No good action game is complete without a solid dodge option to make evading bosses that much more feasible and smooth, and Dread doesn't disappoint here.
Dread thankfully is very good at providing Samus very great spacious arenas to fight her opponents in, which makes the game very fair despite its great challenge. There was only one mini boss in the forest jungle area where I struggled to beat them because of the arena being a lot more confined which made it super hard to avoid their red arm attacks, but other than that I didn't have any complaints with the bosses in this game. The final boss especially takes the case as not only the most epic and satisfying final boss in the series, but also as the most fun. Such an incredibly designed multi-phase fight that really puts everything you've learned throughout the game to the test, and it was really fun for me to figure out and react to the patterns. I only died three times to it (twice in the first phase, and once in the third), but I chalk that up to my experience with other equally as tough action games that require precision aiming and high maintenance reaction time, those games being Kid Icarus Uprising's 9.0 difficulty and Hardest Boss Rush mode, and Kingdom Hearts 2 Final Mix's Critical Mode and incredible boss design.
The level design is still the standard Metroid fare but polished to a shine. You have your great cool looking alien environments, with incredible level design of gently guiding you in the right direction to go without holding your hand too hard. This is the first Metroid game where I was able to complete the entire game without ever getting stuck and needing a guide to complete the story! I chalk that up to my previous experiences with the series however, as every previous game had me stumped at one point where I needed outside help. (In Zero Mission, I got stuck because I couldn't find one block I needed to bomb to progress. In Samus Returns I got stuck since I didn't realize this one area could be grapple beamed. In Super I got stuck since I didn't realize the glass tunnel could be power bombed. And in Fusion I got stuck since I didn't realize you could literally shoot through blocks with the laser and not missiles.) So to finally beat a Metroid without needing any outside help felt so satisfying, especially since you don't get the Aieon Pulse scan to find hidden blocks until really late into the game, so everything else was all on my own exploration and intuition, and it felt very rewarding.
The item power up progression in Dread was as satisfying as usual, even moreso in this game with all the tools you get to have different options in battle, which enhanced the usual sense of empowerment Metroid gives you in a new and more expanded fun way.
The EMMI encounters were also very exhilarating, naturally I died a lot of times to them, but it was really rewarding learning their patterns and figuring out how to best evade them. I even got pretty decent at countering them when they pinned Samus down, and I felt they were a lot more of an active threat and scary to face compared to the stealth/jump scare segments in Fusion which were scripted and only happened like 2-3 times the entire game.
The one criticism I have of the game itself is that I found the soundtrack fairly lacking, especially compared to previous games. Even Samus Returns had a good amount of more interesting atmosphere tracks and really great boss themes to complements its battles compared to Dread. But that's the only real complaint I have with the gameplay and presentation, otherwise it's immaculate and I couldn't have asked for anything better.
Now it's time for me to talk about my thoughts on the story, this is your LAST chance to stop reading and avoid being spoiled on the game's narrative, so turn back now if you wish.
This game is a fantastic followup to Fusion's story and expands upon the lore of Metroid in a lot of great ways, while making things feel fresh and not like a typical Metroid retread this time. For once, Ridley doesn't get ressurrected for the millionth time, and the Metroids aren't the primary threat. Instead the Chozo take the forefront of the plot for the first time which I really liked, and the main threats are its warrior tribe leader and the X-Parasites from Fusion. Not only that, Samus has to make her way up the planet to get back to her ship rather than making her way into the depths and returning this time. Having Adam as her guide once again was nice, as he's no longer bound by the whims of the Federation and instead just wants to help Samus because he cares about her.
This game threw a good amount of twists at me that I wasn't expecting, but also made me glad I'd read the Metroid manga beforehand again. We finally found out more about the ever mysterious Chozo and their history with how the peaceful Troha tribe created the Metroids, lived to regret it, and were eliminated before they could undo their mistake, yet Samus was raised by them and lived to carry out what they could not.
The twist with Raven Beak being the other Chozo to integrate his DNA into Samus was really genius (and also a cool Darth Vader-esque moment), it explains why Samus is so incredibly combat capable despite the Troha tribe not being warriors. Samus's Metroid DNA turning her into a human Metroid also made so much sense in retrospect, and that her Chozo Troha genes only delayed the inevitable. This also ties into the genius ending twist with the X-Parasite that took over Quiet Robe's body, and why that X-Parasite being absorbed by Samus turned her back to normal. It reinforced the Troha genes in her and set back the Metroid progression in her body, though the fact that Samus is now going to be hunted down for her Metroid power and the fact she's a threat to the galaxy is something that I think could be followed up and played with very interestingly in future games.
The entire climactic fight with Raven Beak going blow for blow with Samus, and culminating in her awakening to her new Metroid suit and obliterating him with a Hyper Beam that's essentially the Zero Laser she has in Smash Brothers was anime as heck and I loved it. The epic high stakes escape from the planet afterward was also awesome, using the hyper beam to blow up new exits for her to escape through.
My one complaint with the story is that I wish Samus got to talk more. She got a lot of dialogue in Fusion and Other M, and I was hoping to see more into her headspace in this game, but I'm guessing Other M's bad reception is what caused the higher ups at Nintendo to make Sakamoto not write any real dialogue for her outside of 2 lines when she talked to Quiet Robe.
That said, I do like what bits of characterization we got from her facial expressions and actions alone in this game, it reminded me a lot of the "Show Don't Tell" nature of Super's story and I respect that artistic choice. It also makes sense given Samus's arc of accepting her mistakes and working to atone for them ended with Other M and Fusion, so here in Dread she's moved past her reservations and is strong in her convictions to the protect the galaxy to the bitter end now, which makes sense and is probably part of why Sakamoto was okay with having her take less of a speaking role this time around. Though even despite all that, I do hope later games aren't afraid to make more of an effort to show Samus's character more overtly though.
Overall, Dread is an incredible climax to an already fantastic series and I have no real major issues with it. Easily my favorite Metroid game and one I'll remember fondly for years to come, and likely replay a lot. I'm excited to tackle the boss rush mode later today too! Big props to Mercury Steam for including that, their incredible boss design lends itself very well to a mode like that, and I love Boss Rush modes in games like this, so that's just the cherry on top of this masterful sundae for me. Hard Mode will also be a fun challenge in the future. (Last thing, but another small thing I love is that they added a Total Play Time counter to account for game overs, since the Switch's playtime counter kinda sucks.)
EDIT: Beat Boss Rush mode about 3-4 hours after writing this review, I refused to finish it in full until I got through every boss without dying and I managed to in 19 minutes and 58 seconds! Was incredibly fun and I'll likely replay this a lot going forward.
Also, big props to Mercury Steam for making probably one of the best boss rush modes in any game I've played. It's very fair as you will heal from most boss fights if you play them correctly so you don't have to go for completely damageless runs, though obviously perfecting fights help. It's also very forgiving in that you can continue the run even if you die, you don't have to do it all with no deaths, I just did that myself personally to challenge myself.
Not only that, but for any boss you beat (and even bosses you die to) in boss rush mode, you're able to "practice" the boss again by itself via the menu, which is a fantastic two-fold Quality of Life options I've never seen another boss rush mode do and wish more would. If you die to a late game boss and want to practice it to get better at that one boss specifically, you can do so immediately and not have to go through the entire gauntlet again just to get to that one boss and likely die again before you learn it.
But if you also just want to replay some specific fun boss fights without needing to replay the entire gauntlet, you can do so with the practice mode just fine! That's incredibly refreshing and thoughtful of the developers to do, so kudos to Mercury Steam for thinking ahead and making in my opinion one of the best boss rush modes I've ever seen in a video game.
Total Game Overs: 111 deaths.
Total playtime (including game overs): 20 hours, 53 minutes and 6 seconds.
Total playtime from in-game file counter: 14 hours, 23 minutes and 23 seconds.
Item Collection Rate: 100%.
See you next mission!