MercurySteam's second crack at the Metroid series is a welcome improvement over 2017's OK-tier Samus Returns, with refinements across the board on pretty much everything that bogged down its predecessor---while that game was a victim in part to the constraints of the then-declining 3DS, Dread seizes the Switch's improved (albeit still limited) hardware, rendering environments with much greater detail and bolstering its action-packed gameplay with consistently smooth performance at 60 FPS. Sounds perfect so far, right?

Not always. Load times between zones can be 𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐠, though it wasn't enough to sour the experience for me. I also felt that they tried a bit too hard to make the game's map intuitive---while I appreciate the effort in making traversal across Dread's world as handy as possible for the player, the map just looks far too cluttered to my eyes. MercurySteam's bright and cartoon-y visual style isn't really my bag either, but I can acknowledge that it largely comes down to personal preference, and the game does look quite nice overall. There is one thing I simply can't excuse though, and that's the music---Dread's score is...well, fine. It's certainly not bad, and it generally suits the game's environments and boss fights decently, but for a series with some of the best OSTs in all of video games, it fell painfully short for me.

There's no debating that Dread feels and plays great. Those who enjoyed the fast and snappy movement of Fusion will adore this one---Samus controls like a dream, and the many tricks in her arsenal always feel responsive and precise. Call me old, but I prefer the glacially-paced progression of Super and Prime (especially scanning with the latter). Sure, it can be frustrating at times, but I loved how those games forced you to think carefully about your each and every move, rather than just sprinting through the map manically shooting everything in sight.

Nonetheless, Dread is a quality Metroidvania. I don't think it holds a candle to Super, but it remains a deeply satisfying game after such a long wait.

9/10.

Truly gorgeous.
Absolute Great.

A experiência mais divertida e marcante que tive num jogo metroid.

O level design disso é sem duvida maravilhoso
A atmosfera pega legal até a região de burenia, depois desanda um tanto.
Num geral foi uma excelente experiência, o fator exploração me pegou demais, a progressão também se fez excepcional e somou com o bom gameplay.

Porém não gostei de 3 coisas.

A forma como o plot twist/explicação da trama acontece.
A droga do free aim e sua sensibilidade 1000
E a fase final.

Absolutely perfect game from start to finish. After playing Returns I can clearly see that it walked so that Dread could run. Dread takes all of the best aspects in the previous games along with refining all the issues of the previous games and combined them to create this masterpiece. Every area is super memorable and fun to explore; the gameplay flow is just seamless and that makes returning to previous areas feel natural and not like a chore. The abundant number of boss fights is incredible and they're all super fun to fight against. They also added so much enemy and boss variety which is a problem that I had with Returns. The EMMIs are leagues above the SA-X in Fusion when it comes to gameplay due to their unscripted nature and forcing you to be skillful in avoiding them until you have the means to destroy them.

Lastly I wanna talk about the story and Samus' character in this game. While this game is much more focused on the gameplay (as the previous games mostly were did as well), there isn't an insane amount of story content, which is fine. Instead we get major story reveals throughout the game which unveil a ton of cool lore and story that ties the previous stories together. Overall, this made Samus' character the most interesting she has been in the 2D series, and she doesn't need to utter a single word for me to feel that way about her.

Dread is easily the best 2D Metroid, and probably the best 2D platformer I've played so far. It expands on everything the previous games had set up for it, and refines all the issues to create the most smooth gameplay experience in the series.

Samus se manie à la perfection, le framerate est impec et le jeu est tellement beau, mention spéciale à la carte très bien détaillée et clean

Mais il y a un seul truc qui m'empêche de lui donner 5 étoiles : les E.M.M.I

Ces saloperies qui te foutent le stress et qui te one shot si tu loupes le contre (le laps de temps pour appuyer sur le bouton, faut avoir des réflexes de ninja xD), encore heureux qu'on recommence à l'entrée de la salle et pas au dernier point de sauvegarde

Ceci étant dit, c'est un sacré jeu à faire et à refaire

This game likes to make you feel like you're in charge of the exploring when in reality it pushes you through fairly linear environments. Less player freedom but that's not necessarily a bad thing. The robot chases were a cool change of pace. The shooting and jumping and blowing stuff up feels great as usual. I liked the bosses, especially the final boss. The map was kinda too huge for its own good and felt annoying to navigate at times, and much of the enemies being quicktime events felt very boring after a little while. It was dece.

Mercury Stem Magnum Opus brings back the Metroid franchise for an incredible successor to Samus Returns.

I personally think this is the best Metroid ever made. It takes everything Fusion did years ago and expands upon it creating a title worthy to be called a sequel in every possible way.

Samus feels amazing to control in any instance of the game, and every powerup and discovery makes you feel like an unstoppable machine.... untile the EMMI shows up, and that's wehre the horror aspect of the title resurfaces. Some of the most tense pursuits in the series, able to be compared to the best horror games.

I love the story presented, able to tie to FUsion and evolving the story of the Metroid universe with an incredible set of events and plot twists. Even past fan favorites are able to return in an amazing redesign.

I personally prefer the more grim atmosphere of fusion's ambience, but I can't deny how good Dread is. An absolute masterpiece.

my first ever Metroid game aaaaand this was really good!
really liked the moveset, map layout and honestly the sense of polish enhanced the whole experience : the game looks great with amazing cutscenes to boot and the endgame is honestly extremely fucking cool. also always fun to be able to sequence break the game with the hand you're dealt.
I'd maybe just say that the EMMIs kinda get old after a while, their sequences can sometimes just feel unfair, and that there was a tiny itsy bit too much backtracking. (also wasn't huge on some of the bosses)
really makes me wanna try the rest of the franchise! (2D and 3D)