I have no doubt that Metroid Dread is the best game in the
series in that it is the best played by far. And although I know that the benchmark
of the franchise will continue to be the one that laid the foundations, Super
Metroid , I am excited about the work carried out by the Spanish studio Mercury
Steam .
I hope I can better understand the intrahistory of this marketingmediaweb second collaboration between Nintendo and the Madrid studio, but one thing
seems clear: the foundations that they laid with Metroid: Samus Returns , the
remake of the original Game Boy title, have finally been expanded into a
product totally original that also achieves what many fans have been asking for
years: that the saga advance in its narrative.
The events of Metroid Dread take place shortly after Metroid
Fusion , the last point in the saga's timeline so far. After being infected
with the X parasite , being stripped of her armor and having to prevent the
spread of said parasite in a very delicate divinebeautytips personal and emotional situation,
which involves having to confront herself in a very literal way, Samus Aran was
left at a point very interesting as a character.
She describes it herself as a new stage in her life, nanobiztech and
there is nothing more to see the new design of the iconic armor to realize. And
yet we have had to wait almost 20 years to find out what happened next. The
Metroid games between Fusion and Dread have focused on earlier moments in the
franchise and, despite shedding more light on Samus's adventures , they didn't
really advance the franchise's plot.
You are going to forgive me the cliché, but: the wait was techwadia. quite worth it . I'm not going to gut any details of the Metroid Dread plot,
but the game manages to balance the spirit of free exploration with several
very expository moments about who Samus is and why he has to escape from an
underground base on the planet ZDR where he has come from. almost involuntary
way.
It is admirable the care with which Mercury Steam globalmarketingbusiness not only
treats the character of Samus Aran (nobody wants to remember Metroid: Other M )
but also reverses and twists many of the most identity aspects of the saga to
give something that, if it does not work out New to many fans, at least it
serves as a reinterpretation of familiar situations.
I can't give very clear examples of what I'm talking about,
but I think Metroid Dread's main acting level is a perfect example of this:
Samus's lower movement ability is solved by using abilities that, until now,
have never been used for overcome this type of stumbling block.
The way in which many of the already known abilities of the
saga are distributed are also striking. Getting the morphosphere after two
hours of play is something unheard of, but it gives the game a very peculiar
look. And the studio's ingenuity is to be commended for creating new powers
that make Samus an ' ultimate warrior ' in the player's hands.
The character has never been handled so well. The speed with
which Samus can move, the ability to repel enemies with a punch (which is a lifelong
parry), and generally new combat skills have made the game have to adapt not
only its maps. , which are larger and more massive; but also the enemies
present.
Hence the presence of a new type of invulnerable enemy that
can only be defeated in very specific circumstances that I will not detail. I
'm talking about the EMMI , robots that look like something out of a horror
movie, that move in very specific parts of the map (and that are clearly marked
as such) and that, if they catch Samus, they kill her in one fell swoop. There
is the possibility of parrying them, but it is so difficult that you will
consider it impossible when you fail a couple of times.
The EMMI are not just a 'gimmick' of the game, as might be
the SA-X of Metroid Fusion . They are an important part of the development of
the adventure, they greatly influence the way you progress through the maps and
they add a touch of fantastic tension to Dread . The name of the game ('Dread'
means 'fear' in English) is a clear reference to this aspect of the game, but
do not think for a moment that only the EMMI are the enemies to beat.
The final bosses are the other great enemies and pose duels
in which the dominance of the game is put to the test. They're downright tough
to beat and almost look like something out of the Hollow Knight , but every
battle is fast-paced and getting through them is very, very satisfying. It may
take a couples of tries and you have to take a good look at the movements they
make to impose yourself. If in previous games dodging and beating bosses was
something simple and more a matter of arriving with a lot of life and many
rockets, in Dread you will see that it is impossible to do it unless you prove
to be more powerful than them.
After all, the fantasy of power is one of the keys to the
Metroid genre , the so-called metroidvania. Gaining strength, being able to
explore more areas of the map and destroy enemies as if they were nothing is an
important part of the experience. And Dread does it wonderfully .
Also of note is the accessibility work that Mercury Steam
has carried out on the game. Doors that cannot be opened because you lack a
power are clearly marked on the game map, although the power you need to open
them will never tell you until you have achieved it. A bit the same thing
happens with the life extension or ammunition objects: if you have left one
undiscovered, the map glows in the approximate area where it is, but that's it.
And if you have seen it, but have not succeeded, it also remains registered on
the map. Completing 100% without a Metroid Dread guide is very affordable ,
although you will need to know how to turn certain powers to access certain
areas that almost seem like a puzzle.
There is not much I can criticize negatively about the game.
I have lost myself on several occasions and have found myself after returning
to areas where I thought I could not advance but the solution to my blockage
was as simple as breaking a wall that I had not previously tried to break . Is
it my fault or the level design's fault that this happened? Or put another way:
would the game be criticized for taking you more by the hand than it already
does with its puzzle design and the situations it poses?
Getting lost in the Dread map is very simple . I would
almost say that it is something identity of the saga, although in this game
there is almost no backtracking and the zone changes are very well carried out
so as not to be tedious. It might be frustrating for some players to get lost,
but in the three times that I have wandered around without knowing what to do,
in the end I have returned to the point where it was obvious that I had to move
forward. And whenever this has happened, I have come to the conclusion that it
was my fault for not trying more ways to follow where the game told me I had to
go. My recommendation is to apply Occam's logic to this game: if you think you
have to go through a place in a ball, surely you have to go around in a ball,
Visual marketing but not through the obvious door, but through the tunnel excavated above or
under.
I have enjoyed Metroid Dread like a dwarf and my initial
concerns with its aesthetics or the possibility that it was only focused on
defeating the EMMIs and nothing else in the end have turned out to be in vain.
This game has satisfied me as a fan and as an experienced player in this type
of game. Not only does it advance the saga, but it reinvigorates the controls,
abilities and the world it takes place in and proposes various challenges that
make you feel very satisfied when you have overcome them.
Despite the fact that Metroid is not a saga with the same
success as Animal Crossing, Mario Kart, Smash Bros or Zelda, Nintendo has bet a
lot on the Christmas campaign for this game. I think it will satisfy the
regular players, but the important thing is that it reaches new players. Given
the greater accessibility and clarity of the map and the fantastic control
system, it is possible that it will also captivate new players. The popularity
of the Switch will do the rest.
Everything indicates that this is going to be the
best-selling game of a franchise that needs that best-seller in an installment
to fully revive , as it already happened with Fire Emblem in its first
installment for Nintendo 3DS. We will see if this is the case from October 8,
when it is launched in stores.
