Metroid Dread

[Great Deceiver]

Is this game already on torrent sites? I can't find it anywhere

A certain fit girl has it ready and packaged with an emulator.

This seems like one of those captcha questions, but I can't really figure it out.

...

 

[lightbane]

If you're being serious... Look for the words mentioned in a browser, preferably not Google if you can.

 

[janior]

looks like shit

 

[SharkClub]

Just beat it today on Yuzu emulator. Everything worked flawlessly on it except for some of the cutscenes (artifacting, lagging, all sorts of technical issues). Great game though, as someone who has played every Metroid game prior except Other M (and those weird spinoffs like Pinball and Federation Force), I would rank this one pretty highly. The core gameplay and the movement is really fun and I think if I had the game on a Switch I would probably replay it ad nauseum due to its portability. Samus Returns was decent but MercurySteam knocked it out of the park with this one.

 

[Ventidius]

I beat it on Hard Mode yesterday, can definitely recommend going for it once you've finished a Normal run, as the gameplay stays fresh throughout. The biggest difference is probably the late game bosses and sub-bosses, especially the Chozo warriors and robots, as they allow for a smaller margin of error. The final boss, however, ended up being much easier than the first time around, as I already had his patterns down, and that's most of what that fight is really about. The exploration mostly stays the same, as Hard Mode only changes the damage that enemies do and receive. That said, some of the 'setpieces' were more interesting due to the increased threat from the regular enemies.

 

[JDR13]

Has anyone here tried both Yuzu and Ryujinx and compared them? I'm curious which one is considered the better emulator both for Metroid Dread and overall.

Also, what would be the best GBA emulator for Metroid Fusion? I want to play that first because I can't remember a damn thing about it. I'm surprised that one never got some kind of remaster.

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

Also, what would be the best GBA emulator for Metroid Fusion? I want to play that first because I can't remember a damn thing about it. I'm surprised that one never got some kind of remaster.

VisualBoyAdvance is a great GBA emulator, and it has backwards compatibility for GBC/GB ROMs to boot.

 

[ekrolo2]

Has anyone here tried both Yuzu and Ryujinx and compared them? I'm curious which one is considered the better emulator both for Metroid Dread and overall.

Also, what would be the best GBA emulator for Metroid Fusion? I want to play that first because I can't remember a damn thing about it. I'm surprised that one never got some kind of remaster.

I used both and Yuzu ran near flawlessly for me. A couple cutscenes had some weird texture issues in the background but the performance stayed a solid 60 FPS throughout.

 

[randir14]

Has anyone here tried both Yuzu and Ryujinx and compared them? I'm curious which one is considered the better emulator both for Metroid Dread and overall.

Both ran the game fine for me. Yuzu felt smoother than Ryujinx at the game's native 60 fps, but Ryujinx has resolution upscale and uncapped fps. I'm playing it at 4K/120 fps.

 

[JDR13]

Has anyone here tried both Yuzu and Ryujinx and compared them? I'm curious which one is considered the better emulator both for Metroid Dread and overall.

Both ran the game fine for me. Yuzu felt smoother than Ryujinx at the game's native 60 fps, but Ryujinx has resolution upscale and uncapped fps. I'm playing it at 4K/120 fps.

So.. smoother framerate on Yuzu, but sharper image on Ryujinx?

 

[randir14]

Has anyone here tried both Yuzu and Ryujinx and compared them? I'm curious which one is considered the better emulator both for Metroid Dread and overall.

Both ran the game fine for me. Yuzu felt smoother than Ryujinx at the game's native 60 fps, but Ryujinx has resolution upscale and uncapped fps. I'm playing it at 4K/120 fps.

So.. smoother framerate on Yuzu, but sharper image on Ryujinx?

Yeah, but only smoother if you're playing at 60 fps. If you have a high refresh monitor than Ryujinx will be smoother. Also make sure to get Emusak and have it download the game's shaders so that the emulator isn't caching them as you play, otherwise you'll get a lot of stuttering.

Also both emulators have crappy vsync implementation that causes bad frame pacing. Disable it and instead force it in your video card settings.

 

[Jacob]

So, is this game "good for what it is" or is it actually good? Getting mixed signals from the reviews here.

 

[Ivan]

It's Metroid. good for what it IS, IS good

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

It's good. Better than Fusion or Zero Mission, both of which I just replayed beforee and after beating Dread. Overall I think I would say 2<Fusion<Zero Mission<Dread<Super, but there are things each game does really well. Fusion probably has the best boss fights in the series, while Super's are actually fairly weak, but Super blows all the other games out of the water in terms of ambience and interconnectivity in level/world design.

 

[hackncrazy]

While this is a competent game, for me it just shows how indie stuff has outdone AAAs in every metric possible.

Games like Hollow Knight, Ender Lilies and Rabi-Ribi are MILES better than Metroid Dread.

Dread would be way better if they added 2 or 3 bosses and removed the whole EMMI sections entirely. Can't remember a mechanic so dumb and unnecesary like the one used in these dumb robots sections.

Also worth mentioning that Dread's soundtrack it's really uninspired. For me, there isn't a single song that stayed in my head and that I remember afterwards (different from what happens with Super Metroid, Zero Mission and Prime 1 and 2).

 

[SumDrunkGuy]

So how is it? I'm thinkin about picking up the OLED switch this weekend and had my eyes on this game. Fuck I wish I never sold my old switch.

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

So how is it? I'm thinkin about picking up the OLED switch this weekend and had my eyes on this game. Fuck I wish I never sold my old switch.

It’s pretty good. Better than I would have expected a Metroid title released in 2021 to be. I would say it’s definitely better than Fusion, and I personally like it better than Zero Mission or original Metroid II.
It almost inarguably has the best boss battles of any 2D Metroid, which have never really been the series’ strong suit, but some of which are legitimately great Metroidvania boss encounters. It also looks and runs great, particularly considering it’s a Switch title.
For better or worse (largely better) it takes a lot of inspiration from Hollow Knight. There are bosses and abilities that are whole-sale lifted from HK, or at least wouldn’t feel out-of-place for HK if they were given a re-skin, and Samus generally controls more like The Knight than like the Samus of Super Metroid. Hollow Knight is the best of the best, so it’s hard to fault taking inspiration from it, but as a result Dread also doesn’t have anything particularly innovative (except the EMMI, which are largely a nuisance).

The bad parts:
The game frequently is, or at least appears to be, too linear. This is a result of the handholding/constant objective updating. It’s not as bad as it was in Fusion, but it’s a far cry from Super’s free-form exploration/progression.
It’s too easy. Outside of a few bosses (by far the best ones) you will not die unless you are playing very poorly.
The map is a clusterfuck. You’ll probably get used to it eventually, but it seriously suffers from being overdesigned to the point of illegibility.

Is the game worth $60 + the cost of a new Switch? I dunno, that seems pretty steep just to play Dread, but I don’t know how much your money is worth to you. Regardless, Dread is very good (solid 8/10 for me), and if you have a Switch it’s one of the best releases of the year.

 

[SumDrunkGuy]

So how is it? I'm thinkin about picking up the OLED switch this weekend and had my eyes on this game. Fuck I wish I never sold my old switch.

It’s pretty good. Better than I would have expected a Metroid title released in 2021 to be. I would say it’s definitely better than Fusion, and I personally like it better than Zero Mission or original Metroid II.
It almost inarguably has the best boss battles of any 2D Metroid, which have never really been the series’ strong suit, but some of which are legitimately great Metroidvania boss encounters. It also looks and runs great, particularly considering it’s a Switch title.
For better or worse (largely better) it takes a lot of inspiration from Hollow Knight. There are bosses and abilities that are whole-sale lifted from HK, or at least wouldn’t feel out-of-place for HK if they were given a desk, and Samus generally controls more like The Knight than like the Samus of Super Metroid. Hollow Knight is the best of the best, so it’s hard to fault taking inspiration from it, but as a result Dread also doesn’t have anything particularly innovative (except the EMMI, which are largely a nuisance).

The bad parts:
The game frequently is, or at least appears to be, too linear. This is a result of the handholding/constant objective updating. It’s not as bad as it was in Fusion, but it’s a far cry from Super’s free-form exploration/progression.
It’s too easy. Outside of a few bosses (by far the best ones) you will not die unless you are playing very poorly.
The map is a clusterfuck. You’ll probably get used to it eventually, but it seriously suffers from being overdesigned to the point of illegibility.

Is the game worth $60 + the cost of a new Switch? I dunno, that seems pretty steep just to play Dread, but I don’t know how much your money is worth to you. Regardless, Dread is very good (solid 8/10 for me), and if you have a Switch it’s one of the best releases of the year.

I mainly want it so I can play Zelda BotW again. That game blew my mind. I was just eyeing something new and I like what I hear. I'll pick up Dread as well.

 

[Jenkem]

While this is a competent game, for me it just shows how indie stuff has outdone AAAs in every metric possible.

Games like Hollow Knight, Ender Lilies and Rabi-Ribi are MILES better than Metroid Dread.

Dread would be way better if they added 2 or 3 bosses and removed the whole EMMI sections entirely. Can't remember a mechanic so dumb and unnecesary like the one used in these dumb robots sections.

Also worth mentioning that Dread's soundtrack it's really uninspired. For me, there isn't a single song that stayed in my head and that I remember afterwards (different from what happens with Super Metroid, Zero Mission and Prime 1 and 2).

hollow knight is a mediocre game made absolutely shit by its insufferable fanbase

 

[Jacob]

I tried the demo on my Switch yesterday. The game feels great to play and I didn't find the EMMIs as bad as people here seems to say. It's pretty lacking in atmosphere though. SumDrunkGuy might wanna try the demo first after you get that Switch.

Yeah this is not much a review as it is about telling people that there's a demo version now. I haven't found any info on how far you can get in this demo, but you don't get the option to save the game. I got as far as beating the first non-tutorial EMMI. Maybe someone who doesn't have anything else to play on Switch wants to try abusing the sleep mode to see how far you can get?

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

The EMMIs get substantially more annoying in the mid-game. The main problem is that they just don’t feel like the difficulty added by their presence is “real”. The gameplay sections with them are mostly puzzle-ish, but there’s also enough randomness in them that sometimes you just get totally fucked by where the AI spawns the EMMI. And it doesn’t help that the stealth systems are underdeveloped.
I don’t think that the EMMI sections ruin the game by any means though. They’re relatively few and far between and

Spoiler

there’s one less than the game tells you there will be

, but they are the weakest part of the game.

 

[lightbane]

Played the game a little, but ended up watching a LP by BeardBear as I didn't trust the emulator to work for the rest of the game. Nevertheless my impression was positive. For good or bad, there are checkpoints besides save points to make the gameplay smoother. Speaking of, it's 60 FPS all the time except for cutscenes, which look jarring due the sudden slowdown. IMO they should have reduced graphic quality a little to avoid such situations. Samus is as fast as usual, if not faster, and plays much better than the mediocre Samus Returns, at least you're not forced to counter everything to recharge that special energy bar. The EMMIs though are underwhelming except for the last ones, you get waaay too many tells when you're inside their patrol zones (from the ground always being cold to a cutscene introducing them, to the sounds of their steps coming closer, and even a screen distortion of some sort). The fun part of Fusion's SA-X sections were that they were unexpected, instead of being telegraphed so blatantly. Bosses are fun, with some of them including unique ways to defeat them only possible if you sequence-break, although I don't like the introduction of QTEs (at least they're not as dumb as SR ones).
Everything looks plastic and too clean, sprites were much better, but at least there's a honest attempt at making areas quite different for what's worth. Music is forgettable as mentioned here, sadly.
As for the Hollow Knight comparisons, I would say it takes from the Ori games as well, as Samus is not as slow and terrible at jumping like the Knight. On the other hand, for some reason energy tanks now can be divided in 4 mask shards parts, the X parasite is now seemingly made of black goo, and some bosses are insects. The infected Chozo remind me a little of the MP Evas from EoE when they open their mouth.
Samus should consider using an energy knife of some sort to do these melee attacks IMO, rather than hitting things with the arm cannon full of rockets.

Regarding the plot:

Spoiler

It seems Fusion's ending was retconned, Samus got still Metroid DNA in her and her suit looks like it was partially repaired. It was implied Samus was now on the run from the Federation, but nope, the whole thing about the secret, totally illegal lab making Metroids was forgotten about.
It's also odd that the Federation was also capable of making up to 7 super-robots immune to Samus' weaponry. Considering the EMMIs can't be fully destroyed until you blow up the literal computer brains holding their CPUs placed inside the same planet, perhaps the bad guy made them?

The story has a predictable plot-twist, but it's not bad compared to Other M (although that's a low bar). Samus also ends up becoming way too powerful by the end of the game with her Metroid Suit as a Super Saiyan form.
The warrior Chozo caste is a dumb retcon, but it's fun to fight enemies that have all of your abilities cranked to 11.

Overall, it's a good game.
Unfortunately, Samus pics in the endings no longer have her in bikini or skimpy clothes.

 

[Zariusz]

Few days ago i found that Metroid Fusion ending with Samus probably running from Federation wasn't really true. Actually it was translation problem, apparently in original JP version it was clear that Federation was very factionalised and Samus ended at odds with only one of these factions.

 

[lightbane]

Oh, I see. Still, it's not like the pirates managed to clone Metroids before... Oh wait, they did in Super Metroid and Prime 1 IIRC. Then the Feds perfected it in Fusion, and then again in Other M, up to having a Metroid Queen, if you count that shit canon. Metroid Hunters also has Metroids floating around.

Perhaps the bad guy was onto something when he rambled about "restoring order to the galaxy".

 

[Ivan]

fresh impressions after first few hours:
-excellent visuals and animations, lot of neat little details that help to sell Samus being physically present
-boss fights have been visually exciting, made good use of your abilities
-level progression: a bit on the easy side, the game does a good job of softlocking you from backtracking at certain points
-the sound design/music has been the most forgettable element thus far
-love the art and the costume designs thus far
-enjoying the snappy combat, bolstered by the counter. love the inclusion of the slide for zipping through the levels