We tried Metroid Dread on Nintendo Switch OLED, two hours of breathtaking escapes, mammoth bosses and a more aggressive Samus than ever
One thing is clear. With its changes of pace, the fluidity of the action, and its more aggressive approach than ever, Metroid Dread could be the most exhilarated and fun chapter in the entire 2D saga. Or at least that’s the impression I got after playing the most important game in the autumn of Nintendo Switch for two hours. Awaited for almost twenty years and developed by the Spanish MercurySteam, the new game supervised by the historical director Yoshio Sakamoto has two objectives: on the one hand, to offer a worthy sequel to Metroid Fusion and a satisfying conclusion to a narrative arc that began on the NES in 1986; on the other hand, to modernize the Metroid formula in 2D, while remaining faithful to the DNA of the series, but demonstrating that Samus Aran still has a lot to say in an age when games like Hollow Knight have set the bar very, very high.
Nintendo has allowed us to try the beginning of the adventure on Switch OLED, but while we will return to talk about the console very soon, on this occasion we focus specifically on those aspects that, in the heat, have remained most impressed on this test of Metroid Dread.
The funniest 2D Metroid
With Metroid: Samus Returns on Nintendo 3DS, MercurySteam had already experimented with some ideas capable of modernizing the Metroid 2D formula. The ability to aim 360 ° or neutralize enemy attacks with a well-placed uppercut gave new and more dynamic ways to interact with the environment or respond to dangers.
Yet, both to take aim and to counterattack, the remake of the Game Boy game forced to stop, continually interrupting the flow of the game and the movement of Samus: too often we put ourselves on the defensive, waiting for the opponent’s attack. In Metroid Dread this does not happen: you can aim 360 degrees while running, use a counterattack without slowing down, slide into tight spaces, hit enemies with midair kicks or energy-charged jumps.
Samus has never been so mobile and fun to control, jumping and running from room to room like a possessed woman. The new skill set (which will inevitably expand as the game progresses) allows you to play much more aggressively, neutralize enemy attacks without stopping, anticipate the moves of your opponents, and consequently also leads to a more vision. wide and organic of the room in which you are located. Never like in Dread, Samus is a real fury, and once you become familiar with the dangers and patterns of the enemies it becomes fun to cross even the most harmless rooms.
From huntress to prey
One of the most interesting dynamics introduced with Metroid Dread is that linked to EMMI, lethal and fast robots that patrol specific areas of the map and that cannot be eliminated except with the use of a special Omega cannon. This means that, once you enter an EMMI zone, Samus’s role is completely reversed and, from an unstoppable huntress, she transforms into a prey on the run.
Very early in the adventure, the game gives the protagonist the opportunity to become invisible for a limited period of time, but the tight spaces and tenacity of the EMMI leave few options: sooner or later you get caught and have to run away, looking desperately the best path to sow your pursuer.
If he is then hunted down, Samus has one last chance to survive, but the timing required to repel the enemy attack is (thankfully) extremely severe. This means that the EMMIs should remain a formidable threat for the duration of the game, but the rare satisfaction one feels in being able to escape is priceless. However, if it will remain so for the whole adventure, it is worth seeing. The chase sequences work so well precisely because, as mentioned, outside the EMMI zones there is a strong feeling of power and agility. A moment before you cross the areas of the map relentlessly stocking up on enemies, the next moment you are in a panic, trying to sow an indestructible robot. Also, the musical accompaniment perfectly contributes to emphasizing Samus’s passage from hunter to prey: as soon as he sets foot in an EMMI area, the music presses in a dramatic way, with the gait of two notes that winks at the terrifying theme of The Shark.
Before trying Metroid Dread, the fear was that these sequences could ruin the pace of the game and burden the experience, bringing it into an area too anxious for too long and frequent periods. Instead, at least judging from the start of the game, MercurySteam seems to have found the right balance, keeping the player constantly on his toes but without oppressing and pressing him for too long. The sense of threat is present and concrete, but even after the most frenetic chases, you don’t feel so exhausted as to want a break. Indeed, you want to keep moving forward, and the hope is that the game will maintain this perfect balance for the rest of the adventure.
Samus was never so expressive
In some ways, that protagonist of Metroid Dread could be the most expressive Samus Aran we’ve seen so far in a chapter of the series. And this even if compared with that of the much divisive Metroid Other M, where his face was always visible through the helmet and there were numerous sequences in which he did not wear his suit, spoke, and showed himself vulnerable.
That of Metroid Dread is a different, elegant, at times more effective expressiveness, which first of all passes through the animations of Samus, both in the game and in the cinematics. The movements of the legs while running, the way he leans an arm against a wall he cannot overcome, the fluidity with which he jumps low obstacles, or how he strengthens his arms when climbing.
In the cutscenes, when he prepares for a fight or gives the final blow to a huge boss, he flaunts confidence and strength through irresistibly cool poses, but above all his face is never shown at random. Those rare moments when her eyes are visible through the visor of the helmet serve to highlight even more the state of mind of the huntress, now determined, now completely overwhelmed by the enemy. MercurySteam seems to have understood what did little work in the Samus Returns animations and proposed in Dread a more energetic, more acrobatic Samus, with the body more projected forward during the race and that chains in a fluid and explosive way somersaults, uppercuts, and cannon shots.
Story and ending with a bang?
Almost twenty years have passed since the release of Metroid Fusion, the chapter of the series set chronologically before Metroid Dread. For many, Dread will even be the first Metroid they’ve ever played, so it’s predictable that Nintendo and MercurySteam want to make sure the story is accessible and engaging for both veterans of the series and newbies alike.
Fortunately, although full of nuances and insights, the narrative arc of Metroid 2D is made up of a few really important events, which Dread perfectly manages to summarize with a short introduction movie completely dubbed in Italian (but if you want to get ready, online also find our summary of the history of Metroid ). In a few seconds the game introduces Samus, her encounter with the Metroid and above all the one with the parasite X, summarizing the events of Fusion and presenting the incipit that brought her to the planet ZDR.
The plot is certainly not the main reason why Metroid fans continue to adore the series, and from the very beginning there are some clichés that by now they end up accepting and that’s it: it is the case of the technological amnesia that, for the umpteenth time, it takes Samus to start the adventure without the skills she got in the previous missions. Once again we return to wear the suit of a silent Samus, and the only friendly voice is that of Adam, the artificial intelligence of his ship that, as in Fusion, will give information on the base and the dangers of the planet ZDR all interior of specific rooms scattered around the map.
The introduction of Metroid Dread plants the seeds for a mysterious story and an even more formidable enemy than the EMMI, promising to delve even deeper into the secrets and mythology of the Chozo. This would be enough, were it not that Dread represents the conclusion of a narrative arc that began thirty-five years ago and left unfinished for much of this time: Samus’s last great 2D adventure deserves a fireworks finale , and we don’t see the time to find out if MercurySteam has succeeded in the feat.
In the first couple of hours together with Metroid Dread we faced huge alien creatures, escaped from EMMI and explored two different areas of the planet. Yet it is only a small portion. We do not know what awaits us later, how satisfying the boss battles will be, how interesting and varied the areas of the map will be, how intricate the design of the rooms and the occasional environmental puzzles. Above all, how long the game will be able to maintain that perfect balance in alternating tension and sense of power that we have seen in these first few bars.
