WEBVTT 00:00:00.680 --> 00:00:04.860 There’s something a bit strange about Metroid Dread. 00:00:04.860 --> 00:00:11.930 This is a full on Metroidvania. It takes place in a sprawling, interconnected, ant farm of 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 00:00:18.110 --> 00:00:22.470 backtrack through the world to use those powers to unlock new areas. 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 00:00:28.850 --> 00:00:33.480 no one telling you where to go - you need to figure it out for yourself. 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 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 00:00:44.300 --> 00:00:47.320 got lost for more than a few minutes. 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 00:00:53.160 --> 00:00:56.719 exact same time? Something fishy’s happening here. 00:00:56.719 --> 00:01:00.140 So I decided to play through the game again. 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 00:01:05.780 --> 00:01:08.770 eye. And what I realised was pretty interesting. 00:01:08.770 --> 00:01:15.250 You see, behind the scenes, developer Mercury Steam is using all sorts of clever tricks 00:01:15.250 --> 00:01:20.950 and techniques to - essentially - guide you through the game. To pull you through the 00:01:20.950 --> 00:01:25.229 world of planet ZDR, like you’re tied to an invisible rope. 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 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 00:01:37.970 --> 00:01:42.619 is why you didn’t get lost in Metroid Dread. 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 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 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 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. 00:02:08.009 --> 00:02:10.970 Until then, it’s a point of no return. 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 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 00:02:23.159 --> 00:02:28.319 deep to swim out of, step on giant fidget spinners that close off reverse access, walk 00:02:28.319 --> 00:02:33.060 through giant doors that lock tight behind you, and so on. And so on. 00:02:33.060 --> 00:02:37.640 So what’s the point? Well, I think it’s about combatting a Metroidvania problem that 00:02:37.640 --> 00:02:43.109 I call the “ever expanding explorable area”. And it’s basically this: at the start of 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 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 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 00:02:57.219 --> 00:02:59.680 only 13 rooms to check. 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 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 00:03:11.310 --> 00:03:16.350 accessible to you. Finding the path forward can be an overwhelming prospect. 00:03:16.350 --> 00:03:20.114 That's why it's called an EEEA. That's the sound you make when you 00:03:20.114 --> 00:03:23.741 realise the scale of the task ahead of you. EEEA!! 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 00:03:29.400 --> 00:03:33.799 bunch of different areas - including a large, maze-like EMMI zone. And a semi-submerged 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 00:03:39.089 --> 00:03:42.680 it, do we need to check every single room in Artaria? 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 00:03:48.269 --> 00:03:53.999 map is actually, completely inaccessible. Three passageways are too tight to squeeze 00:03:53.999 --> 00:03:59.760 through until you have the morph ball. And in one room - a fiery plant has inexplicably 00:03:59.760 --> 00:04:03.194 appeared, and it can’t be pruned without the ice missiles. 00:04:03.194 --> 00:04:06.973 So it means your explorable space is actually pretty small. 00:04:06.973 --> 00:04:11.650 And this is something that happens throughout the game - at many, many points throughout 00:04:11.650 --> 00:04:17.449 Metroid Dread, the designers temporarily lock you into a small segment of the world map. 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 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 00:04:27.349 --> 00:04:32.919 very difficult to get lost because, when Metroid Dread wants to - it can physically stop you 00:04:32.919 --> 00:04:36.310 from going too far in the wrong direction. 00:04:36.310 --> 00:04:40.120 For the most part, though, you’ll never even know its happening as these points of 00:04:40.120 --> 00:04:44.370 no return seamlessly appear behind you. 00:04:44.370 --> 00:04:51.509 Okay, so Metroidvanias are about finding abilities - the game’s keys, so to speak. And then 00:04:51.509 --> 00:04:56.610 finding the place where those abilities are needed to make progress - as in, the locks. 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 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 00:05:06.669 --> 00:05:11.050 Drifts, but it’s used to unlock an area all the way back in Chozo Ruins. 00:05:11.050 --> 00:05:15.409 Now. Here’s the world map of Metroid Dread’s planet ZDR. 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, 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. 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 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, 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 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, 00:05:48.379 --> 00:05:50.950 and they’re essentially needed next door. 00:05:50.950 --> 00:05:55.821 This is surely intended to help with memory. Because if the lock is somewhere you’ve 00:05:55.821 --> 00:06:00.610 visited very recently - it’s still in your working memory. Meanwhile, all those rooms 00:06:00.610 --> 00:06:05.229 you visited at the beginning of the game? They’re long forgotten. So, placing the 00:06:05.229 --> 00:06:10.460 locks close to the keys makes it much, much easier to make progress. 00:06:10.460 --> 00:06:15.460 But it goes a bit further than that. In most Metroidvanias, there are usually many locks 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 00:06:19.610 --> 00:06:23.840 a whole bunch of floors, all over the world. Typically, only one actually provides the 00:06:23.840 --> 00:06:28.210 way forward - while the rest will lead to optional pick-ups, secret bosses, or just 00:06:28.210 --> 00:06:31.060 another locked door that you can’t open yet. 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, 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 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 00:06:46.460 --> 00:06:49.919 a plasma shield. Which is, yes, the place you need to go next. 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 00:06:54.029 --> 00:06:55.229 the correct path. 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 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 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 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 00:07:15.349 --> 00:07:17.560 optional power up, the pulse radar. 00:07:17.560 --> 00:07:23.110 So, that’s technique two - Metroid Dread makes it easier to find the correct path by 00:07:23.110 --> 00:07:28.139 reducing the number of locks for each key - and putting the most important lock, the 00:07:28.139 --> 00:07:31.889 one that will push you further along the critical path - close by. 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? 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 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, 00:07:52.479 --> 00:07:54.949 to withstand this superheated room. 00:07:54.949 --> 00:07:59.780 That’s more like classic Metroid, right? Bouncing back and forth around the world. 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, 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 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, 00:08:16.400 --> 00:08:18.979 sending you zig-zagging across the planet. 00:08:18.979 --> 00:08:22.479 That is, if it wasn’t for the game’s fast travel system. 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 00:08:27.479 --> 00:08:29.759 around the corner, in the same biome. 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. 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 00:08:42.649 --> 00:08:46.880 you know it, you’re just round the corner from the superheated room that requires the 00:08:46.880 --> 00:08:49.350 Varia suit. How fortuitous! 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 00:08:55.370 --> 00:08:59.670 teleporter essentially puts them right next door. And it’s the same for those other 00:08:59.670 --> 00:09:04.100 lock and key pair ups I mentioned: the space jump unlocks a teleporter to 00:09:04.100 --> 00:09:09.180 Burenia. And the screw attack gives you access to a nearby teleporter that will warp you 00:09:09.180 --> 00:09:10.540 to Ghavoran. 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 00:09:15.630 --> 00:09:20.170 progress by giving you a a teleporter that will zap you to the right spot. 00:09:20.170 --> 00:09:25.579 Plus this also has a nice, additional consequence - that makes it even harder to get lost. 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 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, 00:09:36.089 --> 00:09:41.149 all the way through Cataris, take the elevator down, and travel all across Artaria. Eventually, 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 00:09:46.250 --> 00:09:47.750 of the Varia suit. 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 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 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 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 00:10:07.440 --> 00:10:12.850 right, you’ll get to the Varia suit. Same either way. 00:10:12.850 --> 00:10:17.420 You know the bananas in the Donkey Kong games? Those tiny collectible items that you want 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 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 00:10:26.350 --> 00:10:28.899 stumble into shortcuts and secrets. 00:10:28.899 --> 00:10:33.850 This is a technique I like to call “breadcrumbing” - as in, providing little treats that lead 00:10:33.850 --> 00:10:39.420 you wherever the designers want you to go. And Metroid Dread does this a lot. 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 00:10:43.440 --> 00:10:48.829 upgrade. Then drawn up here, with another missile upgrade. And then up here, to get 00:10:48.829 --> 00:10:52.860 this energy tank - which leads up to the Varia suit room. 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 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 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. 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 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. 00:11:16.769 --> 00:11:22.390 Here, you’re tempted to head left by more screw attack blocks and another treat. And 00:11:22.390 --> 00:11:27.700 then pulled upwards by more screw attack blocks and yet another treat. All of which leads 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 00:11:31.519 --> 00:11:32.519 the game. 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 00:11:37.799 --> 00:11:41.670 - you are led there by a bunch of breadcrumbs. 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 00:11:46.010 --> 00:11:50.899 encourage you to blast through hidden blocks. And these small fireflies are just a visual 00:11:50.899 --> 00:11:55.980 effect, but happen to hang around the doors you need to enter to make forward progress. 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 00:12:00.079 --> 00:12:03.069 path - it will do it. 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 00:12:09.139 --> 00:12:12.880 find the path forward, and hard to get lost. 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 00:12:17.899 --> 00:12:20.770 and stop you going in the wrong direction. 00:12:20.770 --> 00:12:25.579 Putting the locks near the keys means the way forward should always be in your working 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. 00:12:31.650 --> 00:12:36.290 And tempting breadcrumbs are used to guide you through the world, from one ability to 00:12:36.290 --> 00:12:37.290 another. 00:12:37.290 --> 00:12:42.300 There are some other techniques too, of course. Like, how these lights form a design language 00:12:42.300 --> 00:12:47.250 to suggest where you should use the spin boost and space jump. Or how memorable landmarks 00:12:47.250 --> 00:12:52.750 lodge in your brain and tempt you to return later. But those are the big ones. 00:12:52.750 --> 00:12:57.839 And, for the most part, these techniques are very effective at guiding you through the 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 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. 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. 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. 00:13:20.940 --> 00:13:24.720 And, contrary to the clickbait title, yes - you can get lost. 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 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 00:13:33.509 --> 00:13:35.649 every single player, every single time. 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, 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 00:13:46.770 --> 00:13:48.060 or worse? 00:13:48.060 --> 00:13:54.460 Now, first, I should state that all Metroidvanias use techniques like these to help you find 00:13:54.460 --> 00:13:59.550 your way. Even Dread’s perhaps naughtiest trick - the point of no return - can be found 00:13:59.550 --> 00:14:04.459 in multiple places in Super Metroid - such as this one-way door in Brinstar, and this 00:14:04.459 --> 00:14:06.879 massive drop down into Norfair. 00:14:06.879 --> 00:14:12.649 Subtle clues and directions stop Metroidvania games from being tedious and annoying. So, 00:14:12.649 --> 00:14:19.079 ultimately, it’s more down to their frequency and intensity. And yes, Dread uses them often, 00:14:19.079 --> 00:14:20.420 and quite aggressively. 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 00:14:27.009 --> 00:14:28.319 games. 00:14:28.319 --> 00:14:33.730 There are those who play Metroid games primarily for the action and atmosphere - and are less 00:14:33.730 --> 00:14:36.040 interested in the exploration aspect. 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 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 00:14:46.440 --> 00:14:48.449 tedious backtracking and map-reading. 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 00:14:54.810 --> 00:15:00.160 tour of different abilities, biomes, and bitchin’ boss fights, where you’re always making 00:15:00.160 --> 00:15:01.529 forward progress. 00:15:01.529 --> 00:15:06.889 Then, there are those who play Metroid games primarily for the joy of exploring and navigating 00:15:06.889 --> 00:15:09.600 a complex spaghetti mess of a world. 00:15:09.600 --> 00:15:14.620 If that’s the case, then Metroid Dread can feel rather patronising. 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 00:15:18.810 --> 00:15:22.889 the way forward is always pretty obvious. So you can stop thinking so hard about this 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 00:15:27.600 --> 00:15:30.820 you care about navigation, that’s not much fun. 00:15:30.820 --> 00:15:35.779 Plus, when it comes to exploration, you may find yourself attempting to break out from 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 00:15:40.170 --> 00:15:45.000 may not bother to hunt down optional goodies and secrets, even when the game does open 00:15:45.000 --> 00:15:48.839 back up. You’ll just stick to the critical path. 00:15:48.839 --> 00:15:52.260 And then, there are those who play Metroid games multiple times. 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 00:15:57.029 --> 00:16:02.889 hand - but subsequent adventures are about deliberately fighting against that hand. Using 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 00:16:07.439 --> 00:16:09.269 better, faster way. 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 00:16:13.480 --> 00:16:18.130 supposed to, you can insta-kill Kraid in a special, secret cutscene. 00:16:18.130 --> 00:16:23.430 For me, personally, I’m not really into sequence breaking or speed-running. And while 00:16:23.430 --> 00:16:28.370 I really dig the action and atmosphere of Metroid games, my favourite bit has always 00:16:28.370 --> 00:16:34.220 been navigation and exploration. So, as much as I loved Dread’s combat and controls, 00:16:34.220 --> 00:16:37.680 I did feel a bit let down by the game’s world design. 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 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 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 00:16:53.990 --> 00:16:59.220 same way I feel about Hallownest, Zebes, and Lordran - but that didn’t really happen. 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 00:17:05.370 --> 00:17:11.299 Metroid player are you? Let me know, in the comments down below. Thanks for watching.