5/5 ★ – bolmoe's review of Metroid Dread.

Played on Hard mode as this was my second time through the game after taking a few years to forget my experience a bit. This has got to be one of the funniest experiences I've had with a game in a little while (probably since playing Animal Well last year). The flow state you enter here is so much more pronounced and the added difficulty of hard mode suits the overall experience and reminds you that Samus is not the same tank she used to be in Super. That being said, one of my biggest gripes with the experience is the emphasis on the fast paced boss fights which only feels as difficult as they do due to the inflated damage they all seem to give towards the latter half of the game. One of the rewards to a Metroid game should be that despite bosses being quite punishing, if you've taken the time to find upgrades, you shouldn't be dead in 7 hits when you have 10 Energy tanks. But still, I do enjoy all the fights, I would just prefer to have some leg room for error as I don't play Metroid to be sat on the edge of my seat in split second reaction boss fights, I play to explore Regardless, Samus has never felt smoother to control either and so getting around and fighting never feel like something you don't have complete control over, especially in that latter half of the game. I never once felt a loss was anything but my own fault and that's a credit to the designers for crafting such a light yet weighted Samus. The QOL improvements also make the back tracking much less tedious than any other Metroid game with a victory lap, I had collected the fair majority of items on my first go around and taken risks where I shouldn't need to go, many thanks to the versatile tool kit you get here. But, when I did go through the areas again, the map tracks exactly where everything you've spotted was and so it only took about an hour to comb all the places I wasn't able to reach, not to mention the pulse radar also being very useful here too. LOVE the speed booster puzzles, except for THAT one in Dairon, youll know what I mean if you've ever 100%ed the game before.