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Metroid Dread: Good Things Come to Those Who Wait

The Metroid series is a real standout from most of Nintendo’s in-house franchises. While most Nintendo series are bright and colorful and family-friendly, Metroid is dark and moody, and oftentimes scary. Most Nintendo series forego narrative in favor of pure gameplay, while Metroid has an ongoing storyline and a clear arc for protagonist Samus Aran to follow. Most depressing of all, while most first-party Nintendo series are either clearly dead-and-buried or see frequent installments, Metroid exists in this excruciating middle ground. At times, the series gets attention, only for it to die out for several years at a time. Despite all of the critical acclaim that the series gets, the sales often don’t back it up (fun fact, a title like Super Mario Land on the Game Boy has sold about as much if not more than the entire Metroid series combined), leading to longtime Metroid fans often starving for more content. Following Metroid Fusion’s release in 2002, the series has since danced with either the Metroid Prime subseries (itself set in-between the first two Metroid games), or interquels like Metroid: Other M. For those wishing for a true continuation of the main storyline, it has been 19 long years…but we’re finally here. The long-rumored, often-thought cancelled Metroid Dread…is real. Development of Project Dread has reached the final stages of completion. So let’s start the mission.

THE GALAXY IS AT PEACE…?

Dread opens with a recap of the events of Metroid Fusion. With Samus having eradicated all living Metroids, a new threat emerges: the X Parasite. Gelatinous creatures that can infect, kill, and then replicate any living creature, complete with absorbing memories, Metroids were their sole predators. Samus herself nearly died due to an X infection, but her life was saved by a vaccination created using leftover Metroid cells, granting her the ability to absorb the parasites and avoid further infection. She saves the day, as she does, and the X menace has been thwarted…or has it?

When the Galactic Federation receives word that the X has been sighted on planet ZDR, they send sophisticated machines, the E.M.M.I. units, to take care of the problem. Predictably, something goes wrong and the Federation loses contact with the robots, thus it is up to Samus to investigate and find out if the X are indeed a true threat and what happened to the E.M.M.I. Dread strikes a balance between a more traditional narrative complete with some sparse dialogue and cutscenes, and the subtle, environmental storytelling of the past Metroid games. Some felt Fusion’s linear, story driven approach and pretty much the entirety of Other M’s narrative wasn’t a good fit for the franchise, so Dread might be more to their liking. For my own take, I really enjoyed Dread’s narrative as it finally delves more into the ancient Chozo race, the alien bird people that took Samus in and raised her into the bounty hunter we all know and love. For a long time, the Chozo were a background element at best, but in Dread they are finally brought into the foreground and along with it, we get a more personal antagonist for Samus to face compared to some of her past foes.

Dread’s core presentation is also incredibly stylish, and for being the first HD Metroid, it makes the jump gracefully. The environment is given more detail than ever before, which helps with the eerie, at times hostile atmosphere the game fosters. From local fauna running away as Samus draws close, to hints of enemies that are to come lurking in the shadows, there’s a lot of great details packed into the mostly 2D viewpoints. Various cinematics are woven seamlessly into the gameplay, often switching from one to the other and back again with no major hitches. Adding to all of that, the game’s animation and overall character/enemy design is fantastic. Samus in particular is animated very well; the primary developers for this game, Mercury Steam, manage to pack a LOT of character into Samus with just her body language. She may not have a quip ready every other minute, but Samus’ actions speak louder than words most of the time. Various enemies you encounter, combined with larger-than-life bosses, showcase some great attack animations and telegraphs; an attack might take you by surprise once but often afterwards you can pick up on the subtleties that will let you dodge any further attempt afterward, which really complements the fast-paced action of the game. The sole real weak point here is the music. It’s mostly atmospheric, and I wouldn’t call it bad but it doesn’t do much for me. Maybe in time it’ll stand out a bit more but as of now it hasn’t grown on me. But honestly, that’s one of the few genuine complaints I can lobby at the game. It’s almost entirely aces from this point onwards.

THE ULTIMATE WARRIOR

Dread benefits from the foundation laid out by Mercury Steam’s previous work with the Metroid II remake, Samus Returns. Anyone coming into this game from Samus Returns will be right at home with Dread’s base controls, though for everyone else (even some longtime fans) there might be a bit of an adjustment. Samus can now aim in full 360 degrees using the control stick, and the game will frequently force you to hit enemies at odd angles. Trying to rely on the limited angles of previous games will make this game a much harder, more awkward affair, just fair warning. The melee counter from Samus Returns is further refined, and the game feels more balanced around it. Enemies will frequently charge at Samus, complete with a quick flash that signifies she can parry their attack and let loose a kill shot if she times it properly. A well-timed counter can take out enemies instantly and has them drop more health and ammo, but enemies will frequently feint before going in for the real attack, so timing is crucial. Being able to perform the melee counter while running and jumping was the missing piece that the mechanic really needed, no longer breaking up the player’s momentum and ridding this game of the constant start-and-stop action that somewhat brought down Samus Returns.

As with most games in this franchise (and the greater genre that owes half of its name to Metroid), Dread is a game about exploration. While Samus’ abilities are limited at the start of the game, as time goes on and more power ups are found, the map begins to unravel and allows players more freedom to explore every nook and cranny looking for secrets and yet more power ups. Think of a new ability less like a weapon and more like a key that can open a variety of doors all over ZDR. Many of Samus’ iconic abilities return here, such as the Grapple Beam or Speed Booster, which lets her swing around and pull certain objects with the former, and dash through obstacles with the latter. However, some new moves are mixed in, some right from the get-go. Samus can now perform a slide to quickly pass through some narrow passages, which ends up being useful not only in the fast-paced combat, but also when exploring and keeping up a certain pace. Samus can also gain various Aeion abilities which drain from the similarly named gauge, which can allow her to quickly dash through the air or walk through a given location invisible to most enemies, among other things. All and all, Dread continues the series tradition of leading the player through a maze-like alien world, taking them through various biomes and tasking them with finding the way forward, though it often isn’t immediately apparent where to go next.

Part of the charm of games like this comes from getting lost…or maybe it’s more accurate to say it can be an acquired taste. Not knowing where to go next can at times be frustrating, and if stuck for a long enough time it can really kill the pacing of the game. I consider myself someone who gets lost pretty easily both in games and in real life, but as far as Dread is concerned I think it was constructed with a lot of care to ensure players wouldn’t be lost for long in most cases. From moment one, the game makes it clear that hidden blocks are everywhere, and a missile or bomb will expose them, giving you a clue as to what ability you need to break through a given barricade or unlock a door. So generally if you’re lost, just start shooting wildly and you’re almost sure to find a potential path forward! Though often the game doesn’t need to resort to that, and the level design carefully leads players forward, even if it might not feel like it at points.

To a veteran player of the series, it’s rather easy to get a feel for what the game wants you to do. You pick up on some game design tricks the game uses to get you on the right track. One room might have a ceiling you can shoot through to continue forward, and it places enemies along the path so that as you shoot at them you’re likely to “accidentally” hit the breakable ceiling, and with it, you have your path forward. Often times when a new power up is awarded to you, the very next room outright requires learning how to best use it to advance, working as a subtle tutorial. As far as other quality-of-life features go, the addition of teleporters helps cut down on backtracking slightly, but the real star of the show here is the map. The map is extremely detailed by series standards, even marking various destructible blocks once uncovered, and giving you the option to highlight them. Say you find the Speed Booster and open up your map; you can then highlight any Speed Booster blocks you’ve found to get an idea of where to use your new fancy ability. Being able to add markers on the map is also helpful for investigating other areas of interest. With all of this in mind, alongside various moments of one-way passages, Dread does its best to lead you along the critical path with little chance to get turned around for too long most of the time. It’s certainly possible to get a little stuck despite all of that, and it definitely happened to me once or twice, but never for too long. For those afraid that makes the game far too linear, trust me when I say that the game is arguably just as open-ended and partial to sequence breaking as Super Metroid was back in the day. It’s clear the world was crafted very carefully; the path forward isn’t too cryptic, though there are plenty of other barriers that can keep you from making progress…

HUNTER BECOMES HUNTED

Not long after the game starts, Dread makes it clear that the E.M.M.I. units you encounter aren’t to be trifled with. In a manner similar to the SA-X from Fusion, they are near-invincible hunters that can and WILL run Samus down if spotted. E.M.M.I.’s prowl around specific areas, denoted with a special door. They can “hear” Samus moving about but until they spot her with their vision cone, the mechanical menaces go about their business, though they never stray too far from Samus. Early on, Samus gains the Phantom Cloak ability to let her stealth through E.M.M.I. sections without triggering them, though it only lasts for so long and will begin draining from her health if she doesn’t power it off. Nothing players throw at E.M.M.I. units can slow them down and if they so much as touch Samus, players are given two VERY tight windows to parry their attacks before suffering an instant Game Over. Only by fully exploring a given E.M.M.I. location and locating a Central Unit, can Samus momentarily power up her Arm Cannon to melt off their protective plating and land a powerful charge shot to take the E.M.M.I. units down. They prove to be persistent, efficient predators, able to crawl anywhere and everywhere to pursue Samus, and some units have quite a few tricks up their sleeve to stack the decks even more in their favor. The goal was to create an enemy that instills dread into the player, and while I think at first the game succeeded…there’s quite a few things that could have been improved.

According to series co-creator Yoshio Sakamoto, Dread has been on the backburner for years because hardware couldn’t quite capture what he wanted out of the E.M.M.I.’s until now. While I think they’re competent enough trackers, I can’t help but feel that the E.M.M.I.’s on the whole are a bit of a wasted opportunity. Despite the units using sound to subtly track Samus, players can’t exactly use that against them. You can’t, say, shoot a missile at a far wall to lure the E.M.M.I. away from you, and outside of the Phantom Cloak being active, Samus can’t even walk and is always sprinting about and making noise. It also becomes blatantly obvious as you play through the game that the E.M.M.I.’s are somewhat scripted. They will always spawn ahead of you once you enter a door leading to their area and even if you are being super quiet and stealthy and never make a sound the E.M.M.I. always hangs around wherever you are. It is like they KNOW you’re there but they know they aren’t “allowed” to pursue you until you meet the proper criteria. It all feels a little too fabricated and as time goes on, you become aware that the E.M.M.I. are less predators and more puzzles that require typically only one real solution to get past. Later units also seem to overcompensate to keep the challenge up as Samus gains more abilities that let her escape more easily. Things like hearing you no matter how far away they are, or being able to see you through the environment…it starts to feel a little cheap and frustrating, honestly.

To be fair to the developers, they had a tight rope to walk here. They wanted to emulate the SA-X, which was a terrifying experience in Fusion because it could mow you down so quickly and you never knew where it would turn up next. However after beating the game, it becomes clear that the SA-X encounters are HEAVILY scripted, which makes it lose a lot of impact. With Dread, players encounter E.M.M.I. units far more often and depending on your tactics, you might evade detection or you might be running for your life, so there’s SOME suspense…you know, were it not for the fact that they have special doors telling you exactly when an E.M.M.I. encounter was happening. Imagine playing a horror game where the game would put up a warning telling you when a monster was about to pop up; Dread is a bit like that after a point. Of course, letting the E.M.M.I.’s just traverse everywhere would have led to even more problems so this was probably for the best. Still, they often straddle the line between being frustrating or annoying more than scary or intimidating. Thankfully the game employs very forgiving checkpoints, so if an E.M.M.I. does kill you, barely any time has been lost. Were that not the case, the game might have become unbearable. While undoubtedly a focus in advertising for the game, I do feel that the E.M.M.I. sections are one of the game’s few weak points, though once you accept them to be the puzzles they are, they aren’t too frustrating to deal with and only slightly wear out their welcome.

STICKING THE LANDING

I’ve seen a lot of discourse surrounding this game both before and after release. People argue it isn’t “worth” the $60 price tag, almost entirely because it’s “merely” 2D, or that it is too short to justify the price. Now, ultimately value is going to be heavily subjective and depending on the person, $60 is a lot of money and they want to get the most bang for their buck possible. I can only speak for myself, but I immensely enjoyed the game and gladly paid full price for it. While shorter than many games (though the in-game timer displayed is misleading, only counting actual play time, not counting up if the game is paused or in a cutscene, as an example), I had a blast the entire time. Rather than go on for far too long, risking boring players and breaking momentum, Dread moves at a decent click and there was very little downtime. The short length also adds to the game’s replayability for me, and after completing my 100% run, I decided to do my best attempt at a speed run, even looking up and attempting several sequence breaks that the Metroid community had already found. That only made me appreciate the game’s careful construction even more; anyone complaining the game is too linear should know that there are several alternate ways to progress through the game, and many bosses have alternate ways to defeat them, even being able to skip whole phases instantly. While a normal guided play through lead me from place to place subtly but consistently, once I engaged in some sequence breaks the entire rest of the game was off-the-rails and I got to enjoy the immense freedom and momentary confusion that resulted.

While I struggled quite a bit with the game at first, to the point of feeling frustrated, eventually the game clicked. Enemies are fast, aggressive and hit hard, but they also telegraph their attacks very clearly and once you learn their patterns, they can be taken out quickly. This applies to bosses as well, and while I do think SOME enemies can be a bit much at the point they’re introduced (such as the Chozo Robot Soldiers), with some determination you can adapt and overcome. On my repeat playthroughs I was shocked at how quickly bosses could be mowed down, and how few tries they took in comparison to my first run. With that said, Dread can still be difficult, and there are some things I wish the game would have had to smooth things out a bit more. While the game has a default difficulty and an unlockable Hard Mode, it would have been nice to see an easier difficulty as well. Just have enemies do less damage or make the timing for the parry more lenient. Really I think it’s the reflex requirement that will trip people up more than anything. Allowing for button remapping would have been nice too; this is the type of game that uses every button on the controller, as well as some slightly unwieldy button combinations for some actions and it can be easy to get things like the Grapple Beam mixed up with the Storm Missiles, as an example. Little things like that is just a consideration for a new entry.

My first Metroid game was Fusion, and as I slowly went back through the other games to learn more about the series and where it first began, I awaited a game that would finally take the series forward. I never thought it would take 19 years, and I never thought it would manage to live up to that wait. Proper respect must be paid to Nintendo and Mercury Steam for somehow managing to deliver Dread in such a state, and as such a huge surprise to close out 2021. The game looks incredibly sharp and plays buttery smooth, the challenge is high but never unfair, and the story pushes forward and ended on such a strong note that I immediately just wanted the next Metroid game in my hands to keep it going. The E.M.M.I. sections leave a bit to be desired and the music could have been a bit more impactful, but those minor lows don’t diminish the massive highs that Dread delivers on.

Going into this year, I certainly wasn’t expecting to see much from the Metroid series. With Metroid Prime 4 undoubtedly facing some major development woes on top of everything else going on the world, something like Metroid Dread was the last thing on my mind. Seeing all of the interest in Dread warms my heart and the finished product gives me a lot of hope for the franchise moving forward. It also puts a bit more pressure on Prime 4 in all honesty, but after all is said and done, I’m just glad this franchise seems to be standing on two feet again. The galaxy is vast and full of terrors, but it is reassuring to know that the galaxy has a savior waiting in the wings, and it hopefully won’t be too long before we see her again.

See you next mission.

-B

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