(SPOILER FREE)

Metroid released on 8th Oct 2021, it has scored a healthy 88 on Metacritic by both Critics and Users.

This game had plenty of hyped behind it as its the sequel to one of the best side scrollers in Metroid Fusion (the 4th title) Dread is the 5th title in the 2D series. 

I finally finished the game, clocking in at 15 hours, however i did try to get everything on my first play through so i did a lot of back tracking and exploring. They do say you could complete this game between 7 to 9 hours. 

GAMEPLAY

The game plays quite well and delivers the best of its Metroid style. The game is also quite difficult to beat especially the last boss. The game does offer difficultly spikes which can be frustrating at times. Every time i upgraded the Armour or main weapons, i would come across a boss type enemy which would put me back in my place which can take away from feeling more powerful however if you are a Metroid pro than you wouldn't have this issue. This is no Metroidvania game, this is a Metroid game.

STORY

Without spoiling the game, its the usual Metroid start, where you start off losing your powers and trying to reclaim them to reach the end. You would have seen the robots in the trailer which chase you, they are called E.M.M.I which are basically your worst nightmare, however they have a lot to live up to considering Fusion had the SA-X stalking you. The game is also about the X parasite which is basically Metroid food, however since the Metroids are extinct, the X parasite seems to be a threat again. The story is well worth the challenge and the ending is satisfying.

HIGHS

The game feels great. Controls are solid

Visuals look nice and really went for the Prime style

Game tells a great story

Feel amazing when fully powered up

LOWS

Frustrating bosses and trail and error game design

E.M.M.Is after the first couple encounters, started to get more annoying than threatening. They weren't as good as the SA-X from Fusion.

Map exploring, hope you don't have OCD, they give you a small radius to uncover map blocks

OVERALL

Game is well worth its play through. The story of Metroid is always interesting and immersive. Game can be frustrating at times and does not hold your hand so if you are lost or stuck, Google time. Out of my 15 hour playthrough, i enjoyed most of it. Dread is not the best 2D Metroid game i have played however it comes close. 1st Fusion, 2nd Super, 3rd Dread. Looking forward to the next title.

8.5/10

Nice review.

Nice. It's one of my favorite 2D action games ever.

My review:

Difficulty:
Difficulty was perfect. Going through the map is easy enough so that I only died a few times in my first play through outside bosses and EMMIs, but hard enough to make sure you're being careful. EMMIs actually did fill me with dread the first few times I encountered them. Then it just became a fun game of trying to stay away from them. It adds a nice bit of different kind of challenge to the game and because it is only in certain places it doesn't get frustrating. Bosses are gloriously difficult. Died many dozens of times playing through the bosses. But each time you die you figure out a little bit more about how to fight the boss so it isn't too frustrating. Probably took me a couple hours to beat the final boss but it was a blast.

Bosses:
Amazing! A good variety of really difficult big boss battles that are just the epitome of great gaming, along with some easy mini-boss battles (the central units), and the chozo soldier boss battles which are moderate difficulty and quite fun. Bosses were definitely my favorite part of the game and took the game from being good to fantastic.

Visuals:
Nice, not amazing. The best thing about the visual are the very cool backgrounds, especially when you notice creatures moving around in the background.

Level design:
Brilliant. In a Metroid game (or Metroidvania games in general) level design is so important because you want to get just the right amount of upgrades and backtracking to keep it fun and interesting and add to the exploration factor and wondering what's behind this door and that barrier that you can't access yet. I've seen reviews of Metroidvanias where they say the backtracking is tedious or there is too much or whatever. I think Dread pulled off this crucial aspect of the Metroid(vania) formula extremely well. And it is designed well enough that you aren't really gonna get stuck, as long as you have a mindset to show at walls/floors/ceilings to find what is destructible. I only got stuck once for a little bit in the whole game and it was because i didn't notice something obvious.

Post-game 100%'ing:
By the end of the game when you are fully upgraded you're a complete badass. Which feels cool and makes it easier to 100% the game after finishing when you can just blow through enemies that used to be kind of hard. So you can focus on 100%'ing instead of fighting back through all the enemies. I actually somehow missed a Chozo Solider boss during my playthrough and then caught that fight after beating the game and it was fun to see how easily I dominated the battle as compared to previous ones.

Story:
It actually had a good but minimal story and a cool ending. So the story stayed out of the way of the gameplay but the story still had a strong impact when it was all over. Well done.

Controls:
Controls are tight and responsive. You use basically every button on the controller, but because you're gradually gaining powers you get used to each new control input before you have to learn the next so it is never overwhelming. This lets you jump right into the game quickly without needing to learn controls because the input set is very basic at the start of the game.

Game length and replay value:
I beat the game in 10h54m according to the game clock, taking my time exploring. But with all the dying (mostly bosses, some on EMMIs) and checking out the map it probably took me 17-18 hours to playthrough I'd guess. Then another just over 3 hours according to the game clock to 100% (well okay I 99%'d it because one of those damn items is super hard to get). So it's a decent length for a game of this type, not super long but not short. I would have loved one more area, but there is plenty in the game.

Then you get hard mode after winning, and there are a few in-game achievements for speed running both difficulty modes which is nice. I haven't played hard mode yet but for anyone who loved the game, hard mode seems like it would make the game well worth a second playthrough. Right now I'm doing a second run on normal difficulty to see how much faster I can go when I focus on time rather than exploration. So between hard mode and possibly trying to beat the game quicker a few times (because it is definitely fun enough to keep playing) I think replay value is pretty good, whereas normally with this type of one player game I'd play through once and be done with it.

Game Highs:
Boss battles for sure. And the well crafted difficulty that resulted in lots of deaths but never got too frustrating.

Game Lows:
Hmm, that it's over now?? Really there were no bad things for me. I just want more Dread to explore! I guess the music, because it's just okay, I never really noticed the music very much so that's the one mediocre thing about the game but you just don't notice it so it doesn't take away from the game. The music is fine but doesn't stand out.

Overall review:
I'd give the game a 9.5. I think this will go down as a classic like Super Metroid. Even with all the great 2D side scrolling idie games (both Metroidvanias and other genres) that have come out the past decade, this game instantly becomes one of the best of those types of games and a standard for the Metroidvania genre moving forward.

I think to get a 10 score from me Nintendo would have to come out with a free DLC to give a new area to explore with another baddass boss battle or two to play with a fully upgraded Samus after you've beat the game, taking into account that your Samus is now super powerful so the bad guys would all need to be juiced. It'd just be fund to have something new to playthrough fully powered. A Dead Cells style update.

I think the rating is actually quite fair. I would have rated the same.