Released in October 2021, Metroid: Survival Fear represents the return of the long-awaited Nintendo game series. It's the new pinnacle of the Galaxy Castlevania genre, which means it's a bit more difficult than many of the other new games released by Nintendo before, with many new players in the series saying they're playing Softlock within an hour or two of the game.
For players unfamiliar with the term, a softlock is a situation in which the player is unable to continue the game due to game failure or other developer negligence. In large open games such as The Elder Scrolls V, when the player's level is too low, entering a high-level area and overwriting previous saves will result in a softlock level.
However, in a well-designed game like Metroid: Survival Fear, softlock levels can still happen. For new players, the route to continue the game is often not obvious, and for games like Galaxy Warrior, there are many cases of looking back and forth.
In a forum post, a Reddit user, CanaryMarc, offered some insights to players who were unfamiliar with the game. "Rule 1: Shoot everything with missiles and lasers. Rule 2: If you can't go back, keep going until you can turn back. Rule 3: If Rules 1 and 2 don't work, take a closer look at the game environment. ”
Metroid: Survival Fear may be the latest acclaimed title in Nintendo's long-lost game series, but for new players who have never been exposed to the genre, some of the mechanics in the game will take a lot of time to understand. Shooting and blowing up walls to discover hidden paths is a normal way for veteran players to take for granted, but for new players they don't actively adopt this style of play until they are stuck with a soft lock that causes a checkpoint to find out the problem.