Games worth discovering

Returnal (First Impression)

3K View2023-02-16

Developer: Housemarque, Climax Studios

Publisher: PlayStation PC LLC

Released: 15 Feb, 2023

Price: $60 USD

Returnal is a very punishing game that is not for the faint of heart.

I hadn't heard the name Returnal in quite some time. It's one of those games that slipped past my radar, owing in part to its exclusivity to the consoles.

These styles of bullet hell escapades really appeal to me. The eerie and dark experience that the main character Selene has in the first 10 minutes of game play is great for drawing you in quickly without giving you much of the context.

You're alone on a planet and every time you die, you start from the beginning.

Something or someone is keeping you here and won't let you go.

Performance issues

The game runs reasonably well

Even with a powerful gaming setup, the game will occasionally skip to load in the next section behind doors sometimes. This shouldn't happen, in my opinion.

The opening cinematic, which appeared to be hundreds of thousands of very little meteoroid particles, had a lot of lag and needed to be skipped. This isn't a big deal because it was only a cinematic about Selene crashing onto a planet.

However, the game couldn't render this adequately, especially at 165 frames per second. It seems like the game has always had performance issues.

Gameplay

The first boss

I'm at a loss for words. It wasn't particularly impressive. The music was mediocre, and I had hoped for something more exciting. I found the music up until the boss and fighting "revenge" missions to be much more fascinating.

However, the later bosses should undoubtedly be more tough to deal with, as I believe this was only a taste of what bosses may do.

Fast paced

Outside of the first boss encounter, you'll become constantly swarmed by a enemies out to kill you. So keep your ears and eyes open, and use those iframes to get out of harm's way. I enjoy fast-paced battle equally more with the music they chose that was engaging and exciting as well as otherworldly.

The challenge

This is a roguelike game

When it comes to teaching you how to play the game and what you need to accomplish, it's really basic. It will not overload you with tips, nor will it refresh your memory once you've caught the gist of the early introductions.

I'm still unsure about a few things, most notably the weapons and their proficiency, which I presume offers points for whatever weapon Selene encounters within a loop as weapons come up as higher stars.

Dying

Once you've perished, you will lose all of your weapons and gear, but will retain all permanent upgrades. The world around you will generate different rooms as you progress over and over again from the start of the game to the end.

However, it is actually a mixture of linear and non-linear gameplay, the mission locations are all the same and will never change from what I noticed.

Online Play

I haven't tried it yet

When I play these types of games, I like to keep to myself because having more people around makes it much more difficult to focus on the bullet hell. I'll give it a go in a few days when I feel a bit more comfortable, but I'll probably stick to single player after that. It's nice of them to include this in the game though.

Conclusions so far

I like what is being presented

Aside from a few small drawbacks, such as performance and the early game being a little too slow for me. I'm having fun with what the game has to offer.

The frequent switching of arenas and the appearance of new monsters as you dive deeper into the secrets of what is going on here is captivating enough to keep me wanting to explore and progress more.

I'm finding it difficult to navigate

Throughout the first few hours, I was having difficulty looking at the mini-map, which is located in the bottom right corner of the screen, while fighting swarms of foes on narrow ledges and falling to my death several times. I understand it's supposed to be a difficult game, but environmental dangers aren't really my fault when I can't see where I'm standing while tracking creatures.

This concludes my first impression of this game; while my opinions may be met with criticism, that is what distinguishes gamers; you don't have to like the same things as others, nor do you have to agree with them.

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- Pawkt

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