Metroid Dread

50 quid delivered from Smyths now.

Saves me getting off my **** and driving miles to the shopping centre. And avoiding some horse trading with GameStop. Will keep the SSBU trade for another day! 😂

Feel like I'm quite a bit into the game now, (been told I'm in an area that's quite near where you're told to go from the start) and really enjoying it! The fluidity of movement works perfectly with the play style dictated by the sheer size of the environments and the chase/stealth sections of the game.

One thing I'm really enjoying, and that provides surprising moments of joy is:

Spoiler for where I am in the game, read at your own peril!!!

Good news, finally! Enjoy!!!

I'm about an hour or so into it, and it's fine. I can honestly say, despite loving Metroid for years, that it's been surpassed. It's fun, and it's a great game, but Hollow Knight has totally spoiled me. I consider that to be this genres masterpiece, and this is not the same standard as that (lofty as that standard is, it does mean that Dread is not a fantastic game, it's just missing a certain je ne sais quoi thus far)

I found Hollow Knight to be depressing and hard.

Ori and the will of the wisps was absolutely brilliant though.

Got them for a tenner each :) :) :)

But, I can't wait to play Metroid Dread.

Hate that I can't selectively quote... but...

The 'quick time parry' - Other than when the game pauses on the first EMMI encounter to tell you about this and the tight window for it, I've only experienced it once, when I was fighting

Unless there's more of them to come.. but yes, it was a little annoying when it cuts to what seems to be a short cut-scene, then throws those at you is a bit cheap.

On the comparisons to Hollow Knight, I'd say that I actually felt the opposite. Hollow Knight felt like a decent tribute to the Metroid/Castlevania games, but not really quite up to their standard, and it didn't hold my attention as much.

In that, I feel that Metroid Dread has captured that much better than Mercury Stream's previous effort in Samus Returns, which felt like a good tribute to the games, whereas AM2R felt like the real update to Metroid 2. Dread does feel like it's worthy of it's place in the timeline.

I've only pulled it off 3 or 4 times against EMMI (and died way way more)...

But...

I'm going to collect my copy shortly, I am taking a late lunch. Should I expect a fanfare when I get there or is this excitement limited to me?

I collected it today, the guy serving me said that the mousemat and poster are only for limited edition, I told him that I was told it when they rang yesterday. He contacted somebody and confirmed I was correct. The receipt says that they are worth €4.99 each. I genuinely wouldn't pay 10cents for both. Poster is an A3 page folded in half twice, and the mousemat is one of the really really thin plastic mats. I am 100% sure both would have been given away free with a magazine had this been the 90's or 00's. Poster would pull out or be wrapped in plastic with magazine, and I'm pretty sure I got a load of those mousemats free with different designs on them.

Going against the grain here but I think this is complete sh1te, Super Metroid and Metroid Fusion are two of my fav games of all time but Dread feels like 10 years ago when a game was moderately successful on Android and it would get ported to other systems but would always feel wrong. It has none of the slickness of past games. Its all clunky and slow, the quick time events in combat just make it feel like a smartphone port as I said, not enjoying it at all and this is the game I was most looking forward to apart from Breath of the Wild 2.

Started playing this last night. I'm now at (late game spoilers)

Really liking it, though I do keep getting buttons mixed up.

I'm really bad at countering some enemies especially EMMI

Everyone struggles with EMMI counters. Well I think they do, seems a bit too random to counter to me.

Oddly though the six times I've pulled them off, I've done them in sets of two, like countered, ran on, got caught a few seconds later and then countered again.

I've never pulled off a single counter, only doubles.

Really disappointed in the unskippable cut scenes though. I took a 15 year break from gaming and God how has the industry not learned how annoying it is? I get some of them are disguising background loads, but after the sixth time of watching the same pre boss scene I'd actually prefer the loading screen.

And done. Enjoyed that. Was tougher than previous ones.

Went back and got more items but left the awkward shinespark ones. Could never figure those out in the other games either

Yup. Lovely and smooth and feels great, makes Samus Returns look like Treasure Island Dizzy.

Enjoying the game so far. I've got stuck twice and both times have been due to some blocks that look exactly the same as every other block but I'm supposed to shoot blindly around the place to find them so I can progress. Finding that tactic a bit tedious now.

Hmmm, that's a pain. Is there a pulse thingy like in Samus Returns that makes the hidden blocks ... not hidden ... weird game design, but there you go.

I have given the game a spin. But I've other things to do and other stuff to complete before I get back to it.

absolutely love the game, amazing work from mercury steam studio, wow.

The passion is there and as a long time metroid fan - this is the definitive Metroid sequel that we have been waiting for, goddamn how many years this is. Much needed modernized game plays is here, and god it is a beautiful game (play on 52' inch tv so i can only imagine how pretty it would look on handheld mode), and yes, it wouldnt be a Metroid game without all the annoying puzzles ahaha - i thoroughly enjoy it and will go back to 100% soon for the missed items etc. Honestly it is so damn good and got all the best stuffs from the previous Metroids, like it seems obvious to have the detector pulse thingy as i dont have time to bomb through every rooms lolol (i know it is not new mechanism either, it is pretty much X-ray and i think it is officially added to the remake samus return iirc).

I think they should fix the slow-ish loading time when you are traveling to another area, and goddamn the bouncing off mechanism (like you try to get to a higher place but get 'bounced' by the slope surface) should not be intentional, it is just not fun. I am going to start watching some youtube videos/forums and see what others say.

One thing is amusing to me that i saw quite some Hallow Knight fans posting under Dread threads (well, honestly not sure they are trolling or not at this stage) - I'd say buy this Metroid and (shut up and) play. Is not bad at all since Argos somehow carried this at 47e, worth every pennies. Like I am 100% sure if one likes Hallow knight then this new Metroid would be a treat.