Thursday's Direct has delivered a variety of exciting announcements for the Switch from many of Nintendo's biggest franchises. That includes Metroid, with the franchise's newest 2D game release Metroid Dread. For the first time, Nintendo offered up a trailer for Metroid Dread that delved into one of the largest criticism of the game so far, that being Metroid Dread's world not feeling very large. The new trailer explores more of the areas players will explore in Metroid Dread.
It seems that up until now, as predicted, Nintendo has shared just a glimpse at the world players will be exploring in Metroid Dread. In fact, players may have only been seeing a single area from the 2D action-platformer, of which there are many. Needless to say, the new trailer opens that world up for the first time, confirming that there's a much more diverse setting than may have been apparent at first glance. This is a Metroid game, after all. Perhaps Nintendo was hoping to let players surprise themselves.
The new trailer reconfirms the setting of Metroid Dread will be the uncharted Planet ZDR. This world is split into multiple areas, perhaps implying that Metroid Dread isn't based on a single open-world but instead multiple separate areas. Three of these areas were named in the trailer. Ghavoran looks overrun by nature, Burenia looks to take place in heavily mechanized buildings with a smoggy exterior, and Ferenia looks like it could be home to the ancient Chozo race.
The brief glimpses of gameplay shown from each of these settings reveal a wildly diverse set of biomes for Samus to explore in Metroid Dread. Examples shown include an underwater area, an area set in lava-filled caverns, another with huge vines and man-eating plants, all of which are seemingly found underneath the surface of Planet ZDR.
Samus Aran's goals on this planet are also described in the new trailer. She is tasked to learn if the X Parasite still exists and what's happened to the robots sent to search for the X Parasite. The X Parasites first being seen chronologically in Metroid: Samus Returns and then killed in Metroid Fusion. The robots have been seen in prior Metroid Dread trailers.
There's plenty else to see in the new Metroid Dread trailer, too. A longer look at Kraid, chained but still vicious, is shown after his previous reveal in an earlier trailer. And a variety of other enemies are shown, too. There are also several of Samus' power-ups and weapon abilities shown, showing that there's as much or more depth in Metroid Dread as prior games. It's exciting to consider what has yet to be shown and waits to be discovered when Switch players get to explore Metroid Dread themselves.
Metroid Dread releases October 8 on Nintendo Switch.
