Metroid Dread

Second trailer dropped, looks fucking insane. L O R E

The first hour and a half of this game is honestly pretty bad and tedious, but as it finally gives some abilities I’m having a lot more fun with it.

Still sort of enjoying it... still kinda tedious.

Not a huge fan of this game side by side with Hollowknight, for example. I struggled with that game but it always felt like there was something interesting and aesthetically pleasing to enjoy about it. It feels like a poor man's Hollowknight in so many respects, and kinda ugly and sterile in comparison, with little in the way of intrinsic beauty (music, visuals) to appreciate. The stealth mechanics are cool but so underutilized thus far. It *loves* to dangle 1000 abilities you don't have already in the level design, which is fine if it's a couple of things, but they completely overdo it, making the player feel constantly at the mercy of the designers. Obviously, they want to re-use these levels, but opening new areas with more stable progression would be more satisfying in my opinion. The impression I get is that, instead of the levels feeling well designed, it seems like they added lots of bullshit to the levels to pad the game's length on the back end.

In terms of being a Metroid title, it is running away from nostalgia (old-school sound effects/music are completely underplayed), but offering something amorphous and ultimately boring instead. It doesn't feel like innovation so much as stripping away the good bits. The only moment-to-moment innovation so far is a counter feature, that reminds me of Hollowknight, but nowhere near as satisfying.

In terms of the storytelling, absolute dogshit so far. It's amazing how low-effort it feels. Basically 0/10

Nothing impressive yet. It's really just... fine

Unlocked everything except for the final boss fight, but I don't give a shit anymore. It was barely good enough to keep me playing, until it wasn't. Game honestly sucked.