Metroid Dread

Genre: Metroidvania

Players: 1

Game Company Bad Behavior Profile Page: MercurySteam

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Review:

Metroid Dread, the fifth mainline 2D Metroidvania game in Nintendo’s series about spacefaring bounty hunter Samus Aran eliminating galactic threats on dangerous alien worlds, is a game that’s possibly more important for what it represents than for what it actually is. The mainline 2D Metroid games have taken a back seat since the series was brought into 3D with the release of Metroid Prime in 2002, a release that happened a mere day before the fourth 2D release in the series, Metroid Fusion. In the nearly two decades since Metroid Fusion came out, we have seen remakes of Metroid and Metroid II, but otherwise this is a series that has been focused squarely on Metroid Prime and its spinoffs.

It’s often bemoaned by fans that the Metroid franchise in general tends to be overlooked by Nintendo, despite being one of the two formative franchises of the Metroidvania genre (the name of the genre kinda’ gives it away). The series never saw any releases at all on the Game Boy Color, Nintendo 64, or Wii U. And many have pointed to low sales numbers compared to Mario, Pokemon, and Nintendo’s other more favored franchises

Case in point, when developer MercurySteam released its remake of Metroid II with the new name Metroid: Samus Returns, it was critically applauded for being a superb reimagining of a somewhat dated classic, but Nintendo made the unfortunate decision to release the game on the Nintendo 3DS in late 2017, when everyone’s attention was on Nintendo’s newly-released Nintendo Switch. As a result, sales of Samus Returns were predictably miserable.

However, someone at Nintendo must have been impressed with MercurySteam’s work on the series, because the developer was given the greenlight to finally create the Metroid series’ fifth installment, and this time Nintendo made sure to highlight the game in advertising, making it their big holiday title for 2021 at a time when Nintendo Switch is on top of the world. For many, this game has been seen as the 2D Metroid series’ chance to finally prove itself in market conditions that are far more ideal for the game’s release than they were for Samus Returns.

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The Last Metroid is in Captivity. The Galaxy is at Peace.

A lot has changed in the twenty years since Metroid Fusion came out, and chief among them is the graphics potential of the hardware Metroid Dread is playing on, and this game makes full use of that fact While the gameplay here is in 2D, the graphics make fantastic use of full 3D to deliver a presentation that’s absolutely beautiful.

Everything from the subtle details of Samus’s suit, creatures lurking in the background, and the light of your gunfire reflecting off of surfaces looks fantastic here. There are gorgeous water effects, all of the creatures are remarkably well-animated, and the game being rendered in 3D means that at pivotal points the game can change its viewpoint for a more cinematic look.

Another excellent addition here is the way the game’s areas change physically and visually as you complete your goals, with some of the events you put into motion causing entire areas to completely change their look and layout, making for a fantastic feeling that you truly are affecting the world in the game.

The music here tends to be more moody than melodic, which works well for the dark and slightly-scary tone of the game, but results in one of the less-memorable soundtracks in the series. In addition to this, you have some good creature noises, some really memorable mechanical noises for the new E.M.M.I. enemies, and voice acting that’s mostly either made to sound like the artificial tones of an AI, or in some cases a fictional language. So it sounds appropriate for what it’s aiming for, but of course I can’t say how well voice-acted it is.

As for the gameplay, this is mostly a really excellent Metroidvania. I was concerned about controls using the analog stick, but actually this made for possibly the smoothest-feeling controls I’ve ever experienced in a 2D Metroid game. Players can aim in any direction, hold down the L button to aim in place, and this game brings back Samus Returns’ well-liked counter move and adds a nice slide move alongside it.

The added abilities you gain here are a mix of new and nostalgic, with some of the new abilities being pretty clever, and the implementation of the old abilities pretty satisfying. Samus’s usual morph ball upgrade, for example, comes with the ability to jump built-in, something that in prior games generally required an additional upgrade.

On top of that, the boss design here is absolutely phenomenal, with some really creative bosses that make for a fantastic, challenging puzzle of sorts. And major bosses tend to have multiple phases, making players rethink their strategies and try to observe the situation to figure out how to adapt.

For the most part, this truly is an excellent new entry in the series.

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Any Objections, Lady?

Having said all that… I have issues with this game.

Metroid Dread gives players a flashing notification when a secret is hidden in an area, which is helpful but also dampens the feeling of exploring the space to uncover its secrets – now there’s no need, you just look for the telltale flashing map segments. This is on top of the somewhat segmented nature of the game’s level design. Each of the game’s areas is largely separate from the others, connected by transit points and teleportation stations. Unlike Super Metroid and Metroid Zero Mission, you never really find yourself working your way through one area only to suddenly find yourself doubling back into another area, coming full circle and giving you a greater feeling of interconnectedness.

However, the big frustration for me in this game has to be one of its focal features: the E.M.M.I. robots. These deadly machines patrol areas bordered by a specific type of door that marks their stomping grounds, and every time I entered one of these areas I had to steel myself for frustration. That is because these sections bring to the series a new focus on stealth, with E.M.M.I.s delivering a one-hit kill if they manage to close in on you.

The idea behind the E.M.M.I.s was clearly to expand on the SA-X mechanic that was in Metroid Fusion, giving players a nemesis to fear and shaking up the gameplay some. Unfortunately, getting killed by E.M.M.I.s got old real quick. The game does give players multiple ways to avoid death by E.M.M.I., but none of them are very good. You can simply try to avoid making noise in their vicinity and hope they don’t walk your way… but their hearing radius is very wide, and you’re not shown that radius until you’ve already alerted one of them. You can watch for them on the map… but they’re only shown when they’re almost on-screen anyway. You can run from them… but due to that wide hearing radius you’ll have some difficulty losing them. Later you get a stealth power-up… but it gradually saps energy, heavily limits your speed and movement, and can’t be activated if the E.M.M.I. has already spotted you. And you can technically counter their one-hit kill move when they catch you, but the windows to do so (you get two) are so fast that you’ll be lucky to pull this off.

At set points in each E.M.M.I. area, you gain the ability to use a temporary power-up to take out that E.M.M.I. permanently, and while this is a relief, the E.M.M.I. zones that are left in their wake feel like filler without the E.M.M.I. patrolling the area, making traversal more time-consuming and tedious. One can’t help but wonder if the overall game pacing would have been better if these sections simply didn’t exist.

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Great!! You Fulfilled Your Mission.

In the end, Metroid Dread is still an excellent Metroidvania, despite its flaws. It’s visually stunning, the minute-to-minute gameplay feels great, the bosses are excellent… there’s a lot to love here. But the world design and especially those E.M.M.I. stealth sections bring down the game somewhat. This game occasionally succeeds brilliantly, but overall it fails to dethrone Super Metroid as the absolute best 2D game in the series. Still, if you’re a fan of the genre, consider this a must-buy.

tl;dr – Metroid Dread is an excellent fifth entry in this series of 2D Metroidvania games, with stunning visuals, well-crafted gameplay, and excellent bosses. However, some of the level design and stealth elements here keep it from reaching the same highs as Super Metroid. Still, if you’re a fan of Metroidvanias, this game is a must-have for you. And if you’re a Metroid fan, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

Grade: A-

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This game has been nominated for one or more of eShopperReviews 2021 Game Awards:

Runner-Up: Most Efficient Use of File Storage Space, Best Graphics, Best Metroidvania

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