Metroid Dread Reviews
Metroid Dread is the return of Samus we waited for almost twenty years. The closing chapter of Samus' adventure is intended to kickstart the era of the Switch OLED and it does it with a bang. The game looks delicious and plays seamlessly smooth. The game has some minor flaws but feels nearly perfect as you search the depths of ZDR and need to flee the E.M.M.I. to save your life. This is simply a must-buy for everyone that owns a Switch!
Review in Dutch | Read full review
Metroid Dread scores with well-established strengths of the series and delivers exciting bossfights and a well thought through leveldesign. Sadly the attempts of the game to create a tense atmosphere fail most of the time and the technical limits of the Nintendo Switch hold the title back from reaching its full potential.
Review in German | Read full review
There’s a reason we’ve classified an entire genre of games as Metroidvania – the queen cannot be toppled, and Metroid Dread is a shining example of how the original is always better.
With a near-perfect balance of nods to the past and fresh ideas, Metroid Dread brings cinematic flair, fast-paced action and a surprising story to the side-scrolling classic. This is the comeback fans have been waiting for.
Metroid Dread refines the franchise's 2D formula into one great game. The vast ZDR planet has an elaborate map full of alternative routes and secrets, and the agile movement make the journey very pleasant. In addition, E.M.M.I. encounters excite and terrify in tension-filled stretches. The battles are also more varied, difficult and intense, however the bosses are a bit problematic because of some questionable choices. The feeling of being alone and lost in a strange world is strong, but irregular the rhythm at times makes the experience a bit tiring. The plot is simple and has intriguing developments that are portrayed in elaborate scenes. Visually the title is competent, it just lacked a little more personality in certain locations. In the end, Metroid Dread maintains the 2D essence of the series in an immersive adventure, it's just a shame that the opportunity to dare a little was wasted.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
MercurySteam did it again. “Metroid Dread” does an amazing job of mixing tradition with novelties and manages to add some fresh mechanics to the well known gameplay formula. Exploration is satisfying and intense while also give the sense of freedom and accomplishment to the player. Spanish team created a sequel for the “Fusion” that lives up to the its cult predecessor.
Review in Polish | Read full review
If you are in the category of oldschool gamers waiting for the first Metroid prototype after 11 years, Metroid Dread will tick all the boxes for you.
Review in Greek | Read full review
Metroid Dread is a truly exceptional return to the spotlight for the franchise and Samus Aran. Having been somewhat lost in the wilderness for the better part of a decade, the pair of Nintendo and MercurySteam has worked wonders for the franchise. Some balancing issues erode at the unbelievable foundation of the game, but dread about the future of Metroid no longer, Samus is back in style.
Metroid Dread gets just about everything right, and without spoiling anything, this is a satisfying ending to this story that will please fans both old and new. The addition of the E.M.M.I. create some of the most intense moments in the series’ history, and the boss fights are truly some of the most fun and challenging ever. Samus has never controlled better, and exploring with her once again on the eerie Planet ZDR is a dream come true. Samus is finally back, and she’s better than ever.
Between the rock solid exploration and atmosphere, the incredible boss fights, and the solid tension building of the EMMIs, Dread is probably the definitive 2D Metroidvania of the 21st century.
[Metroid Dread is] a worthy follow-up to the legacy established by Super Metroid and Metroid Fusion.
Mercurysteam have taken what they learnt from Samus Returns and really upped the ante with the gameplay, Samus controls like butter, running jumping and sliding all other the place feels like a dream. A few years ago we called Samus Returns on 3DS the best 2D Metroid ever made and as good as that game is, Dread improves upon it in almost every sense of the word, hopefully, this is the start of a whole new era for Samus and the Metroid franchise even after a lengthy development.
Metroid Dread is not only an excellent game and return of a beloved franchise, it’s emblematic of everything that defined the genre in the first place in a way that many modern Metroidvanias simply aren’t. Its exploration, upgrading, and re-exploration are never spoonfed to you and feel constantly like great accomplishments with great difficulty scaling and thrilling new mechanics and atmosphere.
Metroid Dread is a must-own for any Metroidvania fan. Featuring some of the best 2D combat I’ve ever played and a world dying to be explored, I couldn’t put it down until I reached the thrilling conclusion. Its difficulty and atmosphere help it live up to its namesake but never chased me away. There are minor issues, but nothing that stops this from being one of 2021’s best.
Metroid Dread is, well, another 2D Metroid, and that is worth celebrating if you’re a fan of the franchise. It will not, by any means, convert newcomers into die-hard fans of the series, given how it assumes you’ve played its predecessors right from the get-go, but it offers a crap ton of fanservice and excellent level design for those who know what to expect from a Metroid game. If only it didn’t have so many obnoxious stealth horror sections that did nothing but halt my overall enjoyment with it, this could have challenged Super Metroid as to which entry in the series is the greatest of all time.
Metroid Dread provided me some of the most fun I’ve had in video games this year and is absolutely a game that deserves a seat right next to its siblings in the series.
Metroid Dread manages to do incredibly well by marrying moments of action with extreme tension and doing so from the flow of organic gameplay instead of using tools such as cutscenes and dialogue. In Metroid Dread, language is a kinetic thing. Samus Aran’s body is a moving sentence, and her weapons and abilities are punctuation. How you interact with the world you move through is how you tell your story. This is how the very best games in the series have always been and are true of all the best examples of the Metroidvania genre.
We’ve seen Metroidvania games like Hollow Knight nail the formula in recent years, but Metroid Dread proves there’s nothing better than the franchise that started it all.
While it falls just short of being a masterpiece, Dread proves itself worthy of Metroid’s legacy with high fluidity, some fantastic setpieces, and a few particularly killer robots.
Metroid Dread is one of the finest games to release this year. It not only encapsulates everything that makes Metroid, Metroid, but it does so in a way that feels new and fresh. Dread stands on its own two feet and demands to be played. The genre has been missing its namesake for far too long now, so I am happy to say that Dread is a worthy crown-bearer. I hope to see more from Samus, Nintendo, and Mercury Stream in the future.