Review: METROID DREAD is the Best Game in the Series
A couple of weeks ago, Nintendo released Metroid Dread. This is the fifth game in the core Metroid series and was developed by Nintendo and Mercury Steam. The game is available on the Nintendo Switch and people cannot stop talking about it. The reason is clear, this game is absolutely incredible! It’s so good, it raised the sale of previous titles in the series to places in the top 3 on the Wii U and 3DS eshops. I highly recommend playing this game, even if it’s your first. Nintendo did supply a code but I couldn’t wait and actually bought my own copy before I got said review code.
If this is your first time playing one of the main Metroid titles, then you’re in luck. Dread opens up with a great recap of the four previous titles. Is it fun to play the other titles leading up to it? Heck yeah! I did it in the last two months to prepare for this one. Is it necessary? No. I imagine that you can still deeply enjoy the game if it’s your first one.
Off the bat, when you start playing this game, it’s gorgeous. The game is a classic 2D action-adventure side-scroller but the environments and characters are so gorgeous. When I turned it on, I just had to stare at everything for a minute. If you have a Switch OLED, I can only imagine how crisp this game looks on that screen! The Switch is not a powerhouse, but Dread is gorgeous! The cutscenes and the in-game footage alike. The designs for all of the characters is top notch and even the way that the E.M.M.I. robots move is absolutely incredible to watch. Top marks!
The audio for this game is also incredible. The sound design team did an incredible job building the atmosphere that is tinged with horror. It constantly feels foreboding, especially when you’re in the E.M.M.I. zones and the tension is fantastic. The music is also stellar and worth a listen.
The gameplay is very tight and it makes me happy. When I was playing through the previous games, I wished that Dread combined a lot of the gameplay feel of Samus Returns with the storytelling and suspense of Fusion. I am very pleased that they did that and then made both aspects ten times better. The Space Jump has always felt a little clunky to me outside of Samus Returns and Dread smooths it even further, making it a much more reliable tool in my arsenal. The addition of the slide is very nice for fighting enemies and early exploration. Also, it never felt like the game held my hand, but everything felt a lot more intuitive in terms of where to go. In previous entries, I was constantly getting lost and having to look up walkthroughs to make sure I went the right way or check what I was missing. I never had that with Dread. The level design is great.
Let’s revisit that storytelling aspect for a minute. The game does quite a bit of exposition to recap the entire series at the beginning and then you get a big exposition dump roughly halfway through the game. However, it doesn’t feel like too much. It was also incredible to hear Samus speak! Outside of these exposition dumps, not much is said outside of your computer giving you small updates and some cutscenes at the end. However, a story is still told through Samus’ body language, actions, and even short glimpses at her eyes which are the only visible part of her face when the camera lets you see past her visor.
Dread is not a horror game, but it does have horror elements and it’s a great game for the month of October if you want something spookier but are a big baby like myself. It’s very suspenseful, particularly the aforementioned E.M.M.I. zones where the robots will chase you and kill you with one touch. You do get a chance to stun them, but it’s really hard to get. My final big point is that the game is not very long. I know some scoff at that, but I’m an adult with a lot of things going on in life which gives me very little time to play games. I beat the game in less than 8.5 hours! I probably spent closer to 10-11 hours playing (the game doesn’t track all the dying). I feel extremely satisfied in my time playing the game though.
At the end of the day, I think Metroid Dread is an incredible game worth every penny. I highly recommend it and it may even be my game of the year pick. If you own a Nintendo Switch, this is one of the best games you can get.
