@Secret_Tunnel
No, I like the 2001-esque clinical look. It's more the rock platform textures and low-poly squishy creatures that bug me. They look like they were taken from a PS2 remaster of Alien Syndrome.

Love the techno designs, though.

@GameDadGrant
Dude, I live in a world where the ground is seldom made of bubbles. When I play my pulp sci-fantast games, I want to be transported to a world of bubbles.

Is that so much to ask?!

@Anand if they're targeting 60fps, I think that's probably just the sacrifice they have to make. They also have it so that anything that isn't "the world" basically fades to black, which I'm sure must also help with performance. You just won't get rock or metal textures filling the gaps between the world. I'm a little torn on this, but I would probably prefer a game that runs smoother over one with more detail.

@PogueSquadron
Hm, for a Metroid game, I'd probably prefer atmosphere to framerate.

I'd go 60fps, since it's an action game.

Say, you know what might be a good compromise to maintain the framerate, while keeping the graphical detail high?

Bubbles.

According to the third Dev Report, the new suit is in fact the suit from Fusion gradually returning to its mechanical form.

Makes sense as some of those blue bits do look more organic, and I guess that's what the Fusion suit would look like in highly detailed 3D. Even the Fusion suit from Samus Returns had a more organic look to it. Wouldn't be surprised if the Fusion suit is unlockable in this game after beating it.

Reviews are out

Figured it would be good but apparently it's super good. Not sure why it has no average on Metacritic yet but it has 20+ reviews and most are 9s or higher.

/Edit OH there we go, 88% between 34 reviews at the moment. Damn, sounds great! Only "negative" I have seen so far is apparently its a tough game and the boss fights are like five times tougher than the rest of the game or something.

A heads up with the reviews--you may want to just check the scores. I listened to (most of) GameXplain's and they revealed a lot more than I cared to know, including number of areas, number of EMMIs, and a bunch of the power-ups you get. I imagine most of us are going to get Dread regardless, so if you're spoiler-sensitive then be wary.

Reviews seem quite good so far, although for the sake of getting an alternate opinion, I did read GamesRadar's as well, a 3.5/5 that has a feeling of disappointment permeating throughout. I expect Dread to be a slightly better Samus Returns, which itself had a few niggling issues I hope have been smoothed out by MercurySteam by now.

@Zero

Good sign, IMO. Samus Returns has my favorite 2D Metroid bosses and they were pretty challenging. Diggernaut in particular was a Prime Trilogy-caliber boss fight.

I can't wait!

I have to say I kinda miss the old 2D style of Super/Fusion/ZM. This feels kinda less gamey.

All in what you're used to I guess.

@Shadowlink
I'm curious what specifically you're referring to. If anything, I felt that Samus Returns' environments felt overly gamey due to the pretty arbitrary new obstacles (like greasy walls and vents that suck up your bombs) kind of taking me out of the immersion.

Samus Returns to me felt more like Prime in 2D than Super in 2D. Which is by no means bad, but definitely different. I'm not sure we're ever going to get another Super.

@TriforceBun

Just the graphical style. This just seems more organic, less 'tile' based.


And maybe someone will find an option that will help here, but the upgrades markers on the map aren't very intuitive. I've beaten the first (second technically?) Emmi fight and now want to go clean up that area, and well...

It's showing the ones Ive seen and the ones I've gotten, but the only visual difference seems to be slightly faded colour on the marker which makes it tricky to tell at a glance which ones I have and which ones I haven't. They do say 'Acquired' if you directly hover over them, but that's a pain to check one by one.

An option to just make the icons disappear once you've collected them would be nice.

EDIT: Found a way to sort of highlight the uncollected ones. Not quite what I wanted but its something.

How do you have this alreadyyyyyy

His uncle works for Nintendo

@TriforceBun





@nate38

If only. :(

Oh boy. This game is good. Had to stop myself from playing more, need sleep. But it's addictive.

I played an hour and a half of this last night, and I adore it.

The sci-fi horror mood is perfect, and Samus's characterization is the best it's ever been. Adam is chatty, but I don't mind it; he's not telling dumb jokes, he's giving genuinely useful mission briefings! The game is tense at all the right times, and it feels so good having genuine mystery in a Metroid game again.

The movement and navigation is so smooth, it feels amazing just jumping around and exploring. And the new powerups are fun to play with, I can't believe that I wasn't handed the morph ball fifteen minutes in.

And that first boss fight after the first EMMI, oh man. It's a test of all the movement and combat you've learned up to that point, applied in this amazing cinematic way. The amount of camerawork in this game in general is awesome, I was skeptical when Samus Returns first went for the 3D style, but this is 100% worth it.

Cannot wait to play more.

nate38 said:

His uncle works for Nintendo

My cousin used to do marketing for Nintendo, haha. She actually gave me a bunch of insider info in the Gamecube/Wii days!

Well I'm 2.5 hours in (including about 30 minutes of thinking maybe I was soft-locked when I reached the third area...), and I like this Metroid game! I'm not bowled over yet, but MercurySteam's done a very good job of making the EMMI dudes formidable and scary (which makes it all the more satisfying to beat them with the cutscene cannon!). I also like that the powerup path is very different this time around, with a few new items coming right away, before even a few of the old staples. And the game manages to weave in Metroid lore from all the past games without it getting overbearing.