Hello all,
Yesterday I finished Metroid Dread and I have to say that I am glad that it is finally over, something I would normally say about Metroid games as I did not really enjoy the experience.
It is not a bad game but it is also not what I would liked to have seen in a Metroid title.
What I liked about the game was how fast and smooth the main character moves and jumps, quite similar to the character in the Strider 2014 game which I will compare Dread a few more times too.
It is actually really nice to behold but controls though can be a little floaty sometimes and I am not that sure if I prefer a thumb stick over a D-pad in this case.
The new moves such as the slide is a welcome addition as it really adds to the character's flexibility, as does the new flash shift the player later acquires. I have experiences with both as these were also in Strider 2014.
It is a good thing that they are in general easy to use because you will need them a lot later in the game during boss fights.
The 360 degree aiming from Metroid Samus Returns, and it is both a boone for its precision to specific targets, but also a bane as the player can't move while remaining open during attacks.
I think I may prefer the system handled in Metroid Fusion and Metroid Zero mission.
Unfortunately the counter mechanic from MSR also returns. This is a little punch you do when an enemy announced in a flash animation that it is going to attack you, striking the enemy in time leaves it dazed and open for a few seconds so you do extra damage to it with your shot.
It rapidly looses its effectiveness in regular combat when you get better weapons, an improvement over MSR where it remained so mandatory. It how however remains required in boss battles as in some fights you can only real hurt or even finish off bosses in a QTE segment. (yep, Metroid now has QTE segments)
The jump boots from previous 2D Metroid games have been replaced with a double jump. This sounds similar to the double jump in the Prime games but it is basically a space jump you can only use once, and it becomes completely irrelevant after you have collected the space jump.
The Shinespark. Well you better like this mechanic from the previous games because it is has been expanded on in Dread, and is required to solve a number of shinespark puzzles that range from tedious to very frustrating.
Before I forget to mention it, players will be using the booster and shinespark very little outside puzzles.
The maps. Well they are a lot bigger than most of the ones in Super Metroid, Fusion, and Zero Mission. But they are also very linear.
Remember how in Fusion either the computer CO or in Super Metroid the statues directed you on where to go next? The direction system does not return in Dread, but instead the map is designed in such a way that the only way to progress with the power ups you have is to follow a specific route.
For example, super cold areas prevent you from exploring some alternative paths until you have the right suit upgrades.
And when you collect new power ups that should open up more of previously explored section, something happens like an obstacle closing off routes such as an earthquake or the appearance of poisonous plants.
So if you intend to return to rooms where you saw some extra missile tanks, energy tanks, or parts of energy tanks (like in Zelda you now sometimes have to collect pieces of an energy tank to get a full one), forget about it. The game will only allow you to do that when you perhaps later return to these rooms, or near the end when you have all main powerups and the missile and energy tanks that could have made a difference are pretty much irrelevant now.
Theme wise the maps handle the standard Metroid fare. You have your rock/underground world, fire world, water world, jungle world, a small area that serves as a prison or containment facility, a robot factory world, a temple world, a fortress, and a final boss lair.
There is no ice world but cold area segments are placed throughout some of the other levels.
The world tend to be a mix of these themes along with high tech sections such as labs and the robot patrol zones.
Maps also no longer have alternative direct connections/paths with each other like in SM, Fusion, and ZM which you can use next to the elevators.
Instead like MSR there are now teleporter stations.
Enemies are you standard cannon fodder. Initially being able to cause you a lot of damage if you are not careful, and needing to be countered before you can do the finishing attack.
Weapon improvement quickly reduces their threat with the exception of a handful of enemies that require a little trick before they eventually too can be easily mowed down. You will only resort to the melee when you want enemies to drop more energy and missiles.
Halfway during the game down the strength of regular enemies is somewhat increased.
The bosses however, Jesus did the designers decide to up the strength and endurance of these.
This already started in MSR with the Metroids and that digger robot. Shooting them while avoiding their attacks or getting in physical contact with them is not enough any more. The player now has to fight a lot of them until they are open to a QTE segment in which the player can do actual damage and maybe get a little energy and some missiles if they are running low.
Fail to make use of the opening and the player is back to having to fight the bosses until there is another QTE window. Only a handful of bosses can be beaten without the QTE segment.
The thing is, these assholes hit hard and I do mean HARD. As in, if the player is not careful a boss enemy can drain a player's health in a handful of hits, especially the ones that have attacks that if one blow hits, it is rapidly followed up by two or three more blows.
And some of them don't have projectile attacks that generate additional energy or missile pick ups when you shoot these.
Fighting and defeating these like the giant spider reptile thing can sometimes take ages, giving you the feeling that it never ends.
I did not mention the robots yet that were brought up a lot in the Metroid Dread trailers.
These robots patrol specific areas in each world that the player occasionally has to get through to reach other parts of the map. And once these robots catch your presence they immediately start searching for you.
You can temporary throw them off by making enough distance, or using an invisibility power up that makes them unable to detect you (they can still bump into you however). But the moment you move again they sense you and head immediately towards you.
To defeat them you need a special weapon power up that you acquire from defeating a mini boss that is somewhere in the level.
After you have collected this weapon you need to find a specific area of the zone where you have enough room to start firing at the robot without it being able to immediately get to you. This is required as you first need to destroy the robot's head armor, and then charge up for the killing shot.
Don't be surprised that you may have run again before you succeed in either of these tasks as can take quite a while.
What annoys me a lot with these robots is that they are always in the part of the zone where you happen to enter it, being only a few steps behind you, and never anywhere else in this patrol zone.
These robots also get additional abilities, from being able to follow you into narrow corridors, move at super speed, being able to fire an ice shot that stuns you, or a shot that goes through walls.
When you encounter one of these things outside the tutorial one, the chase can be pretty exciting as you need to be constantly on the move in order to avoid them and reach the exit of the zone you are going for, or the mini boss.
But after the second or third time it becomes rather repetitious and it feels that it rather breaks up the rest of the game as you have to play chase and hide & seek with these robots.
If they manage to catch you you are pretty much dead as they have an insta-kill attack. There is small room for a counter to escape but it is very very brief and in general not even worth trying.
I feel that this gameplay mechanic became old really fast, and it would have been much better and memorable as a one time thing that something we players would be forced to go through several times.
Heck, if Nintendo/Mercurysteam insisted so much on this, why not just have one robot that can show up in each of the maps, and remains invulnerable until the near end of the game?
And that is perhaps occasionally on another map patrolling and searching for you. When you cause too much trouble or are perhaps seen by some detection unit you draw its attention and it immediately comes to your last location.
I did not even mention the storyline yet and that is because it is pretty forgettable.
Metroid has never been known for its storylines but in comparison to Dread, Fusion and the Prime games pulled it off way better.
Samus her portrayal? In one game she is over emotional, in another just some killing machine with occassionally some humanity.
Some people think this is sort of a backlash to the bad reception of Samus' portrayal in Other M.
I am actually not sure if Samus Aran really should have that much of a character as I don't think the Metroid franchise should become more cinematic.
Stuff like that is better reserved for comics or Manga.
I confess I got into this game with a bias as I had already spoiled it for myself by watching walkthroughs and reading opinion pieces and reviews of other people who played it.
But even if I had not done those things I would still find the experience very average.
Spoiling it for myself did not hurt my enjoyment of it. Rather it confirmed what I had been expecting after reading the articles and watching preview videos.
Back in 2017 I had bought and played Metroid Samus Returns, a remake of the old Metroid 2 for the Gameboy that was developed by the same studio that did Dread. MSR can even be seen as sort of a warm up for the developers before they got to work on Dread as MSR feels much more of a sequel to this game than Fusion which chronological takes place before it.
I really did not like some of the mechanics of MSR such as the now required melee or counter in order to soften up enemies so that you can do real damage to them. Regular shots just seem to scrape them.
MSR and now Dread really puts more emphasis on fighting, especially in the boss battles.
Now I don't think the boss battles should be easy and boring. Some of the boss battles in Prime 1 and 2 were really exciting.
But I don't care much for the cinematic fighting thing in which we are forced to watch an animation until we are given the signal that we must now press a button to react on time, or keep pressing the firing button.
Exploring has become somewhat secondary and I find a lot of the maps rather boring.
You don't get a lot of room to explore and pick up additional collectibles that would be helpful in the next boss fight which you are guided to the moment you have finished the previous one
The last 2D Metroid game that I really got into before I played the Prime games was Metroid Zero Mission.
MZM was perhaps very short and basic, but it is also a game I would gladly play again when I have some time and want to play something that is well designed and not too frustrating that I can finish in an evening.
Its planned sequence breaking allowed you to get some items earlier that made boss fights easier, and it was not so focused on padding the game's length by closing pathways and forcing you to look for another.
The only exception is of course the near end segment which is a forced stealth section with near invulnerable enemies, but it was never that long like in Dread.
One time is fine, five times becomes a chore.
Maybe I have outgrown the Metroid franchise. There are many fine alternatives now available on various platforms.
But I also feel that the Metroid franchise itself has issues since Metroid Prime 3, or Metroid Zero Mission if people don't like the Prime games.
We had the more cinematic offshoot Other M that fell flat, and not just of the story.
Then MSR which I think is just a very bland game with little to no replay value.
And now Dread which I think is MSR dialed up with some very annoying filler (we honestly don't need to fight the same several mini bosses a number of times) that after some point just drags, especially with the boss battles
I am glad that I have finished this game myself, and with all the collectibles which I openly admit I used a guide for as I did not really feel like going through the levels for hours to find them all of figure out the little trick needed to collect them.
So when people ask me my opinion on Dread I can speak from my own experiences and not sound like a parrot by saying someone else's even though I did make use of other people's opinion to put my own thoughts and feelings into words.
I would gladly play Fusion, Zero Mission, Prime 1, 2, and 3 again. But Dread? No thanks.
Yesterday I finished Metroid Dread and I have to say that I am glad that it is finally over, something I would normally say about Metroid games as I did not really enjoy the experience.
It is not a bad game but it is also not what I would liked to have seen in a Metroid title.
What I liked about the game was how fast and smooth the main character moves and jumps, quite similar to the character in the Strider 2014 game which I will compare Dread a few more times too.
It is actually really nice to behold but controls though can be a little floaty sometimes and I am not that sure if I prefer a thumb stick over a D-pad in this case.
The new moves such as the slide is a welcome addition as it really adds to the character's flexibility, as does the new flash shift the player later acquires. I have experiences with both as these were also in Strider 2014.
It is a good thing that they are in general easy to use because you will need them a lot later in the game during boss fights.
The 360 degree aiming from Metroid Samus Returns, and it is both a boone for its precision to specific targets, but also a bane as the player can't move while remaining open during attacks.
I think I may prefer the system handled in Metroid Fusion and Metroid Zero mission.
Unfortunately the counter mechanic from MSR also returns. This is a little punch you do when an enemy announced in a flash animation that it is going to attack you, striking the enemy in time leaves it dazed and open for a few seconds so you do extra damage to it with your shot.
It rapidly looses its effectiveness in regular combat when you get better weapons, an improvement over MSR where it remained so mandatory. It how however remains required in boss battles as in some fights you can only real hurt or even finish off bosses in a QTE segment. (yep, Metroid now has QTE segments)
The jump boots from previous 2D Metroid games have been replaced with a double jump. This sounds similar to the double jump in the Prime games but it is basically a space jump you can only use once, and it becomes completely irrelevant after you have collected the space jump.
The Shinespark. Well you better like this mechanic from the previous games because it is has been expanded on in Dread, and is required to solve a number of shinespark puzzles that range from tedious to very frustrating.
Before I forget to mention it, players will be using the booster and shinespark very little outside puzzles.
The maps. Well they are a lot bigger than most of the ones in Super Metroid, Fusion, and Zero Mission. But they are also very linear.
Remember how in Fusion either the computer CO or in Super Metroid the statues directed you on where to go next? The direction system does not return in Dread, but instead the map is designed in such a way that the only way to progress with the power ups you have is to follow a specific route.
For example, super cold areas prevent you from exploring some alternative paths until you have the right suit upgrades.
And when you collect new power ups that should open up more of previously explored section, something happens like an obstacle closing off routes such as an earthquake or the appearance of poisonous plants.
So if you intend to return to rooms where you saw some extra missile tanks, energy tanks, or parts of energy tanks (like in Zelda you now sometimes have to collect pieces of an energy tank to get a full one), forget about it. The game will only allow you to do that when you perhaps later return to these rooms, or near the end when you have all main powerups and the missile and energy tanks that could have made a difference are pretty much irrelevant now.
Theme wise the maps handle the standard Metroid fare. You have your rock/underground world, fire world, water world, jungle world, a small area that serves as a prison or containment facility, a robot factory world, a temple world, a fortress, and a final boss lair.
There is no ice world but cold area segments are placed throughout some of the other levels.
The world tend to be a mix of these themes along with high tech sections such as labs and the robot patrol zones.
Maps also no longer have alternative direct connections/paths with each other like in SM, Fusion, and ZM which you can use next to the elevators.
Instead like MSR there are now teleporter stations.
Enemies are you standard cannon fodder. Initially being able to cause you a lot of damage if you are not careful, and needing to be countered before you can do the finishing attack.
Weapon improvement quickly reduces their threat with the exception of a handful of enemies that require a little trick before they eventually too can be easily mowed down. You will only resort to the melee when you want enemies to drop more energy and missiles.
Halfway during the game down the strength of regular enemies is somewhat increased.
The bosses however, Jesus did the designers decide to up the strength and endurance of these.
This already started in MSR with the Metroids and that digger robot. Shooting them while avoiding their attacks or getting in physical contact with them is not enough any more. The player now has to fight a lot of them until they are open to a QTE segment in which the player can do actual damage and maybe get a little energy and some missiles if they are running low.
Fail to make use of the opening and the player is back to having to fight the bosses until there is another QTE window. Only a handful of bosses can be beaten without the QTE segment.
The thing is, these assholes hit hard and I do mean HARD. As in, if the player is not careful a boss enemy can drain a player's health in a handful of hits, especially the ones that have attacks that if one blow hits, it is rapidly followed up by two or three more blows.
And some of them don't have projectile attacks that generate additional energy or missile pick ups when you shoot these.
Fighting and defeating these like the giant spider reptile thing can sometimes take ages, giving you the feeling that it never ends.
I did not mention the robots yet that were brought up a lot in the Metroid Dread trailers.
These robots patrol specific areas in each world that the player occasionally has to get through to reach other parts of the map. And once these robots catch your presence they immediately start searching for you.
You can temporary throw them off by making enough distance, or using an invisibility power up that makes them unable to detect you (they can still bump into you however). But the moment you move again they sense you and head immediately towards you.
To defeat them you need a special weapon power up that you acquire from defeating a mini boss that is somewhere in the level.
After you have collected this weapon you need to find a specific area of the zone where you have enough room to start firing at the robot without it being able to immediately get to you. This is required as you first need to destroy the robot's head armor, and then charge up for the killing shot.
Don't be surprised that you may have run again before you succeed in either of these tasks as can take quite a while.
What annoys me a lot with these robots is that they are always in the part of the zone where you happen to enter it, being only a few steps behind you, and never anywhere else in this patrol zone.
These robots also get additional abilities, from being able to follow you into narrow corridors, move at super speed, being able to fire an ice shot that stuns you, or a shot that goes through walls.
When you encounter one of these things outside the tutorial one, the chase can be pretty exciting as you need to be constantly on the move in order to avoid them and reach the exit of the zone you are going for, or the mini boss.
But after the second or third time it becomes rather repetitious and it feels that it rather breaks up the rest of the game as you have to play chase and hide & seek with these robots.
If they manage to catch you you are pretty much dead as they have an insta-kill attack. There is small room for a counter to escape but it is very very brief and in general not even worth trying.
I feel that this gameplay mechanic became old really fast, and it would have been much better and memorable as a one time thing that something we players would be forced to go through several times.
Heck, if Nintendo/Mercurysteam insisted so much on this, why not just have one robot that can show up in each of the maps, and remains invulnerable until the near end of the game?
And that is perhaps occasionally on another map patrolling and searching for you. When you cause too much trouble or are perhaps seen by some detection unit you draw its attention and it immediately comes to your last location.
I did not even mention the storyline yet and that is because it is pretty forgettable.
Metroid has never been known for its storylines but in comparison to Dread, Fusion and the Prime games pulled it off way better.
Samus her portrayal? In one game she is over emotional, in another just some killing machine with occassionally some humanity.
Some people think this is sort of a backlash to the bad reception of Samus' portrayal in Other M.
I am actually not sure if Samus Aran really should have that much of a character as I don't think the Metroid franchise should become more cinematic.
Stuff like that is better reserved for comics or Manga.
I confess I got into this game with a bias as I had already spoiled it for myself by watching walkthroughs and reading opinion pieces and reviews of other people who played it.
But even if I had not done those things I would still find the experience very average.
Spoiling it for myself did not hurt my enjoyment of it. Rather it confirmed what I had been expecting after reading the articles and watching preview videos.
Back in 2017 I had bought and played Metroid Samus Returns, a remake of the old Metroid 2 for the Gameboy that was developed by the same studio that did Dread. MSR can even be seen as sort of a warm up for the developers before they got to work on Dread as MSR feels much more of a sequel to this game than Fusion which chronological takes place before it.
I really did not like some of the mechanics of MSR such as the now required melee or counter in order to soften up enemies so that you can do real damage to them. Regular shots just seem to scrape them.
MSR and now Dread really puts more emphasis on fighting, especially in the boss battles.
Now I don't think the boss battles should be easy and boring. Some of the boss battles in Prime 1 and 2 were really exciting.
But I don't care much for the cinematic fighting thing in which we are forced to watch an animation until we are given the signal that we must now press a button to react on time, or keep pressing the firing button.
Exploring has become somewhat secondary and I find a lot of the maps rather boring.
You don't get a lot of room to explore and pick up additional collectibles that would be helpful in the next boss fight which you are guided to the moment you have finished the previous one
The last 2D Metroid game that I really got into before I played the Prime games was Metroid Zero Mission.
MZM was perhaps very short and basic, but it is also a game I would gladly play again when I have some time and want to play something that is well designed and not too frustrating that I can finish in an evening.
Its planned sequence breaking allowed you to get some items earlier that made boss fights easier, and it was not so focused on padding the game's length by closing pathways and forcing you to look for another.
The only exception is of course the near end segment which is a forced stealth section with near invulnerable enemies, but it was never that long like in Dread.
One time is fine, five times becomes a chore.
Maybe I have outgrown the Metroid franchise. There are many fine alternatives now available on various platforms.
But I also feel that the Metroid franchise itself has issues since Metroid Prime 3, or Metroid Zero Mission if people don't like the Prime games.
We had the more cinematic offshoot Other M that fell flat, and not just of the story.
Then MSR which I think is just a very bland game with little to no replay value.
And now Dread which I think is MSR dialed up with some very annoying filler (we honestly don't need to fight the same several mini bosses a number of times) that after some point just drags, especially with the boss battles
I am glad that I have finished this game myself, and with all the collectibles which I openly admit I used a guide for as I did not really feel like going through the levels for hours to find them all of figure out the little trick needed to collect them.
So when people ask me my opinion on Dread I can speak from my own experiences and not sound like a parrot by saying someone else's even though I did make use of other people's opinion to put my own thoughts and feelings into words.
I would gladly play Fusion, Zero Mission, Prime 1, 2, and 3 again. But Dread? No thanks.
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