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Metroid Dread Reviews

JumpMan1981

Banned
I played about two hours, set it down, then today after work decided to give it another go - putting in a few more hours. I have to say, old Adam Sessler nailed my opinion of the game and the discussion surrounding it spot on:



The toxic gatekeeping from the most vocal of the community, to the out of place one-hit stealth sequences, the un-Metroid like exploration at times, to what is essentially a celebration of awkward and bad mechanics from installments that are now a decade old or older, he pretty much narrated every gripe I had with the game as I played through it.


I think it's ridiculous that "toxic gatekeeping" or the perceived bad attitude of assumed fans of a game is somehow then used as either a negative against the game or a justification to give an unfairly harsh review.

Maybe it's valid if the game is an online multiplayer thing and the developers have done nothing to protect people from abuse and bullying and such. In a single player game with no online component I don's see how "the community" is even relevant?
 

BadBurger

Is 'That Pure Potato'
I think it's ridiculous that "toxic gatekeeping" or the perceived bad attitude of assumed fans of a game is somehow then used as either a negative against the game or a justification to give an unfairly harsh review.

Maybe it's valid if the game is an online multiplayer thing and the developers have done nothing to protect people from abuse and bullying and such. In a single player game with no online component I don's see how "the community" is even relevant?

I don't have a problem with him opining on how some of the community behaves, given how closely tied the community is now to gaming in the age of Twitch and YouTubers, Twitter and Instagram. If a person is making a living in the way Sessler is, avoiding the community surrounding a game is not only probably impossible but would probably be a bad idea from a business perspective.

As for me, that was an extremely minor gripe of mine. But it was immediately noticeable when I went looking for impressions on social media.
 

Dr. Claus

Vincit qui se vincit
I played about two hours, set it down, then today after work decided to give it another go - putting in a few more hours. I have to say, old Adam Sessler nailed my opinion of the game and the discussion surrounding it spot on:



The toxic gatekeeping from the most vocal of the community, to the out of place one-hit stealth sequences, the un-Metroid like exploration at times, to what is essentially a celebration of awkward and bad mechanics from installments that are now a decade old or older, he pretty much narrated every gripe I had with the game as I played through it.


Sounds like you kind of just suck at the game and want to come up with excuses so you belittle fans and use idiotic terms like "toxic gatekeeping" with a straight face.

Git Gud.
 
S

SpongebobSquaredance

Unconfirmed Member
I played about two hours, set it down, then today after work decided to give it another go - putting in a few more hours. I have to say, old Adam Sessler nailed my opinion of the game and the discussion surrounding it spot on:



The toxic gatekeeping from the most vocal of the community, to the out of place one-hit stealth sequences, the un-Metroid like exploration at times, to what is essentially a celebration of awkward and bad mechanics from installments that are now a decade old or older, he pretty much narrated every gripe I had with the game as I played through it.

I mostly disagree with the video, but this is definitely 100 times better than David Jaffe's take. Sorry, but not sorry.
 
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Valonquar

Member
I found the game to be both too easy, and too short for a $60 game. You can beat it in 8 to 10 hours, and 100% in like 12 to 15 without much trouble. The 3 bigger boss battles were cool, but there was way too much mini-boss retreads.
 
I found the game to be both too easy, and too short for a $60 game. You can beat it in 8 to 10 hours, and 100% in like 12 to 15 without much trouble. The 3 bigger boss battles were cool, but there was way too much mini-boss retreads.
I'm pretty certain 15 hours to 100% completion is longer than any prior 2D Metroid, so if anything I'm wondering how the heck people are not saying "it overstayed it's welcome" and "100% completion becomes a tedius and boring affair."

Perspective: This is from someone who never enjoys 100% completion on a Metroid/Vania if there's too much "un-useful" stuff to find (IE doing crazy shinespark puzzles just for a missile expansion in Metroids) or if the 100% objective is dumb and boring (going in every coordinate location in SOTN is dumb because it requires you to fly around in boring locations where nothing happens entirely for padding, 100% soul collection in Aria of Sorrow is RNG hell, etc.)
 
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Dr. Claus

Vincit qui se vincit
I'm pretty certain 15 hours to 100% completion is longer than any prior 2D Metroid, so if anything I'm wondering how the heck people are not saying "it overstayed it's welcome" and "100% completion becomes a tedius and boring affair."

Perspective: This is from someone who never enjoys 100% completion on a Metroid/Vania if there's too much "un-useful" stuff to find (IE doing crazy shinespark puzzles just for a missile expansion in Metroids) or if the 100% objective is dumb and boring (going in every coordinate location in SOTN is dumb because it requires you to fly around in boring locations where nothing happens entirely for padding, 100% soul collection in Aria of Sorrow is RNG hell, etc.)

Samus Returns took a little bit longer to 100%, or at least felt *much* longer to do given how bland its world design and exploration was.

Plus you can cut those completion times to 2-3 hours easy in a second or third playthrough.
 

NewYork214

Member
Not sure if it’s because of using the joycons in their controller cradle thing or if it’s just the overall controls of this game. But it’s quickly pissing me off, now that I’m on this second boss. Fat fucker with the nasty belly button. Holding L1 or whatever it’s called on switch to aim is horrible and not being able to freely aim while moving sucks.

Am I an idiot and missing something? Or is it just the joycons fucking me up? is it just flawed controls? Please help, because I’m loving this game besides the controls.

Edit: anyone I can just switch sim to L2 and the slide to L1?
 
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Crayon

Member
Not sure if it’s because of using the joycons in their controller cradle thing or if it’s just the overall controls of this game. But it’s quickly pissing me off, now that I’m on this second boss. Fat fucker with the nasty belly button. Holding L1 or whatever it’s called on switch to aim is horrible and not being able to freely aim while moving sucks.

Am I an idiot and missing something? Or is it just the joycons fucking me up? is it just flawed controls? Please help, because I’m loving this game besides the controls.

Edit: anyone I can just switch sim to L2 and the slide to L1?

Joycons are tough for games that are more demanding on the dexterity. Playing something like mario kart or sonic is pleasant enough. Then around botw or mario odyssey it's starts getting tough. Once you get to astral chain, joycons are putting a major damper on the game.

Not wanting to buy the expensive pro controller with the shit dpad, I wasted money on a few third party controllers. I got the lauded 8bitdo one which I sent right back due to some outrageous input lag that I never heard anyone mention. It really wasn't all that, anyhow. Eventually I broke down and got th epro controller. Sure enough, the dpad is so sensitive that it is more than reasonable to call it faulty. I cracked it right open and covered a little of the contacts with the scotch tape. Was awarded a phd in pro controller dissasembly after doing it 6 times to get it just right. Truth be told, I ended up with a wonderful controller, but what a pain in the ass ripoff all this is. The switch controller situation is bad and a big part of what eventually soured me on the switch.
 

NewYork214

Member
Joycons are tough for games that are more demanding on the dexterity. Playing something like mario kart or sonic is pleasant enough. Then around botw or mario odyssey it's starts getting tough. Once you get to astral chain, joycons are putting a major damper on the game.

Not wanting to buy the expensive pro controller with the shit dpad, I wasted money on a few third party controllers. I got the lauded 8bitdo one which I sent right back due to some outrageous input lag that I never heard anyone mention. It really wasn't all that, anyhow. Eventually I broke down and got th epro controller. Sure enough, the dpad is so sensitive that it is more than reasonable to call it faulty. I cracked it right open and covered a little of the contacts with the scotch tape. Was awarded a phd in pro controller dissasembly after doing it 6 times to get it just right. Truth be told, I ended up with a wonderful controller, but what a pain in the ass ripoff all this is. The switch controller situation is bad and a big part of what eventually soured me on the switch.
I have some of their wired controllers somewhere from first time I owned the switch. Think I'm just going to tear it apart. It's just mad hard to accurately aim the gun while holding the shoulder button. Never feels precise
 

ToadMan

Member
I completed the game with a pro controller but played a few portions handheld.

The static aiming is just a pain. As you get further into the game you’ll find you have to use it sparingly because enemies don’t give you the time to aim when you’re dodging their attacks.

For this boss though - yeah, aiming helps, and just spam missiles.
 
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Fredrik

Member
Started HK some months ago and had to force me to play a little too get it... Never got it and quite like 7 hours into the game, can't understand what's so praised about it, it's good but... Just not sooooo good, idk, it ended up boring me
HK is a slog until you start unlocking more of the map and can fast travel. Much like some other big games like RDR2, GOW, etc. I don’t get why they put that as a progression thing, first few hours are undoubtly the worst. Keep playing is all I can say.
 

Valonquar

Member
I mean, it's just a much longer, more challenging game. I played both games to the end. I enjoyed both. I just would have enjoyed Dread more if Hollow Knight hadn't been objectively better in most regards. When I remember HK, I remember being really frustrated at the difficulty and powering through. When I remember MD, I remember really slogging through way too many shit loading screens, The same mini-boss too many times, and overall didn't care for the style\art direction. It was still a proper Metroid game at least, but far from unseating Super Metroid on the SNES, at least the nostalgia I have for it.
 
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