Written Review.
Metroid 5 – Dread. It’s a game I and many other gaming fans have been waiting for and we’ve been waiting for nearing 20 years.
The game starts off simple enough, you are headed to a planet to check out why there are issues with robots that were sent there to gather data. These robots are known as E.M.M.I. The E.M.M.I have somehow been made to hunt down Samus Aran, which for those not in the know is the player character. The E.M.M.I are interesting, there are several of them and each is a little different to the last, but what’s most interesting is that you cannot harm them, at least, until you get a temporary boost against them. Actually, that isn’t the most interesting thing what is, I believe is the way you have to manoeuvre through the areas they inhabit.
There are certain sections that they patrol and when you get into the that’s when you have to think of these areas as more of a puzzle to try and get passed them. The issue for me is when starting the game and going up against these E.M.M.I it just isn’t fun to start with, being caught over and over is frustrating, as it’s instant death unless you are amazing with your reflexes. Don’t get me wrong as I said I enjoyed them, but it took a little to get in the right mindset to get to it and once I did I had no issues with the E.M.M.I, I enjoyed getting past them and working out how to avoid them as much as possible, I even saved myself a few times from them grabbing me. and finally taking them out is satisfying.
The map is big and has lots of hidden items dotted around the place, from needed upgrades like the Varia suit, Charge beam and iconic Morphball. to items that increase your health, missiles and so on. I really enjoyed exploring the map and finding a new item to then going back and exploring a previously unexplored area. It’s not unique to this game, but I feel Metroid has a wonderful sense of isolation that few games in the genre have, even with the EMMI and friendly A.I. you still feel totally alone.
The game also holds your hand a lot less than it did in Fusion, in fusion you were told this is where you go and you’d have a map marking where you needed to head and why, in this it’s simple, you need to get to the surface, and when you speak to Adam, the A.I. he says you are getting stronger and you’re in a new area with the name of it, there’s no this is exactly where you need to go.
The game I think more linear feeling than Super Metroid, but for me, it did not feel linear to a point where it just felt I was following a path, and there are plenty of opportunities to go off and explore as you get upgrades and get lost and go the wrong way, which happened to me twice.
The music helps the game with its feeling of isolation with its atmospheric music. The tone is generally ambient apart for certain parts, like boss fights, or ceratin cutscenes. The boss music is really different to the music as it’s much more frantic and heightens the tension of facing off against a tough enemy. and yes they are tough.
The game is probably the most difficult of the Metroid games, and not just because of the EMMI, the bosses are wonderfully challenging and you feel like a badass when you kill one off, and most you’ll have to try more than once. You’ll need to work out patterns in these fights and keep your eye out for signs of the boss’s attacks, like they may move a specific way before doing a strong attack. I think the difficulty of the game, in general, is on point, yes the EMMI are tricky and getting caught is likely death, but the checkpointing is set well, so you start just outside the E.M.M.I areas, so you lose little progress.I think visually the game is nice enough, it’s not as lovely as say Mario Odyssey, but it has a very different approach to its visual style, this is meant to be dark, dingy, and atmospheric and it fits the bill perfectly, for the most part, there are other areas that aren’t that way and that’s where the EMMI reside, in more pristine and sterile areas. It fits the bill with them being there for scientific research.
The game is wonderful and I’m happy that after so long Metroid Dread is finally here and I was finally able to carry on Samus’ story. My only issue with the game is funnily enough the EMMI. It’s not that they themselves are the issue, it’s more, I don’t know how to put it, the idea of them. I feel like they were made to get the same reaction as you had with the SA-X is Metroid Fusion, and because the SA-X rarely popped up and when it did it was only at certain unexpected times, the EMMI fall flat on that, if that isn’t what the intention was then fair enough, but I think that’s what they were there to do, fill you with dread akin to that of the SA-X.
Maybe it would have worked if it did something similar, but because there are specific areas and you know that you are entering you don’t get the same reaction, it’s more, for me, a here we go, what does this do and how do I deal with it, instead Of Oh my, I need to get the hell outta here.
All in all the game is a blast and I highly recommend it, I don’t do scores with my Pedz Reviewz, but if I did this may have been my first 10.