sparky wrote: Sat Oct 09, 2021 12:03 pm Metroid Dread is really good, maybe exceptional. It’s my first Metroid game, so I cannot say how it holds up to the others so far, but I’ve found it hard to leave. I’ve been in three areas, have just reached my second boss, and I’m enjoying the lifebar-guzzling fights. Lots of game overs, but the checkpoint system is well-balanced. The map screen is a fine puzzle game in itself.

Haydon wrote: Sat Oct 09, 2021 6:41 pm Echo your sentiments though I feel like I’m fumbling through it. Maybe that’s the aim, but I don’t feel like I’m a good Samus. Just into the third area this morning and thoroughly stuck. Confident a small break and re-assessment of the situation will pull results.

As an aside, a friend was sent a still of the credits which featured the boys from autechre in a thank you note. Another friend found that they had done a previous Metroid soundtrack but it never got used and most likely will never reach the public. Interesting to think they may have had a very small role in this one. Maybe it was just inspiration. Cool regardless.

GuyLaCroix wrote: Sun Oct 10, 2021 1:10 am Super Metroid is my all time favorite game, but Dread is closing in - if it sticks the landing, it might eclipse the former.

sparky wrote: Sun Oct 10, 2021 4:13 am

Haydon wrote: Sat Oct 09, 2021 6:41 pm Echo your sentiments though I feel like I’m fumbling through it. Maybe that’s the aim, but I don’t feel like I’m a good Samus. Just into the third area this morning and thoroughly stuck. Confident a small break and re-assessment of the situation will pull results.

As an aside, a friend was sent a still of the credits which featured the boys from autechre in a thank you note. Another friend found that they had done a previous Metroid soundtrack but it never got used and most likely will never reach the public. Interesting to think they may have had a very small role in this one. Maybe it was just inspiration. Cool regardless.

I think this kind of fumbling, tracking back and forth the maps in a hunt for the next path, is meant to be. After I wrote that, I returned to the game for what was meant to be a couple of goes at the second boss to see if I could work out a strategy. That was meant to be a 15 minute hop. A three hour spree later, I’d beaten the boss (took what felt like a perfect number of attempts to master, not enough to frustrate but enough to feel like an achievement), found the fourth area, got trapped in a loop that spread across two areas for an hour, got worried I’d somehow discovered a flaw that would lock me into this loop, found the solution, beat another scary robot and then I remembered it was time to sleep. The sensation of being lost is glorious, I haven’t felt that in a game in an age.

The Autechre connection is an intriguing surprise!

GuyLaCroix wrote: Sun Oct 10, 2021 1:10 am Super Metroid is my all time favorite game, but Dread is closing in - if it sticks the landing, it might eclipse the former.

Of what I’ve played, the closest comparison is Hollow Knight, which I loved but eventually tired of - I’d felt like I’d had enough of its generous girth by the time I’d opened most of the map. Don’t see this happening with M Dread, from the look of the map screen.

sparky wrote: Wed Oct 13, 2021 5:12 pm Hades had to be pried out of my hands. I had a similar experience to you - didn’t reach the cottage until around my 40th run, and somehow never made it there again until near my hundredth. After that, the next few wins came fast. Well worth continuing; I’ve put over 300 hours into it.

Reached the last boss on Metroid Dread. A very good game, though by the end the different areas mostly blur together - they perhaps could’ve cut a couple and made the rest more distinct. But the game’s incredible.