Metroid Dread (Primed and Dready)

Crumpy Andy wrote:

I've found navigating especially difficult, ending up inappropriately backtracking too often. I must've lost 30 mins after getting the Spider Magnet thing as I just didn't shoot a wall that I saw no indication was shootable.

I've had a few moments like that myself & I think it's just a case of me overthinking it most of the time as I'm used this genre's puzzle/map exploration being a bit more complex than what we have in Dread. Just last night I thought I had soft locked myself in a certain area after getting the spin boost but nope the game wanted a pixel perfect underwater jump even though it just told me that using spin boost underwater doesn't work without the gravity suit.

So I get the wasted time frustration & just remember to not over think it especially with backtracking as that tends to happen naturally as far as story progression goes.

I've polished this off now and put some extended thoughts in the last game you finished thread. As a whole, good game I'd say, but not without its flaws!

I got a final clear time of 9:38, which wasn't enough to earn any speed completion rewards. The final boss is a proper bastard and I haven't sworn at the telly as much at a game in a long time.

The_Jaster wrote:

Just last night I thought I had soft locked myself in a certain area after getting the spin boost but nope the game wanted a pixel perfect underwater jump even though it just told me that using spin boost underwater doesn't work without the gravity suit.

I had a problem with that jump too! It seems unnecessarily precise, right? I think the wording on how the Space Jump works underwater before getting the Gravity Suit isn't great as it still works, but only for horizontal movement.

Crumpy Andy wrote:

I've not had the best time with this so far. I think it looks super ugly and I've found navigating especially difficult, ending up inappropriately backtracking too often. I must've lost 30 mins after getting the Spider Magnet thing as I just didn't shoot a wall that I saw no indication was shootable. I've then ended up wandering into the fire area and appear to still be lost as to where to go. I'll persist, but this is definitely not the start I was hoping for.

I had a couple of moments like that in the early game and one part in the late-game too. There's an ability you get part way into the game that helps reveal hidden blocks, and I think they missed a trick not giving that to the player earlier to avoid moments like that.

Jay wrote:

I had a problem with that jump too! It seems unnecessarily precise, right? I think the wording on how the Space Jump works underwater before getting the Gravity Suit isn't great as it still works, but only for horizontal movement.

Yep! I was full on convinced that I skipped something & spent a good amount of time speed boosting back up the way I came (which wasn't easy) and combing previous areas before I went back to where I was to try the jump again.

I find the option to highlight places on the map really useful - you know, the one where you hover over an example of something on the map (like a grapple beam door) and it highlights all the others in the area. That's stopped me getting super lost as when I get a new ability I highlight all the places I can use it and it points me in the right direction.

Aye that is useful & it even stays selected if you open the global map to check another area.

The_Jaster wrote:

Crumpy Andy wrote:

I've found navigating especially difficult, ending up inappropriately backtracking too often. I must've lost 30 mins after getting the Spider Magnet thing as I just didn't shoot a wall that I saw no indication was shootable.

I've had a few moments like that myself & I think it's just a case of me overthinking it most of the time as I'm used this genre's puzzle/map exploration being a bit more complex than what we have in Dread. Just last night I thought I had soft locked myself in a certain area after getting the spin boost but nope the game wanted a pixel perfect underwater jump even though it just told me that using spin boost underwater doesn't work without the gravity suit.

So I get the wasted time frustration & just remember to not over think it especially with backtracking as that tends to happen naturally as far as story progression goes.

#gitgud

Nah it's not just you fellows, a lot of people have said this. I just... didn't get lost? Basically at all? And I'm the sort of person who resents games like Hollow Knight for their lack of direction. Granted, there are a couple of times where the worst Metroidvania trope of Otherwise Indistinguishable Destructible Blocks didn't show up on the map and were needed to progress, but those times I basically had a handful of places I could go and I found them before long. I thought the game was really well designed from that regard, basically funnelling you towards the correct route all the time. The map functionality that Rum mentions is really good too!

I also didn't have any problems with that Gravity Suit jump either. Seriously what have y'all been doing? Do your hardcore Souls skills not translate over? I didn't find the final boss that frustrating either! I am not good at games!

Anyway, I'm done with this. I got 100% of the items, which was mostly fine but Mx. Indistinguishable Blocks had a couple of walkthrough-needing moments, and even after you've unlocked everything you still have to move in irritating loops sometimes. I'm impressed with Jay's clear time, mine was around 12.5h and I don't think that includes all my deaths?

It's just the linear design which isn't exactly common in yer Metroids that threw me off & the bit which you've quoted there was a combo of me wanting to explore an EMMI area further but then being knocked down into an area by an enemy which added to the "oh I shouldn't be here yet" feeling.

Balla wrote:

I also didn't have any problems with that Gravity Suit jump either. Seriously what have y'all been doing?

It wasn't the gravity suit jump but.............

Spoiler:

@Balla clear times don't include deaths etc it will reset back to the time before death for instance

Anyway I've just took out the 3rd EMMI and started some backtracking, which has rather linear at the moment, tad surprised about as I thought I'd be getting lost all the time.

Enjoying overall, hopefully it continues.

I finished it over the weekend, it was fine, I will not remember that I have played it come GOTY.

See I'm just getting to the 5th EMMI and I would say it's possible to be GOTY for me.

Not a lot of competition though in year of remasters etc

The last month has offered Lost Judgment, Deathloop and Life is Strange True Colors alone, just to offer up the bigger headlines...

Opinions are funny things, aren't they?


(I probably should get around to Judgment & Deathloop though)

It's currently in the conversation for my GotY, but realistically never making the podium.  Even if based on Andy's tone I think he's underrated it, I can imagine that for a multiplat gent it'd be pretty far down the list.  

The_Jaster wrote:

It wasn't the gravity suit jump but.............

Spoiler:

Sorry yep, that's the bit I meant. I think the item description just says you can't gain height underwater though? (Until you get the Gravity Suit, that's what confused me in my head.)

It's the gravity suit bit of the description that confused me at the time in game as well though.

Ah right! Call yourself a Souls fan, not reading the item description thoroughly.

If only there was lore attached to how the Spin boost/gravity suit came to be then maybe I would have.

Crumpy Andy wrote:

The last month has offered Lost Judgment, Deathloop and Life is Strange True Colors alone, just to offer up the bigger headlines...

I've only played LiS:TC out of those and is in my Top 10, but out of the 43 games I've "finished" then others I've played bits off not been a whole lot of standouts.

Wow, everyone soon jumped out of the ol' Metroids, it's already on page 2. I suppose it is really old now and I'm catching up. Sort of avoiding spoilers, but: does anyone else routinely have trouble remembering which button combination is for grappling / missiling / aiming / using the one-off super robot-blaster? I forget about at least 1 power I have every time I play this. Or am I just old and stupid now?

It took me a while to get to grips with all of the things you have at your disposal, but dicking around the map helped me register it all to muscle memory! I think if I put the game down for a couple of weeks before coming back to finish it I'd have been scunnered though.

I see. At the moment I routinely do that! Being a grown-up is rubbish

It's a pretty short game, and basically everyone here got it at launch! And then whizzed through it, mitigating the controls issue. Which, I can confirm, was still sometimes an issue.

Yeah, I definitely remember the controls being a bit fiddly at points and not feeling as fluid as I'd like, but I was more or less used to it towards the latter half of the game.

I'm about a third of the way through Metroid Fusion, then I'll finally pick up Dread.