Metroid Dread

[BowserBasher]

Right some more play in and more impressions. 
 

Spoiler

Right, so just defeated Kraid who I’m assuming was the second boss. Took me about two dozen tries after figuring out each stage of the fight. First goes was getting frustrated till I figured out the best way. So pleasing when you get it all right.

So I now have the Varia Suit, Morph Ball and bombs for the ball. Really feels like the game opens up when you finally get that part. Whilst the game does seem open in it doesn’t appear where you should go, there does seem to be a route that the game eases you towards in the way it moves you around the map and new upgrades tend to lead you to the next door or area. 

Getting the right buttons pressed in a tight spot can sometimes be tough, especially in boss fights and you need to jump to certain ledges then get your misfiles out and fire,  but getting used to it. I know some of the hidden items are going to evade me (those places on the map that flash white) but I don’t mind. 
Love the visuals of the game and the seamless transitions between cutscenes and gameplay. I’ve seen a bit of jittering when using the teleporters but nothing major. 
Still a great game  

 

[Mokong]

Ok I'm pretty sure I'm near the end now.

I've just gotten what I assume is the final power up and the atmosphere I was getting as I moved forward from there were just screaming final boss coming soon.

So I've decided to backtrack over all the areas first before moving on.

There's a few parts of the map I've not been in yet because was missing abilities at time was near them so gonna try get to those and check each area out before finishing game and seeing how high I can get the item percentage to. 

Currently at 11 hours 30 mins and 69% items (though it is tempting to try finish the game with that number for the lols)

[Kav]

I’ve just got the morph ball and I’m loving it, plays like a dream!

Edited October 9, 2021 by Kav

[Mokong]

Some Speed Block puzzle goodness

I'll spoiler tag for those that don't want to see solutions. Some of these thought would never get....but there are some left that I lokely def won't.

 

Spoiler

 

 

[Mokong]

Holy crap I think I might actually do this, I'm at 98% items!!

I managed to pick up a few more items this morning I was pulling my hair out for yesterday...all needed was a good sleep I guess.

Only one area left now, Burenia, 88% for that area so probably 2 or 3 items somewhere there.

 

More Speed Boost victories in spoiler tags

Spoiler

 

 

[Dcubed]

So I just beat the first boss and got up to the second area… I’m absolutely loving it so far! And it hasn’t quite played out to my expectations either…

First off, Samus controls like absolute butter and she has never felt better to control! Gone is the staccato rhythm of combat from Samus Returns in favour of far more fluid traversal & combat.  Thankfully, they’ve ditched the idea of having every single enemy be super aggro like in Samus Returns and the focus on the melee counter has been greatly reduced.  You won’t be seeing every single enemy lunge at Samus with a glowing light asking for her to counter them here in Dread and instead, most enemies are more like classic Metroid foes with some aggro ones thrown in.  It’s a nice balance and the game’s enemies feel much more varied as a result than they did in Samus Returns.

Speaking of which, the difficulty also feels more finely tuned than in Samus Returns as well.  Most enemies don’t hit as hard as in SR and they’re also a lot more generous with missile & ammo drops than in that game (it’s not uncommon for enemies to drop 50hp or more!).  It’s certainly on the harder side of Metroid, but it doesn’t feel nearly as unfriendly to the player as SR did so far.

Secondly, the game feels much more linear so far than I was expecting.  While you don’t have the guiding hand of Adam telling you exactly where your target is, the level design has a fairly obvious critical path that leads you towards progression.  From what I hear, this changes up later on though.  It’s not a bad thing at all (I do love Fusion after all), it’s just not what I was expecting from the outset.

Finally, the EMMI encounters don’t quite play out like the stealth sequences I was expecting them to be… The areas where they appear are quite wide and open, and these sequences play out more like an escape sequence than stealth per-say.  They’re really fun! And they do make you feel the sense of Dread that the game is going for, but they’re not quite like the stealth sequences that I thought they were going to be.  They’re much faster paced and action focused than I had expected.

Also… I pulled off the EMMI counter on my first attempt 

Sadly I didn’t pull it off the second time I was captured  Turns out that the counter timing is randomised each time you’re captured!

[Glen-i]

34 minutes ago, Dcubed said:

Sadly I didn’t pull it off the second time I was captured  Turns out that the counter timing is randomised each time you’re captured!

Oh, you are kidding!?

[Mokong]

Done! Metroid Dread finished and with 100% Items found too 😎

Didn't expect to get 100%, some of those Speed Booster puzzles seemed impossible but I somehow managed to figure them out .... After ..many.... many tries.

I'd say most of that 15 hours is failing at getting items and repeating bosses haha.

Man that final boss was both hard as nails and awesome at same time. Lost count of how many times he beat me.

Also unlocked a Hard Mode ... Wtf.. this can get harder????

 

 

Also this was the last item I got for 100%

This has to have been the hardest one to get.

 

 

[Kav]

On 09/10/2021 at 9:59 PM, BowserBasher said:

Right some more play in and more impressions. 
 

  Up to and just after second boss fight (Reveal hidden contents)

Right, so just defeated Kraid who I’m assuming was the second boss. Took me about two dozen tries after figuring out each stage of the fight. First goes was getting frustrated till I figured out the best way. So pleasing when you get it all right.

So I now have the Varia Suit, Morph Ball and bombs for the ball. Really feels like the game opens up when you finally get that part. Whilst the game does seem open in it doesn’t appear where you should go, there does seem to be a route that the game eases you towards in the way it moves you around the map and new upgrades tend to lead you to the next door or area. 

Getting the right buttons pressed in a tight spot can sometimes be tough, especially in boss fights and you need to jump to certain ledges then get your misfiles out and fire,  but getting used to it. I know some of the hidden items are going to evade me (those places on the map that flash white) but I don’t mind. 
Love the visuals of the game and the seamless transitions between cutscenes and gameplay. I’ve seen a bit of jittering when using the teleporters but nothing major. 
Still a great game  

 

Not long since I did this boss too… man it was sooo epic!

Then not long after this finally happened…

 

[Julius]

Imagine we'll get more concrete figures in the coming days, but it seems to be performing very well based on the data available so far. 

 

[V. Amoleo]

I'm onto the final boss fight now.  I've enjoyed this game so much.  MercurySteam have really nailed the Metroid formula.

Spoiler

The music in this game is really good, the chills I got from the intro movie.  I was about to moan about there being no save theme... but a quick YouTube search has showed me I'm an idiot.  It's because I've been keeping the game in sleep mode on Switch when I've not been playing it.  So I've just not heard it, d'oh!

Spoiler

Argh this boss battle is so frustrating.  I can do the first phase no problem but the second phase I have just not figured it out yet.  Because it's the second phase it's quite difficult to just rinse and repeat to figure it out.

 

[Ronnie]

Really loving this! The character movement, as usual with a Nintendo game, is pretty much perfect, feels so great to run around. 

The UI is pretty fugly though, it feels like a 3DS game in that regard.

Did they just lock off backtracking from the first area after you beat the boss though? Seems a bit weird, I want to go back and get more upgrades!

 

[Glen-i]

14 minutes ago, Ronnie said:

The UI is pretty fugly though, it feels like a 3DS game in that regard.

What does this even mean?

Like, you're talking specifically about the UI. I could throw 2 darts at my shelf, hit 2 3DS games, and I'm almost certain the UI's they have will be completely different.

[Ike]

14 hours ago, Kav said:

Not long since I did this boss too… man it was sooo epic!

Then not long after this finally happened…

 

The pause when you realise you successful countered. 

[Ronnie]

6 minutes ago, Glen-i said:

What does this even mean?

Like, you're talking specifically about the UI. I could throw 2 darts at my shelf, hit 2 3DS games, and I'm almost certain the UI's they have will be completely different.

I'll explain to you what it means.

This is the UI that is supposed to look at home on a big 1080p tv. It would look right at home on the 3DS' 240p screen.

[Glen-i]

2 hours ago, Ronnie said:

I'll explain to you what it means.

This is the UI that is supposed to look at home on a big 1080p tv. It would look right at home on the 3DS' 240p screen.

I'm still not seeing the issue here. Are you saying it's too big?

Not enough games have big UI's. The game has to be legible in handheld mode as well.

The amount of times I've seen a game have far too small HUD features is annoying. This menu looks fine to me.

[Ronnie]

36 minutes ago, Glen-i said:

I'm still not seeing the issue here. Are you saying it's too big?

Not enough games have big UI's. The game has to be legible in handheld mode as well.

The amount of times I've seen a game have far too small HUD features is annoying. This menu looks fine to me.

The issue was clear in my original post. I think the UI is ugly and would be right at home on a 3DS screen (ie, gigantic sized fonts taking up the whole screen). If you prefer big UIs then great, it'll work for you.

[Glen-i]

1 hour ago, Ronnie said:

The issue was clear in my original post. I think the UI is ugly and would be right at home on a 3DS screen (ie, gigantic sized fonts taking up the whole screen). If you prefer big UIs then great, it'll work for you.

So what, you'd prefer that half the screen has nothing on it? It's a menu, the font size isn't blocking any other information, so there's no real problem here. If anything, I'd make the missiles and health in the middle larger.

Must be nice to have a gigantic TV... Mine is as wide as 2 WiiU gamepads side-by-side. So I really notice it when something is too small. Big font is nothing but a benefit to those who might have small TV's or sight problems.

[Ronnie]

55 minutes ago, Glen-i said:

so there's no real problem here

55 minutes ago, Glen-i said:

So what, you'd prefer that half the screen has nothing on it?

I'd prefer if the menu screen and UI looked nicer. It's an opinion. You like it, cool.

Edited October 11, 2021 by Ronnie

[Ike]

Think I soft lock’s myself by going to the third area too soon.

Edit: maybe not

[Ike]

Got my first first E.M.M.I counter, not sure I recorded it out of panic hitting the wrong button.

Just beat

Spoiler

Kraid. Nice to see him back.

Also I like how they brought back the "doughnut" missile things during the sector core fights, which look a bit too like Mother Brain to be coincidental. Hm.

 

[BowserBasher]

2 hours ago, Ike said:

Think I soft lock’s myself by going to the third area too soon.

Edit: maybe not

I thought that at one point too, but it seems the game does have a somewhat linear route through the game. 

[Ike]

9 minutes ago, BowserBasher said:

I thought that at one point too, but it seems the game does have a somewhat linear route through the game. 

Wasn’t really expecting to change area since I didn’t think I was done in that area. Looking at the map there was nowhere else to go though. It’s nice you switch between areas though.

[Dcubed]

3 hours ago, Ronnie said:

I'd prefer if the menu screen and UI looked nicer. It's an opinion. You like it, cool.

I love the UI in this game.  It’s incredibly faithful to the classic 2D Metroid aesthetic.  Everything about it is absolutely accurate to the classic 2D Metroid series, right down to the font choice, the colours, the layout, the use of the L&R buttons on the status screen; and even the presentation of the file select screen (The classic “Samus Files” are presented just like how they are in the SNES & GBA games; even including the classic animation of Samus turning her head towards the camera when you select the file! ).

The UI feels just like the classic pixel art 2D Metroids, just now presented in HD.  It goes a long way towards making Metroid Dread feel like the legitimate Metroid 5 that it really is.  It’s decidedly un-modern, but still feels slick and fun to use.  It’s absolutely perfect and I wouldn’t change a thing about it!  

Edited October 11, 2021 by Dcubed

[Ronnie]

Ooof that second boss fight took a few attempts! Very tough, until you realise that countering is the only way to go with the bigger ones.

The game is tons of fun but it's much more linear than I was expecting, at least early on. Though to be fair a lot of Metroid-likes are like that these days, devs worried about gamers getting frustrated and moving on. Only Hollow Knight bucks that trend from what I've experienced.