I presume this is why they don‘t call you Most Excellent Arachno-Lad.
The layout of the game is actually very well made. There’s lot of little things that guide you ahead to previously unexplored areas. It does a good job of holding your hand subtly, compared to Super Metroid just dropping you in places and leaving you do some guessing in so many instances.
Zero Mission and those statues highlighting your next goal on the map, now that was a hack job.
About the last boss, the fact that so many people (even among old fans) seemed to have trouble with it says a lot about how much many people have lost touch with the frantic action of old games.
Anyway, I don‘t see where and how Dread beats Prime.
Interaction with your surroundings in Prime is so much more interesting, what with the different visors, the different environments, the scans, the switches, the grapple beam, etc.
The secrets in Prime are much more than ”bomb/X-Ray random wall”. And have fun going back later to hidden power-ups in Dread, it’s no way more fun than in Prime.
Combat in 2D is of course a bit more hectic, but major fights in Dread are pretty formulaic and repetitive, and no boss in the game is as cool or tactical as Prime’s best fights.
Storytelling in Prime is on a wholly different level, and let’s not even talk about the music, where Prime is pretty much in another galaxy.
Dread is a solid game, but it can’t touch Prime.