Returnal is a roguelike title that sends its players through a number of procedurally generated areas that span across six unique biomes within the planet of Atropos. Developed by Housemarque, this Sony exclusive takes advantage of the power of the PS5 in order to provide its players with a very frenetic experience that still manages to run silky smooth and while Returnal’s difficulty has been a big talking point amongst gamers, it is a truly rewarding experience when overcoming the many challenges faced in a playthrough.

The player controls Selene, a member of the ASTRA corporation that crash lands on the planet of Atropos. There to investigate a “White Shadow” signal, after the crash the player gets their first opportunity to explore the world and the many creatures and secrets. The player is slowly introduced to the basic mechanics of the game, however the fluidity of movement that can be achieved is simply mastered over time. When, or if the player dies, they are resurrected at the beginning of the first biome, the scene of the crash site and the “Groundhog Day” style time loop becomes apparent. Stories of Selene and her past are visited many times throughout a playthrough and it completely up to the player to piece it together and try and make sense of it, but hang in there because it is all worth it.

Returnal has no option of lowering the difficulty and its gameplay features many roguelike elements. It is played one run at a time and there are only a handful of permanent suit upgrades and items that are earned through the natural progression of the game with most upgrades held for a single cycle and then surrendered when losing a life and returning back to the site of the crash on a fresh loop. Fortunately, for some peace of mind there are a number of single use Reconstructors through the world that act as a get out of gaol free card, but they do cost a number of Ether, a resource found on Atropos that can be used to give the player an advantage and are not always easy to find.

Each cycle is procedurally generated and while each room does not change its shape or size, the enemies within them always changes. It can be a daunting task having to enter a new area, but exploration rewards the player with a number of healing items, as well as items that assist the player, like:

• Obolites – Orbs collected from slain enemies and breakable objects that can be used to at Fabricators to purchase upgrades and consumables.
• New Weapons – A variety of weapons that have their own unique functionality and stats.
• Atropian keys – Used to unlock certain chests and doors with varying rewards.
• Parasites – Small creatures that attach to Selene’s suit which bring both beneficial and detrimental effects.
• Artifacts – Give positive effects such as increased weapon damage or reduced alt-fire cooldown.
• Ether – A permanent resource that is used to cleanse Malignancy or activate Reconstructors.
• A number of consumables that give Selene health or special moves.

A good amount of luck can impact heavily on the success of a run and if the player ever feels like they have not fared very well they can simply pause the game and reset the cycle, taking them back to the crash site. For this reason, exploration is an important aspect of gameplay and it can force the player to sometimes take risks in order to obtain a leg up.

There are many aspects to Returnal that force the player to make decisions wisely. As mentioned above, many chests and items are riddled with Malignancy. Malignancy gives an item a low to high level of malfunction probability and the player can either cleanse them with collected Ether, or take a chance at the item with the risk of receiving a negative malfunction effect. These effects can be anything from receiving damage when using keys to obolites disappearing from the ground more quickly and they are either removed with a consumable or by completing the random objective that is attached to it, like killing a certain number of hostiles or opening a certain number of chests. Parasites can be a player’s best friend or worst enemy as they are picked up with both negative and positive effects, so the player will always have to weigh up their options. It makes every cycle unique, and it is always exciting finding the right upgrades that fit each build.

The gunplay is the highlight of Returnal as it is extremely fluid and responsive, which is especially impressive being a third-person shooter. With a number of projectiles being thrown at the player and a lot of verticality it is important to remain mobile at all times and Housemarque were able to put emphasis on movement by offering a generous amount of aim assist, though it can be reduced within the game settings. Selene is also equipped with a quick dash that can be used to travel through projectiles or quickly get out of trouble, however it can at times hindered by its cool down period, so it must be used tactfully.

With a great variety of unique weaponry the player can get their hands on, each of them bring opportunities to approach enemies in a different way. Shotgun resembling weapons may force a player to get in amongst the chaos, while automatic weapons and launchers will allow the player to stay a bit further away from the action. Weapons are assigned a level and that number is then split between three statistics that are distinctive to each weapon, for example, bonus damage or explosion radius. The level of a weapon can only ever be as high as Selene’s proficiency level, which starts at zero each cycle and is levelled up through defeating enemies and locating artifacts. Each weapon also has a secondary fire option with a cool down period between each shot, which are always random and often deal a high output of damage. Housemarque were clever in taking advantage of the PS5 controllers adaptive triggers, as when held in slightly the player can aim down sights and when pulling the trigger completely in the secondary fire mode is engaged. There have been few opportunities for the new PS5 controller to be taken advantage of so far and Returnal is just a small example of how truly great Sony’s design of their controller was.

There is a great variety of enemies and they seem to fit into a few different categories. There is the low health easy to kill enemies that are great to farm for obolites and experience, many turrets that just bully the player with relentless projectiles, the heavy enemies that have multiple attacks and often spawn as the centrepiece of a new room and the final bosses that need to be defeated at the end of each biome to make further progress. Once getting acclimatised to the world and its inhabitants, the map can be traversed with ease, until of course coming face to face with an unknown adversary. The larger, more difficult enemies always have a highlighted area that should be targeted to drain their health quickly and they tend to be a lot more aggressive towards the player. The boss fights at the end of each biome are as intense as they come and each one has three phases to survive. The player will have to avoid the attacks of bright hue that will at times engulf the screen, all the while making time to rebut with some damaging attacks of their own.

Atropos is both a beautiful and disturbing planet to explore at the same time. Every biome is unique, and the surroundings always make the planets desolation very apparent. Structures have been built for purpose and they are in varying levels of dilapidation, often overgrown by withering flora. It intrigues the player by hinting at what the planet might have been before becoming such a hostile environment.

Through exploration the player can discover various writings in the world known as Xenoglyphs, sentient writings that, once deciphered uncover snippets of information about the planet. The player will also discover Xeno-Archives which showcase historical events that took place on Atropos. It is up to the player to gather this information and piece together their own ideas of what Atropos used to really be.

If the opportunity arises, Returnal is best played with headphones. With headphones the player can really soak in the ambiance of the planet and be more aware of enemies that are not at the forefront of the screen. The distant sounds of alien wildlife can often be heard in the background and the synthesizing music is quite a soothing note to hear while exploring. When fighting in a chaotic area the sounds of explosions and alien hostiles screeching at Selene can be heard from all directions and it makes combat very engaging.

I would not recommend playing this in front of the kids. It has a lot of psychological thriller elements within the game’s storytelling and honestly, some enemies can be quite frightening. It is easy enough to pause, but lack of any save option means that it is not a “jump in/jump out” sort of game. The player should take time to become fully engrossed in the gameplay, a short visit just is not enough.

Brando for One More Game Au.

9 – Amazing – as near to a 10 as you are going to get without it being a 10. It’s an amazing experience that just requires that little something else to make it a masterpiece. Your hard earned cash and time would be well spent here.

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Returnal was reviewed on an PlayStation 5 and is available for purchase now!

The publisher kindly provided code for this game. All thoughts on this game are ours and ours alone.