Metroid Dread Impressions - My First 'Troid

[CriticalGaming]

Metroid was a series that was never my thing. I couldnt explain why i missed it growing up or anything like that, it was just a series i never happened to pick up. Once the Playstation came out, i pretty much shoved everything Nintendo to the back burner of my personal interests.

So Metroid Dread is my first journey into a real Metroid game. First impressions are decent, Samus controls very fluidly and responsively which is very nice. She feels good to control, and the game doesnt need to bomb you with tutorials because it all feels pretty intuitive. I did LOL when the first real dialog talks about Samus having lost all her abilties because of course she fucking did in the first 2 minutes.

So the principal here is that some galactic company has an army of super robots that can go to planets and clear it of potential metroid threats, but something goes wrong on a planet and Samus is sent footage of a Parasite X which only she can fight for some reason. This is probably better set up in previous games but whatever doesnt matter. Robots went all fucky and there might be.a metroid on the loose so go get them.

You traverse through levels with a wider and wider arrensal of tools that gradually allow you to get to new areas and what i think impresses me the most about this game is the map. The map is very clear and it is very easy to see where you are, where you have been, and where you can still go. I love the map. Between sliding under gaps, clinging to special walls, and blasting open secrets, making your way around the map is awesome.

The shooting however kind of sucks. 2D shooting is weird because you only have so much moving available to you and shooting should be straightforward. Except here it isnt. You can shoot freely in the direction Samus is facing but in order to shoot flyers or wall based enemies you need to freeaim. And i found the free aim extremely sensitive with no real way to slow it down making trying to hit small flying enemies or faster enemies more annoying than i feel like it should be.

I also feel like that despite all Samus' movement abilities, she could do with some sort of dash/dodge for bigger fights. Maybe i unlock that later but right now you really have to avoid things early because there isnt a dodge or dash to get you out of things quickly. The first boss fight was an example of this. Not a hard fight and really only had three things shooting at you slowly. However they come from different angles at the same time and you have a lot of downtime to avoid way before you should have to, just because there is a lack of combat based movement actions.

All in all not that big of a deal. There are 6 "Dread" robots in the game apparently (the tutorial told me) and ive already blown the shit out of two of them in the first hour of gametime, plus a boss fight. Ive heard that the game is very short and that these games tend to be speedrunner fuel so i wonder if there are extra modes or something to unlock after beating the game as it feels really lacking in content otherwise to be a full priced game.

 

[Dalisclock]

So the principal here is that some galactic company has an army of super robots that can go to planets and clear it of potential metroid threats, but something goes wrong on a planet and Samus is sent footage of a Parasite X which only she can fight for some reason. This is probably better set up in previous games but whatever doesnt matter. Robots went all fucky and there might be.a metroid on the loose so go get them.

The only thing you really need to know is that in Metriod: Fusion, the game that came before this im the timeline, Samus went to the Metriods Home planet and found out there's something called Parasite X that can mimic other living things which the Metriods were keeping in check. Except Samus exterminated all the Metriods in Metriod 2/Samus Returns and now the Parasite X are going crazy and have become the new Apex Predator on the planet.

Samus gets infected by a Parasite X and they rush her to a medical facility to save her life, but apparently the only thing they can do is an experimental treatment where they inject her with Metroid DNA and now she's part Metroid and thus immune to the Parasite X. This is basically the opening cutscenes of fusion.

 

[CriticalGaming]

The only thing you really need to know is that in Metriod: Fusion, the game that came before this im the timeline, Samus went to the Metriods Home planet and found out there's something called Parasite X that can mimic other living things which the Metriods were keeping in check. Except Samus exterminated all the Metriods in Metriod 2/Samus Returns and now the Parasite X are going crazy and have become the new Apex Predator on the planet.

Samus gets infected by a Parasite X and they rush her to a medical facility to save her life, but apparently the only thing they can do is an experimental treatment where they inject her with Metroid DNA and now she's part Metroid and thus immune to the Parasite X. This is basically the opening cutscenes of fusion.

So the hero becomes the monster in order to beat the bigger evils type plot. Okay then.

 

[Dalisclock]

So the hero becomes the monster in order to beat the bigger evils type plot. Okay then.

Kinda though it changes nothing gameplay wise other then Samus now has the Metroids weakness to cold and can't use the ice beam.

There isn't much angst on her part about being part Metroid now, mostly because she's got to survive being depowered and stuck on a station where the Parasite X are slowly taking over and has far bigger issues to occupy her.

There's some scenes during the elevator rides where she's thinking about stuff, but it's not nearly as bad as the game we do not speak of where she's constantly whining about "The Baby" and "Adam didn't order me to use basic protective measure".

Honestly Metroid games don't really have much plot to speak of, which makes it fairly easy to jump into any given game without playing the others because it doesn't really matter.

 

[Godzillarich(aka tf2godz)]

The shooting however kind of sucks. 2D shooting is weird because you only have so much moving available to you and shooting should be straightforward. Except here it isnt. You can shoot freely in the direction Samus is facing but in order to shoot flyers or wall based enemies you need to freeaim. And i found the free aim extremely sensitive with no real way to slow it down making trying to hit small flying enemies or faster enemies more annoying than i feel like it should be.

The aiming in the game is quite finicky there's one particular part that gave me more trouble than it should have.

I also feel like that despite all Samus' movement abilities, she could do with some sort of dash/dodge for bigger fights. Maybe i unlock that later but right now you really have to avoid things early because there isnt a dodge or dash to get you out of things quickly. The first boss fight was an example of this. Not a hard fight and really only had three things shooting at you slowly. However they come from different angles at the same time and you have a lot of downtime to avoid way before you should have to, just because there is a lack of combat based movement actions.

I wouldn't call it a Dodge move but there was something that helps with that, you get that pretty early actually.

All in all not that big of a deal. There are 6 "Dread" robots in the game apparently (the tutorial told me) and ive already blown the shit out of two of them in the first hour of gametime, plus a boss fight. Ive heard that the game is very short and that these games tend to be speedrunner fuel so i wonder if there are extra modes or something to unlock after beating the game as it feels really lacking in content otherwise to be a full priced game.

For inexperienced players, this game will probably last a lot longer. For me, it took 9 hours and I was taking my time. This is mainly because... just a heads up take your time to find power-ups, you're going to need them.

Edit: Also there are 7 not 6 of them.

 

[meiam]

So the hero becomes the monster in order to beat the bigger evils type plot. Okay then.

Not really, it just mean she's the only one that can fight against the parasite X. The cool part is that Samus old suits is now infected and hunting her, lead to some really cool segment where you have what's essentially Samus at full power hunting you down while you don't have most of your power. It become kinda like an horror game where you have to hide in a corner while the suits is rampaging around.

 

[Specter Von Baren]

Eh, I find the aiming completely fine but maybe that's because I played Samus Returns first which introduced it?
I would say the E.M.M.I. kind of fail to produce the desired goal of being an improvement to the SA-X as a wandering and scary threat which is a shame since they take up a decent amount of the game, they're much more of an annoying hindrance than a tense and exciting chase. The bosses have been excellent, I could see greatness in this team with the Diggernaut from Samus Returns and I'm glad to see they've been able to live up to that. I would still say Zero Mission is the best Metroid game but I think this game is going to be the best at hitting a wide market appeal. There's almost no downtime between your next upgrade which will keep the game feeling fresh as it goes and the more linear nature will appeal to a general audience. Overall I've been enjoying myself.