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Metroid Dread (and hopefully some general Metroid chat?)

Started by Kelvin, October 08, 2021, 05:09:36 AM

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Timothy

Haven't played Dread yet (waiting for my new Switch to arrive) but want to say that Returnal might be my game of the year. It's so incredibly good. Well worth the price.

Kelvin

Dread's great, but its not even Nintendo's game of the year. That's the sublime Bowser's Fury. I dread to imagine how many people skipped that because they assumed it was DLC for the vastly inferior 3D World, rather than a fully realised game of its own.

Chedney Honks

I actually never finished it, not sure why. Think it's because it felt like a proof of concept rather than a full polished game. Oh, also, when you fall off high up and you have to climb all the way back up. I don't know. Why don't they release Odyssey 2?

Quote from: popcorn on October 17, 2021, 09:37:58 PM
More than anything I think my memory of the game is that I spent it going through corridors and fighting bosses - but that's what I do in every Metroid, so why does it feel a bit thin here? I never developed a complex relationship with the levels like I did in Fusion or Zero or Super Metroid.

I think that there are perhaps too many sub-bosses and gimmick areas. Fusion got a lot of criticism for being too short and they appear to have responded to that by putting in a lot of sub-boss fights to slow you down. Whilst this adds to the play time, it means that when you start exploring and these enemies are defeated, there are these big, empty spaces with nothing to see. The Emmi zones are practically pointless once the Emmi is dead and those can be quite vast.

I also feel that as you're constantly being ferried from area to area via a variety of different teleports, trains and lifts, there's not quite as much backtracking and exploration of the same areas as you'll find in previous games in the series. Yes, you'll return to an area, but from a different route and with certain areas and doors blocked off. There's less chipping away at the environment with new skills to open up new areas, more of a complete blow out at the end once Samus is fully powered up - and only if you really want to.

Thursday

Quote from: Kelvin on October 18, 2021, 11:37:34 AM
Dread's great, but its not even Nintendo's game of the year. That's the sublime Bowser's Fury. I dread to imagine how many people skipped that because they assumed it was DLC for the vastly inferior 3D World, rather than a fully realised game of its own.

Really is bizarre thinking back on it. They made a genuinely great Mario game and just packaged it away like it was an extra. It was shorter than a normal Mario game, the actual Bowser concept was a little rough in how well it worked, but they put some top tier Mario levels in there and didn't seem to realize how good what they'd made was.

Kelvin

Quote from: Thursday on October 18, 2021, 05:35:07 PM
Really is bizarre thinking back on it. They made a genuinely great Mario game and just packaged it away like it was an extra. It was shorter than a normal Mario game, the actual Bowser concept was a little rough in how well it worked, but they put some top tier Mario levels in there and didn't seem to realize how good what they'd made was.

re: Bowser's Fury - I don't even care about it being short. I thought it was a perfect little 5 hour game, with another 5 hours if you want to 100% it. That's probably only a couple of hours less than Dread. The Bowser thing keeps it from being a 10 out of 10, but as you say, it's just crazy to think they just tossed that out like it was nothing.

popcorn

When I replayed Metroid Zero last year (only my second time since it came out, I'd forgotten everything) I finished it at 57% completion in three and a half hours. I think more games should be three and a half hours long.

Pink Gregory

I remember the times when people complained about CoD having a five hour campaign.  Then you get LOL NO g4m3r5 saying things that $1 should equal 1 hour of play time, which is nonsense.


popcorn

I think I've played many more games that are too long than are too short. Which is annoying because the devs spent time and money making their game worse.

Chedney Honks

I can't remember ever playing a game that was too short.

madhair60

I can't tell if I'm being salty/snobbish but I am finding this game pretty repetitive at the moment. The same bosses over and over, the same structure with the E.M.M.Is, it's just kind of a bummer. Doesn't help that it's the longest 2D Metroid by hours and hours.

Chedney Honks

That sounds pretty much the point I reached after the first 3/4 hours, totally went downhill because of the repetition. Some great bosses towards the end lifted it a bit but it became a bit of a slog.

I still think that it really lacks the exploration and any sense of being out of your depth or even getting to know an area. It was very tightly streamlined which I liked in a way but also padded with repetition of mini bosses etc. Also, because it was so streamlined, it didn't feel like there was ever any threatened or risk/reward. Just instant restart until you brute force itself. The EMMI stuff went nowhere, became irritating and more so towards the end. Strange old game because I loved it for a few hours.

Magnum Valentino

Have got stuck on Fusion in the room with the first baddie.

brat-sampson

Quote from: Junglist on October 14, 2021, 04:55:36 PM
Dread handles beautifully. However this Metroid Prime mouse and keyboard emulator mod thing is just absolute sex. So, so good.

Dived into this and... oh baby, yes. This is gooood. Prime 4 is gonna blow the roof off when it eventually releases, Retro are so good at these, and with up-rezzed textures and mouse and keyboard controls the originals play like a dream.

madhair60

Quote from: Chedney Honks on October 20, 2021, 02:25:47 PM
That sounds pretty much the point I reached after the first 3/4 hours, totally went downhill because of the repetition. Some great bosses towards the end lifted it a bit but it became a bit of a slog.

I still think that it really lacks the exploration and any sense of being out of your depth or even getting to know an area. It was very tightly streamlined which I liked in a way but also padded with repetition of mini bosses etc. Also, because it was so streamlined, it didn't feel like there was ever any threatened or risk/reward. Just instant restart until you brute force itself. The EMMI stuff went nowhere, became irritating and more so towards the end. Strange old game because I loved it for a few hours.

I'm at what I assume is the final boss and I really, really haven't enjoyed this. The silly thing is I think on a replay I'd have a blast, now that I know what to do, but the process of repetition, repetition, repetition - not just with losses, but the repeated boss fights - I think one of them you face five or six times! - and it even repeats tricks, like the double-team boss which is reused later as is with no changes.

I just think it kind of... sucks! The world doesn't even feel connected; the elevators, trams and worst of all teleporters just make it feel fragmented in a way not even Metroid Fusion did. The choice to make the elevator transitions/loading screens into a full-screen movie thing really detaches you from the proceedings.

Some high points here for sure but overall I think people giving it 10s and such are high on drugs. Bad drugs

Magnum Valentino


Quote from: Magnum Valentino on October 26, 2021, 11:37:47 AM
Still stuck :-(

When you say "first baddie" do you mean the first zombie or the armadillo boss?

popcorn

I somehow feel this Metroid lacked... soul? does that just make me sound like a wanker.

Kelvin

The only two things you have to repeatedly fight are the Chozo warriors and Chozo robots, and even though they're technically mini bosses, I ended up just thinking of them as harder enemies, rather than repeated bosses - especially as subsequent fights get easier and quicker once you get better weapons and more experience under your belt. They're just a way to benchmark your progress, the latter ones last about 30 seconds! I hate repetition in games, I moan about it all the time, even in things like Mario Galaxy and Odyssey, but in truth in just never bothered me here.

madhair60

Quote from: Kelvin on October 26, 2021, 11:44:03 AMThey're just a way to benchmark your progress, the latter ones last about 30 seconds!

If that's the case then I'm obviously missing a trick. Because they do not.

Kelvin

Quote from: madhair60 on October 26, 2021, 12:38:00 PM
If that's the case then I'm obviously missing a trick. Because they do not.

Are you using the multi missiles? That wipes out the chozo warriors in about three hits (of 5), I think.

madhair60

Yes, and it absolutely doesn't. Sorry. Unless I wasn't getting the full five and the whole flurry does exponentially more?

Magnum Valentino

Quote from: Huxleys Babkins on October 26, 2021, 11:42:19 AM
When you say "first baddie" do you mean the first zombie or the armadillo boss?

Ahahahahaha.

No I mean I just shot the first wee guy in the whole game, like a wee space dog mutant cunt, and there are no more open doors for me to go through. Stuck less than ten minutes into the game.

Kelvin

Quote from: madhair60 on October 26, 2021, 01:01:29 PM
Yes, and it absolutely doesn't. Sorry. Unless I wasn't getting the full five and the whole flurry does exponentially more?

Apologies, its been a week or so since I played. I just remember using the multi missiles in rapid succession and getting the chozo warriors into their final animation really quickly at the end.

The chozo robots took a bit longer, but only because they team up, so its harder to get a full 5 hit lock on. You only fight the twin robots twice though, I think.

Quote from: Magnum Valentino on October 26, 2021, 02:19:08 PM
Ahahahahaha.

No I mean I just shot the first wee guy in the whole game, like a wee space dog mutant cunt, and there are no more open doors for me to go through. Stuck less than ten minutes into the game.

Once you kill the mutant dog thing, the door on the right starts flashing. Shoot it and it'll open.

Timothy


Pink Gregory

Gonna pick up Fusion and Zero Mission on the WiiU eshop before it closes in January.  Interesting choice because I've only ever played Metroid Prime (and thought it was excellent, obvs.) even though the GBA games are a bit stretched on the Gamepad (but not too badly). 

Sort of assuming that I'll like the 2D ones (played Super Metroid for about 10 minutes but didn't want to commit yet) but I am large fan of ye olde Metroidvanias so it seems like a done deal.

popcorn


buntyman

I've just bought both of those on Wii u having just completed super metroid on the switch and enjoying fusion so far (you can set it to the original resolution/ratio in the settings). I didn't know the eshop was getting closed down, I wonder if there are any other games that I should fork out for before it does.
Had a go of the Dread demo and found it seemed quite charmless compared to the old ones. Disliked the regular video segments that they spliced in too. I was going to race through the old ones to build up to Dread but now I think I'll just take my time.

Pink Gregory

Well it's not closing down as such, just no longer accepting payment cards; so I guess it means you can still redownload things, at least for now?