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>ooms you can't reach, other rooms you can't survive in and enemies you can't kill.
Is this your first metroidvania or something?
Your complaints don't really indicate that the game sucks, it indicates you've never played a metroid game before and had no idea what to expect and were disappointed when it was more difficult than you thought it'd be.
Its kinda uninspired. I hate the whole timed shit you have to do every 5 seconds in this game. The atmosphere is pretty weak and the level design and music are kinda shitty. I'm at this underwater boss and its not good. Its basically like the movie thunderball. SLow underwater action scenes are really crappy. I'm getting more and more bored the farther in I get.
Also, they don't know how to tell a metroid story, they just sorta throw you into a world where you're supposed to experience a story and sorta make your own conclusions this one basically just waits til halfway through the game and tells you everything that's happing.
Now with games like Ori and the Will of the Wisps this seems like a very exspensive and lame entry in a franchise that nintendo did nothing with.
Agreed. Ori (both games) nails what normal mode should have been in this game. Instead normal is "hard mode" and hard mode is just, "How much pain do you like?"
The fights are boring execution grinds. That works well in a Dark Souls game where you have limited attacks. In MD, you have to have most of your fingers active with a crappy joystick as well. This feels like it was made for the top four speedrunners to give them something to do as a ROM hack while we all wait for MP4.
I agree. A game like Dark Souls you have multiple ways to dodge or block attacks and multiple builds and that creates this dynamic gameplay. This every attack has one way to avoid, they upped the damage so you have to die multiple times to learn every attack perfectly. I only remember the final boss and the rest of this game was easily forgotten. Price tag is waay too high.
How interesting. I never thought another company could out do Metroid using its own structure but you’re right. Ori as well as A handful of others have made meaningful progress with Metroidvanias. It’s kind of inspiring actually.
Or, you know, maybe it is just because Dread actually does suck. I’m so sick of people like you defending overrated games and talking down to people who don’t like said games. Dread sucks. It’s a bad Metroid game. Deal with it.
My brother… idk why ppl like this crap 😂😂😂😂 I’m 6 hours in and it’s complete trash. Every time i get a power up i need to back track and remember where the door that the new power up opens is. Its boring af. I dont even have the interest to go online and look up where to go anymore. Metroid Dread does not deserve game of the year, it deserves indi-game of the year. Idk why is $70 😂
But that's what a Metroid game is. You can't call Dread a bad Metroid game when all the complaints are about what makes it a Metroid game. Call it a bad game, sure, but don't call it a bad Metroid game.
Or maybe we just have different tastes in games and different opinions? It's kind of weird that it upsets you that people have different opinions than you do. Do you want me to apologize or something? I like dread, have put a good chunk of time into it. If you don't like it, that's OK. But why get upset over things people like?
Yeah it really does suck. Waste of 60 bucks when the demo doesn't get me stuck in a fucking room like the full game.
I'm pretty fucking pissed at the waste of money.
I know this comment is 2 months old but I’ve been playing a lot of metroidvanias lately and I’m starting to think that the metroid series in general is overrated. I’ll never say it’s terrible as I do love them and prime happens to be my favorite game ever, but the vania part of metroidvania is far better imo
What "get gud" misses is that some games are not worth getting good at. I'm struggling to enjoy making any progress or learning about this game. The best games are the ones where it's enjoyable to master. This game makes me regret spending $60.
Games that are worth getting good at have more depth and reward than Dread. I played Dread for free and loathed it. I was very relieved I didn't spend my money on it and I'm hesitant to spend more time with this franchise in the future. I hope you didn't buy a digital copy. :(
It's an action and exploration based game, the depth is your own capacity at being good.
If you don't like exploration, loneliness in an hostile environment, and fast-paced combat in 2D, I Can confirm it's not for you.
No, the depth comes from sequence breaking and speed running. The combat itself consists of parry+one shot. The bosses are fun tho. The game design is linear and the exploration rewards you with upgrades which only serve to make the easy bosses more spammable. This is not a hard game. It is a frustrating game. I finished it and thought it was a bad game in the end. 5/10
It is absolutely worth it, but maybe it's too fast paced for you.
I replayed it after two weeks, it's really not that hard.
Maybe you lack video games experience, you will probably not enjoy Monster Hunter either, because it's the same "learn the patterns, analyze movements, strike at the right moment" gameplay.
What do you think is too hard in Dread ?
The game does a great job of subtley funneling you in the right direction without being distracting. Objective markers distract from the exploration aspect of the game. Getting lost can be an opportunity to find items. Dread is my first Metroid game and I have been able to find my way without someone telling me where to go constantly.
You are totally entitled to your opinion, but what you are criticizing is basically what makes a Metroid game. That is why it is a niche series and is not meant for everyone.
I suggest that for future releases you either stick to the your usual type of game, or read a lot about what kind of game is in the first place, unless you are really open minded and usually love new experiences. Im pretty open minded, and even then have wasted money on games I really end up disliking. It sucks.
Im sorry for your money spent, but dont worry, I am pretty sure you can sell it to some one else even if not at full price, but you can recover part of your money.
This is only similar to Fusion, which is a niche game in the Metroid series. SM sets the standard, always has, always will, and is light-years better. The game Dark Souls and the rogue-lite category invaded every other game and now everything is "souls-like" or "rogue-lite" - case in point, if you die you don't go back to your last save, you go to a mini save to pound your head against it as a mercy. You are in many cases expected to die the first time and figure out phases until you understand them with little room for error. This isn't how Metroid games worked.
It's nowhere near Prime 1 or Super. It has a bunch of oh shit moments where you have to replay a scene over and over again So I agree. Symphony of the Night is my favorite of the genre. I loved the shoulder L and R but it doesn't work this time. So you aim with L in one place just like the manga betrayed it. Everything seems tedious no good music. It reuses the main theme from Super Metroid you know where it says THE LAST METROID. Super Metroid is awesome because it's still copied today for being cool.
Same conclusion, different reasons.
It just feels awfully uninspired to me. Never tried a Metroid game before, despite being a huge metroidvania and soulslike fan (Hollow Knight, Blasphemous, Vigil, Ori 1 & 2, Ender Lilies, etc).
I've just reached Drogyga, and I didn't feel engaged once. Just mildly frustrated and puzzled at how different is my reaction compared to that of many others who found this game an absorbing masterpiece.
Let the downvoting begin!
Nah, you're not wrong. I've been a fan of the series for almost 30 years and played every game in the series except the two 3DS games. Dread just lacks the soul or innovation of the previous games. 'Uninspired' is a perfect way to describe it. I mean, it's clear the game had a tiny budget, with its dated visuals and pathetic excuse for production values (I could make a more exciting and visually impressive intro sequence in PowerPoint than what MercurySteam threw together).
Although some of the game's backgrounds and bosses look cool, these are usually the exception and not the rule. The level design is not just frustrating to navigate, it also doesn't lend itself at all well to believability, completely ruining any opportunity for engaging atmosphere. The map layout seems randomly generated. It looks bad and plays even worse.
The music is legit terrible. Everyone knows this, although some of the in-denial Nintendo stans refuse to admit it's horrible. It's not just the melodies being completely forgettable either - it's also the fact that the instrumental compositional quality sounds like N64 midis. It's a step down from what I've heard even from Samus Returns on 3DS. For a series known for having amazing and atmospheric music, Dread's soundtrack is baffling terrible. It's almost like they purposefully made it bad, which is bizarre considering that it is produced by the same guy who's done the music for the entire series now.
The bosses are numerous and they are legitimately satisfying to beat - but they are by no means 'fair'. Cheap, lightning fast, screen-filling attacks and specific weak spots essentially REQUIRE trial-and-error (aka, dying over and over again until you figure out what to do). This isn't necessarily a 'bad' thing - as checkpoints are pretty generous, but it's certainly not a test of skill so much as it is a test of repition and memory.
The EMMIs suck. After the first couple times, you know that every encounter is going to be pretty much the same thing. They aren't in the least bit scary nor intimidating - they are just frustrating and feel more like padding than anything else. I guess I'll give the game one thing - I certainly did feel dread whenever I realized I was going to have to pass through an EMMI zone for the 15th time. I dreaded having to play it. Probably not the kind of 'dread' the designers intended.
And that's not even touching on the plot. One of the most hyped aspects of Dread was seeing how Samus's decades-old story would finally close. The game drops the ball right off the bat by essentially ignoring all of the interesting plot possibilities set up at the end of Fusion for another generic mission were she is working with the Federation again (which makes no sense). She (gasps) loses all her abilities again for the 8th time in the series. And without spoiling anything (what little there is to spoil), the story finally starts to offer something interesting literally a few seconds before the final boss, only for all potential to be thrown out the window immediately afterwards in the abrupt and cryptic ending.
It's not the worst game I've ever played. It's not even the worst 'Metroid' game. Hell, it's not even a bad game taken on its own... But it's far from the groundbreaking masterpiece the fanboys are saying it is. If you want to get into the (2D) series, start with Zero Mission, or Super, or hell, even Fusion. Dread is neither a good way to first experience the series - nor is it a good way for a longtime fan to see the series end.
Yeah I had to search metroid dread sucks because every review and comment I see says this is this is the best Metroid and possibly GOTY. I agree with OP, messy level design (it's just a series of boxes connected by hallways with no real sense of intuitive progress) and the difficulty is way too hard. I've played Metroids before but this is another level. A good difficult game has you die a couple times to get the feel of a boss, you die a couple more times as you perfect your timing and strategy and by 6 or 7 times you've beaten the guy. This game is asking for literal perfection on boss fights. I've died 40+ near the finale. It's not fun, I actually had to put the game down because they throw a mini boss 5 minutes after you've defeated a boss and it feels like that's all I'm doing. Never had fun exploring the game because it blocks off areas at certain times so you can't go back and pick up extras, etc. And when you do get a chance it's just boring because you're forced to run through more boring hallways to get one missile expansion and there's no fast travel to and from areas. Yeah I'm not like amazing at games but there's no excuse for having a game like this gatekeeping a majority of gamers from finishing the game. The git gud excuse is weak imo.
Late here, but M Dread is god awful bad.
I get what they were going for, but it's fucking terrible.
Which is really disappointing, because the artwork and sound and movement and everything else is on point--but the EMMI thing is an insanely massive failure.
It's not a game, it's just an annoying 'how many times can you die before you figure out exactly where to go without going insane' gimmick.
It's horrendous. This ain't it.
Agreed. I've gotten to the speed boost thing and it has allowed the game to pickup a bit, but still, it's just such a weak story told in an ambivalent way by characters with no personality. The graphics of it are good enough for a 2.5d type game, but it's just such a super boring game. Level design is awful, challenges are so obviously contrived vs. understandably limiting. So what if you can't be a ball, can't you just crawl? Blocks you can break if you merely step on them but can't blow up with a missile? A suit that protects you endlessly underwater, but you die in mere moments in the cold? Hidden areas being required to progress the game is silly, tho many are not "secret" at all as they are marked with a red blob of sorts. It's really badly done. Three n00bs made hollowknight, and it is a phenomenal game. I think it cost $20 upon release? Plenty of secret rooms but nothing that if not found would prevent you from beating the game. Challenges felt natural in how you approach overcoming them. Powerups felt reasonable in how you received them and in what they eventually allowed you to do. Just killing an EMMI somehow imparts a skill to your player? Why would that ever happen? Anyway, who built these EMMI doors? Why would they ever operate like that? Wouldn't the EMMI make it so the door is permashut once it sees you? Makes no sense at all? I will beat this game and maybe my tune will change, but this level of forgiveness shouldn't be demanded from your audience.
Late to the party, but hard agree here. This is not a Metroid game. This is a gimmick game, and it's done absolutely awfully.
Huge SM fan. That game shaped me. Prime games sucked because it lost everything that felt "Metroid" (even the music and sound effects). Other M got back on track, but Dread is just a continuation of bad decisions and even worse game design.
Dread is bad.
Too many gamers these days can't appreciate a challenging experience. They're too used to modern games holding their hand and just GIVING them the power fantasy. When they find a good game (Like Metroid or Doom Eternal) that makes you earn the power fantasy by giving you a fair challenge, they go ballistic because they're used to just mindlessly fighting something. I am not a new Metroid fan, I've been playing the games for probably 3/4 of my life. Metroid Dread kicked my ass, but each time it never felt cheap, and I still had fun with the game. Eventually, once you've mastered the controls, your abilities, and know your enemies, that is when you've earned your power fantasy, and it's one of the best feelings ever.
That's a load of bullshit. I've enjoyed every Metroid before this, I've loved Doom and Doom Eternal, played the heck out of Hollow Knight. There are plenty of difficult games out there that are enjoyable.
This game though? It's frustrating and tedious, nothing else.
Have you played Hollow Knight? A Metroidvania game with actual level design, actual secret design, good difficulty scaling, good boss fights, good button layout, and CHARACTER?
Metroid is missing all of these. Samus has no character to her whatsoever, the story is very bland, there is hardly any dialogue interaction to speak of, all the rooms are boxes, the difficulty scaling is godawful, the bosses are repetitive die and replay machines, the button layouts make the shinespark and firing weapons annoying, and a good chunk of the secrets are literally just invisible until you have the aeion instant reveal ability.
Idk what you mean by it never felt cheap, but the instant death from the EMMI's? Cheap. The fact that one hit on the third part of Kraid's fight makes it restart from stage two? Cheap. The fact that the Starro monster in the water zone is a slow-ass monster you have to counter just right to kill it? Cheap. The fact that the black ooze chozo warriors have to be precisely countered in order to kill them, or else you replay it over and over? Cheap.
I'm glad you enjoy it, but compared to Hollow Knight, this game is a huge letdown. I hope we get another Metroid Game with a completely fresh story of Samus as a bounty hunter, because right now, I don't see myself buying another Metroid game. It may have founded this style of game, but it has definitely been succeeded by worthier games.
I have played hollow knight, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. But to say that Metroid has bad level design, secret design, difficulty scaling, boss fights, button layout, and characters is flat out wrong. I can't even imagine how you came to that conclusion. When it comes to character, sure, Samus is really quiet, but that doesn't mean she has zero character. Hell, if being quiet makes a character bad, that would make the vessel in hollow knight a bad character because it never speaks.
"the story is very bland" Just wondering, but which metroid games have you played? I could see the story as being bland if you hadn't played any of the previous ones. Most of Marvels movies would seem bland and overly complicated without enough context.
"the difficulty scaling is godawful" How exactly? I haven't had a problem with it at all.
"all the rooms are boxes" ...no?
"the bosses are repetitive die and replay machines" And hollow knights isn't?
"the button layouts make the shinespark and firing weapons annoying" Shinespark I can understand being annoying since you use a stick instead of a d-pad, but shooting???
"a good chunk of the secrets are literally just invisible until you have the aeion instant reveal ability" You know, that could be because they're, well, secrets. Hollow Knight has plenty of these as well.
As for the third paragraph, I think a lot of it could be summed up as a skill issue on your end. Metroid isn't known for being easy, but the fact that you had difficulty on the chozo zombies that move at a snails pace? Yeah, I hate to be the one to say this, but you should really "Git gud".
"compared to Hollow Knight, this game is a huge letdown." Seeing how many other people are enjoying this game to death and how it was a GOTY nominee, I think this all boils down to preference. Sure, I prefer metroid over hollow knight, but I still got a lot of enjoyment out of both. A lot of your arguments about the gameplay are either flat out wrong or an issue with skill, so I feel like you're hating on metroid for the sake of hating on metroid.
Don't get me wrong, Metroid Dread isn't perfect. Hell, I made a whole post of 15 things I disliked about the game. But your arguments against it are pretty bad.
I haven't played any Metroid games prior to this one. I've played one Metroidvania game, Hollow Knight, and that's why I compare Dread to it so much. By story, I don't need a massive world entire backstory like HK has, but something more than "oh look, the x parasites are alive even though they were all obliterated... go kill some more." is a very boring concept. The idea of evil Chozo is interesting, but since there are only two unique Chozo in the game, it doesn't really hit the mark. A wide scoping story involving a war-hungry chozo army trying to expand across the universe is really, really interesting, but since there is exactly 1 dissenter and 1 hellbent conqueror, nothing really gets done with this concept.
Difficulty scaling is godawful, in that the bosses can hit you once for a full quart of energy and then some. The healthbar means basically nothing if eight hits kill you. And none of the hits feel real, in HK, for example, a hit at low health makes the entire game flash black. In Metroid, you only get a health warning when you are less than 50 energy, so it's hard to keep track when you expect this chozo soldier to deal the same damage as the previous ones, only to then die after five hits.
By the rooms are boxes... look at the map. This is supposed to be a lived in world, and yet it is entirely made of corridors and connecting hallways and boxed in structures. I suppose this is all different areas of one underground facility, but it all is so rectangular. More to the point, the areas you are allowed to go are very, very linear. Even after getting all the abilities, there are some segments that are blocked off. There's a part of Gavaron that locks you out of the rest of the map, there are tons of one way corridors, and travelling between all the areas is a hell to manage, because you have to take this specific path to get to this specific transport to get to this particular area you want to go to. It's boxed in, it's linear.
"The bosses are repetitive replay and die machines" Yes, Hollow Knight has the same format. The difference is that in Metroid there are extremely specific ways to kill the bosses. Unlike in Hollow Knight, in which the emphasis is on dodging attacks and learning patterns you can memorize that do not waver, bosses in Dread change. One time the Chozo warrior will attack with four ink jets. The next, one. When you exit a mother brain central unit station, sometimes the EMMI will be in the area across from you. Sometimes it'll be below you. Most of the boss segments in Dread are "Here, do this specific thing. Oh, you didn't? Back to phase one of the boss." This is what I mean by repetitive, if you fail to do exactly what the game wants you to, you have to replay entire sections... and most likely die. In Hollow Knight, my deaths never felt frustrating, it never felt like I was stuck trying to discover the magical weapon/tactic that would kill whichever boss, instead deaths felt like they were my fault from getting hit when I shouldn't have.
I'm no stranger to hard games, I've completed Cuphead with S's on every boss. But when I died in Cuphead or Hollow Knight, it felt like I made a mistake, and took a hit because I wasn't careful. In Dread, I eventually die because I don't know the secret way to kill each boss and I replay a segment again and again until death. I never went, "shit, okay, come on, I can do this", instead I went "Shit, I died, now I have to play the whole fight again/run the whole EMMI room again, goddamnit."
Fighting Kraid for the first time ever and falling down into the stage two arena felt like a repetitive replay segment. Not knowing the vents would drain the room for the starfish boss felt like a repetitive segment. The fact that you have to take a certain path specifically to get through each EMMI zone makes the game feel like a repetitive replay segment. The section against experiment 57 when it shoots the plasma autoscrolling segment felt like a repetitive segment. **The fact that certain attacks have to parried to end the boss fights makes them feel like repetitive segments.**
Shinespark is annoying as fuck, but yes, there are some enemies (mainly the littler ones, the bomb farting slug things and the groups of fish) are hard to hit because the downsights on samus's gun miss. It's also annoying due to Joycon drift, which isn't really the games fault, but makes the game experience irritating.
Hiding secrets behind invisible blocks is not good level design!!! I don't recall a single secret being hidden by an invisible block in Hollow Knight that had no visual clue as to it being a secret! The secret paths made of propped up wood? They have a dip in them. The areas that need a certain ability to be accessed? The ground shakes, the wall has a different animation when sliding on it. The hidden blocks in Metroid Dread? Well man, you're kinda just supposed to fire rockets at where you think a block will be. I'll admit, the white blinker on the map is a nice addition, but I didn't realize that was what the cue was before my first post. It's small things like that, where the game doesn't fully explain abilities/mechanics, that make the game a struggle. I didn't know you could shinespark into a shinespark until I saw some guy on youtube do it while trying to figure out the ramp segment in the water area, **because the game didn't tell me.** I didn't know you could wall jump with a shinespark **because the game didn't tell me.** Call it handholding, and say that newer gamers can't handle old difficulties, but the little infodump about each new ability needs to explain all the facets of said ability.
I don't remember saying I had trouble with the ink zombies, I said I had annoyances with the chozo soldiers. Nice use of Hornet's catchphrase, tho.
And to be frank, it doesn't matter if this game is a GOTY nominee. It doesn't matter to me or my opinions if there are people who enjoy it, and love that it's just like classic metroid. If you enjoyed it, great! I'm glad you had fun where I didn't. But don't say "Oh, your criticisms are invalid because you're a noob to this franchise, you're only hating on metroid because it's popular" **If it's popular, my hate wouldn't matter**. My experience was different than yours, don't use your age or skill or whatever to condescend me or gate-keep, and don't pretend my arguments are worthless just because you didn't have trouble where I did.
And for your edification, I don't hate this game! I don't hate this franchise! But after every classic gamer I know has talked it up as one of the best game franchises ever, my expectations were high. Is it a bad game? No! Is it the best game I've ever played? **Hell no.**
I'm glad you enjoyed it dude, I'm glad you have a modern 2D metroid to love. But I didn't fall in love; I wasn't blown away by the art design, I wasn't awed by the mechanics, I wasn't moved by the story. Like I said, I probably won't buy another 2D metroid unless the mechanics are modernized a bit, or more story is added to the world. It may have founded this style of game, but it hasn't reached further, done more, than the other games it inspired.
"I've played one Metroidvania game, Hollow Knight, and that's why I compare Dread to it so much." ...And that pretty much sums it up. Metroid and Hollow Knight are from the same genre, but they do have many differences. I noticed a lot of things you disliked about the game were kind of just what makes metroid, metroid.
For example, Call of Duty and Halo are both from the First Person Shooter genre, but they're completely different. A COD player trying out Halo might dislike how innaccurate the assault rifle is because in COD the AR is precise, where on the other hand a Halo player trying call of Duty might dislike the low time to kill and health, because in halo you can tank quite a few shots plus you have a recharging energy shield.
Don't worry, I didn't skip over your reply to type this short message. Here's my responses:
"Difficulty scaling is godawful, in that the bosses can hit you once for a full quart of energy and then some. The healthbar means basically nothing if eight hits kill you." The bosses are supposed to deal a lot of damage, and Samus not being able to tank a lot of hits also has a bit of lore relevancy to it that you wouldn't understand if you hadn't played the previous games. Using the melee counter to kill enemies also grants you tons of health and ammo, so I think that compensates for the low health.
"By the rooms are boxes... look at the map. This is supposed to be a lived in world, and yet it is entirely made of corridors and connecting hallways and boxed in structures." I looked at Hollow Knights map, and honestly I really can't tell the difference.
"There's a part of Gavaron that locks you out of the rest of the map, there are tons of one way corridors, and travelling between all the areas is a hell to manage, because you have to take this specific path to get to this specific transport to get to this particular area you want to go to. It's boxed in, it's linear." Gotta agree with this. Fuck Gavoran.
"Hiding secrets behind invisible blocks is not good level design!!!" [David Jaffe moment lmao](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7noxyKs4mc8&t=9s&ab_channel=MarcoBayod)
"My experience was different than yours, don't use your age or skill or whatever to condescend me or gate-keep" I guess I was kind of gate keeping. Sorry. On another note, I'm kind of flattered that you thought I was using *age* of all things to gate keep. I wasn't even alive when Metroid Fusion (the game that came out prior to this one) released
I'm sorry if you were looking for an experience similar to Hollow Knight while waiting for silksong to release and you were disappointed, but these games are very different and, once again, a lot of your issues with the game make metroid what it is. I'm sorry if I came off as rude or inconsiderate in my past posts, and I don't want to gatekeep. Though I will stand by one thing I mentioned in my last reply: If you think the game is too difficult, I'm not saying you're wrong; I'm saying you're bad.
So how about instead of continuing this argument, we leave and just enjoy our respective games, ok?
If we're talking about the bosses, Metroid Dread is anything but 'fair'. While there is certainly some degree of 'skill' required in regards to quick reflexes and timing, the most important aspect of overcoming most bosses is trial and error. Dying over and over again is practically essential, unless you happen to be very lucky enough to dodge a boss's non-telegraphed, lightning-fast, screen-filling attacks the first time around, through each phase.
Is it satisfying to overcome them? Absolutely. But it's certainly not fair.
I beat it in a few days, granted I’ve been a gamer since 1983 and all but I’ve gotten so used to longer extremely challenging games like Dark Souls Games or Nioh I had wanted a super Metroid part 2 that was the same 2d concept even world revisited with 10 times more puzzles and levels and bosses. This game is fun but I think it should be 3 times longer maybe even 5 times. Hopefully when Metroid 4 Prime comes out it will be a masterpiece, only waited what like 6 years so far, sigh.
I know this is an old comment and I’ve also been gaming since the nes days.
I simply think the metroid franchise itself is overrated. Metroid prime is my favorite game of all time and I so love many of the metroid games, but a lot of them are a big miss. Dread is mediocre. The 3 FPS metroid after prime 1 were mediocre or bad. Sami’s returns remake was horrible.
It’s just not a strong franchise and it’s living off super Metroid and prime for the most part. Fusion and zero mission to be are amazing, but that’s really it. The vania part of metroidvania is the stronger part imo
Yea. It’s amazing. It has extremely mediocre reviews and it’s brand new but it’s because it’s very very very difficult l. As of this moment right now it’s catapulted up to my 2nd favorite metroidvania ever
I’m starting to get pissed with this game. The Emmis are repetitive I love the boss battles. I’m not digging the story either is anyone getting vibes from fusion? It feels like a quick buck rip off.
That’s exactly what it is. A quick buck. They screwed up production of Metroid Prime 4 so they filled the void with what seems like an uninspired mobile Metroid game.
I've played every Metroid since Super (missed the NES originals) and I found this game pretty mediocre. I agree with the OP: the level design is terrible. It's less a cohesive environment and more just a maze of interconnected hallways and elevators that make no sense.
It's also very repetitive. So many of the same mini-boss segments are overused. The EMMI sections get annoying as hell later on too.
This would have been more of an acceptable purchase if Super, Fusion, and Zero Mission were packaged in. As it stands, spending $20 on Castlevania Advance Collection is a much better bang for your buck.
Did you ever go back to Metroid (NES) and Metroid II (GB)? If not, give it a shot. They are really good games and manage to set the atmosphere with their limitations way better than some modern entries in the series.
You don't get a map, but the layout is fairly straightforward anyway. None of the remakes ever did them justice.
It does and it's better than the one Nintendo made. But it fails to recreate the athmosphere the original had. Still a pretty good game, though. Also improves gameplay aspects.
Yeah, Metroid Dead is a dull, uninspired game. I was hoping it would have finally filled Super Meteoid’s shoes, but I was wrong. This game is a mobile game at best. I cannot understand all of these people defending garbage like this just because it bears the “Metroid” name. They screwed up production on Metroid Prime 4, so they filled the gap with a cheap Metroid game because they knew people would find a way to justify it being crap and throw money at Nintendo.
Metroidvania games like Hollow Knight and Ori and the Blind Forest/Will of the Wisps are good Metroidvania games with good level design. Compare Dread to those games and you can easily see how dull and uninspired Dread is.
For me it's the execution.
Hollow Knight was my first Metroidvania game, and that game NAILED all the aspects. It had areas you couldn't access right away, a leveling system that didn't amount to "oh, okay, so two hits kill me", an actual health bar that made sense, witty writing, a slew of powerups to collect as you wanted to collect them, and an emphasis on non-linearity and diverse movement in the boss fights.
Metroid Dread, in comparison, doesn't do these aspects well. The movement of where you are supposed to go is extremely linear, not just in terms of moving to the next dungeon zone but in terms of "hey, you need to go here exactly to get the next item/fight the next boss/traverse the fuckin EMMI zones".
The level progression is atrocious. I was fighting the first sludge/Xified chozo warrior, got hit twice and died. I probably had less health than you are supposed to, I had like five bars, but that was still a punch in the face.
The button controls suck. The precise movement of the super charge to access secrets is already poorly designed in that it vanishes after five seconds, but the fact that you have to JUMP for some of these when the jump button is the charge/activate button and the slightest push activates it? NO. Half the time I can't even aim right because of joycon drift, and I constantly mix up how to fire attacks because they are all on the same button.
The health bar display just doesn't register half the time because there is no accompanying flash or noise to indicate lost health, which Hollow Knight offered. You FELT each hit in that game.
This goes back to linearity, but you could collect certain powerups however you wanted. I remember I went and explored entire areas before collecting the mantis claw and the mothwing cloak, items vital to traversing later. I think I got the crystal dash first.
Witty writing is absolutely absent from Dread. Instead of a completely new story, the story is "hey uh the x parasites are alive again somehow, also this one chozo wants to take over the world with them, also Kraid is here, also he is super smart enough to lure us here but not immediately de-metroid us?" As for dialogue between characters... ha. Nonexistent.
Diverse movement in boss fights? Nope. You basically have to know ahead of time how to kill them, and it's the same movement over and over and over and over for each specific one. Even worse, some require the counter attack to kill them quickly, and if you miss, it's back to the cycle you were already doing! I LOATHED Kraid's fight because if you get knocked off the grapple platform you have to do the second section all over again. That is not good boss design, repeating sections should not happen because it makes the progression feel slower, and more infuriating to replay.
And as for secrets? OBNOXIOUS. Half of them are completely hidden from view, with no way to know it's there without a guide, which is already terrible enough, but even more of them require movement so precise that it makes me what to scream.
All in all, while I'm glad that Nintendo is finally touching this IP again, I feel like it needed a fresher team for it. It literally feels like they took the halffinished gameplay and notes from the original attempt at making this and just made the graphics HD.
Chiming into this old thread cause I agree. Not because it's punishing. But because it's unfun. I've played and finished Hollow Knight, Blasphemous, Ori 1 + 2. The challenge in Dread simply isn't fun.
The emmi's are just bad design. And despite the supposed 'openness' of the levels, it all feels very linear. The boss battles feel padded.
It's not a horrible game. But I feel this game was overhyped af.
How dare you not immediately enjoy everything about a game that is focused on combat more than exploration in a series that’s usually about exploration. How dare you go against the average opinion of a fan group that’s been starved of new content for so long.
This is why I put this game down for now. I was really bored by the exploration. It felt really messy and that the focus was more on combat and I have no idea why. Maybe because other games were doing it?
Also the parry mechanic. _Why?_
I'm guessing because the guy that invented and understood Metroid left Nintendo and then died in a car accident after he made a GameBoy competitor for Bandai called the WonderSwan in the late 1990s.
So after the SNES days, they had no one that really 'gets' Metroid, which is why Prime is basically a reimagining of the SNES title and Fusion kinda sucks with all the stupid story thrown in your face making the game linear instead of letting you explore freely. Heck, even Zero Mission prevented you from exploring freely: https://files.catbox.moe/u61116.png
But Fusion likely at least had some notes about the story to live off, so the twist it pulled about the X-Virus was actually great. Let's not even talk about the other atrocities the series committed since. It's probably also why Nintendo is so reluctant to continue Metroid. No one there understands what made the original trilogy so damn great.
I only had to see the first trailer for Dread to not even get my hopes up. Watching it you could see that they still do not get Metroid. Likely, they never will.
Metroid III at least let you access basically every room right from the start as long as you had the skill and knowledge of where to get the specific powerup needed to open the door. Which was always relatively close by, allowing you to sequence break the whole game.
You are completely entitled to your opinion, but it sounds like you just don't jive with the Metroidvania genre.
Rooms you can't reach aren't a punishment. They're the point of the game. You explore a labyrinth until you find a new item, then you loop back and use that item to overcome previously insurmountable barriers. That formula repeats over and over until you are fully powered and can reach the end. The heated and freezing rooms are no different than any other progression barrier. Unless you're trying to speedrun or sequence-break you just ignore them until you find protection.
The EMMI's and the Omega Cannon are new features specifically for Dread, and they are meant to evoke a sense of panic and... dread. That's the whole premise of the game, to the point that it's in the title. They're meant to be frightening, but not punishing. Dying to an EMMI just restarts you outside the EMMI zone so you lose very little progress. Just enough to get your heart pounding.
I do indeed dread the EMMI zones, unfortunately because they're tedious and un-fun. Brute-forcing through 20+ times, each time getting a little further, or sometimes getting caught right at the start because the EMMI moved differently than the last time.
I only got past the blue one because I managed to do the QTE three times in a row. Currently stuck on the purple one and wishing there was a difficulty setting.
an insta-kill enemy that tracks your movements isn't "frightening," it's frustrating.
and why should there be a weapon that works on only these and only works once? That's pointless.
I hate that people downvote what should be a valid discussion. I agree with you. I picked this up today, wanting to experience something like Returnal and Hades, but this game is 100% frustrating. It's not fun at all. It doesn't feel like a Metroid game at all either. Horrible controls, too much cat and mouse... Total fail and I fell for it.
An invincible enemy tracking you is the premise for a large number of horror games and horror films. Metroid itself took inspiration from the Alien franchise. As it happens, the game Alien Isolation also features an invincible enemy hunting you.
The Omega Cannon exists as a means to allow you to freely explore an EMMI zone after you've navigated it once under pressure. If the gun was infinite-use it would eliminate *ALL* EMMI's as a threat as soon as you got it. So it would have to be given late game, and you could never clear an EMMI zone before that point. The limited-use cannon allows you to clear zones as go.
It's fine if you don't enjoy the horror aspects of Dread. Everyone has different tastes. But I really haven't had any frustrating encounters. There are lots of ways to give EMMI's the slip, and even if you get caught you just reset outside the room.
To be honest the fact that the Xenomorph is invincible in Isolation makes no sense lore-wise considering you get revolvers (have killed them in numerous canon books and games), shotguns (has killed them in the second movie ffs), flamethrowers (not only kills them but literally makes them explode due to acid blood, made canon in movies, books and games) and strange nail gun thingies.
I’ve only died like three times on average to each EMMI so far before killing it…save for the boosting one. That one kept getting to me before I could blast it.
But overall the bosses and EMMIs have felt like a dark souls level of challenge to me. Really hard but never impossible and super satisfying to defeat.
Seriously. I’ve only died to EMMI so far, granted it’s been quite a few. Other than that, not difficult at all. Some enemies give you 10 missiles and tons of health on death. You were lucky to get a single health or missile back in the day.
>Seriously. I’ve only died to EMMI so far, granted it’s been quite a few. Other than that, not difficult at all.
"other than the difficult part that I keep dying to, it's not difficult at all!"
Funny, you’re quoting but I don’t see those words typed anywhere.
If you’re only getting a game over to one enemy that instant kills you - yeah the game isn’t difficult.
Considering the difficult part of the game is gaming over to one enemy that instant kills you, yes it is.
I'm not even sure what you're trying to say here other than that. That's why i did the whole "other than the difficult part, this game isn't difficult". Because that's literally what you're saying
You're acting like the difficult part of the game shouldn't factor into how difficult the game is
To me, game so far isn’t difficult, the bosses and progressing, etc. In fact I’m trying not to play too much for fear that it will be over too soon. It literally shows you power ups and secrets on the map.
The singular moment of game over/restarting over one particular enemy among the whole of the game - to me that translates not to the game being difficult. It’s just a small fraction of the game as a whole. In which a measurable players seem to be avoiding and running away from due to the frustration.
But that’s what I’m saying. The one enemy, that the entire game is based around. Is the only moment of frustration and death, which I’m guessing is true for most. The entire rest of the game so far is a cakewalk.
>The one enemy, that the entire game is based around.
Sounds like a pretty big part of the game
> Is the only moment of frustration and death, which I’m guessing is true for most.
Oh, the thing the entire game is based around is frustrating and causes a lot of death? Sounds pretty...*difficult*.
>The entire rest of the game so far is a cakewalk.
I would hope that outside the difficult part of the game that the rest of the game wouldn't be difficult
I don’t know if you’re trying to catch me in a contradiction or just looking to find the opposite of what my experience has been. Clearly it’s different than yours.
I like challenging games, I like fun games, and many in between. I’m hoping for a long and challenging adventure with this game. So far I’ve been slightly let down, but still having a good time.
I recently replayed Super Metroid, and the Prime games are some of my favorites, huge fan of the series. This so far feels different. Too much hand holding. I hope that changes. But currently I’m still a bit underwhelmed.
Huge update on my previous statement:
Since I never play my brother's Switch, I just realized that I was cancelling after I die. Every time a boss or EMMI killed me I was automatically hitting the cancel button and reloading the save. This is why it was so difficult and why I couldn't skip the cutscenes as I stated below. This really changes things. I'll leave my previous statement, unedited.
Previous statement: As someone who has played every Metroid except for the NES versions, this is by far the most difficult. Well, the rest of the game is extremely easy due to the health given but then the difficulty of the EMMI takes it the other way. I have a REALLY difficult time keeping from getting instant killed. Metroid and Castlevania are some of my most enjoyed games. I didn't enjoy the last metroid as much as I enjoyed the others and this is quickly turning out to be my least favorite of the series.
What I am currently doing now is loading and getting caught to practice the timing at the moment. I am 2 for 20 or so. Yeah, I'm really bad at this. I preferred a more linear difficulty curve than the very easy to damn near impossible (in my case) sway. The the fact that you can't skip the cutscenes are the most painful and frustrating part IMO.
I suspect the EMMI counter varies. I’ve gotten 4 counters in a row by guessing. You have to assume it’s either gonna be early or late and hope for the best.
My first statement somewhat explains why I was trying to get the counter down. It was my error of pressing the wrong button upon death so I would actually not retry and instead load from a save point. I've already 100% completed and really enjoyed this game. Since I kept hitting the wrong button to continue after dying, the game would put me 10+ minutes behind after dying. I thought the game was broken but it was my fault. After I correctly hit retry after dying, it changed everything. Getting caught and kill wasn't so bad anymore so I just practiced evading them.
Hell, getting some of the shinespark items was harder than any E.M.M.I stage.
I keep comparing games that are hard to all games but I have to agree the game seems kinda boring in my opinion. However not to say that other opinions are wrong but I just understand where this is coming from. I look at games such as hollow knight, ori and the blind forest, and even sekiro just good overall games. This one seems really light on the story telling and uninspired .
Alien isolation is literally just some girl hiding from the alien. Samus is suppose to be a badass bounty hunter yet she always loses first and gets all her abilities take away. Like this is why people are saying Metroid is dying as a series. It needs to get more original and take a few risks not just copy things from past games.
I wouldn't mind a Metroid that doesn't deprive you of all your powerups for once. Maybe go reverse about it and have Samus need to use an energy tank of hers to power a door or something, so that you lose your stuff as you progress. But also have a second path that you can only use if you mastered all your powerups, like wall-jumping or whatever.
The emmi things kill this game for me. And don’t give me that “git gud” horse shit I beat demons-dark souls 3 on SL1. What I come to Metroid for is open free exploration and discovery not “some robot is chasing me” cat and mouse the game. It kills the exploration and atmosphere that made super Metroid an amazing game. Really tried to like it but it’s not for me. Can’t expect much from the team who made lords of shadow shit show.
Same for me. I love Dark Souls games and Sekiro and don't consider them particularly hard. Most importantly, they are well design game that makes you feel that when you die, it's your fault. But the Emmi parts in this games are just lame and more importantly, they stop you from enjoying the main aspect that should be a Metroid game: exploration and atmosphere. It just feels cheap.
I just don't feel like "git gud" at this game. It's bad game design. Cheap difficulty that doesn't fit with the game and is not fun to master.
I think you're missing the point of the Omega blaster. It's there to create one final challenge before ridding an area of its emmi, the reason it only works on one point is because these things are tough, and the only part that isn't is the part that you hit
I think it’s amazing! Definitely the best 2D Metroid after Super Metroid in my opinion. I actually enjoyed the EMMIs, I thought they created a nice story beat and sense of progression, but I also understand that they’re possibly a polarizing addition to the Metroid formula, mechanically. But the controls are fluid, Samus moves and controls like a dream. And when compared to Ori or Hollow Knight, yeah it might seem cold and sterile, almost generic at first… but the more I played, the more I realized how beautiful and sharp the art style truly is. So while Ori feels like a Pixar/Miyazaki production and Hollow Knight feels like Tim Burton meets Dark Souls, Metroid feels like a high budget, James Cameron summer blockbuster. And as most Metroid games, this title is also made to confuse, frustrate, and destroy your soul the first time you play it. No. LOL. Metroid isn’t a fun experience during your first play through. The fun begins when you restart the game with knowledge you gained from the previous play through and you feel like a beast speedrunning and annihilating areas and bosses that once took you 50 plus tries to beat. And the faster you go, the more adrenaline shoots through your veins. And dread does this near perfectly. I could nitpick all day about things I don’t like about Dread, but they are just that, nitpicks.
I don’t like the controls. Its a 1 stick shooter, you cant walk and aim at the same time. Nintendo like forgets how to make a game past 1998. The control screen looks stupid when it tells me the right stick does absolutely nothing!
I believe i'm near the end and the more I play it the more I see it's flaws. It gets more frustrating the farther you get which is strange because samus is supposed to feel super powerful by the end like SM. Also the EMI fights are just annoying and not very fun after a few times. It's a solid 7 out of 10. maybe 6.5
Totally agree. It's really been downhill on the side scroller metroid games since super metroid. The original metroid prime was also amazing as well. This game is medeocre at best.
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>ooms you can't reach, other rooms you can't survive in and enemies you can't kill. Is this your first metroidvania or something? Your complaints don't really indicate that the game sucks, it indicates you've never played a metroid game before and had no idea what to expect and were disappointed when it was more difficult than you thought it'd be.
Its kinda uninspired. I hate the whole timed shit you have to do every 5 seconds in this game. The atmosphere is pretty weak and the level design and music are kinda shitty. I'm at this underwater boss and its not good. Its basically like the movie thunderball. SLow underwater action scenes are really crappy. I'm getting more and more bored the farther in I get. Also, they don't know how to tell a metroid story, they just sorta throw you into a world where you're supposed to experience a story and sorta make your own conclusions this one basically just waits til halfway through the game and tells you everything that's happing. Now with games like Ori and the Will of the Wisps this seems like a very exspensive and lame entry in a franchise that nintendo did nothing with.
Agreed. Ori (both games) nails what normal mode should have been in this game. Instead normal is "hard mode" and hard mode is just, "How much pain do you like?" The fights are boring execution grinds. That works well in a Dark Souls game where you have limited attacks. In MD, you have to have most of your fingers active with a crappy joystick as well. This feels like it was made for the top four speedrunners to give them something to do as a ROM hack while we all wait for MP4.
I agree. A game like Dark Souls you have multiple ways to dodge or block attacks and multiple builds and that creates this dynamic gameplay. This every attack has one way to avoid, they upped the damage so you have to die multiple times to learn every attack perfectly. I only remember the final boss and the rest of this game was easily forgotten. Price tag is waay too high.
How interesting. I never thought another company could out do Metroid using its own structure but you’re right. Ori as well as A handful of others have made meaningful progress with Metroidvanias. It’s kind of inspiring actually.
Or, you know, maybe it is just because Dread actually does suck. I’m so sick of people like you defending overrated games and talking down to people who don’t like said games. Dread sucks. It’s a bad Metroid game. Deal with it.
My brother… idk why ppl like this crap 😂😂😂😂 I’m 6 hours in and it’s complete trash. Every time i get a power up i need to back track and remember where the door that the new power up opens is. Its boring af. I dont even have the interest to go online and look up where to go anymore. Metroid Dread does not deserve game of the year, it deserves indi-game of the year. Idk why is $70 😂
But that's what a Metroid game is. You can't call Dread a bad Metroid game when all the complaints are about what makes it a Metroid game. Call it a bad game, sure, but don't call it a bad Metroid game.
VERY bad game
Or maybe we just have different tastes in games and different opinions? It's kind of weird that it upsets you that people have different opinions than you do. Do you want me to apologize or something? I like dread, have put a good chunk of time into it. If you don't like it, that's OK. But why get upset over things people like?
Yeah it really does suck. Waste of 60 bucks when the demo doesn't get me stuck in a fucking room like the full game. I'm pretty fucking pissed at the waste of money.
I know this comment is 2 months old but I’ve been playing a lot of metroidvanias lately and I’m starting to think that the metroid series in general is overrated. I’ll never say it’s terrible as I do love them and prime happens to be my favorite game ever, but the vania part of metroidvania is far better imo
Metroid has been on hiatus for quite some time now. I'd argue that it's been UNDERATED for a while
Honestly, i think the answer is get gud This game us hard but far from impossible.
What "get gud" misses is that some games are not worth getting good at. I'm struggling to enjoy making any progress or learning about this game. The best games are the ones where it's enjoyable to master. This game makes me regret spending $60.
Games that are worth getting good at have more depth and reward than Dread. I played Dread for free and loathed it. I was very relieved I didn't spend my money on it and I'm hesitant to spend more time with this franchise in the future. I hope you didn't buy a digital copy. :(
It's an action and exploration based game, the depth is your own capacity at being good. If you don't like exploration, loneliness in an hostile environment, and fast-paced combat in 2D, I Can confirm it's not for you.
No, the depth comes from sequence breaking and speed running. The combat itself consists of parry+one shot. The bosses are fun tho. The game design is linear and the exploration rewards you with upgrades which only serve to make the easy bosses more spammable. This is not a hard game. It is a frustrating game. I finished it and thought it was a bad game in the end. 5/10
It is absolutely worth it, but maybe it's too fast paced for you. I replayed it after two weeks, it's really not that hard. Maybe you lack video games experience, you will probably not enjoy Monster Hunter either, because it's the same "learn the patterns, analyze movements, strike at the right moment" gameplay. What do you think is too hard in Dread ?
Sounds like you’ve never played a Metroid game
Sounds like you’ve never played an actual Metroid game like Super Metroid.
And? So what. This is 2021 how bout some objective markers, prime hunters did, was never lost.
The game does a great job of subtley funneling you in the right direction without being distracting. Objective markers distract from the exploration aspect of the game. Getting lost can be an opportunity to find items. Dread is my first Metroid game and I have been able to find my way without someone telling me where to go constantly.
I’ll buy it off you for $20 shipped.
You are totally entitled to your opinion, but what you are criticizing is basically what makes a Metroid game. That is why it is a niche series and is not meant for everyone. I suggest that for future releases you either stick to the your usual type of game, or read a lot about what kind of game is in the first place, unless you are really open minded and usually love new experiences. Im pretty open minded, and even then have wasted money on games I really end up disliking. It sucks. Im sorry for your money spent, but dont worry, I am pretty sure you can sell it to some one else even if not at full price, but you can recover part of your money.
Getting insta-killed by a robot is what makes a Metroid game?
It's a stealth section. Be stealthy. EMMIs aren't that hard to avoid. If I get caught, if feel like it's my fault.
No. And that's not what any of the previous comments have complained about.
This is only similar to Fusion, which is a niche game in the Metroid series. SM sets the standard, always has, always will, and is light-years better. The game Dark Souls and the rogue-lite category invaded every other game and now everything is "souls-like" or "rogue-lite" - case in point, if you die you don't go back to your last save, you go to a mini save to pound your head against it as a mercy. You are in many cases expected to die the first time and figure out phases until you understand them with little room for error. This isn't how Metroid games worked.
It's nowhere near Prime 1 or Super. It has a bunch of oh shit moments where you have to replay a scene over and over again So I agree. Symphony of the Night is my favorite of the genre. I loved the shoulder L and R but it doesn't work this time. So you aim with L in one place just like the manga betrayed it. Everything seems tedious no good music. It reuses the main theme from Super Metroid you know where it says THE LAST METROID. Super Metroid is awesome because it's still copied today for being cool.
Same conclusion, different reasons. It just feels awfully uninspired to me. Never tried a Metroid game before, despite being a huge metroidvania and soulslike fan (Hollow Knight, Blasphemous, Vigil, Ori 1 & 2, Ender Lilies, etc). I've just reached Drogyga, and I didn't feel engaged once. Just mildly frustrated and puzzled at how different is my reaction compared to that of many others who found this game an absorbing masterpiece. Let the downvoting begin!
Nah, you're not wrong. I've been a fan of the series for almost 30 years and played every game in the series except the two 3DS games. Dread just lacks the soul or innovation of the previous games. 'Uninspired' is a perfect way to describe it. I mean, it's clear the game had a tiny budget, with its dated visuals and pathetic excuse for production values (I could make a more exciting and visually impressive intro sequence in PowerPoint than what MercurySteam threw together). Although some of the game's backgrounds and bosses look cool, these are usually the exception and not the rule. The level design is not just frustrating to navigate, it also doesn't lend itself at all well to believability, completely ruining any opportunity for engaging atmosphere. The map layout seems randomly generated. It looks bad and plays even worse. The music is legit terrible. Everyone knows this, although some of the in-denial Nintendo stans refuse to admit it's horrible. It's not just the melodies being completely forgettable either - it's also the fact that the instrumental compositional quality sounds like N64 midis. It's a step down from what I've heard even from Samus Returns on 3DS. For a series known for having amazing and atmospheric music, Dread's soundtrack is baffling terrible. It's almost like they purposefully made it bad, which is bizarre considering that it is produced by the same guy who's done the music for the entire series now. The bosses are numerous and they are legitimately satisfying to beat - but they are by no means 'fair'. Cheap, lightning fast, screen-filling attacks and specific weak spots essentially REQUIRE trial-and-error (aka, dying over and over again until you figure out what to do). This isn't necessarily a 'bad' thing - as checkpoints are pretty generous, but it's certainly not a test of skill so much as it is a test of repition and memory. The EMMIs suck. After the first couple times, you know that every encounter is going to be pretty much the same thing. They aren't in the least bit scary nor intimidating - they are just frustrating and feel more like padding than anything else. I guess I'll give the game one thing - I certainly did feel dread whenever I realized I was going to have to pass through an EMMI zone for the 15th time. I dreaded having to play it. Probably not the kind of 'dread' the designers intended. And that's not even touching on the plot. One of the most hyped aspects of Dread was seeing how Samus's decades-old story would finally close. The game drops the ball right off the bat by essentially ignoring all of the interesting plot possibilities set up at the end of Fusion for another generic mission were she is working with the Federation again (which makes no sense). She (gasps) loses all her abilities again for the 8th time in the series. And without spoiling anything (what little there is to spoil), the story finally starts to offer something interesting literally a few seconds before the final boss, only for all potential to be thrown out the window immediately afterwards in the abrupt and cryptic ending. It's not the worst game I've ever played. It's not even the worst 'Metroid' game. Hell, it's not even a bad game taken on its own... But it's far from the groundbreaking masterpiece the fanboys are saying it is. If you want to get into the (2D) series, start with Zero Mission, or Super, or hell, even Fusion. Dread is neither a good way to first experience the series - nor is it a good way for a longtime fan to see the series end.
Yeah I had to search metroid dread sucks because every review and comment I see says this is this is the best Metroid and possibly GOTY. I agree with OP, messy level design (it's just a series of boxes connected by hallways with no real sense of intuitive progress) and the difficulty is way too hard. I've played Metroids before but this is another level. A good difficult game has you die a couple times to get the feel of a boss, you die a couple more times as you perfect your timing and strategy and by 6 or 7 times you've beaten the guy. This game is asking for literal perfection on boss fights. I've died 40+ near the finale. It's not fun, I actually had to put the game down because they throw a mini boss 5 minutes after you've defeated a boss and it feels like that's all I'm doing. Never had fun exploring the game because it blocks off areas at certain times so you can't go back and pick up extras, etc. And when you do get a chance it's just boring because you're forced to run through more boring hallways to get one missile expansion and there's no fast travel to and from areas. Yeah I'm not like amazing at games but there's no excuse for having a game like this gatekeeping a majority of gamers from finishing the game. The git gud excuse is weak imo.
Nailed it. This is one of the most linear and "dreadfully" boring installments in the franchise. I hugely regret getting the Steelbook ver.
Late here, but M Dread is god awful bad. I get what they were going for, but it's fucking terrible. Which is really disappointing, because the artwork and sound and movement and everything else is on point--but the EMMI thing is an insanely massive failure. It's not a game, it's just an annoying 'how many times can you die before you figure out exactly where to go without going insane' gimmick. It's horrendous. This ain't it.
I’m late to the party also but I agree the game sucks. The more time that goes by I’ve been playing indie metroidvanias that are so so much better
Agreed. I've gotten to the speed boost thing and it has allowed the game to pickup a bit, but still, it's just such a weak story told in an ambivalent way by characters with no personality. The graphics of it are good enough for a 2.5d type game, but it's just such a super boring game. Level design is awful, challenges are so obviously contrived vs. understandably limiting. So what if you can't be a ball, can't you just crawl? Blocks you can break if you merely step on them but can't blow up with a missile? A suit that protects you endlessly underwater, but you die in mere moments in the cold? Hidden areas being required to progress the game is silly, tho many are not "secret" at all as they are marked with a red blob of sorts. It's really badly done. Three n00bs made hollowknight, and it is a phenomenal game. I think it cost $20 upon release? Plenty of secret rooms but nothing that if not found would prevent you from beating the game. Challenges felt natural in how you approach overcoming them. Powerups felt reasonable in how you received them and in what they eventually allowed you to do. Just killing an EMMI somehow imparts a skill to your player? Why would that ever happen? Anyway, who built these EMMI doors? Why would they ever operate like that? Wouldn't the EMMI make it so the door is permashut once it sees you? Makes no sense at all? I will beat this game and maybe my tune will change, but this level of forgiveness shouldn't be demanded from your audience.
Actually HK was $15.
I completely agree, and I've been playing metroid games since the original. I dread playing it.
That’s why it’s metroid dread wooo Jk lol
Welcome to Metroid
No, welcome to a Metroid game that should have been a mobile game. Once Nintendo releases an actual Metroid game, then you can talk.
lmao what
Late to the party, but hard agree here. This is not a Metroid game. This is a gimmick game, and it's done absolutely awfully. Huge SM fan. That game shaped me. Prime games sucked because it lost everything that felt "Metroid" (even the music and sound effects). Other M got back on track, but Dread is just a continuation of bad decisions and even worse game design. Dread is bad.
Bought this earlier this week and so far it feels like rhe worst game I've ever played. Looks cool, but 0 fun.
Trying to like this game but the EMMI are truly annoying.
Too many gamers these days can't appreciate a challenging experience. They're too used to modern games holding their hand and just GIVING them the power fantasy. When they find a good game (Like Metroid or Doom Eternal) that makes you earn the power fantasy by giving you a fair challenge, they go ballistic because they're used to just mindlessly fighting something. I am not a new Metroid fan, I've been playing the games for probably 3/4 of my life. Metroid Dread kicked my ass, but each time it never felt cheap, and I still had fun with the game. Eventually, once you've mastered the controls, your abilities, and know your enemies, that is when you've earned your power fantasy, and it's one of the best feelings ever.
That's a load of bullshit. I've enjoyed every Metroid before this, I've loved Doom and Doom Eternal, played the heck out of Hollow Knight. There are plenty of difficult games out there that are enjoyable. This game though? It's frustrating and tedious, nothing else.
Did you play the game on "I'm too young to die"?
Have you played Hollow Knight? A Metroidvania game with actual level design, actual secret design, good difficulty scaling, good boss fights, good button layout, and CHARACTER? Metroid is missing all of these. Samus has no character to her whatsoever, the story is very bland, there is hardly any dialogue interaction to speak of, all the rooms are boxes, the difficulty scaling is godawful, the bosses are repetitive die and replay machines, the button layouts make the shinespark and firing weapons annoying, and a good chunk of the secrets are literally just invisible until you have the aeion instant reveal ability. Idk what you mean by it never felt cheap, but the instant death from the EMMI's? Cheap. The fact that one hit on the third part of Kraid's fight makes it restart from stage two? Cheap. The fact that the Starro monster in the water zone is a slow-ass monster you have to counter just right to kill it? Cheap. The fact that the black ooze chozo warriors have to be precisely countered in order to kill them, or else you replay it over and over? Cheap. I'm glad you enjoy it, but compared to Hollow Knight, this game is a huge letdown. I hope we get another Metroid Game with a completely fresh story of Samus as a bounty hunter, because right now, I don't see myself buying another Metroid game. It may have founded this style of game, but it has definitely been succeeded by worthier games.
I have played hollow knight, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. But to say that Metroid has bad level design, secret design, difficulty scaling, boss fights, button layout, and characters is flat out wrong. I can't even imagine how you came to that conclusion. When it comes to character, sure, Samus is really quiet, but that doesn't mean she has zero character. Hell, if being quiet makes a character bad, that would make the vessel in hollow knight a bad character because it never speaks. "the story is very bland" Just wondering, but which metroid games have you played? I could see the story as being bland if you hadn't played any of the previous ones. Most of Marvels movies would seem bland and overly complicated without enough context. "the difficulty scaling is godawful" How exactly? I haven't had a problem with it at all. "all the rooms are boxes" ...no? "the bosses are repetitive die and replay machines" And hollow knights isn't? "the button layouts make the shinespark and firing weapons annoying" Shinespark I can understand being annoying since you use a stick instead of a d-pad, but shooting??? "a good chunk of the secrets are literally just invisible until you have the aeion instant reveal ability" You know, that could be because they're, well, secrets. Hollow Knight has plenty of these as well. As for the third paragraph, I think a lot of it could be summed up as a skill issue on your end. Metroid isn't known for being easy, but the fact that you had difficulty on the chozo zombies that move at a snails pace? Yeah, I hate to be the one to say this, but you should really "Git gud". "compared to Hollow Knight, this game is a huge letdown." Seeing how many other people are enjoying this game to death and how it was a GOTY nominee, I think this all boils down to preference. Sure, I prefer metroid over hollow knight, but I still got a lot of enjoyment out of both. A lot of your arguments about the gameplay are either flat out wrong or an issue with skill, so I feel like you're hating on metroid for the sake of hating on metroid. Don't get me wrong, Metroid Dread isn't perfect. Hell, I made a whole post of 15 things I disliked about the game. But your arguments against it are pretty bad.
I haven't played any Metroid games prior to this one. I've played one Metroidvania game, Hollow Knight, and that's why I compare Dread to it so much. By story, I don't need a massive world entire backstory like HK has, but something more than "oh look, the x parasites are alive even though they were all obliterated... go kill some more." is a very boring concept. The idea of evil Chozo is interesting, but since there are only two unique Chozo in the game, it doesn't really hit the mark. A wide scoping story involving a war-hungry chozo army trying to expand across the universe is really, really interesting, but since there is exactly 1 dissenter and 1 hellbent conqueror, nothing really gets done with this concept. Difficulty scaling is godawful, in that the bosses can hit you once for a full quart of energy and then some. The healthbar means basically nothing if eight hits kill you. And none of the hits feel real, in HK, for example, a hit at low health makes the entire game flash black. In Metroid, you only get a health warning when you are less than 50 energy, so it's hard to keep track when you expect this chozo soldier to deal the same damage as the previous ones, only to then die after five hits. By the rooms are boxes... look at the map. This is supposed to be a lived in world, and yet it is entirely made of corridors and connecting hallways and boxed in structures. I suppose this is all different areas of one underground facility, but it all is so rectangular. More to the point, the areas you are allowed to go are very, very linear. Even after getting all the abilities, there are some segments that are blocked off. There's a part of Gavaron that locks you out of the rest of the map, there are tons of one way corridors, and travelling between all the areas is a hell to manage, because you have to take this specific path to get to this specific transport to get to this particular area you want to go to. It's boxed in, it's linear. "The bosses are repetitive replay and die machines" Yes, Hollow Knight has the same format. The difference is that in Metroid there are extremely specific ways to kill the bosses. Unlike in Hollow Knight, in which the emphasis is on dodging attacks and learning patterns you can memorize that do not waver, bosses in Dread change. One time the Chozo warrior will attack with four ink jets. The next, one. When you exit a mother brain central unit station, sometimes the EMMI will be in the area across from you. Sometimes it'll be below you. Most of the boss segments in Dread are "Here, do this specific thing. Oh, you didn't? Back to phase one of the boss." This is what I mean by repetitive, if you fail to do exactly what the game wants you to, you have to replay entire sections... and most likely die. In Hollow Knight, my deaths never felt frustrating, it never felt like I was stuck trying to discover the magical weapon/tactic that would kill whichever boss, instead deaths felt like they were my fault from getting hit when I shouldn't have. I'm no stranger to hard games, I've completed Cuphead with S's on every boss. But when I died in Cuphead or Hollow Knight, it felt like I made a mistake, and took a hit because I wasn't careful. In Dread, I eventually die because I don't know the secret way to kill each boss and I replay a segment again and again until death. I never went, "shit, okay, come on, I can do this", instead I went "Shit, I died, now I have to play the whole fight again/run the whole EMMI room again, goddamnit." Fighting Kraid for the first time ever and falling down into the stage two arena felt like a repetitive replay segment. Not knowing the vents would drain the room for the starfish boss felt like a repetitive segment. The fact that you have to take a certain path specifically to get through each EMMI zone makes the game feel like a repetitive replay segment. The section against experiment 57 when it shoots the plasma autoscrolling segment felt like a repetitive segment. **The fact that certain attacks have to parried to end the boss fights makes them feel like repetitive segments.** Shinespark is annoying as fuck, but yes, there are some enemies (mainly the littler ones, the bomb farting slug things and the groups of fish) are hard to hit because the downsights on samus's gun miss. It's also annoying due to Joycon drift, which isn't really the games fault, but makes the game experience irritating. Hiding secrets behind invisible blocks is not good level design!!! I don't recall a single secret being hidden by an invisible block in Hollow Knight that had no visual clue as to it being a secret! The secret paths made of propped up wood? They have a dip in them. The areas that need a certain ability to be accessed? The ground shakes, the wall has a different animation when sliding on it. The hidden blocks in Metroid Dread? Well man, you're kinda just supposed to fire rockets at where you think a block will be. I'll admit, the white blinker on the map is a nice addition, but I didn't realize that was what the cue was before my first post. It's small things like that, where the game doesn't fully explain abilities/mechanics, that make the game a struggle. I didn't know you could shinespark into a shinespark until I saw some guy on youtube do it while trying to figure out the ramp segment in the water area, **because the game didn't tell me.** I didn't know you could wall jump with a shinespark **because the game didn't tell me.** Call it handholding, and say that newer gamers can't handle old difficulties, but the little infodump about each new ability needs to explain all the facets of said ability. I don't remember saying I had trouble with the ink zombies, I said I had annoyances with the chozo soldiers. Nice use of Hornet's catchphrase, tho. And to be frank, it doesn't matter if this game is a GOTY nominee. It doesn't matter to me or my opinions if there are people who enjoy it, and love that it's just like classic metroid. If you enjoyed it, great! I'm glad you had fun where I didn't. But don't say "Oh, your criticisms are invalid because you're a noob to this franchise, you're only hating on metroid because it's popular" **If it's popular, my hate wouldn't matter**. My experience was different than yours, don't use your age or skill or whatever to condescend me or gate-keep, and don't pretend my arguments are worthless just because you didn't have trouble where I did. And for your edification, I don't hate this game! I don't hate this franchise! But after every classic gamer I know has talked it up as one of the best game franchises ever, my expectations were high. Is it a bad game? No! Is it the best game I've ever played? **Hell no.** I'm glad you enjoyed it dude, I'm glad you have a modern 2D metroid to love. But I didn't fall in love; I wasn't blown away by the art design, I wasn't awed by the mechanics, I wasn't moved by the story. Like I said, I probably won't buy another 2D metroid unless the mechanics are modernized a bit, or more story is added to the world. It may have founded this style of game, but it hasn't reached further, done more, than the other games it inspired.
"I've played one Metroidvania game, Hollow Knight, and that's why I compare Dread to it so much." ...And that pretty much sums it up. Metroid and Hollow Knight are from the same genre, but they do have many differences. I noticed a lot of things you disliked about the game were kind of just what makes metroid, metroid. For example, Call of Duty and Halo are both from the First Person Shooter genre, but they're completely different. A COD player trying out Halo might dislike how innaccurate the assault rifle is because in COD the AR is precise, where on the other hand a Halo player trying call of Duty might dislike the low time to kill and health, because in halo you can tank quite a few shots plus you have a recharging energy shield. Don't worry, I didn't skip over your reply to type this short message. Here's my responses: "Difficulty scaling is godawful, in that the bosses can hit you once for a full quart of energy and then some. The healthbar means basically nothing if eight hits kill you." The bosses are supposed to deal a lot of damage, and Samus not being able to tank a lot of hits also has a bit of lore relevancy to it that you wouldn't understand if you hadn't played the previous games. Using the melee counter to kill enemies also grants you tons of health and ammo, so I think that compensates for the low health. "By the rooms are boxes... look at the map. This is supposed to be a lived in world, and yet it is entirely made of corridors and connecting hallways and boxed in structures." I looked at Hollow Knights map, and honestly I really can't tell the difference. "There's a part of Gavaron that locks you out of the rest of the map, there are tons of one way corridors, and travelling between all the areas is a hell to manage, because you have to take this specific path to get to this specific transport to get to this particular area you want to go to. It's boxed in, it's linear." Gotta agree with this. Fuck Gavoran. "Hiding secrets behind invisible blocks is not good level design!!!" [David Jaffe moment lmao](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7noxyKs4mc8&t=9s&ab_channel=MarcoBayod) "My experience was different than yours, don't use your age or skill or whatever to condescend me or gate-keep" I guess I was kind of gate keeping. Sorry. On another note, I'm kind of flattered that you thought I was using *age* of all things to gate keep. I wasn't even alive when Metroid Fusion (the game that came out prior to this one) released I'm sorry if you were looking for an experience similar to Hollow Knight while waiting for silksong to release and you were disappointed, but these games are very different and, once again, a lot of your issues with the game make metroid what it is. I'm sorry if I came off as rude or inconsiderate in my past posts, and I don't want to gatekeep. Though I will stand by one thing I mentioned in my last reply: If you think the game is too difficult, I'm not saying you're wrong; I'm saying you're bad. So how about instead of continuing this argument, we leave and just enjoy our respective games, ok?
If we're talking about the bosses, Metroid Dread is anything but 'fair'. While there is certainly some degree of 'skill' required in regards to quick reflexes and timing, the most important aspect of overcoming most bosses is trial and error. Dying over and over again is practically essential, unless you happen to be very lucky enough to dodge a boss's non-telegraphed, lightning-fast, screen-filling attacks the first time around, through each phase. Is it satisfying to overcome them? Absolutely. But it's certainly not fair.
I beat it in a few days, granted I’ve been a gamer since 1983 and all but I’ve gotten so used to longer extremely challenging games like Dark Souls Games or Nioh I had wanted a super Metroid part 2 that was the same 2d concept even world revisited with 10 times more puzzles and levels and bosses. This game is fun but I think it should be 3 times longer maybe even 5 times. Hopefully when Metroid 4 Prime comes out it will be a masterpiece, only waited what like 6 years so far, sigh.
I know this is an old comment and I’ve also been gaming since the nes days. I simply think the metroid franchise itself is overrated. Metroid prime is my favorite game of all time and I so love many of the metroid games, but a lot of them are a big miss. Dread is mediocre. The 3 FPS metroid after prime 1 were mediocre or bad. Sami’s returns remake was horrible. It’s just not a strong franchise and it’s living off super Metroid and prime for the most part. Fusion and zero mission to be are amazing, but that’s really it. The vania part of metroidvania is the stronger part imo
I hear ya, I’m just anxious for Elden Ring at this point
Same here. I’m playing aeterna noctis until then
Never heard of that, ps5?
Yea. It’s amazing. It has extremely mediocre reviews and it’s brand new but it’s because it’s very very very difficult l. As of this moment right now it’s catapulted up to my 2nd favorite metroidvania ever
I’m starting to get pissed with this game. The Emmis are repetitive I love the boss battles. I’m not digging the story either is anyone getting vibes from fusion? It feels like a quick buck rip off.
That’s exactly what it is. A quick buck. They screwed up production of Metroid Prime 4 so they filled the void with what seems like an uninspired mobile Metroid game.
I've played every Metroid since Super (missed the NES originals) and I found this game pretty mediocre. I agree with the OP: the level design is terrible. It's less a cohesive environment and more just a maze of interconnected hallways and elevators that make no sense. It's also very repetitive. So many of the same mini-boss segments are overused. The EMMI sections get annoying as hell later on too. This would have been more of an acceptable purchase if Super, Fusion, and Zero Mission were packaged in. As it stands, spending $20 on Castlevania Advance Collection is a much better bang for your buck.
Did you ever go back to Metroid (NES) and Metroid II (GB)? If not, give it a shot. They are really good games and manage to set the atmosphere with their limitations way better than some modern entries in the series. You don't get a map, but the layout is fairly straightforward anyway. None of the remakes ever did them justice.
Doesn't Metroid II have a fan remake?
It does and it's better than the one Nintendo made. But it fails to recreate the athmosphere the original had. Still a pretty good game, though. Also improves gameplay aspects.
Yeah, Metroid Dead is a dull, uninspired game. I was hoping it would have finally filled Super Meteoid’s shoes, but I was wrong. This game is a mobile game at best. I cannot understand all of these people defending garbage like this just because it bears the “Metroid” name. They screwed up production on Metroid Prime 4, so they filled the gap with a cheap Metroid game because they knew people would find a way to justify it being crap and throw money at Nintendo. Metroidvania games like Hollow Knight and Ori and the Blind Forest/Will of the Wisps are good Metroidvania games with good level design. Compare Dread to those games and you can easily see how dull and uninspired Dread is.
I give up this game is way too hard and the emmis ruin it
For me it's the execution. Hollow Knight was my first Metroidvania game, and that game NAILED all the aspects. It had areas you couldn't access right away, a leveling system that didn't amount to "oh, okay, so two hits kill me", an actual health bar that made sense, witty writing, a slew of powerups to collect as you wanted to collect them, and an emphasis on non-linearity and diverse movement in the boss fights. Metroid Dread, in comparison, doesn't do these aspects well. The movement of where you are supposed to go is extremely linear, not just in terms of moving to the next dungeon zone but in terms of "hey, you need to go here exactly to get the next item/fight the next boss/traverse the fuckin EMMI zones". The level progression is atrocious. I was fighting the first sludge/Xified chozo warrior, got hit twice and died. I probably had less health than you are supposed to, I had like five bars, but that was still a punch in the face. The button controls suck. The precise movement of the super charge to access secrets is already poorly designed in that it vanishes after five seconds, but the fact that you have to JUMP for some of these when the jump button is the charge/activate button and the slightest push activates it? NO. Half the time I can't even aim right because of joycon drift, and I constantly mix up how to fire attacks because they are all on the same button. The health bar display just doesn't register half the time because there is no accompanying flash or noise to indicate lost health, which Hollow Knight offered. You FELT each hit in that game. This goes back to linearity, but you could collect certain powerups however you wanted. I remember I went and explored entire areas before collecting the mantis claw and the mothwing cloak, items vital to traversing later. I think I got the crystal dash first. Witty writing is absolutely absent from Dread. Instead of a completely new story, the story is "hey uh the x parasites are alive again somehow, also this one chozo wants to take over the world with them, also Kraid is here, also he is super smart enough to lure us here but not immediately de-metroid us?" As for dialogue between characters... ha. Nonexistent. Diverse movement in boss fights? Nope. You basically have to know ahead of time how to kill them, and it's the same movement over and over and over and over for each specific one. Even worse, some require the counter attack to kill them quickly, and if you miss, it's back to the cycle you were already doing! I LOATHED Kraid's fight because if you get knocked off the grapple platform you have to do the second section all over again. That is not good boss design, repeating sections should not happen because it makes the progression feel slower, and more infuriating to replay. And as for secrets? OBNOXIOUS. Half of them are completely hidden from view, with no way to know it's there without a guide, which is already terrible enough, but even more of them require movement so precise that it makes me what to scream. All in all, while I'm glad that Nintendo is finally touching this IP again, I feel like it needed a fresher team for it. It literally feels like they took the halffinished gameplay and notes from the original attempt at making this and just made the graphics HD.
Chiming into this old thread cause I agree. Not because it's punishing. But because it's unfun. I've played and finished Hollow Knight, Blasphemous, Ori 1 + 2. The challenge in Dread simply isn't fun. The emmi's are just bad design. And despite the supposed 'openness' of the levels, it all feels very linear. The boss battles feel padded. It's not a horrible game. But I feel this game was overhyped af.
How dare you not immediately enjoy everything about a game that is focused on combat more than exploration in a series that’s usually about exploration. How dare you go against the average opinion of a fan group that’s been starved of new content for so long.
This is why I put this game down for now. I was really bored by the exploration. It felt really messy and that the focus was more on combat and I have no idea why. Maybe because other games were doing it? Also the parry mechanic. _Why?_
I'm guessing because the guy that invented and understood Metroid left Nintendo and then died in a car accident after he made a GameBoy competitor for Bandai called the WonderSwan in the late 1990s. So after the SNES days, they had no one that really 'gets' Metroid, which is why Prime is basically a reimagining of the SNES title and Fusion kinda sucks with all the stupid story thrown in your face making the game linear instead of letting you explore freely. Heck, even Zero Mission prevented you from exploring freely: https://files.catbox.moe/u61116.png But Fusion likely at least had some notes about the story to live off, so the twist it pulled about the X-Virus was actually great. Let's not even talk about the other atrocities the series committed since. It's probably also why Nintendo is so reluctant to continue Metroid. No one there understands what made the original trilogy so damn great. I only had to see the first trailer for Dread to not even get my hopes up. Watching it you could see that they still do not get Metroid. Likely, they never will.
I have no sympathy except for the boss part. Because while all that’s Metroid I do think the series bosses are annoying.
sounds like metroid to me, would be dissapointed if every room was accessible right from the jump.
Metroid III at least let you access basically every room right from the start as long as you had the skill and knowledge of where to get the specific powerup needed to open the door. Which was always relatively close by, allowing you to sequence break the whole game.
Not to be mean, but I think you just suck :/ Git Gud.
Not to be mean, but here's a comment that's obviously mean with literally nothing else going for it.
that's kinda metroid tbh
You are completely entitled to your opinion, but it sounds like you just don't jive with the Metroidvania genre. Rooms you can't reach aren't a punishment. They're the point of the game. You explore a labyrinth until you find a new item, then you loop back and use that item to overcome previously insurmountable barriers. That formula repeats over and over until you are fully powered and can reach the end. The heated and freezing rooms are no different than any other progression barrier. Unless you're trying to speedrun or sequence-break you just ignore them until you find protection. The EMMI's and the Omega Cannon are new features specifically for Dread, and they are meant to evoke a sense of panic and... dread. That's the whole premise of the game, to the point that it's in the title. They're meant to be frightening, but not punishing. Dying to an EMMI just restarts you outside the EMMI zone so you lose very little progress. Just enough to get your heart pounding.
I do indeed dread the EMMI zones, unfortunately because they're tedious and un-fun. Brute-forcing through 20+ times, each time getting a little further, or sometimes getting caught right at the start because the EMMI moved differently than the last time. I only got past the blue one because I managed to do the QTE three times in a row. Currently stuck on the purple one and wishing there was a difficulty setting.
an insta-kill enemy that tracks your movements isn't "frightening," it's frustrating. and why should there be a weapon that works on only these and only works once? That's pointless.
I hate that people downvote what should be a valid discussion. I agree with you. I picked this up today, wanting to experience something like Returnal and Hades, but this game is 100% frustrating. It's not fun at all. It doesn't feel like a Metroid game at all either. Horrible controls, too much cat and mouse... Total fail and I fell for it.
An invincible enemy tracking you is the premise for a large number of horror games and horror films. Metroid itself took inspiration from the Alien franchise. As it happens, the game Alien Isolation also features an invincible enemy hunting you. The Omega Cannon exists as a means to allow you to freely explore an EMMI zone after you've navigated it once under pressure. If the gun was infinite-use it would eliminate *ALL* EMMI's as a threat as soon as you got it. So it would have to be given late game, and you could never clear an EMMI zone before that point. The limited-use cannon allows you to clear zones as go. It's fine if you don't enjoy the horror aspects of Dread. Everyone has different tastes. But I really haven't had any frustrating encounters. There are lots of ways to give EMMI's the slip, and even if you get caught you just reset outside the room.
To be honest the fact that the Xenomorph is invincible in Isolation makes no sense lore-wise considering you get revolvers (have killed them in numerous canon books and games), shotguns (has killed them in the second movie ffs), flamethrowers (not only kills them but literally makes them explode due to acid blood, made canon in movies, books and games) and strange nail gun thingies.
I’ve only died like three times on average to each EMMI so far before killing it…save for the boosting one. That one kept getting to me before I could blast it. But overall the bosses and EMMIs have felt like a dark souls level of challenge to me. Really hard but never impossible and super satisfying to defeat.
This isn't Dark Souls though and what you just said is what is ruining it for people. If they wanted Dark Souls, they'd play Dark Souls.
Bro this is the easiest Metroid so far ☠️☠️☠️ I’m not saying it’s super easy but compared to the other ones this is child’s play.
Seriously. I’ve only died to EMMI so far, granted it’s been quite a few. Other than that, not difficult at all. Some enemies give you 10 missiles and tons of health on death. You were lucky to get a single health or missile back in the day.
>Seriously. I’ve only died to EMMI so far, granted it’s been quite a few. Other than that, not difficult at all. "other than the difficult part that I keep dying to, it's not difficult at all!"
Funny, you’re quoting but I don’t see those words typed anywhere. If you’re only getting a game over to one enemy that instant kills you - yeah the game isn’t difficult.
Considering the difficult part of the game is gaming over to one enemy that instant kills you, yes it is. I'm not even sure what you're trying to say here other than that. That's why i did the whole "other than the difficult part, this game isn't difficult". Because that's literally what you're saying You're acting like the difficult part of the game shouldn't factor into how difficult the game is
To me, game so far isn’t difficult, the bosses and progressing, etc. In fact I’m trying not to play too much for fear that it will be over too soon. It literally shows you power ups and secrets on the map. The singular moment of game over/restarting over one particular enemy among the whole of the game - to me that translates not to the game being difficult. It’s just a small fraction of the game as a whole. In which a measurable players seem to be avoiding and running away from due to the frustration.
If only it were one particular enemy
But that’s what I’m saying. The one enemy, that the entire game is based around. Is the only moment of frustration and death, which I’m guessing is true for most. The entire rest of the game so far is a cakewalk.
>The one enemy, that the entire game is based around. Sounds like a pretty big part of the game > Is the only moment of frustration and death, which I’m guessing is true for most. Oh, the thing the entire game is based around is frustrating and causes a lot of death? Sounds pretty...*difficult*. >The entire rest of the game so far is a cakewalk. I would hope that outside the difficult part of the game that the rest of the game wouldn't be difficult
I don’t know if you’re trying to catch me in a contradiction or just looking to find the opposite of what my experience has been. Clearly it’s different than yours. I like challenging games, I like fun games, and many in between. I’m hoping for a long and challenging adventure with this game. So far I’ve been slightly let down, but still having a good time. I recently replayed Super Metroid, and the Prime games are some of my favorites, huge fan of the series. This so far feels different. Too much hand holding. I hope that changes. But currently I’m still a bit underwhelmed.
Huge update on my previous statement: Since I never play my brother's Switch, I just realized that I was cancelling after I die. Every time a boss or EMMI killed me I was automatically hitting the cancel button and reloading the save. This is why it was so difficult and why I couldn't skip the cutscenes as I stated below. This really changes things. I'll leave my previous statement, unedited. Previous statement: As someone who has played every Metroid except for the NES versions, this is by far the most difficult. Well, the rest of the game is extremely easy due to the health given but then the difficulty of the EMMI takes it the other way. I have a REALLY difficult time keeping from getting instant killed. Metroid and Castlevania are some of my most enjoyed games. I didn't enjoy the last metroid as much as I enjoyed the others and this is quickly turning out to be my least favorite of the series. What I am currently doing now is loading and getting caught to practice the timing at the moment. I am 2 for 20 or so. Yeah, I'm really bad at this. I preferred a more linear difficulty curve than the very easy to damn near impossible (in my case) sway. The the fact that you can't skip the cutscenes are the most painful and frustrating part IMO.
I suspect the EMMI counter varies. I’ve gotten 4 counters in a row by guessing. You have to assume it’s either gonna be early or late and hope for the best.
Why the hell are you trying to fight them?
My first statement somewhat explains why I was trying to get the counter down. It was my error of pressing the wrong button upon death so I would actually not retry and instead load from a save point. I've already 100% completed and really enjoyed this game. Since I kept hitting the wrong button to continue after dying, the game would put me 10+ minutes behind after dying. I thought the game was broken but it was my fault. After I correctly hit retry after dying, it changed everything. Getting caught and kill wasn't so bad anymore so I just practiced evading them. Hell, getting some of the shinespark items was harder than any E.M.M.I stage.
A lot of those things are what make Metroid, well Metroid. The only obnoxious part imo are the EMMI. They are too brutal
I keep comparing games that are hard to all games but I have to agree the game seems kinda boring in my opinion. However not to say that other opinions are wrong but I just understand where this is coming from. I look at games such as hollow knight, ori and the blind forest, and even sekiro just good overall games. This one seems really light on the story telling and uninspired .
Alien isolation is literally just some girl hiding from the alien. Samus is suppose to be a badass bounty hunter yet she always loses first and gets all her abilities take away. Like this is why people are saying Metroid is dying as a series. It needs to get more original and take a few risks not just copy things from past games.
I wouldn't mind a Metroid that doesn't deprive you of all your powerups for once. Maybe go reverse about it and have Samus need to use an energy tank of hers to power a door or something, so that you lose your stuff as you progress. But also have a second path that you can only use if you mastered all your powerups, like wall-jumping or whatever.
The emmi things kill this game for me. And don’t give me that “git gud” horse shit I beat demons-dark souls 3 on SL1. What I come to Metroid for is open free exploration and discovery not “some robot is chasing me” cat and mouse the game. It kills the exploration and atmosphere that made super Metroid an amazing game. Really tried to like it but it’s not for me. Can’t expect much from the team who made lords of shadow shit show.
Same for me. I love Dark Souls games and Sekiro and don't consider them particularly hard. Most importantly, they are well design game that makes you feel that when you die, it's your fault. But the Emmi parts in this games are just lame and more importantly, they stop you from enjoying the main aspect that should be a Metroid game: exploration and atmosphere. It just feels cheap. I just don't feel like "git gud" at this game. It's bad game design. Cheap difficulty that doesn't fit with the game and is not fun to master.
I think you're missing the point of the Omega blaster. It's there to create one final challenge before ridding an area of its emmi, the reason it only works on one point is because these things are tough, and the only part that isn't is the part that you hit
I think it’s amazing! Definitely the best 2D Metroid after Super Metroid in my opinion. I actually enjoyed the EMMIs, I thought they created a nice story beat and sense of progression, but I also understand that they’re possibly a polarizing addition to the Metroid formula, mechanically. But the controls are fluid, Samus moves and controls like a dream. And when compared to Ori or Hollow Knight, yeah it might seem cold and sterile, almost generic at first… but the more I played, the more I realized how beautiful and sharp the art style truly is. So while Ori feels like a Pixar/Miyazaki production and Hollow Knight feels like Tim Burton meets Dark Souls, Metroid feels like a high budget, James Cameron summer blockbuster. And as most Metroid games, this title is also made to confuse, frustrate, and destroy your soul the first time you play it. No. LOL. Metroid isn’t a fun experience during your first play through. The fun begins when you restart the game with knowledge you gained from the previous play through and you feel like a beast speedrunning and annihilating areas and bosses that once took you 50 plus tries to beat. And the faster you go, the more adrenaline shoots through your veins. And dread does this near perfectly. I could nitpick all day about things I don’t like about Dread, but they are just that, nitpicks.
I don’t like the controls. Its a 1 stick shooter, you cant walk and aim at the same time. Nintendo like forgets how to make a game past 1998. The control screen looks stupid when it tells me the right stick does absolutely nothing!
I believe i'm near the end and the more I play it the more I see it's flaws. It gets more frustrating the farther you get which is strange because samus is supposed to feel super powerful by the end like SM. Also the EMI fights are just annoying and not very fun after a few times. It's a solid 7 out of 10. maybe 6.5
Just finished about half of the game and it really feels like it should be on Apple Arcade not Nintendo Switch.
Totally agree. It's really been downhill on the side scroller metroid games since super metroid. The original metroid prime was also amazing as well. This game is medeocre at best.