After 11 hours i finished the game, i have to say by the end i was enjoying it very much, the final boss fight is easily the best one in the game, the puzzles are smart and well made and i changed my opinion on the environment design as i view it as good now, the soundtrack went from awful to decent as well, overall my experience with the game improved a lot, at first i was struggling with getting used to the controls and i was comparing it to my 2 favorite metroidvanias which made me not enjoy it as much, but as soon as i dropped this way of thinking and started to play it for what it is it got better. I will do another run later but as of now its a very good game on its own, 4/5 from me and one of the best games for this year.
Things that i loved:
The Abilities you acquire are very neat and super fun to use, such as power dash, speed booster and power bomb and morph ball.
The controls, while i disliked them at first, i have to say they are very smooth and when you get used to them they feel very nice, also some techniques are rewarding.
The level design, the maps and the rooms are well designed.
The puzzles around the items were smart and interesting.
Things that are decent but could be improved:
- Art Direction, at first i thought it was dull and bland but later as the game progressed it greatly improved, i loved the water areas, but the others were just average.
- Soundtrack, most tracks were forgettable tbh but some of them were right to fit in the game and its atmosphere.
- Atmosphere, the stalker emmi gave horror vibes, but sometimes it was frustrating and annoying rather than good, other than that it was decent atmospheric wise, because exploring the underground water areas was a joy, most others meh.
- Combat, i think a lot of enemies are just boring to keep fighting, some bosses were awful as well but some are amazing bosses so its kinda in the middle for me.
- Exploration, its decent, but i wish there was more things to find other than missiles tanks and energy tanks and power bombs, but if we count the abilities then its great, but we dont since the abilities are part of the main game path to progress, i mean exploration as optional.
Things i didnt care about or disliked:
- The story and the characters. I'm not expert in the Metroid universe, i only played Metroid Prime games, but the story and the characters of Dread didnt strike me as something memorable or good, they are just there and i didnt care about them.
- The price tag, i dont want to be that guy since my financial situation is fine, but 60$ for this kind of game feels like asking too much, i would say 40$ sounds about right.
Overall this was enjoyable game, very good and looking forward for more.