Poll of the Day > Dread is pretty good (mini-review)

(+) Yeah! (+)

Very hard on my hands so I won't be 100%ing it unless I get a cable for TV play and a controller

I like how for a series with only a token backstory expressed pretty much only in the Nintendo Power comics... they were surprisingly faithful to it and even expanded the story in a way that makes sense AND makes me want more; good job.

Also, Samus' animations throughout the game are very good - much more aggressive and athletic than previous games.

...It is a little weird that Samus gets choked out twice when wearing a suit of armour, even if the neck-piece is flimsier material so she doesn't have to old-school Batman, it seemed weird. But that weirdness was broken at the end of the game and actually fixed a lot of things that I complained about from Fusion and Returns... was pretty cool.

Complaints:
While the game is excellent, easily among the best Metroids... .... ... .... ................... it's actually not that good of a Metroidvania. About on par with the Strider Remake

The Grapple beam honestly didn't need to exist. I mean, it's not hard to use or anything, but it has pitiful utility... it's not like you can grapple shields or helmets to pull them off or anything like that and its lifespan is immediately killed off when you get space jump... becoming nothing more than a key item for opening its special locked doors. There was no need to keep it for the sake of tradition considering how the new items in the game are absolutely creative and cool

Finally, even though it originated in Metroid Fusion... there's no real need to make Samus start 'weak to ice/cold'. I mean, from a gameplay point of view it IS acceptable since it opens up simple mechanics around not being able to enter cold areas, but it's kinda like in the ALIEN series where everyone has a flamethrower cuz Xenomorphs are weak to fire.... XENOMORPHS ARE NOT WEAK TO FIRE!!! Ripley used a flamethrower because that's all they could piece together out of their garbage they had... it was an EMERGENCY weapon. Being able to freeze a metroid isn't a weakness, it's just something that miraculously happened to work... in the first two games even if you freeze a metroid it's not like you are an instant win, they unthaw FAST and even frozen take considerable missiles to kill. Being frozen only lets you get passed their gooey durability, it doesn't weaken them any.

...

Anyways, how many times did you let Samus get deeply penetrated?

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Ive never played a Metroid game aside from prime 3 and i think i gave that one about 2 hours before dropping it

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DirtBasedSoap posted...

Ive never played a Metroid game aside from prime 3 and i think i gave that one about 2 hours before dropping it

ooo, I kinda really wanna replay prime 3... it's been a while. I have the Trilogy somewhere, but I think it's on my WiiU, not the switch; and I don't really wanna hook up the WiiU... or a TV.

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havent heard a bad thing about dread except from that one loser who whined incessantly about how he couldn't figure out basic shit everyone else could (destructable ceilings)

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I'm at the last boss now, just doing some cleanup to get to 100% before the showdown. Really, really good game imo

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agesboy posted...

havent heard a bad thing about dread except from that one loser who whined incessantly about how he couldn't figure out basic shit everyone else could (destructable ceilings)

I did get stopped many times in the early game because of unmarked destructible floors and ceilings... this wouldn't have been an issue if this was Super Metroid because it's trivial to aim at an angle there and there's only about 6 or so items in the game that are completely concealed with no clues to help out.

In dread I found angle aiming to be rather annoying when it needed to be done in the fly, even though its very useful when needing to do sustained fire.

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https://twitter.com/marcobayod/status/1448215533946613765

this is the one i'm talking bout

original god of war dev absolutely sucks at video games

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agesboy posted...

https://twitter.com/marcobayod/status/1448215533946613765

this is the one i'm talking bout

original god of war dev absolutely sucks at video games

shit is so funny what a fucking idiot

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Lokarin posted...

Dread is pretty good

I thought you were talking about this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0loSZFsyoQ
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agesboy posted...

havent heard a bad thing about dread except from that one loser who whined incessantly about how he couldn't figure out basic shit everyone else could (destructable ceilings)

Jaffe? Youtube keeps recommending videos of the same clip.


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I'm nearly done (just wrapping up 100% items). It's fun, but I just don't know if it's worth the price tag. It doesn't really add anything to the franchise other than the EMMIs, which I honestly thought were the worst part. The map screen feels bad (it's hard to distinguish items you collected from ones you didn't). The story is bad. None of the upgrades are really new or interesting or make the combat any deeper (except for the dash ability which may have been in the 2 remake I don't remember).

I can't help but compare it to Hollow Knight which really felt like it raised the bar in terms of what games like this could be. It's possible I'm just looking for different things than Metroid now a days.

Also this is a personal gripe that will make people hate me, but shine sparking is dumb as fuck. I hate the mechanic and the puzzles built around it. The entire system feels unintuitive. Dread at least explains to players how to do It, but there's still a bunch of weird rules to how it works that I feel like I'd never in a million years know without looking it up. And I think it reflects poorly on Metroid that this is the "deepest" mechanic they've ever come up with and they haven't come up with anything else comparable since Super Metroid.

Anyway 8/10 it really makes you feel like a Metroid

EDIT: it also feels like they ran out of bosses halfway through. It's just chozo soldiers from here on out boys. Who are weirdly easier to fight than chozo robots.

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Blightzkrieg posted...

The map screen feels bad (it's hard to distinguish items you collected from ones you didn't).

Blightzkrieg posted...

shine sparking is dumb as fuck.

Blightzkrieg posted...

it also feels like they ran out of bosses halfway through.

I do agree with these points. I am kinda over these shinespark puzzles. I have only two left thankfully but most of them don't feel satisfying to execute. The one in the penultimate area looks extremely obnoxious

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Blightzkrieg posted...

I'm nearly done (just wrapping up 100% items). It's fun, but I just don't know if it's worth the price tag. It doesn't really add anything to the franchise other than the EMMIs, which I honestly thought were the worst part. The map screen feels bad (it's hard to distinguish items you collected from ones you didn't). The story is bad. None of the upgrades are really new or interesting or make the combat any deeper (except for the dash ability which may have been in the 2 remake I don't remember).

I can't help but compare it to Hollow Knight which really felt like it raised the bar in terms of what games like this could be. It's possible I'm just looking for different things than Metroid now a days.

Also this is a personal gripe that will make people hate me, but shine sparking is dumb as fuck. I hate the mechanic and the puzzles built around it. The entire system feels unintuitive. Dread at least explains to players how to do It, but there's still a bunch of weird rules to how it works that I feel like I'd never in a million years know without looking it up. And I think it reflects poorly on Metroid that this is the "deepest" mechanic they've ever come up with and they haven't come up with anything else comparable since Super Metroid.

Anyway 8/10 it really makes you feel like a Metroid

EDIT: it also feels like they ran out of bosses halfway through. It's just chozo soldiers from here on out boys. Who are weirdly easier to fight than chozo robots.

its too bad the game will be $60 forever because it sounds like it would be a great $20 game

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i don't really understand the upside of having unmarked blocks that can stop progression like that. the one in the video isn't that bad though, since there's plenty of reason to think you'd wanna shoot it, and also there's enemies on it you'd wanna kill anyway

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are there any vital to progression that are not obvious, though

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agesboy posted...

are there any vital to progression that are not obvious, though

Only the very first ones, which are a hint that "hidden blocks exist, bro!"...

and by unmarked I mean, like, cracks or smoke or suspicious stuff

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agesboy posted...

are there any vital to progression that are not obvious, though

i didn't realize there was a destructible floor underneath the wind turbine at the start of burenia (the water area). i figured i needed the speed booster to get past the turbine so i ended up wandering back around for a while before coming back

anyway i think even if you make these pretty obvious, some percentage of people are gonna get stuck on them, and it's a frustrating and unsatisfying puzzle to 'solve'. I don't think it's horrible or anything, but theres an obvious downside to having them and I don't really see the upside


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Must be just me being a Metroid veteran, but I thought the hidden blocks and shinespark puzzles to be very simple and really fair. The only thing that really ended up being difficult were some boss battles. Even regular enemies were trivial after a certain upgrade late-game.

Overall, I'd rate this around the same as Fusion and Zero Mission. Better than Metroid 2, but not as classic as Super.

PunishedOni posted...

i didn't realize there was a destructible floor underneath the wind turbine at the start of burenia (the water area). i figured i needed the speed booster to get past the turbine so i ended up wandering back around for a while before coming back

if you look at the map, the wind turbine doesn't even lead anywhere though, and the floor is very clearly telegraphed anyways

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agesboy posted...

if you look at the map, the wind turbine doesn't even lead anywhere though, and the floor is very clearly telegraphed anyways

i wasnt trying to argue with you about whether its obvious or not lol. just that some people will get stuck on unmarked destructible walls and it creates a negative play experience for them. im not sure what the upside of having them is when there's so many other ways to create a sense of exploration

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Phazon Weapon posted...

Must be just me being a Metroid veteran, but I thought the hidden blocks and shinespark puzzles to be very simple and really fair

I found the shinespark puzzles to be virtually impossible...

...until I found out you can bounce off walls

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the floor there was very clearly marked though, so it doesn't come into the discussion of unmarked walls barring progression

https://i.gyazo.com/75b36ef6426106e69be594d4943276b5.png

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agesboy posted...

the floor there was very clearly marked though, so it doesn't come into the discussion of unmarked walls barring progression

https://i.gyazo.com/75b36ef6426106e69be594d4943276b5.png

it's only marked after you destroy it https://youtu.be/gF9hXuht9I4?t=8476

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after beating it tonight i think my favorite thing about it are samus's facial expressions throughout the game, and her yell during the ending sequence. i just wanna hug her and tell her everything will be ok

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