Metroid Dread

Metroid Dread is a superlative return to one of the medium's stalwart franchises, and an incredible triumph of design.

MercurySteam has created a brand new Metroid game that successfully lives up to high expectations by combining tradition with innovation. The game is well-designed all around, captivating from start to end, and challenging without being unfair. For this reason, Metroid Dread is a must-play for a wide audience of Switch owners.

While linear in spots and lacking accessibility options, Metroid Dread manages to excel with responsive controls, thrilling action, and a fitting conclusion to this part of Samus Aran's story.

Metroid finally returns with a new sequel, and it’s exactly what we expect from the series. It’s a fine return to form for Samus with a huge world to explore but definitely doesn’t reinvent the wheel.

“Metroid Dread sharpens everything that makes Metroid enjoyable, while more fully realizing its horror ambitions.”

Metroid Dread meets — and arguably surpasses — its lofty expectations, with demanding gameplay, clever level design and an ambitious story.

One of the best Metroid games ever made and a thrilling restatement of everything that makes the series, and the genre it inspired, great.

Metroid games have always had a thin, tenuous connection to sci-fi horror. H.R. Geiger’s aesthetic has a ghostly presence throughout the older games, and those tiny threads of horror have persisted ever since. Metroid Dread looks to revitalize that connection, at least from a mechanical perspective. Rather than a traditional horror game, Dread uses environmental and mechanical elements to keep the player tense and terrified. For the most part, the game succeeds at this. You’re always outmatched, outgunned, and on the run. If you find moments of peace, they’re all too brief.

Metroid Dread doesn’t take a lot of big swings, but it rarely bats a foul ball. You can tell this was carefully crafted with existing fans in mind, but it’s not so heady that newcomers wouldn’t be able to pick it up. While we wait for proof of life from Metroid Prime 4, you can journey with Samus in another reliable adventure right now.

Metroid Dread is a stellar adventure that sticks to its roots and is better off because of it.

Where the studio succeeds—and where Metroid Dread elevates from noble and flawed effort to inspired riff—is in its embrace of the unreachable.

Metroid Dread was a game 15 years in the making, and it was well worth that wait. Full of great visuals, fun enemies, new powers, and a true sense of fear via the E.M.M.I. robots, you’re going to want to try this title for yourself, and then recommend it to others.