Mercury Steam, the developer behind Samus’ latest adventure, Metroid Dread, is currently working on two unannounced titles.
According to the latest FY report from Nordisk Games, which owns a minority stake in Mercury Steam, the Metroid Dread developer is currently working on “two large undisclosed titles”. Besides Metroid Dread, it is best known for its work on Castlevania Lords of Shadow and Metroid: Samus Returns. Mercury Steam has steadily grown from a development team of 160 employees in 2020 to over 200 employees as of writing.
Based on the information revealed back in November, 2021, one of the two unannounced games Mercury Steam is working on is a dark fantasy third-person action role-playing game that is being developed alongside 505 Games.
For the uninitiated, the studio’s most recent title, Metroid Dread, is a 2021 action-adventure game developed by Nintendo and MercurySteam and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch. The game’s storyline takes place after the events of Metroid Fusion (2002), with players assuming the role of bounty hunter Samus Aran as she delves into the source of a mysterious transmission on the planet ZDR. The gameplay maintains the side-scrolling mechanics characteristic of earlier 2D Metroid games while introducing stealth elements.
Players take on the role of bounty hunter Samus Aran on her journey through the planet ZDR. Staying true to the tradition of previous Metroid games, it retains the side-scrolling gameplay, incorporating the free aim and melee attacks introduced in Metroid: Samus Returns. As players delve into the game, they come across new items and weapons that enable access to previously inaccessible areas. Dread introduces stealth components into the gameplay. Samus must navigate around EMMI robots in specific zones by utilizing hiding spots, minimizing noise, and utilizing the Phantom Cloak, a camouflage that renders her invisible but slows her mobility. If an EMMI spots Samus, players have two brief opportunities to execute melee counters and escape. Failure results in Samus’s demise.
