Postby Voor » October 26th, 2023, 7:29 am
Waited to post my first impressions until after the first boss:
—love it, it’s great!
—control is amazing, maybe the best I’ve ever played. SUPER responsive, reminds me of mega man 2 on NES, with the degree of responsiveness. I was worried it would be too many buttons for me, but so far that hasn’t been a problem.
—Metroid I’d all about atmosphere, and I think Dread does a great job of it, exploring the world while feeling isolated is a blast.
—but…..I would say the EMMI areas are the least fun part by far. While it’s incredibly effective at raising the tension, it’s very difficult (for me) to figure out where to go and what to do while constantly being on the lookout for them. I almost feel like they’re too aggressive and smart for this.
—the whole mechanic of killing them while in 3D mode is interesting for sure, but an awkward shift.
—speaking of awkward, the QTE with the first boss really threw me off….makes me worried that I’m going to miss cues that trigger them, since prior to that, it’s just a traditional boss fight. Another thing you have to unexpectedly be looking for.
—map system is really good. I’m checking it almost every 30-60 seconds. I like that it’s very snappy to go back and forth. Very minor detail, but those things matter. The game does a lot of “you can’t go through this door until you get X”, and the map is good at showing you those doors.
—while the music doesn’t have super strong themes, I really like it. Kind of brooding with a sense of urgency at the same time.
—thank goodness there’s a rookie mode.
—i imagine that it’s a game I’ll end up speedrunning, but possibly exclusively in rookie mode. The control is soooo satisfying, I can see myself replaying it and enjoying learning the route by memory.