The History
So, just some context, I’ve been playing Metroid since the NES original where it stood as a Saturday morning cereal-bowl favorite for years as a kid. I’ve probably been through Metroid II, Super, Fusion, and Zero Mission about a half-dozen or so times as well, and overall consider myself a moderate but reasonably enthusiastic fan of the original 2D series. As in, I'm certainly not remotely as fanatical as others, but I do really enjoy them quite a bit and have a history.
I went through Samus Returns around three times to really give it a fair shake, and was mostly positive on it by the end of the run. I felt some of the attempts to integrate cinematic touches (such as the drill robot chase) didn’t lend itself well to replay and had some other minor gripes, but overall it was decent enough given the context it had to work in.
In other words, I was excited to see what they did with this one.
The Capital "A"
So….Dread.
My first impression of this game was that it has to be the most inhospitable introduction to a 1st Party Nintendo game I'd seen in a long time. The game really wanted you to fail. Even more than NES Metroid's 30 health and a pee-shooter wanted you to fail. Surprising.
As time went on I realized why - they wanted to make it clear - this is an action game.
This is, in fact, not just an action game - it's a Hardcore™-focused Modern Action (with a capital “A”) Game with the G-fuel stache-stain to match. It just happens to be wearing Metroid boots.
Controls that manage to encompass every button combination possible on a modern controller, big pattern-based bullet-sponge bosses, plentiful mid-fight cutscenes, Shenmue-style QTE’s (in-fight counters that refuse to let you proceed until you hit them), “cinematic” presentation that interupts the game to show you what riding the boss' forehead would look like, twitch-reflex fast-dodging, corny bloated story, the evidence is pretty overwhelming.
That's a Modern Action (with a capital "A") Game checklist right there.
And, honestly, that's a bit different than I expected. Because I really don't think the old Metroid games really are Action (with a capital "A") Games at all. They’re sort of progression-based, adventure-exploration, key-and-lock style games with some action-lite elements peppered in for punctuation. You don't really need a lot of timing or execution to get through a Metroid game. You just need some curiosity, patience, and ability to spam missiles at things.
I’m not saying that the games can’t change, or that this makes it bad, but it definitely wasn't what I expected.
The Franchise
So at this point, three things seem clear to me
1) Nintendo is viewing Metroid as a “hardcore audience”-exclusive franchise and is adapting accordingly
2) Nintendo does not make “hardcore audience”-exclusive games themselves, so they are leaning on external teams that mostly bring in some flavored derivation of rest-of-industry action components to the series
3) They really, really want to make a full-blown anime out of the storyline, but somehow have to keep limiting that vision to cornering it inbetween video game bits instead.
Once I just accepted all of that for what it is, I was ready to go.
The Evaluation
I’ll start with the positives
(+) Visual Design
The game certainly looks slick and it was pretty nice to see so much detail integrated into the backgrounds. I also really like the default Samus costume (not so much the later ones). Could do with a touch fewer cuts to Samus' behind-visor eyes getting wide to show how surprised she is however.
(+) Some New Abilities
I’d be hard pressed to call any of them truly great or instant classics, but I appreciated the fact that they tried to add in some new mechanics here regardless of the results. Storm missiles seemed like it was just integrated to let the player do airdashes all day without needing to stop and aim.
(+) The Delayed Morph Ball
I have to imagine everyone was starting to really sweat not having this a couple of hours in, and similarly felt a pretty nice hit of dopamine kick you over when it finally popped so late. They actually do a fairly good job on a couple of occasions of making you really long for a particular upgrade - but the morph ball hits a lot better since we’re all so used to having it early.
(+) X-parasite: The Return (gameplay)
Somehow didn't know this was coming and just loved it. Great ramp up of enemies, great float-to-new-form element, good call-back to Fusion….just overall solid fun.
Alright, now that I've buttered you up, let’s hit some gripes:
(-) EMMI
We started calling these guys “the fun police” around here as they always show up when you’re just beginning to enjoy yourself and throw you into checkered-door jail where you play a tedious and boring diversion in order to proceed. I don’t think the stealth mechanics are very well done at all, and rhere are way too many of these encounters that are all essentially the same. There is also zero tension in any of them. If you fail, you start right by the door and try again. If you don’t know where to go, just fill out the map, die, and start over. Big miss that I bet only seems more tedious and unnecessary on replays.
(-) Trial-And-Error Boss Fights -
None of these are hard, really....they’re just quickly killing you until you recognize the patterns. There is also way too many of them for no real reason. It’s almost like this team is afraid of making a game about exploration and constantly tries to stop you from doing it for very long. Figuring that if they pepper in some game over screens it will up the excitement a bit. Spear-bird fights were already getting dull on the first playthrough. I can't imagine it being engaging on replays.
(-) Feels...Extremely Linear/Restrictive -
I realize a lot of Metroid is a bit of an illusion of free choice, but here they really seem to want to prod you forward instead of sideways. There was constantly a door locking behind my ass to prohibit any thought of exploration, and a firm hand shoving me towards the next story beat or EMMI chamber that I could have done with a lot less of.
(-) Cut-Up Map Design -
I try not to complain too much about loading, but they really needed to go one way or the other with this. Either have separated zones that don’t interact much, or try to make a linked-map. The weird hybrid they finished with makes the load times more frequent and doesn’t add anything to compensate. Axe the warp points, or restrict them to warping within a sector. Jumping to another sector for a small map corner and an upgrade feels a little janky when it involves that stuttering transition animation.
(-) Story -
Call me Miyamoto, but I think Metroid was better without all this attempt at lore. All of it just comes across as ridiculous. Throwing a little bit into gallery unlockables like Samus Returns is fine, but trying to make this epic twist-and-turn Sephiroth style one-wing Father Beak conclusion where Samus turns into a puke-green Metroid and brings "Balance to The Force" or whatever it is that they did here is just too much.
(-) Shinespark rules/controls -
Eh. This is probably nitpicky, but if you want people to use some granular detail about an ability to get completion in a Metroid game - it wouldn't kill you to at least try to mention what the rules are somewhere first. There was just an incredibly poor job (or really, no job) of explaining the particulars of shinesparking in the game - especially when it comes to keeping momentum up a hill and those kinds of obscure details. Minor gripe but kind of bugged me. This was the only thing I had to look up to figure out what to do throughout my run.
The Wrap-up
And that’s it.
I ended up getting the 100% completion. I still mostly enjoyed it. Time was about 12 hours. I assume I got the bad ending.
I would currently rank this as the worst of the 2D series, right below II/Samus Returns. But still in the 7/10 range.
I definitely can’t see myself replaying this one a few decades from now like the last ones, but I'll probably give it a second whirl at some point. Who knows, maybe that will change things in a way I don't expect.
That;s about all I have to say about Metroid Dread.
