I have no doubt that Metroid Dread is the best game of the saga while it is the one who best plays with a big difference. And although I know that the reference of the franchise will remain the one who sat the bases, Super Metroid, I am excited about the work he has carried out the Spanish Mercury Steam study.
I wish to know better the intrahistory of this second collaboration between Nintendo and the Madrid study, but one thing seems clear: the bases that seated with Metroid: Samus Returns, the Remake of the original Game Boy title, have finally expanded in a product Totally original that also gets what many fans have been asking for years: that the saga advance in its narrative.
The events of Metroid Dread take place shortly after Metroid Fusion, the last moment of the chronology of the saga. After being infected with the X parasite, to be stripped of his armor and having to prevent the spread of said parasite into a very delicate personal and emotional situation, which happens because he had to face herself very literally, Samus Aran was at a point Very interesting as a character.
She herself describes it as a new stage for her life, and there is nothing more to see the new design of the emblematic armor to realize. And yet, we had to wait almost 20 years to find out what happened next. The Metroid games between Fusion and Dread have focused at previous times of the franchise and, despite throwing more light on Samus's adventures, they did not really advance in the plot of the franchise.
You are going to forgive me the topic, but: the wait has deserved quite worth it. I will not give up any detail of the Metroid Dread plot, but the game manages to balance the spirit of free exploration with several very expository moments about who is Samus and why it has to escape from an underground base of the ZDR planet to which it has come from Almost involuntary way.
Is admirable the mime with which Mercury Steam not only treats the character of Samus Aran (nobody wants to remember Metroid: Other M) but also reverses and twists many of the most identity aspects of the saga to give something that, if it is not New for many fans, at least serves as a reinterpretation of family situations.
I can not put very clear examples of what I mean, but I think that the main actual level of Metroid Dread is a perfect example of this: Samus's shortest movement is resolved using skills that, until now, had never been used to Overcome this type of stumbling block.
The way in which many of the already known skills of the saga are distributed are also striking. Getting the morphosphere after two hours of play is something unheard of, but it gives a very peculiarose weer to the game. And you have to praise the ingenuity of the study to create new powers that make Samus into a 'final warrior' in the hands of the player.
The character had never been handled as well. The speed with which Samus can move, the possibility of repel enemies with a punch (what is a lifelong parry) and, in general, the new combat skills have made the game have to adapt not only your maps , which are bigger and more massive; but also the enemies present.
Hence the presence of a new type of invulnerable enemy that can only be defeated in very specific circumstances that I am not going to detail. I speak of the EMMI, some robots that seem taken from a horror movie, which move in very specific parts of the map (and that they are clearly indicated as such) and that, if they catch Samus, they kill it with a single blow. There is the possibility of making them a parry, but it is so difficult that you will give it impossible when you fail a couple of times.
Emmi is not a simple 'Gimmick' of the game, as the SA-X of Metroid Fusion could be. They are an important part of the development of the adventure, they condition a lot of the way you progress through the maps and give a touch of fantastic tension to Dread. The name of the game ('Dread' meaning 'fear' in English) is a clear reference to this aspect of the game, but do not think for a moment that only the Emmi is the enemies to beat.
The final bosses are the other great enemies and pose duels in which the domain of the game is tested. They are frankly hard to beat and almost seem out of Hollow Knight, but every battle is climbing and overcoming them is very, very satisfying. You may need a couple of attempts and have to look good at the movements they make to impose yourself. If in previous games dodge and beat the bosses was something simple and more a matter of arriving with a lot of life and many rockets, in Dread you will see that it is impossible to do it except that you demonstrate to be more powerful than them.
After all, the fantasy of power is one of the keys of the Metroid genre, of the so-called Metroidvania. Going acquiring strength, being able to explore more areas of the map and destroy enemies as if nothing is nothing important about experience. And Dread does it wonderfully.
You also have to point out the accessibility work that Mercury Steam has carried out in the game. The doors that can not be opened because you lack a power are clearly pointed out on the map of the game, although you will never get the power you need to open them until you got it. A little the same thing happens with life expansion objects or ammunition: If you have left one to discover, the map shines in the approximate area where it is, but it is already. And if you've seen it, but you have not got it, it also stays registered on the map. Complete 100% without Metroid Dread guide is very affordable, although you will need to know how to return certain powers to access certain areas that almost seem a puzzle.
There is not much that can be criticized negatively from the game. I have lost several times and I have found myself after returning to areas where I thought I could not advance but the solution to my blockade was as simple as breaking a wall that had not tried previously. Is it my fault or the design of levels this happened? Or raised in another way: would you criticize the game for taking you more from the hand of what you already do with your puzzle design and with the situations it poses?
That you miss out on the map of Dread is something very simple. I would almost say that it is something identity of the saga, although in this game there is almost no backtracking and the zone changes are very well taken so as not to be tedious. It may be frustrated by some players, but in the three times when I have turned without knowing what to do, in the end I have returned to the point where it was obvious that I had to move forward. And whenever this has happened, I have come to the conclusion that the fault was mine for not trying more ways to continue where the game pointed out that I had to go. My recommendation is to apply the Logic of Occam for this game: if you think you have to go for a place made a ball, surely you have to go out there made a ball, but not by the obvious door, but by the tunnel excavated above or under.
I have enjoyed a dwarf of Metroid Dread and my initial concerns with their aesthetics or the possibility that it will only focus on defeating EMMI and nothing else in the end they have been in vain. This game has satisfied me as a fan and as a player already experienced in this type of game. Not only does it advance the saga, but revitalizes the controls, skills and the world in which it takes place and proposes several challenges that make you feel very satisfied when you have surpassed them.
Although Metroid is not a saga with the same success as Animal Crossing, Mario Kart, Smash Bros or Zelda, Nintendo has bet a lot on the Christmas campaign for this game. I believe that it is going to Satisaface to the usual players, but the important thing is that it reaches new players. Given the greatest accessibility and clarity of the map and the fantastic control system, it is also captive to new players. The popularity of Switch will do the rest.
All indications are that this will be the best selling game of a franchise that needs that sales success in delivery to revive completely , as happened with Fire Emblem in his first delivery for Nintendo 3DS. We will see if this is why October 8, when it is launched in stores.
Date Of Update: 08 October 2021, 04:32
