Metroid Dread

Released on October 8, 2021 for the Nintendo Switch by Nintendo, and developed by Mercury Steam and Nintendo EPD, Metroid Dread is the first 2D entry in the storied action-adventure Metroid series since 2002's Metroid Fusion.

Up until a few weeks ago, I've been in a video game drought. Nothing has really given me "that" feeling. My Nintendo Switch playtime suffered accordingly. I played less of my Switch in 2021 than in any year since I first bought it in 2017. I needed a video game panacea.

 

Are you the cure?

Like most Samus Aran fans, I've been eagerly anticipating a fourth Metroid Prime game for over a decade now. When Nintendo announced that the newest Metroid console game, Metroid Dread, the first since 2010, would not be a new Prime game, I was a bit disappointed. The Prime offshoots of Metroid, which are played from a first-person perspective through a 3D world, are among my favorites, and the news that Dread would instead be a 2D game made my heart sink a bit. Now, however, my video gaming heart is on fire...and it's all thanks to Metroid Dread.

 

Samus Aran, the Chosen One

2010's Metroid: Other M was not exactly well received. Personally, I found the gameplay to be pretty solid, but the portrayal of bounty hunter and series protagonist, Samus Aran, to be abominable. Samus is the most badass silent protagonist in video game history, going it alone into hostile, lonely, isolated alien environments, exploring and battling against dangerous foes. Other M feels like a conservative Japanese rejection of Samus, nerfing her into what is essentially a subservient housewife with a rocket on her arm. Even worse, Other M steals her agency and voice, ironically by suddenly making the once silent Samus constantly talk. Up until that point, the badass bounty hunter had never uttered a single line of audible dialogue. Dread feels like a blatant rejection of Other M's Samus, presenting a Samus that is as badass as any character in any video game has ever been...and this is a game that begins with Samus Aran getting her ass kicked.

 

Kicking her ass just pisses her off

By this point, the Metroid formula is well known, even by gamers who've never played a Metroid game. Samus is tasked or decides to investigate an issue on a distant, dangerous alien world or satellite, arrives, and is subsequently sapped of all but her most basic powers, often by the respective game's major antagonist. Samus must then traverse an environment where many areas can only be reached when she has retrieved a particular power that will give her access. For instance, there might be a path that's too high to reach, until Samus gains the ability to double-jump, or there might be a door blocked by a barrier that can only be destroyed when Samus gains the ability to fire a stronger beam.

 

For instance, you can't hit this boss directly in the nuts until you retrieve these awesome, heat-seeking missiles.

As Samus explores and battles through the areas she can access, she discovers or regains the abilities that will allow her to access the areas she couldn't. This is such a foolproof formula, it's become its own genre, titled "Metroidvania," after the way Konami's Castlevania series permanently adopted Metroid-style gameplay with 1997's Castlvania: Symphony of the Night. Dread follows this formula to perfection.

 

Exploration + Reward = Gamer Profit

Dread kicks off with Samus being sent to the remote planet, ZDR, to investigate the disappearance of seven investigative robots, known as E.M.M.I.'s. The robots themselves were investigating a spotting of the "X" parasite, a dangerous organism which can take on any other organism's form. Samus arrives on ZDR, receives the aforementioned ass-kicking from an enormously powerful Chozo warrior, loses most of her abilities, and immediately finds herself being hunted down by the E.M.M.I.'s, which have been programmed to kill her on sight.

 

Also, they're extremely scary

Metroid Dread features your usual Metroidvania action, done flawlessly, with the threat of the E.M.M.I.'s as the game's most prominent new feature. As such, Dread's huge overworld map is intersected by E.M.M.I. zones. When Samus sets foot in these zones, she's immediately tracked by that zones' E.M.M.I. If the E.M.M.I. senses her, it will come barreling through the zone toward her like a heat-seeking guard dog If the E.M.M.I. makes contact with Samus, the player will have less than a split-second to tap the "counter" button, which temporarily stuns the E.M.M.I. Failure to do so results in immediate death at the E.M.M.I.'s needlepoint. That's right--one hit equals death, every single time. To add to their immense threat, E.M.M.I.'s can't be killed or even damaged by ordinary means. The only way to defeat them is to find (and defeat) their particular zones' source of omega energy, absorb that energy, and use it to melt off an E.M.M.I.'s face shield, then blast the E.M.M.I. to death. This gameplay element leads to incredibly tense moment after incredibly tense moment, hence the title, Dread.

 

Not to mention, those non-E.M.M.I zone bosses are...not pushovers

Dread isn't just a tense, suspenseful game, though. It's also one of if not the toughest Metroid game since the original from 1986. The developers, Mercury Steam, ask a lot of the player, but they give much, as well. Samus' move set in this game is huge, employing every button on the Switch, and not every one is as easy to master as just tapping a button. Some of the inputs and timing here are complex. However, like all complex, yet well-made games, every move can be completely mastered with practice, and Dread rewards players who keep trying.

 

Thank you, game!

You'll certainly want to master these moves, as some of the bosses here, particularly late in the game, are among the most difficult from any game Nintendo have released, particularly in the 21st Century. The first several death-ending encounters with these bosses make defeating them seem like an impossible task. However, learning each boss' pattern, and mastering the moves involved in defeating them eventually make victory feel like child's play. That is the mark of a great game.

 

Samus says "SIT DOWN, BITCH."

However, as great as Dread is as a game, there's a certain box that must checked to mark it as a great Metroid entry. A great Metroid game must feature an environment that creates a feeling of isolation and loneliness, yet leads to an extremely satisfying sense of reward to the player for fulfilling their curiosity about that environment. If there's not a constant "I wonder what would happen if I did this? Oh wow, I can't believe that worked!" feedback loop flowing through a Metroid game, than it simply isn't a good Metroid game. Dread pulls this feeling off flawlessly as well, to the extent that I'd like to go back and explore ZDR even more now that I've seen the end credits. With plenty of optional power-ups hidden around Dread's world, including additional missile slots and energy tanks, getting that elusive 100% on the save file select screen is addictive...not to mention all of the cool rewards for finding all those items, or for beating the game on the harder difficulty with faster times.

 

Just you wait, Ghavoran, I am going to explore you to death!

I also count an immersive soundscape as an integral factor for a great Metroid game. With alien creature sounds, explosions, environmental effects, and a great electronic/futuristic/symphonic score, Dread begs to be heard through headphones. Great environmental and alien/enemy design is also key, and also knocked out of the park here. As far as graphics, the game's 3D-modeled 2D looks great, but I have to give particular praise to the character animations, especially those done for Samus.

 

My Queen

I mentioned above that this is the most badass version of Samus yet. This is elevated by the way she's animated, not only during gameplay, but in Dread's cutscenes, particularly those intercutting boss fights. Nothing is quite so satisfying as pulling off a perfect combination of moves and counters to defeat a boss, then watching as the game immediately cuts to incredibly animated cinematic angles of Samus, looking like the most badass thing that has ever existed as she renders the final death blow. The cutscenes here are nothing short of brilliant.

 

And sometimes slightly suggestive.

In fact, it's during one of these cutscenes, roughly midway through the game, when Dread lifted me from thinking "this new Metroid is really good" to "I LOVE THIS GAME." This cutscene features one of two moments in Dread where Samus uses her voice. The latter instance involves Samus letting out a primal, rage-filled scream, and that moment is amazing. However, during this midpoint cutscene, where our hero is told exactly what is going on and how she fits into it, Samus (voiced by actress, Nikki Garcia) utters one audible line of dialogue. This line is in her given language of Chozo, with subtitles running at the bottom of the screen. It is simply, "Don't worry...I'll end this. Once and for all," the only line Samus, as presented up until Other M, would say, because it is the only line that needs to be said. And with that one line, after what feels like much longer than a 12 year absence, Samus Aran, the most badass silent protagonist of badass silent protagonists, is back.

Enough said

SCORE: 10/10