My first impressions of Metroid Dread after about 3 hours. It is good, but not $60 good.
But it's a Nintendo release so the absolute best you're going to get is maybe a 10% discount in a year or two.
Controls are about as perfect as you could possibly get on a game like this.
Graphics, sound and haptics are all really nice. Nothing incredible but... Really nice.
Gameplay itself is also "really nice". It has it's great points and weak moments.
The game is essentially split into two phases or zones. Regular platforming exploration areas and the EMMI zones. These two phases are punctuated by intermittent boss fights.
The platforming exploration part is just way too easy, there's no really sense of peril, if you do take a hit or two from an enemy, as soon as you kill it, it pretty much refills your health and ammo.
The EMMI sections are incredibly annoying. Initially you can't kill the robot that's hunting you and must just avoid it. This is a case of running away though a zone you don't know. In reality this translates to: run a bit, get killed, restart the zone run the bit you learned, get a bit further, get killed, repeat until you learn that zone and make it out.
There's no real balance or fluidity between the two sections and they feel slightly disjointed to me. So it's a very decent game but nothing that shows "15 years in the making". A solid 8 out of 10. If you haven't yet played them Bloodstained or Ender Lilies are better games IMO. That being said I haven't finished Metroid Dread yet, probably about half way given it's a 7 to 9 hour completion.
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