‘Metroid Dread’ is a great story wrapped in a hand-cramping, confusing grind

The result is a Metroid game that feels like it is designed by gridwork and less about creating a convincing world. Again, background details like wildlife roaming the planet help alleviate this somewhat, but in a Metroid game, the foreground should be a priority over the background. The first and second Metroid games were mostly designed with pitch-black backgrounds, yet I could still describe what the Brinstar and Norfair regions were like because the developers placed the details of those regions at the forefront. Norfair was filled with lava, and its music was a raging, syncopated march. And although it’s been years since I’ve played “Metroid Prime,” I could still tell you what the snow-capped Phendrana Drifts look like. But put a space blaster to my head, and I would not be able to describe the Ghavoran or Dairon regions of “Metroid Dread,” a game I played as recently as last night (Oct. 5).