I always wanted to really try out a Metroid game. I’ve played some of the older games for a few minutes here and there, and I wanted to play Samus Returns, but I haven’t invested more than like 30 minutes into any Metroid game before. I’ve never been a big fan and I wasn’t really expecting to pick up Dread at all. It was only after I physically picked up the OLED Switch that I even started considering Dread because I thought it would look really cool.

GRAPHICS: 9/10

Since I’ve never played any of the older games in the Metroid series, I don’t have any games to compare Dread to when it comes to graphics, but they do look amazing, even more so if you’re playing on the OLED Switch. Before I talk about the OLED version, let’s first start by talking about the basics of the graphics.

First off, the world design is really well done. The actual area that you’re playing on is really well made with a lot of detail and is very good looking, but the best part of the visuals is the background. Look past where you’re playing and you can see so much going on. There isn’t just a wall, you can see lots of life, movement, and detail in each background.

There’s also a ton of detail in many of the character designs. The EMMI look terrifying and their actual movement animation only makes them look more frightening. The designs of many of the other enemies are pretty spot on as well. Lastly, the actual in game and animated cutscenes look really good at times with lots of detail and clean movement.

Now let’s talk about the OLED enhancements. The bigger screen allows for what you see to stand out even more. The enemies look more menacing, the text is easier to read, and you get to see a lot more detail when playing handheld.

SOUND: 8/10

The sound of Metroid Dread is pretty good. The regular sounds are fantastic and is a good excuse for why the game is called Dread. Whenever an EMMI is chasing you, you can definitely feel it’s presence just through the sound alone. The music is also pretty good as there was one track that I really liked early on and the soundtrack fits really well in high intensity moments.

As for the voices, I was pretty mixed on it. There’s some decent voicing here, like with Adam the computer, but I thought it was pretty lackluster. Also, just like with the graphics, sound has a huge upgrade thanks to the OLED model and the game sounds much better, louder, and clearer.

ADDICTIVENESS: 7/10

I’m not a big fan of these kinds of games, and while I did at times enjoy the challenge and combat, I wasn’t a huge fan of level design. There were hundreds of times where you could pretty much go anywhere, with a ton of different branching paths to travel. Sometimes you would have to travel through the same area multiple times, I did that a lot in the first map area. I didn’t really like that too much.

I personally would have preferred a structure that was even more linear but overall the combat was still fun. For me, the highlight was the EMMI battles and figuring out how to beat or escape them. There were plenty of times where an EMMI would just appear as I was trying to do something and while I hated that and they ruined my day, the thrill of escaping them kind of renewed my engagement.

Metroid Dread is also a relatively short game, so if you’ve beaten it but still want to mess around with some combat, it’s pretty easy to get back into.

STORY: 8/10

I know nothing about the Metroid story other than some of the concepts, but thankfully there’s a lot of exposition near the start of the game that chronicles all the events that led up to this. In Dread, you receive word that a parasite that can mimic any living thing still exists on some far off planet and you go to investigate.

But you learn that this was a trap set to get Samus to that planet for nefarious reasons. As someone who hasn’t played the other games, it was a bit confusing to me, but there’s a lot of content and it’s very well written.

DEPTH: 7/10

The game does have a decent amount of stuff going on. For starters, the game map is huge. Just the first area is huge, with lots of ground to cover and things to interact with or find. There’s also a nice assortment of enemies to fight off. The only downside is that it’s an extremely short game. In total, it took me only 11 hours, but there was still quite a bit that I missed. Even with that said, I doubt you can really get more than 15 hours out of it. That’s not great for a game that costs $60

DIFFICULTY: 7

The game can be very difficult at times. Figuring out where you have to go in order to progress the story can be a challenge at times because the directions might not always be clear cut, and fighting off the EMMI’s can be a real challenge. When I was battling the second one on the first map, it took me so long to be able to do it. It took me a couple minutes just to figure out how to beat it. Then once I knew what had to be done, it took me a couple tries just to actually pull it off.

I think I did close to ten times battling that one EMMI and I must have died more than 100 times in total. Some of those deaths weren’t even due to EMMI or strong enemies but thanks to stupidity and being somewhere that was too hot or cold. There’s also no way to make the game easy, it’s not like you can grind, you can only work with what you’re given, so it’s mostly a trial and error combat system until something work.

OVERALL: 8/10

If you’re already a fan of the Metroid games, then Metroid Dread is a very good option for you. But, if you aren’t already, you’re either going to be let down by how short the game is or you should first introduce yourself to the series through older games. The game definitely has some fun combat and many moments that are very tense and borderline horror.

Personally, the suspense was probably my favorite aspect of the game. To me, it felt very organic and well done, and it really made you feel like you were in danger at times. Overall, I think the game was good. I think I probably would have liked it more if I was already a fay, but Metroid Dread gets an 8 out of 10 from me.