Switch owners of SW, time to get hype for Metroid Dread!!! Update: GS gives it an 8/10

From what I hear someone was able to shinespark a boss. Is that true, if so was it also an instant kill?

Between that and a lot of intentional sequence breaking. It seems this game does a lot to reward player skill. Reward players for being good at the game.

I'm already seeing a lot of people on Twitch begin testing speed run routes for this game. I've decided to do a third playthrough myself to test some of the sequence breaks and just explore more. Maybe try to exploit bomb jumps or tanking hot/cold rooms to see what happens.

I think I just took a powerbomb upgrade without having powerbomb yet. First time I've done that in a Metroid game.

I can imagine this game being fun to speedrun.

Something else that is interesting is you can maintain a speed boost indefinitely so long as you don't stop. You can wall jump while speed boosting, and slide as well, so it'll be interesting to see how long speed runners can maintain speed boosts on their way to the next objective.

I am surprised no one mention the horrible loading times between areas and the drawn out sequence before being able to teleport or use the elevator. A game like this should have zero loading.

Shut up. Its a Nintendo game. We don't mention the negatives. Its the best side scroller ever created on earth by a human being.

I have noticed that the load screens do have the most noticeable frame dips and they take a bit longer to load.

I haven't been personally bugged by them because load screens aren't as frequent for them to bother me, and it doesn't happen during gameplay sequences which the game has plenty of. Usually when I go to new areas I plan to stay and commit to the paths forward as well, rather than jumping back and forth between transport sections. So far the game has been pretty good at leading the bread crumbs, giving me little to no incentive to go back to previous areas.

There's definitely backtracking and revisiting areas, but that mostly happens when you find alternate routes back into previous areas than going back and forth in these elevators.

In conclusion: Yeah the load times are long enough, but infrequent enough to be a true bother. It helps that Metroid is a highly gameplay-focused game. If the gameplay itself couldn't live up to a certain standard, among various technical hiccups would have been much more jarring to the experience.

I am actively jumping back and forth between areas so it is very noticeable.

Yeah, it's my first complaint with the game. Even searched the interwebs for people who shared this complaint and only found out that the loading times are apparently great. Almost thought something was wrong with my Switch.

They should've made a finger tapping animation for when Samus transports between areas. :P

EDIT: Personally, the atmosphere is my second complaint. The environments and their music tracks aren't quite up to the Metroid epicness I was hoping for.

Yeah loading, in particular when using the teleporters, is my only real complaint so far but it’s a pretty minor one for me.

Am loving the rest of the game though. Sense of exploration feels great. Getting upgrades, power ups, and new moves comes at a very nice pace. Gameplay is very smooth and I really dig the whole atmosphere of the game. Boss fights have been quite fun so far.

@Archangel3371: Mine is just when you pick something up it pauses to tell you you picked it up everytime.

A Nintendo staple. 😎

@Pedro: Yeah, Skyward Sword style.

@mesome713: Yeah, I could probably do without that. Never really thought about it until you mentioned it. 😅

Yeah load times seen longer than they should be

Mercury Steam always had a bit of a dubious development history. But much like with Rock Steady. It seems they finally found their groove with Metroid games. I hope they don't get complacent and the series drops off in quality from here on out.

From Lords of Shadows Trilogy (first one was decent rest were poor) -> Metroid: Samus Returns (A fun game in its own right despite its flaws) -> Metroid Dread (A Masterpiece)

Why didnt Nintendo make this in house?

Who knows? It's not like they're working on releasing a lot of Switch games themselves. Maybe they're busy counting money.

@Litchie: probably. Seems like classic Nintendo

Classic Nintendo would still be a company releasing a healthy amount of good games.

It's this "new Nintendo" who realized they can earn a shitton of money without making games. It really sucks.

@Litchie: yea it does. Would have been really cool if Nintendo developed this metroid game.

Yup. Would be cool if they released Pikmin 4 which was "almost done" shortly after the release of Pikmin 3. Would be cool if they did something with F-Zero, Mario Kart, Advance Wars, Donkey Kong, Excite Truck, among other dormant, great IPs. Would be cool if they didn't completely **** up Paper Mario. Etc.

@Litchie: why do you think Nintendo just doesn't give a F?

Because just like other companies, when they notice they can earn more money by doing less, they do so. Nintendo doesn't need to give us a new Mario Kart when they earn a shitload by re-releasing Mario Kart 8. Making people pay for online also removes more need to make new shit and use dormant IPs. Instead of catering to the RPG-type Paper Mario fans, they try to make the series into something else to earn more.

Why not? They did well with Samus Returns.

Yup here we go. Someone shinesparking the boss I was thinking of.

Talk about rewarding skill. I wonder how many more bosses have ways to instakill them?

So far I am loving this game. Load times are my only complaint. Still going through my first playthrough (work and sports get in the way).

@Maroxad:

Yeah that shinespark strat is pretty sick. I thought about trying it up the middle when he double swipes, but seems you can finish him even earlier lol.

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Definitely enjoyed my first run a lot. Some of the shinespark platforming challenges to get 100% were surprisingly challenging in a good way. Last boss was way easier than some people let on, but was still a really fun fight. Early into my hard mode play, will probably eat those words.

The "masterpiece" praise, nah. Honeymoon is strong, I get it. First proper 2d Metroid in ages and it's great. But clearly there's a lot that could be better here.

Biggest gripe is how disjointed the world is. The individual sections are very well done, but they don't really interconnect in interesting or convenient ways. None of the grand "aha!" moments you get from previous Metroid titles, or some of the titles Metroid has inspired over the years. It's kinda like Prime 3 in that respect, though I find it more annoying here as bouncing between zones is a more regular occurrence. Even if trams, elevators, and teleporters were instant, would still be annoying to get around. But of course you have those load times that drag it down that much further. Just a pain in the ass.

Presentation wise, some good stuff, but not up there with Metroids best. Atmosphere is lacking. Music isn't memorable, just fades into the background. Some standout rooms here and there, but a lot of it just blurs together (admittedly true of other 2d Metroids at times) . Game isn't NSMB soulless by any stretch, but doesn't seem incredibly inspired either.

On the more nitpicky side of things, seems they missed out on stuff this series had already figured out. We had a great wall jump in Super, right? Going from charge beam into morph ball used to multi-bomb, why drop that extra layer? Why no boost ball? And I get water mobility being trash early on, but don't think they had to wait until soooo late in the game to upgrade that.

And of course tech stuff. Those load times, eh. Can get over it, but not great. That performance tho... Starts out just the occasional odd section, no biggie. Though as you progress, upgrades have Samus moving at a faster clip while dishing out crazier effects and the drag is far more frequent. Especially sucks when fighting Chozo soldier pairs. - Things that will inevitably be sorted when released on Nintys next box, but it's the game we have for now.

Great game, could say a whole lot more good about it than bad for sure. Does a lot of things better than previous Metroid games. Could definitely be better though, hoping its success serves a springboard for exactly that.

Right unpopular opinion time: i don't like it.

I don't like the EMMI sections and, brushing over some of a walkthrough after the first couple of encounters, they look like they take up a significant chunk of the game. I was worried about them when i saw them at E3 but the reviews have been very positive and everyone seems to like it. and i do generally like my metroid, so i took a crack at it anyway. Unfortunately my fears were realised :(.

Some nice improvements from Samus Returns in fairness. It feels a lot smoother. the animations are a lot better. Performs very nicely too. Controls are also a lot better.

But for me: this is phantom hourglass all over again. They got an awful lot right with the gameplay but that EMMI idea is a game breaker for me. I play metroid games to explore: not running through corridors blindly, praying i chose right so i dont suffer a 1 hit death then doing it again and again to grind it down with trial and error.

Like the souls games: i can see the appeal. just not for me.

@osan0: The EMMI are barely in the game and super easy to deal with once you get pass the second. They only protect a small area and their are only 4 of them in the whole game.

There's 6. 7 if you count the tutorial shit.

And as you progress their zones do become more sprawling.

I dig the EMMI sections, though figured they'd be a love/hate deal. If you don't like them early on, it definitely doesn't get "better".

The first encounter is the best rendition of the EMMI mechanic. It goes downhill from that point onward and negatively affects the flow of the game.

@Pedro: as in the broken one or the first white one?

The white one.

Dang. Without going into a long story: that was a disaster for me. Ended up going down the wrong rabbit hole.

If it gets worse from there.....yeah not for me. One to be traded in. Ah well.

I disagree about it feeling fresh..Although as a 47yr old gamer I have seen, loved & moved on from the genre, so 12-25yr olds that haven't lived through the era of these games being so abundant & 2d sidescrollers or 2d top down games being all that was available for me as a kid, may be a new retro experience for these kids that have grown up on nothing but 3d games, etc.

But to be honest, the mass influx of these things on the digital stores is very annoying for me as a gamer...it seems the ingenuity that I saw with the jump from 2d to 3d has stagnated a huge amount since the 360/PS3 era ended.

I think 8 is a more than fair score for this latest entry, but anything higher than that judged off the gameplay, graphics, etc I've seen on this game is a fat stretch. In fact, as a PS5 & Switch owner, I was more interested in F.I.S.T....but I can't even be bothered with that... Last good game like these I played was Shadow Complex on 360....but in honesty, I even became bored of that at a certain point.

@osan0: The maze like navigation does not help at all.

Didn't watch before as I wasn't far into the game, did now. That was awesome. I wanna go back now. :P

Just finished my first playthrough. Normal run, 100% baby! That last boss fight was great. Excellent game overall and well worth my money for it. I rate it 9/10 with my Badass seal of Approval. 👍😁

Clear time was 16:00:50. Now to do a higher difficulty playthrough and to try out some of those sequence breaks.

The completionist has his review of Metroid Dread.

He absolutely loved the game, and gave it his highest rating: "Complete it!"

@Maroxad: So many spoilers though. Hopefully no one who hasn't played it yet watches that vid.

Ok, I have to tell you guys about a pretty big complaint that I have. I'll put it in a spoiler block, but if you care about not being frustrated during your playthrough, you should probably read it.

So it turns out all teleportals get connected after you've visited the last area of the game. With all teleportals connected, backtracking and gathering upgrades is about 1000x easier. Instead of knowing about this, I ran around like an idiot trying to find the best paths, when I in reality didn't need to. Now I have like only two upgrades left, and just got the message that all portals are now connected, and I was more annoyed about not knowing this earlier rather than glad about knowing it now.
So hopefully this helps someone who's not done with their playthrough yet. Why the portals weren't just connected after you've found them all? No fucking idea. Why you have to enter the last area and go back to get them connected? No fucking idea. So dumb.