Metroid Dread (Switch) Review | Nintendo Life

After absolutely nailing their first shot at a Metroid adventure with the 2017 Metroid II 3DS Samus Returns remake, Nintendo has given MercurySteam another bite into the cherry in which they have chosen to retain many of their unique gameplay elements. last out while adding a ton of stealth. It’s a risky move, adding an entirely new mechanic like this to a much-loved and highly-reviewed franchise, but we’re happy to report that the Spanish developer has delivered a phenomenal new entry in the series that we just can’t stop playing. . Metroid Dread is fantastic.

Of course, one of the most exciting things in the lead up to this new outing for Samus Aran has been that it’s the first game that we get a chance to play on Nintendo’s sleek new OLED Switch, and we can’t really think. of a better title with which to present that amazing screen. This is a truly beautiful adventure, in which each of the various biomes on planet ZDR you have to solve and fight your way with your own with unique and wonderfully detailed enemy types, flora and fauna, some truly impressive lighting effects. and other stylish bells and whistles graphics.

There are so many details here, from the prehistoric creatures you’ll see wandering in the background, to creepy little terrors passing through the vents and mist-filled EMMI areas, drained as they are colored in an effort to increase the tension until finally has taken down the resident robotic terror. Samus herself has never looked better and the exquisite amount of detail in her animations makes her feel better than ever at controlling the game’s labyrinthine structures. As her abilities and weapon collection expand exponentially throughout the campaign, Samus finds herself climbing on magnetized pads with her new Spider Magnet, swinging with a grappling hook, dodging enemy attacks with a sleek new Flash ability. Shift and much more. We really don’t want to spoil any of the story or many of the unlockable abilities for you here (the surprise of finding all of these things yourself is half the fun after all), but rest assured. everything what you do in Metroid Dread, every enemy you dodge into oblivion, every dodge, slide, fight and rocket round, looks and feels fantastic. It’s a sleek, fast-paced material that never drops a frame as it delivers breathtaking and thrilling encounters, including some suitably screen-shaking boss battles that make a great line on the rather disgusting OTT body horror. There are some really grotesque things to bring out here.

In terms of returning mechanics, MercurySteam has brought back the excellent Samus Returns stop and feels more robust here. Moving through rooms full of insects and beasts and using this stop to devastate every last one of them with a single overloaded response is a glorious thing, too, a satisfying action that makes you feel like a truly badass space ranger. The Aeion Power Source also reappears in the 2017 game and you’ll have to juggle your gauge to be able to use all your defensive and offensive capabilities when you need them most. With this heady mix of new abilities and returning stalwarts, Metroid Dread feels like the most feature-packed entry in the series to date, Samus now has a enormous a variety of movements at your disposal and it always feels like you have plenty of options to explore and navigate your richly detailed environment.

And that’s it before we mention the stealthy new side of things. Honestly, we weren’t 100% sure how this look of Metroid Dread was going to work. There was definite potential for it to be a bit frustrating, but the tense clashes and encounters you have with the EMMI robots are highlights in the game. Each of the ZDR zones has a designated EMMI area that you will have to repeatedly maneuver through, but you must be quiet, use your cloaking ability, look at your Aeion gauge, and glide carefully. It’s wildly atmospheric when the big bright red signature of a nearby hunter appears on your game map, as you hear the doors opening behind you with robotic beeps and bloops, or desperately dodge out of the way of EMMI’s motion tracker. .

There is also a very good sense of catharsis after being locked in these long cat and mouse games, and after dying countless times because you got caught, when you can finally temporarily overload your lasers and return to each of the seven EMMIs. Fully equipped and more than ready areas to blow the plate armor off their heads and kill them once and for all.

Once Metroid Dread enters its final stages, go ahead and launch a procession of pretty tough enemy bosses your way. We won’t go into the details for fear of spoilers, but some of these may require a few replay to get right, and it speaks to the quality of combat here that we were never too bothered to die. As the game itself explains, all attacks can be avoided, no matter how impossible it may seem, so digging deeper, observing, learning, and anticipating how bosses attack and move will get you there in the end. Everything feels wonderfully well balanced; tough but not impossible, satisfying as hell when you make a kill and Oh so super slick to watch it’s just a pleasure to hit restart and continue over and over again.

Regarding the secrets and collectibles and all that good old stuff about Metroid, everything is present and correct, and you will find that you may need to replay it several times if you want to pick up each and every update that awaits you. you in the various regions of your adventure. There are some pleasant surprises for fans of the franchise, an interesting story that very cleverly doesn’t get in the way of the action at any point, and an absolutely excellent soundtrack that underlines everything. All the classic Metroid sounds you’ve come to expect are here, now tweaked and modernized and accompanied by spectacular new audio.

In both docked and laptop mode on the new OLED switch, we didn’t suffer from any frame rate issues at all, no matter how hectic some of the boss fights got later in the game, and that new screen really just did. does everything pop here. The contrast between colorful and vibrant areas and the dark, fuzzy EMMI gauntlets in this game is outstanding when played on this new hardware, making for a visually rich, sumptuous and highly detailed experience that is further complemented by the improved console audio and some great use of audio support.

We haven’t played Dread on a regular Switch yet, but even if the screen doesn’t appear as much on a non-OLED display, it will still be an engaging and highly fluid experience regardless. We didn’t encounter a single bug or glitch in the entirety of its roughly 12-hour run time; The whole package reeks of the superior Nintendo quality you expect from the company’s tent launches.

So overall, Metroid Dread really does feel like a hugely successful modernization of the franchise. It’s everything we love about older games, all the good things from the latest MercurySteam outing, and a ton of new mechanics that make it an incredibly exciting, absorbing, fun, and challenging game in ZDR. This is an incredibly stylish and satisfying return to one of the true greats of video games and one of the best action games you can buy for your Switch.

conclusion

Metroid Dread is a triumphant return for both Samus Aran and developer MercurySteam. This is a super slick, hugely entertaining, and exquisitely crafted entry into the Metroid franchise that plays better than anything we’ve seen in the series thus far. With tons of fantastic new abilities, super tense and enjoyable stealth sections, plenty of great boss fights, and a story that fans will definitely enjoy, we can’t really see how this could have been better. The best Metroid game of all time? This could be the first.