Скачать или смотреть Metroid Dread

Originally streamed Mar 4, 2023.

After having played a lot of Retro stuff, I decide to spent a month just focusing on modern games, specifically Switch games for this "Switching It Up" special. In later years I would tend to call this "Modern March."

Metroid Dread is the latest Metroid game, unfortunately developed by the lackluster MercurySteam. They seem to specialize in making off-putting sequels to good franchises, as they also made the awful Castlevania: Lords of Shadow series. Before this game they made Samus Returns, yet another remake to Metroid 2 (the original is still easily the best.) That remake was poorly received, but this game was generally received a bit better than their games usually are.

I can sort of see why, but I disagree. This does not feel like a Metroid game at all, it feels like a typical bland modern indie platformer. With the counter mechanic, as well as the boss designs, there is definitely a continued focus on making these games more action focused; which I think is really the wrong approach to what should be games focused on exploration and mystery. The controls in general have too much of a fast and fluid feel... although it certainly doesn't feel bad to play, it's lost any semblance of uniqueness. I really prefer the more floaty feeling of platforming that was part of Metroid's identity.

The above are really quibbles though compared to this game's real problems: level design is just simply boring. Too many rooms consist of just simple random corridors connected, and the game lacks the feeling of density or "organic-ness" (if I can call it that) which defines Metroid level design to me. What makes this even worse is the soundtrack, which is just simply WRONG. No surprise but it's wrong in a similar way to Lords of Shadow, which is that it's your typical generic wallpaper ambient music that just fails to have any sort of identity. It's a completely failure of a soundtrack, for a series in which soundtrack is so incredibly important. Then there are the E.M.M.I. robots which are simply a formulaic and uninteresting copy of the much more interesting SA-X from Fusion.

MercurySteam seems to be a developer without a single interesting idea in their brains. Their games are riddled with uninteresting copies of ideas from better games, they are poorly executed, derivative, uninteresting, and generic. I really hope they don't get to make any more games from series that I like.

My Rating:
Overall 3/10 - Music 3/10

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