I’d only ever played one Metroid game before Dread, and that was the original Nintendo Entertainment System game via the Switch’s NES emulator. I didn’t really get on with it. The rusty graphics, clunky controls, and seemingly counterintuitive level design plagued my first (and only) hour in-game with minor inconvenience and aimless wandering. It would be fair to say that I haven’t been a Metroid fan since that experience, however, after my first hour with Dread, I don’t think that statement is true anymore.
Dread is the first game in the series since Metroid Fusion, which released in 2002, 19 years ago! It’s no wonder nobody in my generation is a fan of Metroid when we haven’t had a new instalment released during our lifetime. And having played Dread for a whole hour I have only one question.
Why not?!?
This game is unlike everything else on the market. Well, that’s not true. In the 19-year series hiatus, fans have taken to releasing their own games heavily inspired by Metroid and Castlevania, intelligently coined as “metroidvanias”. You’ve probably played some of these: Slay the Spire, Hollow Knight, Ori and the Blind Forest are but a few examples that I’ve personally tried. These games took the elements from their original inspirations which were amazing (and which I clearly failed to see the potential in first time around) and made games for the modern audience that are way more accessible and that hone into what we want out of games nowadays.
So when I tell you that Metroid Dread is everything that a modern metroidvania should be and more, know that it’s because while the Metroid series itself has been MiA for almost two decades, the formula has been honed to an impeccably tight experience.
In the first hour of Dread you encounter one of the game’s best new features: the slinky, creepy EMMI bots, which mercilessly hunt you down through level-scapes and brutally execute you upon capture. These dreaded (oh I get it now) androids are heavily reminiscent of the Xenomorph from Alien, and their raw speed and dedication to mashing your brains in are no exception, so you constantly feel the pressure to escape. The EMMI units are confined to a single area of patrol within their section of the map which is denoted in-game by a hazy film grain and ominous soundscape of drowned beeps and boops. This underlines your desperate attempts to listen out for the EMMI, unknowingly at the same time as it’s listening out for you, ever increasing the uncertainty welling in the pits of your stomach. Entering these areas feels like jumping into the bottom of a deep, murky lake, and it’s not until the danger is right in front of you that you see the bloodthirsty shark angling to take a not-so-healthy chunk out of your lower intestine.
Dread’s level design intelligently forces you to learn the lay of the land, but also does a masterful job of keeping you in the dark about the best way to truly perfect traversal until you have more abilities; in an hour I felt I had a good understanding of which doors lead to which rooms, but I couldn’t have told you with any confidence whether that was the best way of getting from A to B.
And briefly let’s mention how smoothly Samus controls. Movement is slick and precise, pressing LB to swiftly whip out the arm cannon and effortlessly aim it with precision is satisfying, as is the responsiveness of quickly switching directions upon realising that the fucking KILLER ROBOT is that way and I need to run away, fast! Every little bit of movement feels deliberate, which is arguably the game’s biggest Dark Souls influence (every game’s got to have one) and is a good excuse to pump up the difficulty of some intense moments like boss fights and EMMI pursuits.
After this short experience with Metroid Dread, I can confidently call myself a fan, and I diligently look forward to my future hours spent getting spanked by the Xenomorph’s automated cousin. Just as long as he uses the leather paddle and not his rupturing face spike.