Picture the Metroid Prime series as the new love interest that just entered your life. Mysterious. Spicy. Great taste in clothes. You bought her gifts. You spent long nights together, exploring new places and having fun. But deep down you knew. As dazzling as this new girl was, the one you fell for first was much better – the 2D adventures of legendary bounty hunter Samus Aran, which still have a certain magic that just can’t be matched, with Super Metroid remaining the masterpiece of the franchise.
Let’s check the calendar, though. Oh, it seems that almost two decades have passed since the last in line, Metroid Fusion, was released. The good news? It was worth the wait. After spending an unhealthy amount of time in the labyrinthine underworld of ZDR, here’s one more look at one of the best entries into this sci-fi universe, Metroid Dread.
Samus Aran’s latest mission creates a strong feeling of Déjà vu from the get-go and keeps on doing that almost until the very end. Usually that’s a bad thing – the outcome of a creator being lazy or afraid to try out new things. In the case of Metroid Dread, it’s more like a fitting homage. The title screen shows the crimson visage of a planet, while the newest rendition of the ominous theme of the original Metroid starts humming, and once the adventure begins everything is handled in that familiar, minimalist, 1979 Alien-inspired way.
The heroine’s spaceship is seen approaching this world, while the player is briefed about how the Galactic Federation’s plan to deploy the highly durable E.M.M.I. robots to wipe out an extremely dangerous threat failed, and that now Ellen Ripley’s cousin/Doom Slayer’s niece must go down to personally handle the situation. A few lines of text explain what’s going on, brooding music plays in the background and pretty colours dance on the screen. Just another video game opening, right? Well, there’s something that separates a great introduction from one that’s simply good, and that’s presentation.
From the moment Samus steps inside this subterranean realm you are given a first taste of this title’s great direction, high level of immersion and stellar audio-visuals. As a fan of stoic, helmet-wearing, sci-fi warrior type of characters, the one writing this review loves how the main character is portrayed. Sublime animation does the storytelling, with subtle gestures and controlled body language emphasising her resilience towards all kinds of dangers – whether that’s rampaging parasites, or an enormous space dragon. A badass with admirable composure and a reasonably sized arm cannon.
An early rude awakening later and Ms. Aran’s awesome toolset is no more. The in-world explanation? Irrelevant. It’s just an excuse to explore and (re)discover abilities that enable going deeper – or in this case higher. ADAM, her AI companion, analyses the situation and the slim chances of survival against what’s down there, providing a single objective: get back to her ship… and get the Norfair out of here! Metroid Dread continues in the same vein as previous instalments, layering in a subtle strain of survival horror that greatly improves the journey.
There’s a unique sense of claustrophobia here, with every step toward the surface paradoxically leading in circles. The environment reinforces that fragility, as its design often suggests a world far larger and more dangerous than what’s visible. The background is rarely stagnant, showing the wildlife of the planet in the distance or hints of greater threats, while the perspective occasionally changes to emphasize scale. ZDR is dangerous, and its fauna, flora and mechanical sentries don’t want to let you traverse it with ease. More importantly? They got help.
The new boys in town, the towering E.M.M.I.s, have a design that’s not exactly that threatening for the indestructible terminators they’re supposed to be, yet upon entering the zones they patrol the atmosphere shifts dramatically, ambient noise fades and the colour grading gets noticeably less warm as they can be heard looking for you with malicious intent. Upon detection, bounty hunter becomes bounty hunted as you are then forced to be quick on your decision-making and button-pressing, frantically guiding Samus through tight corridors and vents while trying to find the exit.
As one of the most action-oriented entries, there are many ways to approach combat. Queen among them is the melee counter, which allows stunning foes and unleashing punishing follow-ups, earning more resources than usual. This mechanic even finds its way into boss encounters with great effect. Want to try pulling that off against an E.M.M.I.? Good luck, as the timing window is razor-thin (and that’s being polite), and the rare success feels more a miracle, so better focus in mastering the art of escape and avoid bravado.
Now, these encounters thrill at first, but the necessary procedure – avoid, survive, acquire one-shot super weapon, headshot them to robot heaven – becomes noticeable over time. Later E.M.M.I.s are slightly upgraded to spice things up, but even with these “twists” these moments lose their initial unpredictability, though the tension rarely disappears entirely. Thankfully, Metroid Dread doesn’t rely on these fellas alone. This tight network of interconnected regions is filled with secrets, hazards, a decent amount of environmental storytelling and plenty of wildlife that seem personally offended by the bounty hunter’s presence
Combat thankfully never drags traversal down, because Samus is highly mobile even from the very beginning, and there’s almost always a clever way to avoid confrontations. Biomes have unique personalities with sterile research facilities and industrial complexes decorated with high-tech machinery sitting alongside imposing ancient ruins and all sorts of caverns. If you don’t mind a little bit of nit-picking, while easily one of the best-looking Switch titles, its art direction is a bit flat when compared to the otherworldly quality of the 1986 Metroid, and the vibrant palette and distinct areas of Super Metroid – and the music is largely forgettable. What about exploring all that, though?
Charting the unknown stands as one of Metroid Dread’s defining strengths. Slowly peeling the planet’s mysteries away and obtaining new abilities to reach places you previously couldn’t remains a formula that just works, and the one that started it all is still pretty darn good at it. There’s a big “but”, however, and that’s how it leans somewhat toward Metroid Fusion’s linear nature, though not as intensely. There’s a semi-invisible guiding hand subtly nudging Samus toward the intended path, through environmental changes, blocked routes, or by simply not letting her return from the same path for one reason or the other.
This approach can feel accommodating, especially in the first five hours or so. At least it’s handled in a surprisingly good manner, ensuring the pacing rarely suffers from being lost in places where you shouldn’t be… but eventually you will get lost. That, of course, is part of the Metroid experience, and here that usually happens because of the sheer complexity of a world that constantly twists in on itself, layering elevators, teleporters, and even trains into a dense, disorienting network that’s hard to memorise. All praise the superb map system, which offers detailed information, marking blocked paths and even offering the use of coloured pins.
Expect frequent doses of dopamine, as exploration rewards with small upgrades, like an increased health or missiles pool, but most importantly with new, awesome skills. The only issue? These awesome skills don’t always invite creativity, as sometimes they function more like simple keys to obvious locks, requiring little thought beyond their intended use. There are many moments where you’ll need to use your head or skill with the gamepad, but there’s an equally large number of scenarios where the solution is just “use ability X on obstacle Y.”
This reviewer has made a terrible mistake by taking way too long before mentioning something far more important than exploration, abilities, dealing with the E.M.M.I.s and all that stuff, and that’s how all that… err, stuff, would fall apart if moving Samus around didn’t feel as fantastic as it does. In many ways, this is where Metroid Fusion truly excels. From the very first moments her movement is sleek, responsive and deeply satisfying, blending (swift) exploration and (even swifter) combat into a seamless flow.
As the heroine approaches the end of her mission, fully equipped and more agile than ever, the earlier sense of vulnerability transforms into controlled mastery. Traversal across the planet feels exhilarating, with abilities chaining together at high speed, allowing her to tear through environments that once felt oppressive. Being in control of a sci-fi ninja is a good thing, because Metroid Dread is clearly aimed at genre and series veterans, since it’s – pleasantly – tough in an almost old-school fashion, even with the – way too – generous checkpoints softening the blow of failure.
Health goes down surprisingly easy, at times making you question why you even bothered trying to reach that blasted energy tank that took you more than 10 minutes to do so. It goes down twice as much during some especially demanding boss encounters, which often require multiple attempts as you learn patterns and refine your execution. Victory rarely comes from brute force (or on your first, second and sometimes third try), but from understanding and adaptation, with later difficulties forcing you to basically turn into a lore-accurate Samus.
It should be noted that this is one of those pieces of software made for people with 20 fingers. While very good, the control scheme can feel a bit cramped. It doesn’t reach The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild’s perfection in how it manages to make it easy using every single button and lever even for seven-year-olds (tested with at least six of ‘em), as this requires a bit more practice for the controls to become your second nature, and even then it’s easy to occasionally mess up during intense moments.
It’s important to understand that the controls, like many of the issues mentioned so far, mainly fall into the category of “this perfect game could be a little more perfect.” Yes, this could have a more striking art style, yes, it would greatly benefit from not restricting exploration so much and, yes, it could be the best Metroid created so far if this or that thing wasn’t the way it is. Yet even with those minor quibbles, this stands as one of the best entries in the series and a fitting finale of the arc that begun in the alien landscapes of Zebes back in the ‘80s.
Metroid Dread doesn’t really push the genre forward, but it achieves something more important: it’s freaking fun! The careful balance between exploration, combat, the narrative beats that are evenly sprinkled around (and which rely more in showing rather than telling) and the occasional moment of survival-horror tension creates a cohesive, immersive experience that both honours the franchise’s roots and refines them for a modern audience.
Here’s hoping the next mission doesn’t take another two decades to arrive.
