What did you think of Returnal?

Controls well. Still don't understand how the cool-down for power shots works.

I can't decide if I find the world pretty or too demonic. Occasionally, I am reminded of "Blame!," the 1997 to 2003 manga by Tsutomu Nihei, but the environments there were more beautiful. The roguelike elements (all the upgrades and downgrades) clash with the serious story and realistic character design, though.

I wish there were NPCs to speak with or characters who appear in cutscenes, if not humans, then creatures and machines. Gone Home, Dear Esther, Returnal, it's always the same: the monologues, audio logs and journals get tiresome. I never feel that involved. Even the generic (for video games) dream constructs based on Selene's memories have no one.

I'm convinced Sony has a blueprint that studios have to follow when porting to Windows, for every one of them to have problems with walking with a keyboard. Days Gone and Horizon made it a freaking toggle and Returnal doesn't even have the option. I'm guessing God of War 2018 has a walk button because it's a walk and talk game.

Some good the Atmos mix is when the speech is mixed so quietly that you can barely hear her half the time.

It's not hard!

After having 100% the game for trophies, i got so burned out replaying the same god damn mission to get a marker on the wall to spawn that i don't even want to see the sequel. But, what i can say is that this game would've been much better if it was in first person like Eternal since their gameplay is very similar, and third person animations were too janky. I also remember how everyone was saying how hard the game was, and i beat it with just 2 deaths, one of which was being pulled into a hole, so its bullshit, but still.

Interesting. It took me six hours to get to the top of the mountain and beat Ixion. I will save-scum before bosses now.

C:\Users\Username\AppData\Local\Returnal\Steam\Saved

If you don't rush brainlessly from room to room, and is playing carefully, its not a difficult game at all. But everyone i recall seeing on twitch played it like it was CoD, and they were all on a massive respawn spree.

Didn't play, and mostly for aesthetics. To be honest the protagonist and the world looks boring to me.

Maybe perception and reality are different, but there are so many games, that unless it looks like it's just right for me, I don't bother.

Amazing game. Harder than any Souls games.

Funny you made this thread as I was replaying Returnal PC last month and to this day, it's a very addictive game you can get into. I just love the gameplay and its world. I just don't understand why Returnal wasn't on PS5 player's top choice or the fact it wasn't even nominated for GOTY. But of course, roguelike are not for everyone. They are really repetitive but for me, I tend to overlook repetitive games since well, video games are meant to be repetitive.

Housemarque did well but Sony is bad at not using them to their full advantage. One thing I can say about Returnal is, it never was cross-gen meaning it took advantage of PS5 capabilities. It's also worth mentioning this was Housemarque’s first entry into AAA game development, so it was safe to say that everyone was skeptical at first.

One thing I kinda have issues with Returnal is the fact they used some of the ideas from Hellblade when it comes to mental health problems from the main character Selene. (Spoilers) Selene is upset because she was rejected by the ASTRA program. She goes into a downward spiral of depression and causes a distraction that ends up crashing her car and killing her young daughter in the process. The entirety of the game is about her internalizing and learning to cope with her mental illness. Everything in the game is happening in Selene's head, so of course you are going to get why there's no NPC at all other than recording herself and seeing her death clones. I like the way it was going but you can tell the obvious as to what's going on from going inside Selene's house from the TV to the memory lane as to what's happening. In short, she has pushed herself away from reality and fights against those she has severed from her life is what Returnal is all about.

Returnal is an 8/10 for me.

I also save scum before bosses, don't tell me "you need to learn a game" when there is no chance to just repeat bosses over and over.

No, I will not grind hours of content to just go to a boss, die and do it all over again, what am I: made out of time?

As for the spoilery part:

I knew about it being in her head and about the loss of a child, but I never knew she got rejected from the program, thanks for that bit of info!

The biggest shock to me came when halfway in the game you seemingly return back to earth. And then you're back on the alien planet out of the blue. That definitely wasn't normal and a big clue that it was all imagined and it was all in her head and in her head alone.

I also agree with your score.

Looks really cool, and I'll get it as soon as I see a good price.

Loved their previously released game on Steam, Nex Machina. Absolutely adore Dead Nation. Upset about not having played Alienation. These games needs to be released on PC instead of rotting away on old crappy PS hardware. My money is ready, and I bet that goes for a lot of people now after Returnal got the attention it did.

Liked it. Wish there was a bit more to unlock

Played it a long time ago as I’m a PS5 user and get to play these great games day 1.

Returnaled it.

One of first games I played when I got my PS5. Lot of fun. I didn't find it nearly as hard as people said but I found a good video of why people thought it was so hard, that basically when people open up new areas and they loop to beginning they jump ahead without exploring out the earlier levels for upgrades. I didn't do that so I didn't have too much trouble.

It's a bad name. A really bad name. There is a reason the word is rare/obsolete.

It's sitting in my Steam library, but I haven't played it yet.

I'm nearly finished with Horizon Forbidden West right now, after which I plan on taking a 1-2 weeks break. Catching up on the Dante Unbound update for Warframe will be my priority during this break, but Returnal is on my alternate game playlist, right after En Garde!

I'm not a big fan of roguelite games since most of the time they feel extremely generic, tedious, and you do the same thing over and over. However, I do enjoy a good Bullet Hell so this game has always had me slightly intrigued. I'm pretty sure I got this game for free somehow... can't remember how (perhaps ps plus or something?) If that is the case then I'll get around to it eventually. It's on a list of games six and a half miles long in my ever growing backlog. I have been trying to finish games this year before entirely moving on though, so at least I'm finally starting to cross a few off my list... even if they are new/er games.. lol

It is a bullet hell game and Housemarque is really good at them, as Litchie mentioned: Outland was another really great game of theirs that's in the bullet hell genre.

And yup, the game was given away on PS plus, it was the first AAA PS5 game from Sony in fact.

Didn't even know it was word. Thought it was some shit they just made up.

Noy my bag but can see the appeal to people who like bullet hell games.

I didn't know either, but looked it up so that no one could make fun of me.

HELL NO. Not even close.

For once, I agree with this. Returnal can be easy with the right weapon on-hand and my weapon of choice is either Hollowseeker or Electropylon Driver are among the best weapons that makes Returnal easy. Even dodging system is easy to do with the right timing.

Metroidvania & Soul genres aren't the same.

Returnal surprised me halfway through the game as to what's going on and for better or worst, I think it handles the twist interesting as long as you really don't think about it and just focus on the gameplay.

@hardwenzen: the souls formula hasn't changed since Demons Souls. I breeze through those games. At least Returnal offers a challenge.

Unless you overlevel everything, you can't really breeze through everything on first playthrough.

I wish you couldn't dodge through projectiles and that the game was balanced for that limitation. That's not proper bullet hell. In MUSHA, Thunderforce IV and Gley Lancer I can't just go through the dangers (without a shield).

@hardwenzen: isn't that the point though? Grind souls and become op, making the game a breeze. That's how it's been for me..

Only played a few hours IIRC. Might pick it up again at some point, but my bro has all my PS5 games ATM.

What? No, not at all. I remember overleveling in demon's souls and dark souls 1, but those were the early days, and facerolling through content as being overleveled is boring af and ruins the game.

Returnal is an IP from one of sonys best developers. I'm bummed they couldn't optimize for steam deck otherwise I would've purchased it. Housemarque is a lot like Arrowhead in that they build games around gameplay, not cutscenes and animations. They're a gamers developer. Resogun and Alienation alone were two of past gens best games in my opinion.

Day 1 carries little weight any longer. Waiting means playing a better version in every single case.

Oh, and Hellblade. No NPCs or cutscenes with characters in them there either (except her lover, in a few memories, face barely visible, only really an outline of his body and his voice IIRC, so it's whatever), making her psychological journey rather one-note and boring with no one there to, uhm... help put it in perspective or bounce her thoughts off of. Imagine that edgy Lars von Trier movie about the serial killer with only himself to talk to. Lame. Edit: House That Jack Built. Didn't think it was very good, but would have been worse without the old man.

He didn't need to say such a thing and didn't even talk about the actual game here. So he played it on PS5, good for him. But that's not why we're here for that. We're here to talk about Returnal game itself and I'm a fan of it as well.

While the dodge does make the game easier but I still find myself getting hurt when I abuse it for so long. Even picking up parasite perks sometimes makes the dodge time wait even longer to use it again which is a fair balanced IMO.

Update: just finished HFW just now. Gonna install Returnal now thanks to this thread. Maybe I'll have some early impressions tonight.

Returnal is up there for best game of the generation so far. It's that and Elden Ring are the top two for sure. Tough to order them.

Only negative is the trophy list. I didn't go for the plat because it's uninteresting. Just grinding for collectables. Why not give us skill based challenges? All biomes on one life? Beating bosses with specific weapons that are hard to use? A speedrun?

Beat the organ/musical boss, reached the snow area. Still haven't had to overwrite my save file after save-scumming (backing up before bosses). All this realism and I can't see my footprints. I remember that even the N64 had footprints. The mountain in Majora's Mask, I think.

🤡

Welp, I've started the game, at least, and my first impression is... ...disorienting. Don't know what I'm supposed to be doing and where I'm supposed to be going half the time. However, the mystery is intriguing enough that it makes me want to push on.

I might just need a guide to get me going - or at least a couple of paracetamols.

The game was fun and excelled in what they wanted. The story was a poor direction for me.

great game. was late to the party. remember picking it up around the same time as re8, playing that first, really disliking it as a game and a horror experience, bailed after a few hours. fired up returnal and it was like the entire opposite. played like a dream from the off, and the visual and audio design was absolutely on the money. very atmospheric. took sometime to find the sweet spot in playstyle, ended up leaning more towards covering more of the map and wearing enemies down gradually. it's been a while, need to replay it.

You are correct.

every single case isn't accurate. not all ports are created equally. we all know plenty suffer technical issues. returnal might not be one of them, but we're talking every single one here.

and what does better mean exactly? what's so much better that's it's worth trading off years of waiting for?

Returnal with a controller feels bad, man. Do want analog movement, disappointed about the lack of a walk key, but the aiming? Yuck.

Horizon Zero Dawn - Walk is a toggle.

God of War - Steam users say no walk button.

Returnal - No walk button.

Days Gone - Walk is a toggle.

Spider-Man - Don't know if it's toggle or hold. Already have on PS4, not buying on/for Steam.

Coincidence? I wanna read Sony's PC port requirements.

Also, shit button L3 for dashing in Returnal, shit button R3 for melee. Ewww. Left Shift and mouse wheel forward much better.

the game has insane aim assist and homing bullets, not exactly a twitch shooter. Played it fine on ps5, great game. Most likely the only game I've played on ps5 that made any meaningful use out of dualsense

@howmakewood: I turned aim assist off before Nemesis. Would have done it sooner, but assumed it was all the homing projectiles. But it's not just the accuracy of your shot. Moving the camera around quickly, orienting yourself, feels worse with a stick.

Returnal has more aim assist than cod, destiny or Halo. Hit boxes are also massive so aiming down sight is completely worthless, and the best thing to do is free aim so you have a max field of view at all times.

well moving camera around is always gonna feel worse with stick, no matter the game

Doesn't matter.

Metal Gear Solid 1 to 3, Resident Evil series even in the Gamecube/PS2 gen, Devil May Cry series and God of War trilogy had fixed/cinematic cameras. Even RE4 still assigned aiming the gun to the navigation stick, and I don't think it was just to maintain tension or because the Gamecube controller had such a crappy nub (C-stick, expanded from N64's C-buttons); I think it was because the designers disliked using both sticks so much.

Metroid Prime, Rayman 2, Everything or Nothing and Grand Theft Auto before IV were built around auto-aim.

Because the developers at that time heeded the limitations of analog sticks. Aim-assist doesn't solve the problem. Only a fusion of mouse-type and a device in the left hand made for games, with analog navigation, would solve it. But the console designers and their users are too comfortable with the same old. Mouse and keyboard just feel better with games like this.