1 00:00:00,680 --> 00:00:04,860 There’s something a bit strange about Metroid Dread. 2 00:00:04,860 --> 00:00:11,930 This is a full on Metroidvania. It takes place in a sprawling, interconnected, ant farm of 3 00:00:11,930 --> 00:00:18,110 a world. You’ll need to scour the map to find Samus’s various abilities - and then 4 00:00:18,110 --> 00:00:22,470 backtrack through the world to use those powers to unlock new areas. 5 00:00:22,470 --> 00:00:28,850 This is a game where you explore and navigate. And unlike some games in the franchise, there’s 6 00:00:28,850 --> 00:00:33,480 no one telling you where to go - you need to figure it out for yourself. 7 00:00:33,480 --> 00:00:39,460 And yet - I’m not sure I really figured out anything for myself. When I played Metroid 8 00:00:39,460 --> 00:00:44,300 Dread I seemed to just magically end up in the right place. And I don’t think I ever 9 00:00:44,300 --> 00:00:47,320 got lost for more than a few minutes. 10 00:00:47,320 --> 00:00:53,160 How on earth does that happen? How is this game both linear and non-linear… at the 11 00:00:53,160 --> 00:00:56,719 exact same time? Something fishy’s happening here. 12 00:00:56,719 --> 00:01:00,140 So I decided to play through the game again. 13 00:01:00,140 --> 00:01:05,780 This time, in true Boss Keys style, I did it with a pen and paper and an analytical 14 00:01:05,780 --> 00:01:08,770 eye. And what I realised was pretty interesting. 15 00:01:08,770 --> 00:01:15,250 You see, behind the scenes, developer Mercury Steam is using all sorts of clever tricks 16 00:01:15,250 --> 00:01:20,950 and techniques to - essentially - guide you through the game. To pull you through the 17 00:01:20,950 --> 00:01:25,229 world of planet ZDR, like you’re tied to an invisible rope. 18 00:01:25,229 --> 00:01:30,490 And so in this video, I want to show you these techniques - these tricks that make it easy 19 00:01:30,490 --> 00:01:37,970 to find the way forward, and hard to get lost. I’m Mark Brown, this is Boss Keys, and this 20 00:01:37,970 --> 00:01:42,619 is why you didn’t get lost in Metroid Dread. 21 00:01:42,619 --> 00:01:48,690 Check out this tiny bit of level design. Samus can squeeze through this gap by using her 22 00:01:48,690 --> 00:01:54,979 basic, built-in slide move. But at the other end, she pops out of a hole that’s slightly 23 00:01:54,979 --> 00:02:00,740 above the ground. That means she can’t slide back through - and whatever’s on the left 24 00:02:00,740 --> 00:02:08,009 side of this gap will be completely inaccessible until much later on, when she finds the morph ball. 25 00:02:08,009 --> 00:02:10,970 Until then, it’s a point of no return. 26 00:02:10,970 --> 00:02:17,829 Now, Metroid Dread is absolutely full of these. You’ll drop down into places where you can’t 27 00:02:17,829 --> 00:02:23,159 jump back up, slide down hills that are too steep to climb, plop into water that’s too 28 00:02:23,159 --> 00:02:28,319 deep to swim out of, step on giant fidget spinners that close off reverse access, walk 29 00:02:28,319 --> 00:02:33,060 through giant doors that lock tight behind you, and so on. And so on. 30 00:02:33,060 --> 00:02:37,640 So what’s the point? Well, I think it’s about combatting a Metroidvania problem that 31 00:02:37,640 --> 00:02:43,109 I call the “ever expanding explorable area”. And it’s basically this: at the start of 32 00:02:43,109 --> 00:02:48,481 a Metroid game, you are restricted, by your abilities, to a tiny part of the map. Which 33 00:02:48,481 --> 00:02:53,349 means it’s not too difficult to find the path forward. Like, after you get the missiles 34 00:02:53,349 --> 00:02:57,219 in Super Metroid - even if you can’t figure out where to go next, there’s literally 35 00:02:57,219 --> 00:02:59,680 only 13 rooms to check. 36 00:02:59,680 --> 00:03:05,099 But as the game goes on, and you uncover more and more of the map, the explorable space 37 00:03:05,099 --> 00:03:11,310 grows and grows. Once you find the power bomb in that game, there are well over 100 rooms 38 00:03:11,310 --> 00:03:16,350 accessible to you. Finding the path forward can be an overwhelming prospect. 39 00:03:16,350 --> 00:03:20,114 That's why it's called an EEEA. That's the sound you make when you 40 00:03:20,114 --> 00:03:23,741 realise the scale of the task ahead of you. EEEA!! 41 00:03:23,741 --> 00:03:29,400 But now look at Metroid Dread. We start the game in Artaria - and travel through a whole 42 00:03:29,400 --> 00:03:33,799 bunch of different areas - including a large, maze-like EMMI zone. And a semi-submerged 43 00:03:33,799 --> 00:03:39,089 cave system to the west. Then we get the Phantom Cloak. And if we’re not sure where to use 44 00:03:39,089 --> 00:03:42,680 it, do we need to check every single room in Artaria? 45 00:03:42,680 --> 00:03:48,269 No - because if you travel in the wrong direction, you’ll find that this whole section of the 46 00:03:48,269 --> 00:03:53,999 map is actually, completely inaccessible. Three passageways are too tight to squeeze 47 00:03:53,999 --> 00:03:59,760 through until you have the morph ball. And in one room - a fiery plant has inexplicably 48 00:03:59,760 --> 00:04:03,194 appeared, and it can’t be pruned without the ice missiles. 49 00:04:03,194 --> 00:04:06,973 So it means your explorable space is actually pretty small. 50 00:04:06,973 --> 00:04:11,650 And this is something that happens throughout the game - at many, many points throughout 51 00:04:11,650 --> 00:04:17,449 Metroid Dread, the designers temporarily lock you into a small segment of the world map. 52 00:04:17,449 --> 00:04:21,680 This makes it easier to find the way forward, because you only need to keep a small part 53 00:04:21,680 --> 00:04:27,349 of the map in mind at one time - your cognitive load is pretty small. But it also makes it 54 00:04:27,349 --> 00:04:32,919 very difficult to get lost because, when Metroid Dread wants to - it can physically stop you 55 00:04:32,919 --> 00:04:36,310 from going too far in the wrong direction. 56 00:04:36,310 --> 00:04:40,120 For the most part, though, you’ll never even know its happening as these points of 57 00:04:40,120 --> 00:04:44,370 no return seamlessly appear behind you. 58 00:04:44,370 --> 00:04:51,509 Okay, so Metroidvanias are about finding abilities - the game’s keys, so to speak. And then 59 00:04:51,509 --> 00:04:56,610 finding the place where those abilities are needed to make progress - as in, the locks. 60 00:04:56,610 --> 00:05:01,660 Now, most games in the genre sprinkle the locks and keys all over the map, forcing you 61 00:05:01,660 --> 00:05:06,669 to zig zag back and forth across the world. You might find the Boost Ball in Phendrana 62 00:05:06,669 --> 00:05:11,050 Drifts, but it’s used to unlock an area all the way back in Chozo Ruins. 63 00:05:11,050 --> 00:05:15,409 Now. Here’s the world map of Metroid Dread’s planet ZDR. 64 00:05:15,409 --> 00:05:21,569 I’m going to put the location of 13 of the game’s 22 abilities on the map. And now, 65 00:05:21,569 --> 00:05:26,870 I’m going to put the location of the rooms where those abilities are needed to make progress. 66 00:05:26,870 --> 00:05:31,620 And what you’ll see is that in all of these cases, the lock is just around the corner 67 00:05:31,620 --> 00:05:37,409 from the key. Literally, in the same biome. So, you get the bomb in this part of Dairon, 68 00:05:37,409 --> 00:05:42,650 and use it a few rooms over, also in Dairon. You get the ice missiles on the west side 69 00:05:42,650 --> 00:05:48,379 of Ghavoran, giving you access to a room on the east side of Ghavoran. Get the cross bombs, 70 00:05:48,379 --> 00:05:50,950 and they’re essentially needed next door. 71 00:05:50,950 --> 00:05:55,821 This is surely intended to help with memory. Because if the lock is somewhere you’ve 72 00:05:55,821 --> 00:06:00,610 visited very recently - it’s still in your working memory. Meanwhile, all those rooms 73 00:06:00,610 --> 00:06:05,229 you visited at the beginning of the game? They’re long forgotten. So, placing the 74 00:06:05,229 --> 00:06:10,460 locks close to the keys makes it much, much easier to make progress. 75 00:06:10,460 --> 00:06:15,460 But it goes a bit further than that. In most Metroidvanias, there are usually many locks 76 00:06:15,460 --> 00:06:19,610 for each key - you get the Desolate Dive in Hollow Knight, and now you can smash through 77 00:06:19,610 --> 00:06:23,840 a whole bunch of floors, all over the world. Typically, only one actually provides the 78 00:06:23,840 --> 00:06:28,210 way forward - while the rest will lead to optional pick-ups, secret bosses, or just 79 00:06:28,210 --> 00:06:31,060 another locked door that you can’t open yet. 80 00:06:31,060 --> 00:06:36,110 That’s not always the case in Metroid Dread, though. Like, once you get the Plasma Beam, 81 00:06:36,110 --> 00:06:41,009 it’s not like you can now open loads of locked doors all over ZDR. In fact, once you 82 00:06:41,009 --> 00:06:46,460 get back out of Elun, you can only reach one door in the entire world that’s locked behind 83 00:06:46,460 --> 00:06:49,919 a plasma shield. Which is, yes, the place you need to go next. 84 00:06:49,919 --> 00:06:54,029 By reducing the number of locks you need to remember, the game makes it easier to find 85 00:06:54,029 --> 00:06:55,229 the correct path. 86 00:06:55,229 --> 00:07:00,699 Now, I should state this is definitely not true for every power-up in the game. The grapple 87 00:07:00,699 --> 00:07:05,999 beam is a good counter example - the world is full of places to use it, and once you 88 00:07:05,999 --> 00:07:10,339 have the ability you can now find handy pick ups, collect stuff you can’t use right now 89 00:07:10,339 --> 00:07:15,349 - like this power bomb resource in Cataris, and even get very early access to the game’s 90 00:07:15,349 --> 00:07:17,560 optional power up, the pulse radar. 91 00:07:17,560 --> 00:07:23,110 So, that’s technique two - Metroid Dread makes it easier to find the correct path by 92 00:07:23,110 --> 00:07:28,139 reducing the number of locks for each key - and putting the most important lock, the 93 00:07:28,139 --> 00:07:31,889 one that will push you further along the critical path - close by. 94 00:07:31,889 --> 00:07:39,830 But, I did say that this is for 13 of the game’s 22 abilities - what about the other nine? 95 00:07:40,545 --> 00:07:46,870 So, you get the morph ball in Cataris. You need it to squeeze through here, back in Artaria 96 00:07:46,870 --> 00:07:52,479 - which lets you find the Varia suit. And then, the Varia suit is needed back in Cataris, 97 00:07:52,479 --> 00:07:54,949 to withstand this superheated room. 98 00:07:54,949 --> 00:07:59,780 That’s more like classic Metroid, right? Bouncing back and forth around the world. 99 00:07:59,780 --> 00:08:04,490 And it’s not the only time that happens. You get the space jump in the north of Ferenia, 100 00:08:04,490 --> 00:08:09,889 and need to use it in the depths of Burenia. You get the screw attack in Artaria, and need 101 00:08:09,889 --> 00:08:16,400 it to smash through blocks in Ghavoran. These locks and keys are spread out across the world, 102 00:08:16,400 --> 00:08:18,979 sending you zig-zagging across the planet. 103 00:08:18,979 --> 00:08:22,479 That is, if it wasn’t for the game’s fast travel system. 104 00:08:22,479 --> 00:08:27,479 So when you get the morph ball in Cataris, the most obvious place to use it is here - just 105 00:08:27,479 --> 00:08:29,759 around the corner, in the same biome. 106 00:08:29,759 --> 00:08:36,380 On the other side is a teleporter, which sends you to Artaria - right next to the Varia suit. 107 00:08:36,380 --> 00:08:42,649 You’re then led back to the same teleporter - which sends you back to Cataris. And - wouldn’t 108 00:08:42,649 --> 00:08:46,880 you know it, you’re just round the corner from the superheated room that requires the 109 00:08:46,880 --> 00:08:49,350 Varia suit. How fortuitous! 110 00:08:49,350 --> 00:08:55,370 So, sure - the morph ball and Varia suit may be miles apart from one another, but this 111 00:08:55,370 --> 00:08:59,670 teleporter essentially puts them right next door. And it’s the same for those other 112 00:08:59,670 --> 00:09:04,100 lock and key pair ups I mentioned: the space jump unlocks a teleporter to 113 00:09:04,100 --> 00:09:09,180 Burenia. And the screw attack gives you access to a nearby teleporter that will warp you 114 00:09:09,180 --> 00:09:10,540 to Ghavoran. 115 00:09:10,540 --> 00:09:15,630 So even if the lock is far away from the key, Metroid Dread still makes it easy to make 116 00:09:15,630 --> 00:09:20,170 progress by giving you a a teleporter that will zap you to the right spot. 117 00:09:20,170 --> 00:09:25,579 Plus this also has a nice, additional consequence - that makes it even harder to get lost. 118 00:09:25,579 --> 00:09:30,519 So as I said, after you get the morph ball you can go left and find a teleporter to the 119 00:09:30,519 --> 00:09:36,089 Varia suit area. But let’s say you go the other way. You go right. You travel, by foot, 120 00:09:36,089 --> 00:09:41,149 all the way through Cataris, take the elevator down, and travel all across Artaria. Eventually, 121 00:09:41,149 --> 00:09:46,250 you’ll end up in this room - which is the other end of the teleporter, and the location 122 00:09:46,250 --> 00:09:47,750 of the Varia suit. 123 00:09:47,750 --> 00:09:52,490 As I said in the Hollow Knight episode, having multiple routes to the next part of the critical 124 00:09:52,490 --> 00:09:57,730 path can be a really good idea - it makes it much easier to make progress because you’ve 125 00:09:57,730 --> 00:10:02,560 now doubled the chances of the player finding their way. And that’s what happens in Dread 126 00:10:02,560 --> 00:10:07,440 - if you go left after finding the morph ball, you’ll get to the Varia suit. If you go 127 00:10:07,440 --> 00:10:12,850 right, you’ll get to the Varia suit. Same either way. 128 00:10:12,850 --> 00:10:17,420 You know the bananas in the Donkey Kong games? Those tiny collectible items that you want 129 00:10:17,420 --> 00:10:21,870 to pick up. Well, the level designers know you want to pick them up, so they can use 130 00:10:21,870 --> 00:10:26,350 them in all sorts of ways - like showing you the right route to take, or teasing you to 131 00:10:26,350 --> 00:10:28,899 stumble into shortcuts and secrets. 132 00:10:28,899 --> 00:10:33,850 This is a technique I like to call “breadcrumbing” - as in, providing little treats that lead 133 00:10:33,850 --> 00:10:39,420 you wherever the designers want you to go. And Metroid Dread does this a lot. 134 00:10:39,420 --> 00:10:43,440 After you get the morph ball, you’ll be tempted to go through here, to get a missile 135 00:10:43,440 --> 00:10:48,829 upgrade. Then drawn up here, with another missile upgrade. And then up here, to get 136 00:10:48,829 --> 00:10:52,860 this energy tank - which leads up to the Varia suit room. 137 00:10:52,860 --> 00:10:56,720 Once you get the speed booster, you’ll want to smash through this wall, to get an energy 138 00:10:56,720 --> 00:11:01,130 tank part. And once you get the Flash Shift, you’ll want to come back to this room to 139 00:11:01,130 --> 00:11:07,639 get this Energy Tank - which happens to be right under the door to the next part of the game. 140 00:11:07,639 --> 00:11:11,380 After you get the screw attack, you may be tempted to head left to blast through these 141 00:11:11,380 --> 00:11:16,769 screw attack blocks and get a missile upgrade. Which guides you to the elevator back to Burenia. 142 00:11:16,769 --> 00:11:22,390 Here, you’re tempted to head left by more screw attack blocks and another treat. And 143 00:11:22,390 --> 00:11:27,700 then pulled upwards by more screw attack blocks and yet another treat. All of which leads 144 00:11:27,700 --> 00:11:31,519 you to a teleporter - and the place where you need to use the screw attack to progress 145 00:11:31,519 --> 00:11:32,519 the game. 146 00:11:32,519 --> 00:11:37,799 So even though the screw attack is found in Artaria and is needed all the way up in Ghavoran 147 00:11:37,799 --> 00:11:41,670 - you are led there by a bunch of breadcrumbs. 148 00:11:41,670 --> 00:11:46,010 Breadcrumbs don’t have to be upgrades, mind you. Enemies on the other side of a wall can 149 00:11:46,010 --> 00:11:50,899 encourage you to blast through hidden blocks. And these small fireflies are just a visual 150 00:11:50,899 --> 00:11:55,980 effect, but happen to hang around the doors you need to enter to make forward progress. 151 00:11:55,980 --> 00:12:00,079 Anything the game can do to grab your attention and pull you in the direction of the critical 152 00:12:00,079 --> 00:12:03,069 path - it will do it. 153 00:12:03,069 --> 00:12:09,139 So I think those are the four main techniques that Metroid Dread uses to make it easy to 154 00:12:09,139 --> 00:12:12,880 find the path forward, and hard to get lost. 155 00:12:12,880 --> 00:12:17,899 Points of no return trap you in small sections of the map, to reduce your cognitive load 156 00:12:17,899 --> 00:12:20,770 and stop you going in the wrong direction. 157 00:12:20,770 --> 00:12:25,579 Putting the locks near the keys means the way forward should always be in your working 158 00:12:25,579 --> 00:12:31,650 memory. And if the lock isn’t nearby, there’s probably a fast travel teleporter to get there. 159 00:12:31,650 --> 00:12:36,290 And tempting breadcrumbs are used to guide you through the world, from one ability to 160 00:12:36,290 --> 00:12:37,290 another. 161 00:12:37,290 --> 00:12:42,300 There are some other techniques too, of course. Like, how these lights form a design language 162 00:12:42,300 --> 00:12:47,250 to suggest where you should use the spin boost and space jump. Or how memorable landmarks 163 00:12:47,250 --> 00:12:52,750 lodge in your brain and tempt you to return later. But those are the big ones. 164 00:12:52,750 --> 00:12:57,839 And, for the most part, these techniques are very effective at guiding you through the 165 00:12:57,839 --> 00:13:02,389 game. I can watch back the footage of me playing through Dread for the first time, and see 166 00:13:02,389 --> 00:13:09,410 me falling into every trick and trap that’s been engineered by the designers. It’s hilarious. 167 00:13:09,410 --> 00:13:15,120 Of course, it’s not going to work 100% of the time. You can still get turned around. 168 00:13:15,120 --> 00:13:20,940 Not know where to go. Get stuck in a room and proclaim it a crime against game design. 169 00:13:20,940 --> 00:13:24,720 And, contrary to the clickbait title, yes - you can get lost. 170 00:13:24,720 --> 00:13:28,420 While the points of no return often lock you into small areas, there are other parts of 171 00:13:28,420 --> 00:13:33,509 the game where the world is much more open. And tricks like breadcrumbs may not work on 172 00:13:33,509 --> 00:13:35,649 every single player, every single time. 173 00:13:35,649 --> 00:13:41,829 But, by and large, these techniques do work to help you stay on track. The question, then, 174 00:13:41,829 --> 00:13:46,770 is - are they a force for good? Do they make the experience of playing Metroid Dread better 175 00:13:46,770 --> 00:13:48,060 or worse? 176 00:13:48,060 --> 00:13:54,460 Now, first, I should state that all Metroidvanias use techniques like these to help you find 177 00:13:54,460 --> 00:13:59,550 your way. Even Dread’s perhaps naughtiest trick - the point of no return - can be found 178 00:13:59,550 --> 00:14:04,459 in multiple places in Super Metroid - such as this one-way door in Brinstar, and this 179 00:14:04,459 --> 00:14:06,879 massive drop down into Norfair. 180 00:14:06,879 --> 00:14:12,649 Subtle clues and directions stop Metroidvania games from being tedious and annoying. So, 181 00:14:12,649 --> 00:14:19,079 ultimately, it’s more down to their frequency and intensity. And yes, Dread uses them often, 182 00:14:19,079 --> 00:14:20,420 and quite aggressively. 183 00:14:20,420 --> 00:14:27,009 But, ultimately, what you think of these techniques will come to how - and why - you play Metroid 184 00:14:27,009 --> 00:14:28,319 games. 185 00:14:28,319 --> 00:14:33,730 There are those who play Metroid games primarily for the action and atmosphere - and are less 186 00:14:33,730 --> 00:14:36,040 interested in the exploration aspect. 187 00:14:36,040 --> 00:14:41,850 If that’s the case, then Metroid Dread gives you the feeling of exploring a large, interconnected 188 00:14:41,850 --> 00:14:46,440 world - but with less risk of getting lost, and without the need to get bogged down in 189 00:14:46,440 --> 00:14:48,449 tedious backtracking and map-reading. 190 00:14:48,449 --> 00:14:54,810 And, on top of that, you’ll find a game that is alarmingly well paced - a whirlwind 191 00:14:54,810 --> 00:15:00,160 tour of different abilities, biomes, and bitchin’ boss fights, where you’re always making 192 00:15:00,160 --> 00:15:01,529 forward progress. 193 00:15:01,529 --> 00:15:06,889 Then, there are those who play Metroid games primarily for the joy of exploring and navigating 194 00:15:06,889 --> 00:15:09,600 a complex spaghetti mess of a world. 195 00:15:09,600 --> 00:15:14,620 If that’s the case, then Metroid Dread can feel rather patronising. 196 00:15:14,620 --> 00:15:18,810 At some point you’ll realise that you don’t need to think too hard about navigation, because 197 00:15:18,810 --> 00:15:22,889 the way forward is always pretty obvious. So you can stop thinking so hard about this 198 00:15:22,889 --> 00:15:27,600 stuff and just let the game whisk you off to the next stop on its guided tour. And if 199 00:15:27,600 --> 00:15:30,820 you care about navigation, that’s not much fun. 200 00:15:30,820 --> 00:15:35,779 Plus, when it comes to exploration, you may find yourself attempting to break out from 201 00:15:35,779 --> 00:15:40,170 the critical path to find items - only to be rebuffed by points of no return. So you 202 00:15:40,170 --> 00:15:45,000 may not bother to hunt down optional goodies and secrets, even when the game does open 203 00:15:45,000 --> 00:15:48,839 back up. You’ll just stick to the critical path. 204 00:15:48,839 --> 00:15:52,260 And then, there are those who play Metroid games multiple times. 205 00:15:52,260 --> 00:15:57,029 If that’s the case, then - sure, your first go at Dread may be guided by an invisible 206 00:15:57,029 --> 00:16:02,889 hand - but subsequent adventures are about deliberately fighting against that hand. Using 207 00:16:02,889 --> 00:16:07,439 the movement tech and bugs to break out of the game’s sequence, and do things in a 208 00:16:07,439 --> 00:16:09,269 better, faster way. 209 00:16:09,269 --> 00:16:13,480 And its not like the developers are unaware - if you manage to get the bombs before you’re 210 00:16:13,480 --> 00:16:18,130 supposed to, you can insta-kill Kraid in a special, secret cutscene. 211 00:16:18,130 --> 00:16:23,430 For me, personally, I’m not really into sequence breaking or speed-running. And while 212 00:16:23,430 --> 00:16:28,370 I really dig the action and atmosphere of Metroid games, my favourite bit has always 213 00:16:28,370 --> 00:16:34,220 been navigation and exploration. So, as much as I loved Dread’s combat and controls, 214 00:16:34,220 --> 00:16:37,680 I did feel a bit let down by the game’s world design. 215 00:16:37,680 --> 00:16:42,529 I wanted to figure things out for myself - but just stopped trying and let myself be guided 216 00:16:42,529 --> 00:16:47,850 to the end. I wanted to explore - but, felt trapped by points of no return, so ended up 217 00:16:47,850 --> 00:16:53,990 with a paltry 39% completion rate. And I wanted to feel deeply connected with this world - the 218 00:16:53,990 --> 00:16:59,220 same way I feel about Hallownest, Zebes, and Lordran - but that didn’t really happen. 219 00:16:59,220 --> 00:17:05,370 So that’s me. What about you? What was your experience on planet ZDR? And what sort of 220 00:17:05,370 --> 00:17:11,299 Metroid player are you? Let me know, in the comments down below. Thanks for watching.