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Beat Metroid Dread last night., my thoughts

DKPOWPOW

Member
Obvious Spoilers






fuck you raven beak
you dirty… fucking beak
i blasted you straight to hell
even tho it took me hours, could you tell?
I cursed your name as I beat the game
but deep down I was filled with sorrow
because the battle was done
and fucking hell it was fun…




The game was so good I had to write trashy poetry to it.


I took my sweet time with this game, cuz I had no idea how long we would be waiting for another Metroid game. Thankfully Prime Remastered came out so I have something somewhat new to go thru afterwards while we continue to wait, for Prime 4 and hopefully Metroid VI.

This is the first 2D Metroid game I have actually finished. Despite being a huge Prime fan( beat all three 2 or 3 times over), I never got enthralled enough to finish any of the 2D games. I am about half way done with Samus Returns, and twice I have gotten about halfway thru Super Metroid before slowly stopping…

I think I will attempt to go thru Fusion after I finish Prime Remastered and RE4make. This game is dripping with style, despite at times feeling low-budget. The animation, controls, and just how everything feels and moves within this world just feels right. The tight focus on agility, platforming, and upgrades to her maneuvers are almost alien, to someone who has mostly stuck to the Prime series.

It’s also what creates this tense and exciting atmosphere, because without mastering those facets you will die… A lot. The EMMI’s force you to be as agile and fast as possible, while testing your knowledge of the map. About 3 of these guys were very frustrating, but I look back fondly and want to play them again.

Dread feels like a very old school game wrapped in a new shell. Everything feels like it’s meant to be replayed and rechallenged. The bosses, the backtracking, even the story which was surprisingly decent. It all makes me want to go thru it again, because it was an extremely fun but challenging experience.

It has rekindled my interest in playing the rest of the series, while our long wait continues…
 

Northeastmonk

Gold Member
The final battle was satisfying once you complete it. Did you wait it out on his fake moon/sun attack or did you use a big bomb to end that attack? I fought through it until I realized later you could destroy that object he summons.
 

DKPOWPOW

Member
The final battle was satisfying once you complete it. Did you wait it out on his fake moon/sun attack or did you use a big bomb to end that attack? I fought through it until I realized later you could destroy that object he summons.
I had no idea you could use a big bomb. Fuck that would have made things easier. I did not use a guide for almost anything in the game. Only thing I looked up for him was how many forms he had because he kept fucking demolishing me, and I wanted to know how close I was getting.

I could have made things easier, by getting more E tanks. I think I finished with the maybe 60% of what she can have max.

but I just wanted to kick his ass. Plenty of items I can go back and find.
 

ADiTAR

ידע זה כוח
I thought it was just ok. I don't get the overwhelming positivity.

Samus' movement was the best thing in the game as well as the bosses, but the rest was very mid.

The counter attack never got any upgrades so it basically stayed the same thru the entire run, because if you're introducing a new mechanic I would tie it to the formula of the genre. And you had to do it in order to finish the final boss, otherwise you could endlessly on and on with him, which I thought was kinda silly considering you are shooting at him so much. I also thought it didn't make any sense that your new more powerful upgrades to the beam didn't take down enemies faster and you still had to perform the counter attack to make quick work of them.

Visually and audibly it was generic and bland. There was no stand out room, or music, or anything really that I can recall. After you killed an EMMI the area basically stayed the same boring white-grey. There was no atmosphere to be found.

The game led you by the nose, so it felt very linear.
 

Killer8

Member
I'm hoping the success of the game gives Mercury Steam a bigger budget to work with on their next Metroid. The design of the game is excellent and they have nailed the feeling, as you said, but the game was visually lacking. Sometimes it can look beautiful, for example when it zooms out to show a wider area, or in the underwater sections, but it can also look downright ugly. The EMMI sections in particular (and I really dislike their Bionicle ass designs as well).
 

Fess

Member
It was my GOTY. Absolutely loved it. The controls are absolute perfection. The boss fights are among the best I’ve ever experienced, they’re like a tight puzzle you need to solve, everything is designed to perfection. Replayed it a couple times and to get 100%.

Only downside, there is too much hand holding with the radar and map icons so it was too easy to find everything. Shine spark puzzles were not easy though and mandatory to get 100%.

All in all it’s a 10/10 for me.

I like Super Metroid more, it’s my all time #1, but there is lots of nostalgia there, no idea what I would think if I played it for the first time now.
 

OCL

Member
I thought it was just ok. I don't get the overwhelming positivity.

Samus' movement was the best thing in the game as well as the bosses, but the rest was very mid.

The counter attack never got any upgrades so it basically stayed the same thru the entire run, because if you're introducing a new mechanic I would tie it to the formula of the genre. And you had to do it in order to finish the final boss, otherwise you could endlessly on and on with him, which I thought was kinda silly considering you are shooting at him so much. I also thought it didn't make any sense that your new more powerful upgrades to the beam didn't take down enemies faster and you still had to perform the counter attack to make quick work of them.

Visually and audibly it was generic and bland. There was no stand out room, or music, or anything really that I can recall. After you killed an EMMI the area basically stayed the same boring white-grey. There was no atmosphere to be found.

The game led you by the nose, so it felt very linear.
Same, i'm a massive Super Metroid and Metroid Prime fan... And it really was just very forgettable

But i didn't like Fusion either, i like Metroid when i'ts actually Metroidvania
 

nkarafo

Member
Better than Samus Returns but still no match for stuff like Super Metroid, Prime or even Fusion.

Looks and sounds generic most of the time, though there are a few standout rooms and songs. And the boss battles felt like i'm playing Dark Souls, meaning there was no difference in having more upgrades, their difficulty was always about the same, which is not what Metroid is about IMO.
 

SCB3

Member
A fantastic game that really overrelied on its unique gimmick with the E.M.M.I and the parrying system,
 

Mozzarella

Member
When i finished it i liked it, at the start i found it boring, then i was engaged and i think the final boss is one of the best bosses in gaming.
But after months have passed my opinion on the game got worse, i think its a decent game.
I just think its not innovative enough, its music is dull and forgettable, its levels are not as deep as Prime or Super and ofcourse the one shot stalkers sections that make the game more tedious, if it were just one or two encounters it would be better, but they have built the whole game and core powerups around them and later in the game they become a hassle more than a fun thing. I have never been a fan of one shots.
 

Astral Dog

Member
Its good,but i was dissapointed with Metroid Dread,Samus character,and the plot could have been fleshed out more,before anyone mentions Other M,there are ways the narrative could be improved without turning into a cutscene melodrama, Samus could narrate her thoughts about finding Kraid on ZDR for example ,in an elevator ,no voice needed, or what she thinks about Raven Peak instead they removed her character except for a few lines and reactions at the end,there is not much going on until the second half

Game is not as good as Super or Fusion,there is a big map but its mostly designed to guide you until the last boss fight,the SA X is way more scary than 6 EMMI, Fusion had a stronger narrative and boss fights, Super Metroid had a stronger map and better music.there is also no excitement around finding upgrades since they are placed in the main linear path

Metroid Dread is solid, has good controls and nice presentation but it falls short compared to other Metroid games imo, i hope Metroid 6 is stronger and more innovative
 
I thought it was excellent. The movement was perfect. The level design and area variety was really good.

EMMIs were fine. People really hate OP enemies that stalk you, but those people are always complaining about hunter type enemies. Finding that spot to charge up your kamehameha while the enemy was slowly approaching was dope.

I hope we still get 3-D and 2-D entries. Dread is the best playing Metroidvania style game ever.
 
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flying_sq

Member
I liked it, but I got to the final boss, gave it a fair amount of attempts, looked online for tips. Realized I didn't care to waste anymore time on one boss fight. Watched a video of a guy beating it.
 

NeoIkaruGAF

Gold Member
Reading about people having trouble with Dread’s final boss makes me feel so much better with myself.
In a time of my life when I have trouble beating old JRPGs on Easy, I can brag that I didn’t find that guy that hard. Probably 3-4 tries tops, and I did it again on Hard.

Dread is a great game. A bit too formulaic and unoriginal to be a true classic, but extremely solid. The problem with Metroid is that the excuses for Samus losing all her basic powers aren’t believable anymore, and there’s no cool new powers. Dread is the perfect examples of many of Samus’s powers being just “keys” to open figurative “doors”. This started with that ridiculous “power-up” that allowed you to grab onto ledges in Zero Mission, and there’s at least one other egregious example in Dread.
 

Robb

Gold Member
Absolutely love Dread, to my own surprise.

I didn’t expect much knowing Mercury Steam was behind it, but they really knocked it out of the park.
 
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