Metroid Dread Review
Metroid Dread Review
Developer(s): Mercury Steam, Nintendo EPD
Publisher: Nintendo
Release: October 8th, 2021
Platform(s): Switch
Metroid Dread is the newest 2D entry in the Metroid series in 19 years. Developed by Mercury Steam as well as Nintendo EPD and published by Nintendo. It's an Action-Adventure, Metroidvania game. After a story recap of some of the earlier Metroid games, the game starts with Samus Aran approaching planet ZDR in her starship. when you arrive a Chozo (bird-like creature) attacks you. The Chozo defeats Samus and strips her of most of her abilities. When you wake up the Chozo that attacked you is nowhere to be found and you now find yourself in the depths of ZDR with the goal to get back to your ship at the surface. While exploring ZDR Samus encounters an E.M.M.I robot that is hostile and tries to kill her. Samus can't damage these E.M.M.Is unless she gets a limited power that's always near these robots. Will Samus be able to get back to her ship at the surface? It's in your hands.
This is one of the best feeling 2D games I've played in a long time. While the melee counter is hard to perform at first, it becomes second nature as the game goes on, and is always extremely satisfying to pull off. The mobility Samus has with all of her abilities is great. She'll go from running at incredible speeds to sliding under an enemy and in just a second pick up the speed she had before the slide. With familiar upgrades such as the charge beam, super missile, and powerbomb. Along with brand new upgrades such as the storm missile, phantom cloak, and flash shift. Metroid Dread has plenty of upgrades for you to unlock and each one opens up new rooms in areas you've previously been to. I loved going back to earlier areas to find and unlock more health in the form of Energy tanks and more missiles in the form of Missile tanks. The difficulty of Metroid Dread is on par with games such as Dark Souls and Other Souls likes. While the regular enemies never gave me a challenge, the bosses are where this game gets hard. None of the bosses got me frustrated to the point of giving up, but some of them got me very close. With only one difficulty option - other than a hard mode you unlock when you beat the game - there is no way to make the bosses any easier.
Metroid Dread picks up where Metroid Fusion left off although I don't think you need to play Metroid Fusion to understand the story here thanks to the recap at the beginning of Dread. The story is given to you in nuggets throughout the game and never really took the center stage. Without spoilers, the ending was very good and closed out this ark of Metroid games wonderfully. The length of this game is surprisingly short with How Long To Beat saying it'll take seven and a half hours to finish the main story and eleven and a half to collect all the items and get 100%. I think the length is perfect even though I would have liked a longer game. Even right after finishing it, I want to go back and replay it.
Overall this game is fantastic and is my favorite Metroid game. I'd recommend Metroid Dread to anyone who is a fan of Metroidvanias, Souls likes, and/or the Metroid Series. Let me know what you think about this review and Metroid Dread in the comments below. Links to both the Trailer and Metroid Dread Website will be below for your convenience.
Metroid Dread 9.75/10
Concept: A brand new 2D Metroid adventure from Nintendo 19 years after the last one.
Graphics: The game looks wonderful and stunning, especially during combat sequences.
Sound: The music elevates the feeling of being alone with wonderfully creepy themes.
Playability: The game is tough but the controls always felt responsive and snappy.
Entertainment: Even after I 100% Metroid Dread I still found myself playing and enjoying it.
Replay Value: High
Thanks for reading and Game On!!
