I have seen nothing but glowing reviews for Metroid Dread and how it is nothing short of GOTY for a lot of people. After playing through the entire game myself in about 7.5 hrs, I can see the good but a lot of articles left out the bad. I wanted to share my thoughts here.
Just note, this is all opinion. If you are a hard core Metroid fan, there will be things that I didn't like that you will have loved about Dread. That should not take away from your love of the game if you truly enjoyed it.
If you would rather watch a video, you can listen to it all here:
The good:
- Exploration was awesome
- Figuring out how to get to different areas, puzzle solving, just exploring in general
Backgrounds were beautiful and amazing
- You could see hints of bosses to come or animals moving in the background. Looked awesome
Lots of secrets to find
- I am new to Metroid games otherwise this would be a no brainer
Plenty of upgrades both abilities and health/ rockets
- Upgrades came at a grate pace, every 10-15 min or so you would find a new ability, rockets or something
Boss fights were amazing
- Challenging with out being overly so
- Counters causing a little cut scene where you could control the attacks was really fresh and unique
Chase scenes when the environment was being destroyed around was epic
The Bad:
Exploration was awesome but environments felt really ‘samey’
- A lot of the areas did not stick out a ton.
- Most were metal, cold, space station
None of the music while exploring was memorable
- I personally could not recall any area that stood out because of the music
Exploration has hampered by the inability to back track
- There was only forward
- Getting a new ability would usually lock out a previous path that needed the ability you just got!
Game was VERY linear.
- There was one and only one path to take.
- Sure there are sequence breaks like early grapple, bomb and gravity suit but you would have to be a speedrunner to find any of that stuff and would not likely find skips on first playthrough
Boss fights were great just wish there was more of them
There were a lot of mini bosses we fought over and over again.
Lots of enemies that were re-skins.
- It just feels lazy seeing the same enemies with MAYBE a slightly different attack ore more health but a different color.
Some people Loved the EMMI but I Didn’t
- It was fine that they were one hit kill
- The counter timing was really tight. I know, I need to Git Gud
- When they hear you, if you go hide, the EMMI would just stay in that room
- Emmi Would randomly just accidentally hit you
- Lots of just waiting around or leaving the room to come back
- After the dread faded away I was just left with annoyance.
Double jump was annoying
- This one is on me, I have built up muscle memory of doing a 2nd jump at the peak of the 1st jump.
- Needing to spin jump and fall just a bit before doing a 2nd jump threw me off and I just didn't like the way it felt.
Conclusion:
I know the things I brought up were small. That is because they are. Metroid Dread was a great game and I think it is worth playing. There were just some sticking points for me that I wanted to mention.
I hope you enjoyed the game and this review!
Also I am new to Hive, I will keep testing posting content here to see how it goes. So far everybody has been super welcoming and I appreciate it.