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Reviews Metroid Dread | Review Thread

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AngryAlchemist said:
But I didn't call it a quick time event. I just said it's not "nothing at all" like it, either. And that it's ironic that we're defending the mechanic for not being a QTE, when one of the only QTEs in the game is activated by the mechanic. That doesn't make the mechanic a QTE, it's just funny, and in general I would agree that QTE I'm talking about is one of the lesser moments in the game.
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I was just clarifying that "quick time event" is a very specific phrase associated with games like God of War or Shenmue. Metroid Dread is more akin to a fighting game parry and that's why I used language such as "nothing like QTE's."


AngryAlchemist said:
Does the dash counter remove Samus stopping as well as the screen zooming on in the parry? I've used the dash parry but honestly it's so powerful it often just kills the enemies anyways (it has default melee damage I'm pretty sure). Because mostly when I say it can stop normal gameplay, I don't mean because Samus stays in place, I mean because the screen zooming effect. In a game about exploration like Metroid, the amount of time it takes to focus on one target instead of moving forward can stop flow.
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IIRC the screen zooming only happens if you aim or shoot after the parry. If you do nothing you can just continually be moving on your merry way and the enemy will be stuck in a dazed state.
 
enempi said:
Kind of surprised the game is getting docked for difficulty. It should definitely have an easy mode, because every game should, but I didn’t think it was really too bad. Challenging at times for sure, but dying is not really punishing in the way it is in something like Dark Souls. When you fail an EMMI section for example you get dropped right back at the zone entrance. Same thing with bosses. You can retry immediately, and after a couple deaths it’s usually pretty easy to get the hang of things. They really only have a few moves to dodge. Nothing too crazy. Oh well! This is why I don’t place much stock in metacritic scores.
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what if it was like dark souls but instead of losing currency you lose all your upgrades until you get to where you died
 
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I've worked as a reviewer before for a Metacritic site. It was a pretty enlightening experience (in a negative way). 88 is a great score but for Dread it's an injustice.
 
Lady Bow said:
I was just clarifying that "quick time event" is a very specific phrase associated with games like God of War or Shenmue. Metroid Dread is more akin to a fighting game parry and that's why I used language such as "nothing like QTE's."




IIRC the screen zooming only happens if you aim or shoot after the parry. If you do nothing you can just continually be moving on your merry way and the enemy will be stuck in a dazed state.
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Yeah that's absolutely fair and I'll admit I'm being anal by pointing out there are similarities haha, just the way I am.

I think the original poster was saying (and they just clarified this I think) that they don't like the QTEs though revolving around or being activated by the parry, not so much the parry itself. Which I agree with honestly, not a fan of the QTEs. Then again, I can't say I even really like cutscenes in the middle of boss fights, either.
 
enempi said:
Kind of surprised the game is getting docked for difficulty. It should definitely have an easy mode, because every game should, but I didn’t think it was really too bad. Challenging at times for sure, but dying is not really punishing in the way it is in something like Dark Souls. When you fail an EMMI section for example you get dropped right back at the zone entrance. Same thing with bosses. You can retry immediately, and after a couple deaths it’s usually pretty easy to get the hang of things. They really only have a few moves to dodge. Nothing too crazy. Oh well! This is why I don’t place much stock in metacritic scores.
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Yeah I agree, Also my response to some of these reviewers

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enempi said:
Kind of surprised the game is getting docked for difficulty. It should definitely have an easy mode, because every game should, but I didn’t think it was really too bad. Challenging at times for sure, but dying is not really punishing in the way it is in something like Dark Souls. When you fail an EMMI section for example you get dropped right back at the zone entrance. Same thing with bosses. You can retry immediately, and after a couple deaths it’s usually pretty easy to get the hang of things. They really only have a few moves to dodge. Nothing too crazy. Oh well! This is why I don’t place much stock in metacritic scores.
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I'm in my late Forties and my eyesight and reactions probably aren't what they once were (any local multiplayer sessions with my son tend to confirm this) and I finished the game with 11 hours on the clock and 60% item completion. Some of the bosses gave me trouble but I'd say 10 or 15 tries at worst, including the final boss. So yeah, it's not difficult at all compared to some games. I also feel like there's double standards at play here - reviewers wear the difficulty of From games like it is some badge of honour, yet when a Nintendo game dares to be a little more difficult than usual, it gets criticised.
 
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I'm very early in the game (just beat Kraid), but so far the difficulty is very overstated. The bosses have very defined patterns, it only took me two tries to beat each of them (and that's because the first one kinda glitched on me, it cornered me against the wall and i was out of missiles, and the charge beam wasn't doing any damage to its tail so i had to die to try again).

I prefer them that way than how they were in Super (find enough energy tanks to kill it before it kills you), Samus' moves are so satisfying and you feel like a pro dodging the attacks and shooting their asses. The cutscenes are also A+, the whole boss experience is amazing in Dread.
 
Lichtsang said:
Gamespot in 2009: "New Super Mario Bros. Wii is a tough game. Old-school tough. [...] This will test even the most seasoned platforming veterans."
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i am honestly having difficulty making progress in Nintendo's New Super Mario Bros Wii U Luigi U Delux Edition for Nintendo Switch - but more because of the archaic saving structure than anything.
 
Phantom Thief said:
Some of y’all are getting way too invested in this (not) being a 90 lol
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88 is nothing to scoff at, but I think it deserves 90, if only because when you boost or remove the lower end scores from people who were struggling with the difficulty, Dread would probably end up at 89, or 90. I don't think game difficulty is a valid complaint, in this instance. The game is very fair. My main complaints are the unremarkable music, and perhaps also the lack of postgame unlocks. I know Metroid has never been strong, in that area, but all the more reason to give us some stuff to play with after we've beaten it, as far as I'm concerned. Give us some bonus suits, at least. The gallery images are gorgeous, but they don't affect future playthroughs, they're completely external.

Also, I've only had my Switch for a year, and don't really play it much, outside of tons of Animal Crossing. I tried Super Mario Odyssey and Breath of the Wild, and although Odyssey plays like a dream, I ended up dropping it because it was just... baby easy. The old 2D Mario games used to kick my ass, and I miss that. It's not that Dread is a difficult game, it's just not going to baby you. It's at a respectable challenge level.
 
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Aurc said:
88 is nothing to scoff at, but I think it deserves 90, if only because when you boost or remove the lower end scores from people who were struggling with the difficulty, Dread would probably end up at 89, or 90. I don't think game difficulty is a valid complaint, in this instance. The game is very fair. My main complaints are the unremarkable music, and perhaps also the lack of postgame unlocks (I know Metroid has never been strong, in that area, but all the more reason to give us some stuff to play with after we've beaten it, as far as I'm concerned).
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I didn’t find the game very difficult at all, but that doesn’t mean that game difficulty isn’t a valid complaint. Every reviewer that hit a wall or got lost did have a worse experience - it’s fair for them to review the game as such. People need to not worry so much about a game’s meta score, especially when you’re talking about the difference a 88/89 and 90. There’s no material difference there, it seems entirely psychological.
 
Paper Cheese said:
I didn’t find the game very difficult at all, but that doesn’t mean that game difficulty isn’t a valid complaint. Every reviewer that hit a wall or got lost did have a worse experience - it’s fair for them to review the game as such. People need to not worry so much about a game’s meta score, especially when you’re talking about the difference a 88/89 and 90. There’s no material difference there, it seems entirely psychological.
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At the end of the day, I enjoyed Metroid Dread very much, period. You're correct that, whether it's at 88, 89, 90, or even 75, that's irrelevant, and does not detract from the solid experience I personally had. That said, I care about the Metascore in this instance because I'm a big Metroid fan (like many of you in this thread), and I think it's kinda fun to "root for my home team". 90 means a game I've waited two decades for is getting its due recognition, and so are the devs that worked hard on it.

Again, though, not a huge deal. Not super invested, either way. It'd just have been cool to see, is all. I do want the game to do well enough (in terms of sales and reception), to where we're not waiting forever for Metroid 6. That's the main thing, and the most logical reason to care, from a fan's perspective.
 
Imitatio said:
I guess you can't elaborate on it, right? It'd be very interesting, but understandable if you could not.
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I will say the pay was shit, we were pressured to give certain games higher scores, certain editor's never even finished the games they reviewed, fanboy staff members and a lot of ass kissing to continue relations with devs. It was a joke.

Obviously my former place of work is confidential, but this reflects my time as a game reviewer... although I can't speak for anyone else.
 
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Even though 8 is my favorite number, 88 is the WORST possible score for a great game, this started with gamespot and that awful 88 for the Wii version of Twilight Princess.

88 is the absolute worst.

Nah, it was fun to watch this thread really, I don't care about scores but was hoping for a 90 to see you all celebrate.
 
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Leo said:
I prefer them that way than how they were in Super (find enough energy tanks to kill it before it kills you)
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Huh, you really think Super is like that? That is surprising, confuses me a little I do admit. Super is actually sort of the opposite in my experience - it's probably the worst game in the series boss-wise for action game purists. Most of the bosses that are "traditional" have super low health pools, they aren't bullet sponges and they actually are based on patterns (Kraid/Spore Spawn). In general Super Metroid seemed more invested in giving the player interesting & memorable encounters rather than a traditional type of boss where it would be a battle to see who's life bar hits zero faster - just think about how "gimmicky" stuff like Crocomire, Draygon, and Mother Brain are.

In fact the only traditional boss that is less about patterns and more about energy tank count & difficulty is Ridley. Maybe also the Golden Chorizo Statue if you want to include mini-bosses but that is a bit more up for debate.
 
Quoted by: Leo
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AngryAlchemist said:
Huh, you really think Super is like that? That is surprising, confuses me a little I do admit. Super is actually sort of the opposite in my experience - it's probably the worst game in the series boss-wise for action game purists. Most of the bosses that are "traditional" have super low health pools, they aren't bullet sponges and they actually are based on patterns (Kraid/Spore Spawn). In general Super Metroid seemed more invested in giving the player interesting & memorable encounters rather than a traditional type of boss where it would be a battle to see who's life bar hits zero faster - just think about how "gimmicky" stuff like Crocomire, Draygon, and Mother Brain are.

In fact the only traditional boss that is less about patterns and more about energy tank count & difficulty is Ridley. Maybe also the Golden Chorizo Statue if you want to include mini-bosses but that is a bit more up for debate.
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Maybe I'm just bad but I can't consistently dodge the bosses attacks in Super except for Mother Brain. I don't think you're meant to dodge as much as just trying to take as little damage as possible while trying to damage the boss yourself. Compare to Dread where you have to dodge because you will die really fast if you just keep getting hit, if the bosses in Super did as much damage they would be nearly impossible to finish because only really skilled people can go through a fight with them without getting hit.

It seems it's like that by design, Super isn't a game focused on action after all. The combat is kinda poor because it's not what the game is about. So yeah, the bosses are iconic and memorable, but they aren't meant to be bested by skillful combat, which is okay. I just enjoy Dread's approach more because I actually feel like I'm good at the game when I learn the patterns and get through a fight without getting hit.
 
Someone said that they felt they got better at videogames after metroid dread don't remember who it was; someone here or at era. But I feel the same. Metroid Dread just made it fun for me to be in an alert state playing video games. I love it
 
Twinsen said:
Someone said that they felt they got better at videogames after metroid dread don't remember who it was; someone here or at era. But I feel the same. Metroid Dread just made it fun for me to be in an alert state playing video games. I love it
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Honestly, I feel better equipped to finally go back to Demon’s Souls after only putting about 4-5 hours into at launch last year.
 
I prefer the modern combat approach, with parrying and dodging. It's based around deftly evading attacks and big damage against the enemy as a reward for a proper melee counter. In the older games, Samus had less mobility in boss fights, so it was about spamming missiles with the occasional jump, but here, she (and we, as the players) has more control.

It just doesn't make sense for her to stand there like a clunky noob and take all that damage, when you consider how mobile she is in general, Space Jumping and Speed Boosting and Shinesparking around the map. The Flash Shift is by far my favorite new upgrade. They finally gave her a dash, and it feels great to use!
 
Twinsen said:
Someone said that they felt they got better at videogames after metroid dread don't remember who it was; someone here or at era. But I feel the same. Metroid Dread just made it fun for me to be in an alert state playing video games. I love it
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I think that was me! I definitely did better at Returnal after playing Dread, and actually I had way less trouble with Omega Pirate on my Metroid Prime replay this week.
 
I could definitely do without QTE in future Metroid titles. Probably the only thing I disagree with in these boss fights. However I will agree that the animation for them is awesome.
 
KilgoreWolfe said:
I think that was me! I definitely did better at Returnal after playing Dread, and actually I had way less trouble with Omega Pirate on my Metroid Prime replay this week.
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Yeah I forgot to mention the Returnal part as I remembered that. It was you. Having the same exact experience.
 
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The game is a 95-98.

I think it might be Nintendo's best game ever.

The more times I beat it the more I believe this.
 
Kreese said:
The game is a 95-98.

I think it might be Nintendo's best game ever.

The more times I beat it the more I believe this.
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It's the best controlling a character has ever felt, for sure. I didn't think it would be possible to tank the 3D Marios, but here we are.
 
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