Metroid Dread /Switch

Either on being played via console or handheld, it was entertaining and reminded me of playing the original titles for the first time.

Metroid Dread was my first Metroid game and I really enjoyed it. I've played metroidvanias before I always sort of ran out of steam after a while because the exploration aspect got a bit frustrating to me after a while. Somehow, the regular upgrades to abilities and the beautiful areas in the game always kept me excited about what would come next. The set of skills you earn gradually make Samus a formidable and nimble character that makes traversing the world a breeze. Moreover, by the end of the game I was regularly fighting fairly challenging enemies, but I found I could learn their moveset and react to them fluidly because of both the new abilities I had acquired and the way the game had made me learn how to use them. It's the sign of a very carefully constructed player progression arc that is very hard to get right.If I had to point out a flaw, it'd be that some of the moves are a little complicated to execute at speed. I would often find myself unable to execute a particular sequence of actions as I intended. Somehow my intuition about how the move should work and the dynamics of them in the game didn't always line up. I did manage to master this more or less over the game though and considering the breadth of skills I imagine it was difficult to map them all onto sensible controls. Besides these particular difficulties, Samus moves around very fluidly and is a joy to constrol.Finally, when you unlock enough abilities, the game becomes a sort of puzzle game based on the abilities you have. I would really recommend getting 100% of items to experience this element of the gameplay, because you could easily miss it. You will likely need a guide though as some of the capabilities of Samus aren't obvious, especially regarding the nuances of the speed boost.Getting all the items and completing the game took me about 15 hours. That might not sound a lot for the cost of the game, but it felt like the perfect amount of time for me when the credits rolled.

This was a fantastic game for the Switch, and a great addition to the Metroid franchaise!

It's challenging but fun.

Beautiful backgrounds, difficult yet attainable completion to 100%. Good job!