Why You (Probably) Didn't Get Lost in Metroid Dread

There’s something a bit strange about Metroid Dread. This is a full on Metroidvania. It takes place in a sprawling, interconnected, ant farm of a world. You’ll need to scour the map to find Samus’s various abilities - and then backtrack through the world to use those powers to unlock new areas. This is a game where you explore and navigate. And unlike some games in the franchise, there’s no one telling you where to go - you need to figure it out for yourself.

And yet - I’m not sure I really figured out anything for myself. When I played Metroid Dread I seemed to just magically end up in the right place. And I don’t think I ever got lost for more than a few minutes. How on earth does that happen? How is this game both linear and non-linear… at the exact same time? Something fishy’s happening here. So I decided to play through the game again. This time, in true Boss Keys style, I did it with a pen and paper and an analytical eye. And what I realised was pretty interesting.

You see, behind the scenes, developer Mercury Steam is using all sorts of clever tricks and techniques to - essentially - guide you through the game. To pull you through the world of planet ZDR, like you’re tied to an invisible rope. And so in this video, I want to show you these techniques - these tricks that make it easy to find the way forward, and hard to get lost. I’m Mark Brown, this is Boss Keys, and this is why you didn’t get lost in Metroid Dread.

Check out this tiny bit of level design. Samus can squeeze through this gap by using her basic, built-in slide move. But at the other end, she pops out of a hole that’s slightly above the ground. That means she can’t slide back through - and whatever’s on the left side of this gap will be completely inaccessible until much later on, when she finds the morph ball. Until then, it’s a point of no return. Now, Metroid Dread is absolutely full of these. You’ll drop down into places where you can’t jump back up, slide down hills that are too steep to climb, plop into water that’s too deep to swim out of, step on giant fidget spinners that close off reverse access, walk through giant doors that lock tight behind you, and so on. And so on.

So what’s the point? Well, I think it’s about combatting a Metroidvania problem that I call the “ever expanding explorable area”. And it’s basically this: at the start of a Metroid game, you are restricted, by your abilities, to a tiny part of the map. Which means it’s not too difficult to find the path forward. Like, after you get the missiles in Super Metroid - even if you can’t figure out where to go next, there’s literally only 13 rooms to check.

But as the game goes on, and you uncover more and more of the map, the explorable space grows and grows. Once you find the power bomb in that game, there are well over 100 rooms accessible to you. Finding the path forward can be an overwhelming prospect. That's why it's called an EEEA. That's the sound you make when you realise the scale of the task ahead of you. EEEA!! But now look at Metroid Dread. We start the game in Artaria - and travel through a whole bunch of different areas - including a large, maze-like EMMI zone. And a semi-submerged cave system to the west. Then we get the Phantom Cloak. And if we’re not sure where to use it, do we need to check every single room in Artaria?

No - because if you travel in the wrong direction, you’ll find that this whole section of the map is actually, completely inaccessible. Three passageways are too tight to squeeze through until you have the morph ball. And in one room - a fiery plant has inexplicably appeared, and it can’t be pruned without the ice missiles. So it means your explorable space is actually pretty small. And this is something that happens throughout the game - at many, many points throughout Metroid Dread, the designers temporarily lock you into a small segment of the world map.

This makes it easier to find the way forward, because you only need to keep a small part of the map in mind at one time - your cognitive load is pretty small. But it also makes it very difficult to get lost because, when Metroid Dread wants to - it can physically stop you from going too far in the wrong direction. For the most part, though, you’ll never even know its happening as these points of no return seamlessly appear behind you.

Okay, so Metroidvanias are about finding abilities - the game’s keys, so to speak. And then finding the place where those abilities are needed to make progress - as in, the locks. Now, most games in the genre sprinkle the locks and keys all over the map, forcing you to zig zag back and forth across the world. You might find the Boost Ball in Phendrana Drifts, but it’s used to unlock an area all the way back in Chozo Ruins.

Now. Here’s the world map of Metroid Dread’s planet ZDR. I’m going to put the location of 13 of the game’s 22 abilities on the map. And now, I’m going to put the location of the rooms where those abilities are needed to make progress. And what you’ll see is that in all of these cases, the lock is just around the corner from the key. Literally, in the same biome. So, you get the bomb in this part of Dairon, and use it a few rooms over, also in Dairon. You get the ice missiles on the west side of Ghavoran, giving you access to a room on the east side of Ghavoran. Get the cross bombs, and they’re essentially needed next door.

This is surely intended to help with memory. Because if the lock is somewhere you’ve visited very recently - it’s still in your working memory. Meanwhile, all those rooms you visited at the beginning of the game? They’re long forgotten. So, placing the locks close to the keys makes it much, much easier to make progress. But it goes a bit further than that. In most Metroidvanias, there are usually many locks for each key - you get the Desolate Dive in Hollow Knight, and now you can smash through a whole bunch of floors, all over the world. Typically, only one actually provides the way forward - while the rest will lead to optional pick-ups, secret bosses, or just another locked door that you can’t open yet.

That’s not always the case in Metroid Dread, though. Like, once you get the Plasma Beam, it’s not like you can now open loads of locked doors all over ZDR. In fact, once you get back out of Elun, you can only reach one door in the entire world that’s locked behind a plasma shield. Which is, yes, the place you need to go next. By reducing the number of locks you need to remember, the game makes it easier to find the correct path.

Now, I should state this is definitely not true for every power-up in the game. The grapple beam is a good counter example - the world is full of places to use it, and once you have the ability you can now find handy pick ups, collect stuff you can’t use right now - like this power bomb resource in Cataris, and even get very early access to the game’s optional power up, the pulse radar. So, that’s technique two - Metroid Dread makes it easier to find the correct path by reducing the number of locks for each key - and putting the most important lock, the one that will push you further along the critical path - close by.

But, I did say that this is for 13 of the game’s 22 abilities - what about the other nine?

So, you get the morph ball in Cataris. You need it to squeeze through here, back in Artaria - which lets you find the Varia suit. And then, the Varia suit is needed back in Cataris, to withstand this superheated room. That’s more like classic Metroid, right? Bouncing back and forth around the world. And it’s not the only time that happens. You get the space jump in the north of Ferenia, and need to use it in the depths of Burenia. You get the screw attack in Artaria, and need it to smash through blocks in Ghavoran. These locks and keys are spread out across the world, sending you zig-zagging across the planet.

That is, if it wasn’t for the game’s fast travel system. So when you get the morph ball in Cataris, the most obvious place to use it is here - just around the corner, in the same biome. On the other side is a teleporter, which sends you to Artaria - right next to the Varia suit. You’re then led back to the same teleporter - which sends you back to Cataris. And - wouldn’t you know it, you’re just round the corner from the superheated room that requires the Varia suit. How fortuitous!

So, sure - the morph ball and Varia suit may be miles apart from one another, but this teleporter essentially puts them right next door. And it’s the same for those other lock and key pair ups I mentioned: the space jump unlocks a teleporter to Burenia. And the screw attack gives you access to a nearby teleporter that will warp you to Ghavoran. So even if the lock is far away from the key, Metroid Dread still makes it easy to make progress by giving you a a teleporter that will zap you to the right spot.

Plus this also has a nice, additional consequence - that makes it even harder to get lost. So as I said, after you get the morph ball you can go left and find a teleporter to the Varia suit area. But let’s say you go the other way. You go right. You travel, by foot, all the way through Cataris, take the elevator down, and travel all across Artaria. Eventually, you’ll end up in this room - which is the other end of the teleporter, and the location of the Varia suit.

As I said in the Hollow Knight episode, having multiple routes to the next part of the critical path can be a really good idea - it makes it much easier to make progress because you’ve now doubled the chances of the player finding their way. And that’s what happens in Dread - if you go left after finding the morph ball, you’ll get to the Varia suit. If you go right, you’ll get to the Varia suit. Same either way.

You know the bananas in the Donkey Kong games? Those tiny collectible items that you want to pick up. Well, the level designers know you want to pick them up, so they can use them in all sorts of ways - like showing you the right route to take, or teasing you to stumble into shortcuts and secrets. This is a technique I like to call “breadcrumbing” - as in, providing little treats that lead you wherever the designers want you to go. And Metroid Dread does this a lot.

After you get the morph ball, you’ll be tempted to go through here, to get a missile upgrade. Then drawn up here, with another missile upgrade. And then up here, to get this energy tank - which leads up to the Varia suit room. Once you get the speed booster, you’ll want to smash through this wall, to get an energy tank part. And once you get the Flash Shift, you’ll want to come back to this room to get this Energy Tank - which happens to be right under the door to the next part of the game.

After you get the screw attack, you may be tempted to head left to blast through these screw attack blocks and get a missile upgrade. Which guides you to the elevator back to Burenia. Here, you’re tempted to head left by more screw attack blocks and another treat. And then pulled upwards by more screw attack blocks and yet another treat. All of which leads you to a teleporter - and the place where you need to use the screw attack to progress the game.

So even though the screw attack is found in Artaria and is needed all the way up in Ghavoran - you are led there by a bunch of breadcrumbs. Breadcrumbs don’t have to be upgrades, mind you. Enemies on the other side of a wall can encourage you to blast through hidden blocks. And these small fireflies are just a visual effect, but happen to hang around the doors you need to enter to make forward progress. Anything the game can do to grab your attention and pull you in the direction of the critical path - it will do it.

So I think those are the four main techniques that Metroid Dread uses to make it easy to find the path forward, and hard to get lost. Points of no return trap you in small sections of the map, to reduce your cognitive load and stop you going in the wrong direction. Putting the locks near the keys means the way forward should always be in your working memory. And if the lock isn’t nearby, there’s probably a fast travel teleporter to get there.

And tempting breadcrumbs are used to guide you through the world, from one ability to another. There are some other techniques too, of course. Like, how these lights form a design language to suggest where you should use the spin boost and space jump. Or how memorable landmarks lodge in your brain and tempt you to return later. But those are the big ones. And, for the most part, these techniques are very effective at guiding you through the game. I can watch back the footage of me playing through Dread for the first time, and see me falling into every trick and trap that’s been engineered by the designers. It’s hilarious.

Of course, it’s not going to work 100% of the time. You can still get turned around. Not know where to go. Get stuck in a room and proclaim it a crime against game design. And, contrary to the clickbait title, yes - you can get lost. While the points of no return often lock you into small areas, there are other parts of the game where the world is much more open. And tricks like breadcrumbs may not work on every single player, every single time.

But, by and large, these techniques do work to help you stay on track. The question, then, is - are they a force for good? Do they make the experience of playing Metroid Dread better or worse? Now, first, I should state that all Metroidvanias use techniques like these to help you find your way. Even Dread’s perhaps naughtiest trick - the point of no return - can be found in multiple places in Super Metroid - such as this one-way door in Brinstar, and this massive drop down into Norfair.

Subtle clues and directions stop Metroidvania games from being tedious and annoying. So, ultimately, it’s more down to their frequency and intensity. And yes, Dread uses them often, and quite aggressively. But, ultimately, what you think of these techniques will come to how - and why - you play Metroid games. There are those who play Metroid games primarily for the action and atmosphere - and are less interested in the exploration aspect.

If that’s the case, then Metroid Dread gives you the feeling of exploring a large, interconnected world - but with less risk of getting lost, and without the need to get bogged down in tedious backtracking and map-reading. And, on top of that, you’ll find a game that is alarmingly well paced - a whirlwind tour of different abilities, biomes, and bitchin’ boss fights, where you’re always making forward progress. Then, there are those who play Metroid games primarily for the joy of exploring and navigating a complex spaghetti mess of a world.

If that’s the case, then Metroid Dread can feel rather patronising. At some point you’ll realise that you don’t need to think too hard about navigation, because the way forward is always pretty obvious. So you can stop thinking so hard about this stuff and just let the game whisk you off to the next stop on its guided tour. And if you care about navigation, that’s not much fun. Plus, when it comes to exploration, you may find yourself attempting to break out from the critical path to find items - only to be rebuffed by points of no return. So you may not bother to hunt down optional goodies and secrets, even when the game does open back up. You’ll just stick to the critical path.

And then, there are those who play Metroid games multiple times. If that’s the case, then - sure, your first go at Dread may be guided by an invisible hand - but subsequent adventures are about deliberately fighting against that hand. Using the movement tech and bugs to break out of the game’s sequence, and do things in a better, faster way. And its not like the developers are unaware - if you manage to get the bombs before you’re supposed to, you can insta-kill Kraid in a special, secret cutscene.

For me, personally, I’m not really into sequence breaking or speed-running. And while I really dig the action and atmosphere of Metroid games, my favourite bit has always been navigation and exploration. So, as much as I loved Dread’s combat and controls, I did feel a bit let down by the game’s world design. I wanted to figure things out for myself - but just stopped trying and let myself be guided to the end. I wanted to explore - but, felt trapped by points of no return, so ended up with a paltry 39% completion rate. And I wanted to feel deeply connected with this world - the same way I feel about Hallownest, Zebes, and Lordran - but that didn’t really happen.

So that’s me. What about you? What was your experience on planet ZDR? And what sort of Metroid player are you? Let me know, in the comments down below. Thanks for watching.