---
title: "Metroid Dread: A Study on Perfection"
date: 2021-10-10
series: reviews
tags:
 - metroid
---

[I'm gonna try to avoid spoilers in this article, however I realize that some
people may consider something a spoiler that other people will not. For the
things I'm not sure about, I'm gonna put them in little drop-down things that
look like this: <br /><br /><details><summary>Spoliers here, click to
expand</summary><br />These are some words that I'm just making up to fill space
so you can see what the `<details>` tag looks
like.</details><br />TL;DR though: 10/10 must-play Switch
game. All the screenshots in this article were taken from the beginning of the
game (Artaria and Cataris)](conversation://Cadey/enby)

This blog is normally about technology, so of course you'd expect me to start
writing about video games that I enjoy. This game hit me a bit different.
Metroid Dread is a name that has been up there with Half-Life 3 and Starcraft
Ghost in the genre of mythical games that have been rumored about for years but
we've heard next to no updates about in a long time. I had given up on the idea
of seeing it happen. I thought that the Metroid series was dead.

![The title
screen](https://cdn.christine.website/file/christine-static/blog/010093801237c000_2021-10-10_13-36-33-107.png)

Metroid games have always been commercial flops as far as the numbers go. The
games have never really been advertised that well and usually show up on
consoles at the end of their lifespans. However at the same time, those games
end up _defining_ a standard for gamefeel and adventure platforming that have
made a resounding impact on the industry as a whole. Metroid is half of the
reason why the genre is called Metroidvania, and a lot of it has to do with how
it carefully guides the player through the game. Metroid Dread is a masters
level class in how to show the player how to do things without explicitly
telling them how to do them.

![](https://cdn.christine.website/file/christine-static/blog/010093801237c000_2021-10-09_23-55-10-764.png)

This game is dripping with color, detail and brilliance in every room. Samus is
fluid and deadlier than ever. Movement flows from one jump into the next. The
game targets 60 FPS and it consistently hits it at nearly all times. The enemies
will hit you and it will be your fault for not getting out of the way. 

[The following is technically a spoiler, however it's probably better that you
have this information if you get stuck at the entrance to Cataris. Hopefully you
won't get stuck there for 2 hours.](conversation://Cadey/coffee)

<details>
  <summary>Cataris entrance assistance</summary>

  Throughout my 16 hour playthrough, I only ran into one part that you could
  really consider "bad". After I got to the entrance to Cataris, I got stuck and
  had to run around the small slice of the world I could access for a long time
  until I realized you just had to shoot to the left of the elevator. They really
  should have made at least one of those blocks obviously breakable.

![Before breaking
blocks](https://cdn.christine.website/file/christine-static/blog/010093801237c000_2021-10-10_13-51-46-261.png)

![After breaking
blocks](https://cdn.christine.website/file/christine-static/blog/010093801237c000_2021-10-10_13-51-56-949.png)

  There is a subtle camera movement to telegraph it, but I feel that it's not
  obvious enough. That may have been the point though.
</details>

The EMMI are legitimately scary enemies to "fight". They will hunt you down.
Each EMMI has its own gimmick related to the power you get.

["fight" may be the wrong word here, it's less of a fight and more of a "run
away and hide" simulator, however yeah I guess technically it's a fight because
you _do_ have a 10 frame window or whatever to escape from the EMMI's grasp. It
feels awesome when you land that hit.](conversation://Cadey/enby)

![You are faced with overwhelming power, accept your
helplessness.](https://cdn.christine.website/file/christine-static/blog/FBKBzqvVcAQBdn1.jpeg)

<details>
  <summary>EMMI related spoilers</summary>
  
  Morph ball is usually one of the first powerups you get in a Metroid game.
  Morph ball is a mid-game item in Dread and you have to kill an EMMI to get it.
  All the time the game will taunt you with all these neat powerups and places
  you could go if you just had morph ball. It's effective. It made me remember
  about them.
  
  The speed booster EMMI comes at you at a speed of a bajillionty miles per hour
  and its stun window is probably frame-perfect. I'm not sure. It's really tight
  though. You barely have time to react.
  
  The EMMI are defeated by grabbing a powerup from a "Central Unit", and the
  miniboss battles with the "Central Units" scream Mother Brain. Was Mother
  Brain a "Central Unit" that went rogue? What on earth were the Chozo _doing_?
  
  It feels so satisfying to land the final hit on an EMMI with the Omega
  Blaster. Sometimes you can land a hit mid-air, which looks swag as all hell.
  
  The music in EMMI zones calls back to the creepy sounds of Metroid 2. Not the
  remake, classic Gameboy Metroid 2. The ambient music from the overworld stops.
  There are no enemies in the EMMI zone, only automated patrol robots. One false
  move and the patrol robots snitch on you to the EMMI.
  
  I could go on for a while. It's done really well.
</details>

![The lava tube in
Artaria](https://cdn.christine.website/file/christine-static/blog/010093801237c000_2021-10-10_13-49-58-541.png)

<details>
  <summary>Boss spoilers</summary>

  The boss battles are amazingly done. The Chozo Soilder boss gets reused a bit
  much, however it ends up teaching you how to do boss fights damageless. I'm
  sure that most if not all of the bosses end up having cheese strats (you can
  oneshot flappy bird by shinesparking directly into his face).
  
  Kraid was such a throwback fight. I don't really know how to go into more
  details.
  
  There were underwater fights and finally a battle in the sky. Everything was
  done so perfectly.
</details>

I have been waiting to play this game since it was rumored in 2005. It became a
meme in the Metroid community for a mythical game like Half Life 3 or Duke Nukem
forever. People had given up hope. There were worries that Dread would end up
like Duke Nukem Forever: a hollow shell of its concept that would never really
live up to the hype. I thought the day that this game would come out would never
happen. Once I saw the words "Metroid 5" on the screen in E3 though, I instantly
preordered it. I didn't need to be convinced. Dread was real.

![My Switch home
screen](https://cdn.christine.website/file/christine-static/blog/FAoMNsEVcAQFjoC.jpeg)

It is now in my hands. I have played it. I loved almost every moment of it (save
the mishap in Cataris). I can't wait to see how speedruns develop for it. I bet
that speedrunners are going to crack this as wide open as Super Metroid has
been. There's already been some sequence breaking and boss cheeses found.

If you are on the fence with this game, go for it. It is one of the best games
I've played in years. I have heard that it works perfectly in certain programs
that let you play Switch games on PC. But really, buy this game if you can
afford to. It is easily worth the money. I can't wait to see what's next from
MercurySteam.
