Metroid Dread Review: An Incredible Modernization Of A Classic Core

Metroid Dread, developed by MercurySteam and Nintendo EPD, establishes its identity within the first five minutes of gameplay. It’s a game that’s a bit more interested in explaining the world that surrounds erstwhile bounty hunter and hero Samus Aran, and it doesn’t shy away from the horror elements that have always existed underneath the premise of Metroid. It also has no qualms with stripping down or repurposing sacred cows like the Power Suit, and in doing so, the game achieves something special; a galaxy-sized leap forward for a franchise that maintains and even improves the classic core that has made it such an iconic name in the Nintendo library.

The story of Metroid Dread does an excellent job setting up its main premise, which is the powerlessness of Samus in the face of potentially galaxy-ending threats. Samus arrives on planet ZDR to investigate a potential Metroid threat, and soon encounters an enemy wearing a Chozo Power Suit that overwhelms her. When she regains consciousness, she has lost the bulk of her suit’s functionality and powers, and instead of delving deeper into the planet’s mysteries, she has to instead climb upward towards her ship in a desperate bid to escape. Blocking her way are several EMMI units, robots that were sent to ZDR before her to examine the threat and went dark, re-emerging as predator threats on the planet.

The story beats in Metroid Dread are pretty interesting, especially in the context of the typically narrative-light franchise. That’s complemented by some absolutely gorgeous world design. ZDR never fails to impress, with its variety of biomes and environmental hazards accompanied by equally interesting flora and fauna. One element of the game that’s a welcome surprise is just how alive each screen feels – the background is vibrant and rarely stagnant, and in some areas hint at a greater threat or provide more context for how the wildlife in that zone survives. ZDR is alive both at the forefront of the sidescrolling exploration on it and behind.

The gameplay in Metroid Dread follows a progression path that will be immediately familiar to veterans of the series, with Samus collecting various power-ups that in turn open up new areas on the map. In Dread, however, that reclamation of power feels less like Samus getting noticeably stronger and more like her gaining more tools to survive. Power-ups like the Phantom Cloak, which renders Samus invisible for a short time, enhance the sense that the mission on ZDR is simply to get out alive.

The areas that best capture that growing sense of doom are the EMMI zones, which each feature a robot hunter patrolling across several screens. Samus needs to be stealthy during these moments – her AI companion, ADAM, makes it very clear she stands little chance of surviving an encounter with EMMI, and that’s true in practice. Getting caught by one results in a brief input-timing skirmish that’s exceedingly difficult to get right; doing so merely enables escape for the moment, while failing means instant death. The tension while exploring these zones and hearing the clicks and beeps of the EMMI as it maneuvers above or below Samus is an excellent addition to a series that already had the right setting for this kind of survival horror.

The side-scrolling action gameplay that’s characterized Samus’ time as a protagonist is back in full force in Metroid Dread as well. Melee counters take center stage as a primary means of finishing combat early, and getting those timings right is always a point of satisfaction. Those counters are rarely the only way to approach an encounter, but they’re often the best. Enemy variation is impressive even across the first few zones, with later environments providing difficult encounters that force players to weigh whether they’re worth engaging in at all.

Exploration is one of the best qualities of Metroid Dread, and the combat never weighs down that option, with plenty of avenues for escape or dodging. Once enemies have been dispatched or avoided, there’s nearly always something else to look at or find, and many secrets populate the corridors and forests of ZDR. Traversal features the previously mentioned Phantom Cloak as well as an instant dash, a grappling hook that makes verticality feel even more prominent than ever before, and the Morph Ball. The latter is especially interesting because it takes a fair bit of time to unlock – players need to earn it over the course of a few different encounters, and for long-time players, it’s especially taunting to see the many Morph Ball-sized chutes and crevices they’re forced to pass initially and come back to.

It works, though, because Metroid Dread‘s exploration is such a joy, and the eye-popping scenery and atmosphere makes returning to previous areas a pleasure rather than an annoyance. Getting power-ups is rarely about how they’ll function in combat – though nearly all of them have excellent execution within battle as well – and more about how they relate to environmental puzzles or challenges. Will the grappling hook finally open up that area underwater? Will the dash solve that annoying lock puzzle near a teleporter? In a game with so many elements being juggled, keeping track of what’s necessary for progress is rarely difficult, and the natural progression of the game’s story tends to point players vaguely in the right direction – enough that with a bit of backtracking or some intuition, finding the way forward rarely requires frustrating periods of shooting random parts of a wall in the hopes it’ll yield a secret path.

Once there’s been enough exploration, there are generally two types of boss fights waiting, not including the EMMI encounters, which feel more like puzzles and stealth quests. Mini-bosses like the Controllers help solve the EMMI problem, yielding an energy Samus is always in short supply of and that can damage the EMMI, which are otherwise pretty much impervious to attacks. The second, and much more intense, are the true boss fights of Metroid Dread, which feature ZDR’s beasts and research specimens.

Boss fights in Metroid Dread are exhilarating. They are preceded and followed by cinematic cutscenes, which help amplify their importance, and the initial cutscenes introducing bosses always contain some subtle hint as to how to beat them. The tentacle of a boss briefly lingering over a button off to the side of the room indicates it will be key in setting up a way to beat them, or the bellowing roar of a dragon-like monster contains a hint at where its weak point may be. In practice, these fights provide a satisfying loop of failure, repeated tries, and success after learning attack patterns and the gimmick of the fight. Nothing felt unfair, while many felt perfectly balanced, providing enough challenge that players will need to think and use their new power-ups to succeed.

There’s so much at play in Metroid Dread that follows the same philosophy as its boss fights: introduce the player to new concepts, subtly hint at how to figure out a puzzle or enemy, and leave the rest to them, trusting that these context clues and a general flow of improvement and gained expertise from the beginning to the end of the game will carry the rest. It works, just like its scarce but intriguing story lets players pick up some narrative pieces on their own, too, and the natural rhythm of a new challenge, the adaptation to surpass it, and the doors that open following that adaptation creates a briskly paced journey that always maintains its excitement and, in some cases, the sense of dread that Samus is in over her head.

Metroid Dread is an instant classic. Its seamless blend of exploration, combat, puzzle-solving, and light touches of story creates one of the most engaging experiences on Nintendo Switch. Samus Aran’s journey has been through its ups and downs, but the mesospheric high of Metroid Dread is evidence there is so, so much more left for the bounty hunter to accomplish, and another adventure can’t come soon enough.

Metroid Dread releases on October 8, 2021 for Nintendo Switch. Screen Rant was provided with a digital download code for the purpose of this review.

About The Author

Cody Gravelle
(1588 Articles Published)

Cody is Screen Rant’s Game Reviews Editor. He joined the team in 2018 and has been reporting on games pretty well every day since – except on weekends, where he’s typically playing them instead. Despite being in a field ostensibly about critiquing and enjoying quality games, his most played game of 2019 was Fate/Grand Order – something unlikely to change in 2020 and beyond.

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