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Metroid Dread


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#16 The Satellite

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Posted 11 October 2021 - 06:49 PM

Spoiler


Spoiler

 

I finished it Saturday and 100%'d it yesterday. I don't have any interest in Hard Mode at the moment; in fact my reaction to seeing "Hard Mode unlocked" was a swift "no." Game was great but at the same time it felt like it needed to dial back the damage a bit, also I feel like the game should have at the least some accessibility options because I feel like the difficulty would just be a turnoff for a number of new fans. I mean, those looking for a challenge will find the game rewarding, and that's good, but less-experienced players might not be so interested in continuing after a point.

 

But that tangent aside, I personally highly enjoyed the game overall. It didn't improve too much in the music category admittedly, but the gameplay was so incredibly solid and the level design was a step up from Samus Returns. E.M.M.I.s are the best part of the game by far and make great tension, as well as great satisfaction. The overall length felt just right and just in general it was fun to play. The story was surprisingly good too.

 

Honestly, I do hope this partnership with MercurySteam continues with new games. It's an amusing "redemption story" since I did not like their takes on Castlevania at all, but with Metroid something seemed to just work. Again, it's quite a refinement on what they created in Samus Returns, and it's a formula that could get even better as well. God, it's so good having Metroid back, I just hope this holds.

 

Now my sights are turned towards Prime 4. As much as I was amazed that Dread was actually happening, as glad as I am to have a new 2D Metroid game, as good as this game is and as much as I enjoyed it... at heart, my true love is the Prime series. 



#17 Jenny

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Posted 12 October 2021 - 02:08 AM

currently attempting to 100% the game and speed booster... puzzles(?) are both amazing and the bane of my existence

 

will say as someone who has never actually beaten a metroid game before this one, this definitely makes me want to try and beat the other games in the series. I've admittedly tried Super Metroid at various points in the past but for some reason it didn't grab me in the way that this game did... not sure why.


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#18 peteandwally

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Posted 20 October 2021 - 06:45 PM

I am nearly done. It seemed fairly linear with very little rewards for exploration. Many item upgrades appear before they are available causing you to backtrack or remember to pick them up when passing by later. The speed boost puzzles were not difficult, but tedious when you miss and have to try again. Bosses were the same. Not difficult, but repetitive. I would make it through until a certain point when they changed attacks and then die and be like, 'oh, okay. now I know about that' and then just get past that point the next try.

 

However, I am glad I picked it up. The enemies were cool. The story was cool. Then new items were cool. It's a great game with tight controls and visuals. The music was great for sinister planet ambience. I will now destroy the next playthrough in a few months when I pick it up again and be satisfied. It met the bar for Metroid IMO.



#19 NoeL

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Posted 27 November 2021 - 06:02 PM

So I decided to bite the bullet and pick this one up, and honestly the AAA price tag still stings. This is clearly a budget title: the presentation is soooooo baaaaaad. Bare-bones menu, a freaking slide show introduction... we're off to a very bad start. And sadly, this kinda matches my expectations from the pre-release trailers/footage. It always looked like a budget title, and this confirmed it for me.

The art direction kinda sucks too. The game is (as far as I've played) almost black and white. Where's the colour? And - like many 2.5D games - it's often not clear what's a foreground or background element. There's little in the way of ambience too: I haven't seen any interesting lighting or environmental effects... just flat and barren.

On the plus side, the gameplay is fun (I really need a pro controller though). Movement is fluid, and the looping level design makes outrunning EMMIs fun. Blasting them to bits is also satisfying. Aiming up without using L sucks though, since I usually move the stick slightly diagonally (we need GameCube stick grooves back!) and Samus doesn't have analogue movement (why!?) - it's either dead still or sprinting. So I'll try to aim up and end up running off a ledge. Annoying.

I'm not that far into it yet, but I'm enjoying the game despite its flaws. But I've gotten the same fun from games a quarter of the price. :shrug:

EDIT: Ok, so I gave the game a few more hours and it's gotten significantly better. Starting to earn it's price tag. XD Let's hope it keeps it up!

Edited by NoeL, 28 November 2021 - 07:07 AM.

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#20 The Satellite

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Posted 02 December 2021 - 05:51 PM

Well, since my last post, I have actually done two new playthroughs where I just rushed through as fast as possible, since all ending gallery rewards requires doing so in Normal and Hard Mode. Surprisingly got both on my first run of each, and Hard Mode wasn't that much more difficult for me thankfully. I then went back to 100% that playthrough and left the game sit a while, and now I've begun a playthrough where I do a fair amount of sequence-breaking. It's actually quite fun, though requires a bit of dexterity on a couple of the tricks. I didn't think I would be able to do the weird slide-jump-shoot-through-wall trick to get to the first boss early, but to my surprise I did. I didn't use it to skip the first EMMI, mostly because I didn't think I could do it. Then I tried it later and managed to pull it off.

 

Sequence-breaking this game is really fun. It's also actually the first Metroid game I've attempted sequence breaking in, so I'm not as familiar with the rewarding nature of doing so in past games. Unless you count Super Metroid randomizer, which in theory feels like sequence-breaking with some stuff it might require you to do, but I digress. Either way, I've still got some breaks to do to beat my current file but getting around to all these places I normally wouldn't get to for a while is quite exciting.


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#21 NoeL

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Posted 05 January 2022 - 08:25 PM

So, finished this one the other day (100% items, ~10 hours playtime). As with everything, I find it way easier to spot flaws than highlight positives, but here are my thoughts:

 

  • EMMIs suck. May be a bit of a "hot take" but I found them annoying more than anything. They weren't scary, I didn't appreciate the shake up in gameplay... didn't do it for me.
  • Heavily reliant on knowledge of previous games, particularly with the shine spark. TBH I've always found the "hidden techs" in Metroid games to be a bit cheap (except in Super, where many of them are demonstrated for you). I was stuck on a few puzzles because the game never told me you could chain sparks on slopes (had to use a walkthrough for one, but after knowing you could do that I was able to figure the rest out).
  • Too many recycled weapons. The morph ball is iconic, but does every Metroid game need an ice weapon, speed booster, varia suit, gravity suit, space jump, screw attack, super missles, power bombs, and grapple beam? It vastly narrows the design space so new weapons like the cross bomb seem crumby in comparison. Hopefully with the "end" of this saga we'll see more innovation in future entries.
  • Very lacklustre introduction (see my other post). The starting zone is ugly and devoid of character (PSA: don't start your game with a grey palette) but thankfully the rest of the world is more interesting.
  • The map was annoying to read at times. I think this is a case of "less is more": the maps in earlier games only showed "passageways" - it was clear that if you were at point A you could reach point B, somehow. By adding more detail you get a better representation of each room, but rarely is that additional detail helpful. I need to know that I can traverse this vertical shaft, but I rarely need to know the exact placement of the platforms I need to jump on to get up there. The additional detail cluttered the map, making it harder to navigate.
  • As an addition to the previous point: often you'd have rooms with a very close proximity to each other, but the path to move between them is super long. The current map system disguises this, so you often need to start at your end point and manually scan for pathways back to your current location. What I'd LOVE to see in games like this is a kind of "floodlight" system on maps that gives you a sense of travel distance between rooms, e.g., here the floodlight makes it obvious that the target isn't "a few rooms over" as it appears at first glance:
    yo9a0ts.png
    Being able to move the floodlight source with the cursor would also be handy, so you can put it anywhere on the map and quickly see the transit routes.
  • The Chozo soldiers were recycled a little too much.
  • Some "weapons" felt more like keys, with little practical use.
  • Having teleporters on top of elevators and monorails made navigation even MORE annoying.
  • Clunky and ambiguous story.

For the positive stuff though:

  • With the exception of the first zone, the world looked gorgeous.
  • Samus' character design, movement and animation are all top notch. The slide and morph ball button are awesome additions.
  • Samus going apeshit at the end.
  • From what I've heard, sequence breaks give good replayability.
  • Divergent/convergent paths. It's always nice when there are multiple ways to move from A to B.
  • That Kraid secret that everyone knows about already.

Mixed:

  • Item hunting is easier than ever. I usually never get 100% in Metroid games, but here it was all but spelled out for you: go to the flashing area, scan for breakable blocks, solve (usually) simple puzzle.
  • Standard enemies provide zero challenge in the late game - the screw attack is OP as hell. At this point you're just traveling around picking up items so being able to move unhindered isn't the worst, but it's practically a walking simulator and a bit dull.
  • Railroading. You're constantly locked into segments of the map so it's harder to get lost, but it's a little heavy-handed at times.
  • QTEs in boss fights offered fun cinematic gratuity, but I hate mandatory QTEs.
  • Very retro. Not quite warts an all (the movement and map system have seen "upgrades") but still rooted in game design/philosophy of the past, for better and worse.

 

All in all, very solid and enjoyable entry in the series that's somewhat retarded (i.e. held back) by its own history.


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#22 The Satellite

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Posted 05 January 2022 - 08:32 PM

I was stuck on a few puzzles because the game never told me you could chain sparks on slopes (had to use a walkthrough for one, but after knowing you could do that I was able to figure the rest out).


That one's not new to Dread, but what is new is the ability to slide and wall jump while retaining speed. That is what tripped me up, mainly.
 

The Chozo soldiers were recycled a little too much.


Hard agree, though. Either kind. Solid fights on their own, great even, but they were heavily oversaturated in a hurry. Even removing a single encounter apiece would've gone a long way to avoiding full fatigue.



#23 Russ

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Posted 05 January 2022 - 08:42 PM

I haven't fully spelled out my thoughts, but I really agree with you on a lot of them Noel. Didn't mind the recycled weapons as much, but agree with most of your other negative points. Still enjoyed the game but man would I love to see a version that fixes some of the easier to patch flaws, at least.



#24 NoeL

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Posted 05 January 2022 - 09:04 PM

That one's not new to Dread, but what is new is the ability to slide and wall jump while retaining speed. That is what tripped me up, mainly.

See my "Heavily reliant on knowledge of previous games, particularly with the shine spark." comment. XD I didn't like Zero Mission and forgot about the AM2R puzzles that use it, so I was stumped. I figured the slopes were important somehow (because they were there) but didn't know why. I was able to figure out that you can maintain speed by wall-jumping from that one puzzle in Ferenia that requires it. It was the last item I got, so I spent a good while on that screen trying different things out.

 

With the soldiers, there was definitely at least one encounter that felt totally pointless (in Hanubia I think?). They weren't guarding an item or anything important, just there to be a roadblock. Groan.


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#25 Anthus

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Posted 06 January 2022 - 02:50 AM

I haven't really put my full thoughts together yet either, but,

 

 

The map was annoying to read at times. I think this is a case of "less is more": the maps in earlier games only showed "passageways" - it was clear that if you were at point A you could reach point B, somehow. By adding more detail you get a better representation of each room, but rarely is that additional detail helpful. I need to know that I can traverse this vertical shaft, but I rarely need to know the exact placement of the platforms I need to jump on to get up there. The additional detail cluttered the map, making it harder to navigate.

 

Big agree here. I was wondering if it was just me but that map can be quite hard to read at a glance. It ends up causing this weird optical illusion for me, where I think rooms/ areas are WAY bigger than they really are, often causing me to miss a turn. Also agree with there being a few too many chozo fights, but they are at least a little different.

 

I generally loved the game, and beat it a few times, and 100%'d both normal and hard. EMMIs are fun, but the purple one kind of starts to wear out the welcome. It's not even its 'cheap' wave beam, or being able to see you through walls and rooms, it's how it will just camp you for minutes in the water. Blue EMMI also kind of does this, but at least by then you have gravity (iirc)




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