VideoGame It's like you never left...
I admit, I came into Metroid Dread with some concerns. It's been a fair bit since we got a fresh new Metroid title that wasn't a spin-off or a remake, and a fair bit longer than that since we got one that didn't splinter the fanbase into angry squabbling. I never expected to get a traditional 2-D game before the next Prime, but here it is, and the best part is, it's pretty damn good!
Hard as nails, but pretty good. And I speak as someone who's not great at it but still beat it with 91% completion and didn't have to sink a million years into it.
And, soup-to-nuts, I think its greatest strength is, somehow, striking a good balance between providing a "greatest hits collection" of fun ideas and mechanics from prior titles and forging its own identity. We see this in the story, which incorporates both interesting plot hooks from prior titles and dramatic new ones we've never seen before. I was not expecting a chozo to be the Big Bad, for instance, but I'm glad that in introducing it they don't change anything about the setting people actually liked. It's a simple tale, but effective and original, perfectly splitting the difference between the monologues and intrigue of Fusion and the beloved simplicity of Super.
Gameplay-wise, it has all the classic Super Metroid powerups and abilities, but scrambles the "standard" order in interesting ways, and adds a few new ones to boot via the "Aeion" energy meter. While it feels a bit underutilized (there are a grand total of three such abilities in the entire game and two of them drain the whole meter in one go), it's a solid foundation for later titles to experiment with. I've heard that the melee-parrying is actually from the remake of II, and while I can't attest to that, I can say that, as someone who's bad at parrying mechanics, I did eventually get the hang of it, and outside of the E.M.M.I. boss fights, where it's deliberately harsh, the windows are quite generous, especially for bosses literally unable to lose if you don't parry them.
Difficulty is, again, high, but it feels encouraging rather than punishing. Checkpoints have been added, letting you jump right back into a boss fight after getting whupped, and while most of them have a few cheap tricks, Samus can turn the tables most of the time, though a few of them have moves that're very obtuse if you don't look up online strategy guides.
There are a few major design flaws. Power bombs show up too late to be good for much but treasure hunting (improbably, often for more power bombs), and I literally never ran out of missiles once in the whole game. And let there be no bones about it, I was extremely profligate with them once I noticed I never ran out. The E.M.M.I. chase sequences, while often tense, can become irritating, especially when luck is involved, and the clunky controls on the "Omega Cannon" used to destroy them makes actually killing them more frustrating than fun. In general, the free-aiming makes aiming and dodging mutually exclusive before you get the Storm Missiles, which then break the game in half and become the best method of beating almost everything immune to the Screw Attack.
But don't let any of that scare you off! As the first brand new Metroid title in a long time, it's amazing how good it is, and how little rust there seems to be on these gears. If you're even slightly curious, give it a try.
VideoGame Dreadful.
This has been a hard one to tackle, but interesting nonetheless. I can say for sure that Dread is the other side of Other M's coin, because while the latter had the worst characterization of Samus in all of her games, but an interesting attempt at a new gameplay style, Dread has THE best characterization of Samus I've seen so far... and an awful gameplay that messes up all aspects of what makes a Metroidvania, especially a Metroid game, good.
Which ends in the surprising conclusion that while I loathed Other M's plot, I at least had fun with it (even though there were those awful Pixel Hunt sections), and the same couldn't be said about Dread.
Does it make Dread the worse game? I don't know, depends what your priorities are.
Mine were gameplay over Characterization. I can say for sure that Dread wasn't lackluster in the visual department with nifty armor designs and lots of smaller details, like critters running in the background or Samus moving her Arm Cannon depending if she is running, walking or leaning on a wall.
The plot is one of those where the more I think of it, more nonsensical and full of holes it gets. It would have been better just to focus on The Chozo instead of shoving the Parasite X and a whole abandoned science station. Killing off Ravenbeak also was a bad move, he'd be a superb antagonist for a longer run.
The gameplay, the dread, is where everything falls apart. To me the quintessential element of a Metroidvania is the exploration, and here there is barely none to be found. Deviate literally a single room from the intended path and you'll be blocked, and the vast majority of power ups are hidden beneath blocks breakable by powers you won't have till far late in the game. Where other Metroids allowed wiggle room to explore at your own pace, Dread feels completely linear on-rails. No 'extra rooms', no rooms without enemies, Samus is always rushing, which links to the next bit.
Everything feels made solely for speedrunners, because unless you already know the game up and down, you won't be able to find a breach in the sequence (For example, I broke Super Metroid's sequence by accident, merely by exploring) and everything is meant to punish casual play and reward speedy perfect gaming. Recharge stations take a long unskippable animation, doors are slow to open, while you can recharge nearly everything with just one or two successful counters, and bosses aren't really hard, just really, really annoying due to their 'get their pattern completely right' mechanics. With each hit taking one or two whole tanks, its a surefire way for some cheap deaths till you memorize their patterns, to which they will get to the next phase and change them altogether. Did I mention that you have Press X to Not Die in boss battles? Remember when QT Es were fun? Neither do I. Weapons feel lackluster and getting upgrades aren't rewarding either.
And I'm not even mentioning the awful slow and repetitive E.M.M.I segments. I still mention that horror is fragile, you need the right ambience and gameplay... and shoving you into a labyrinth (that rewards speedrunning by memorizing patterns) and an unkillable machine that will practically always kill you if they touch you (because the counter window is wonky and extremely fast)? I was bored off my gourd.
But the characterization is hands down one of the best I've seen in a Metroid game. Samus is a badass experienced bounty huntress that tackled what the worst the universe has to offer, and it shows by sheer body language and the direction of scenes. She is cautious, precise, pays attention, isn't invincible but is tenacious, and knows when her foe is beaten. Whenever her tactics or weaponry fail, she immediately shifts to something else and is a non-nonsense huntress: If it's time to finish, she won't toy with an opponent.
The same can be extended to Raven Beak, all his moves are filled with trembling rage and violence, he is as precise as Samus but far more brutal and damaging. While I loathe quick time events with a passion, I actually liked a lot the 'counter scene' that happened whenever he and Samus clash after a successful parry. And honestly, characterization through movement is really overlooked nowadays! Keeping her quiet for most of the game made the moment where she finally speaks a lot more impactful.
So if you're curious, I'd just watch the cutscenes or a gameplay through youtube.