One of the best purchases I have ever made. Having a new 2D Metroid game for the first time in 20 years fills me with joy. This thing was a joy to play from start to finish.
- The level design is so amazing that you end up going the correct direction without even knowing it. You're sometimes locked into particular areas until you get a specific upgrade or defeat a boss, and the game teaches you in the most masterful way.
- The level variety is fine. If the first three areas tended to blend in a bit too much, that changed with the second half of the game. I especially liked the return to Artaria where the whole place is frozen over.
- Samus having voice lines outside of Other M is also something I want a lot more of please. Her three voice lines were easily my favorite parts of the game.
- The controls are so FLUID! Gone are the days of the clunky space jumps and grapple beams. Samus' movement here is pristine. Would have liked if single wall jumps were still a thing though.
- The EMMI sections were fun and intense, and I would have actually liked to have seen a bit more of them, or included them more in the plot (something like an EMMI that escapes its pre-defined area and chases you throughout the rest of the map could have been cool and utterly terrifying). I did also like that all the classic Metroid upgrades were possessed by the EMMI, and you had to watch your own upgrades used against you.
- Flash shift is my new favourite powerup and I want it in every game following this please
- Its good to have someone actually interact with Samus for a change
- Those interactive cutscenes were the most badass things ever and really gave the game extra spectacle and gave the counter a really sense of dopamine when you landed it on a boss.
However, I should also be a bit critical and give Mercury Steam a few pointers for future games:
- In Super Metroid, the last powerup you get is the space jump, but items weren't locked behind it. In Dread, the last powerup we get is the power bombs, meaning that I was kind of forced to save my secret hunting for the very end. Powerups should have worked the same way as in Super, where if I collect a power bomb tank I unlock power bombs early. I know that the game has a plethora of sequence breaks, but the one powerup that is literally everywhere is power bombs, and can physically only be unlocked last, also making cross bombs kind of redundant as they are only collected five minutes earlier.
- Why don't we get different ending cutscenes for completing the game quicker? this is only game in the series to just have the one scene, and the only reason I can think of is that they didn't want to create a zero suit model just for this.
- A few of the bosses could have had some more work put into them to make them less annoying or more intuitive to beat. Drogyga was particulary annoying in this regard. Also, the chozo warriors were cool the first two times, but then having seven fights with them eventually turned into a cakewalk.
- The level design is so amazing that you end up going the correct direction without even knowing it. You're sometimes locked into particular areas until you get a specific upgrade or defeat a boss, and the game teaches you in the most masterful way.
- The level variety is fine. If the first three areas tended to blend in a bit too much, that changed with the second half of the game. I especially liked the return to Artaria where the whole place is frozen over.
- Samus having voice lines outside of Other M is also something I want a lot more of please. Her three voice lines were easily my favorite parts of the game.
- The controls are so FLUID! Gone are the days of the clunky space jumps and grapple beams. Samus' movement here is pristine. Would have liked if single wall jumps were still a thing though.
- The EMMI sections were fun and intense, and I would have actually liked to have seen a bit more of them, or included them more in the plot (something like an EMMI that escapes its pre-defined area and chases you throughout the rest of the map could have been cool and utterly terrifying). I did also like that all the classic Metroid upgrades were possessed by the EMMI, and you had to watch your own upgrades used against you.
- Flash shift is my new favourite powerup and I want it in every game following this please
- Its good to have someone actually interact with Samus for a change
- Those interactive cutscenes were the most badass things ever and really gave the game extra spectacle and gave the counter a really sense of dopamine when you landed it on a boss.
However, I should also be a bit critical and give Mercury Steam a few pointers for future games:
- In Super Metroid, the last powerup you get is the space jump, but items weren't locked behind it. In Dread, the last powerup we get is the power bombs, meaning that I was kind of forced to save my secret hunting for the very end. Powerups should have worked the same way as in Super, where if I collect a power bomb tank I unlock power bombs early. I know that the game has a plethora of sequence breaks, but the one powerup that is literally everywhere is power bombs, and can physically only be unlocked last, also making cross bombs kind of redundant as they are only collected five minutes earlier.
- Why don't we get different ending cutscenes for completing the game quicker? this is only game in the series to just have the one scene, and the only reason I can think of is that they didn't want to create a zero suit model just for this.
- A few of the bosses could have had some more work put into them to make them less annoying or more intuitive to beat. Drogyga was particulary annoying in this regard. Also, the chozo warriors were cool the first two times, but then having seven fights with them eventually turned into a cakewalk.