Games worth discovering

Returnal: A very intriguing game

2K View2023-02-18

Returnal (Reviewed)

Developer: Housemarque, Climax Studios

Publisher: PlayStation PC LLC

Released: 15 Feb, 2023

Price: $60 USD

Returnal is a really fun fast-paced bullet-hell action roguelike with a dark story following Selene, a pilot stranded on a mystery planet that seems to refuse to let her die or to let her go. Help her navigate this land and reveal the story.

This game is definitely for people who enjoy a challenge, with several retries and no checkpoints as you try to figure out what's going on through your former recorded memories and bodies scattered around the planet's surface.

This game combines eldritch terror and gameplay that is comparable to others in the genre, but done in unique ways on top of addicting and fun with friends.

Performance problems

This is the only real issue with the game

It appears to be linked to when you restart your computer and launch a new game. This creates a slew of difficulties, including stuttering, frame dips, and other annoyances while exiting a cinematic or entering doors for the first time.

This will eventually resolve itself after you have opened enough doors and loaded in the majority of the level, but if you load back in on a save file that is already somewhere deeper, performance will suffer significantly for a bit.

It's annoying enough to be a hindrance, especially while fighting new bosses.

Update: 02-18-2023

A recent update includes a precompiling shaders configuration, which I believe was included to remedy the game's performance issues, but it appears to have had the opposite effect, making the audio sound worse & stutters less frequent.

Two other issue

I did, however, come across an occasion in which both myself and a player in my hosted lobby moved underground. This was simply remedied by running towards flat solid ground and jumping up from below, so I don't expect most people to have problems with it if you do what we did.

While playing about with going out of boundaries, I observed that the game would repeatedly try to kill me when I returned to the normal region. This was also self-corrected by returning after going out of bounds.

Gameplay

Bosses

I already remarked how the first boss appeared tame and dull on the first run through. But as soon as I died and started pushing forward more the first boss and other bosses following it really ramped up in their bullet hell difficulty.

Many people praise this game for being difficult and intense, and they are accurate; this game does not disappoint in terms of the adrenaline rush.

Replay value

So long as you don't mind starting from the very beginning each time you die then there is a lot of progress to be achieved, both permanently with your for Selene and for your general items for your advancements through the levels.

If you do get tired, you can always call upon an ally or in this case "Selene" from another timeline to aid you in your attempts to succeed.

Permanent Upgrades

You can find I believe up to 9 upgrades. They grant you terrain abilities such as gripping high ledges and traversing through aquatic areas, among other things.

This is how you will advance in the game. When you collect these goods and restart your adventure with new spots to explore, you'll be making progress.

Weapon Proficiency

Weapon proficiency is earned through kills and the activation of certain items. Each level of Proficiency gained grants Selene a randomly assigned stat point on every weapon she discovers within a loop adding for extra randomness.

You should aim to choose a solid weapon that you are comfortable with, has the proper perks, and has a good handle on damage and handling.

Buffs and Debuffs

These are administered by parasitic creatures adding mutations to your body. Some of these substantially boost your odds of survival while severely limiting your capacity to do certain tasks altogether, so you'll want to be cautious.

These will not persist through your runs.

Online Play

There was a small issue

It took a bit to actually load someone in, which could be due to the lack of cross-play and the low number of people hosting games at the moment.

Other from that, my interaction with this particular player was quite positive.

Ridiculously fun

If you're like me, you actually don't like playing multiplayer too often. It makes things more challenging when you have to rely on others for, but Returnal has been one of the most enjoyable multiplayer games I've played in a long time.

The tense battles, the times when we were there for each other, constantly having each other's back and making judgements based on our current conditions via silent pinging and firing at objects was eerily satisfying.

I would highly recommend at the very least trying it out once or twice.

Other problems when playing online

Tethering to an ally or constantly forcing a tethering will almost always result in you glitching out or crashing. It's fine if you just do it on occasion.

Difficulty

It varies

It was difficult to deal with all of the enemies while also trying to learn the mechanisms that I could employ to enhance myself throughout my first full run by myself. Depending on the player, I'd say there are multiple levels of difficulty.

The second boss was actually rather thrilling, especially because I was acting as a host for a random player who made things a little more tough but also more exciting by doing some phase shift revives and keeping each other alive.

Mini-Map

I remarked in a prior assessment that the map was giving me trouble. It's just something you have to get accustomed to in combat, you'll largely be using the (T) scanner to scan the area and keep an eye out for ledges, while the map is better suited for determining which spot you need to visit next to progress.

Conclusion

It's a great game

While the game was initially limited to the PS5, it received a positive response from the majority of those who played it before it was ported to PC, which is logical. It's tense, fast, demanding, and terrifying and very addictive.

Take a friend or a random Selene from the world's stream of consciousnesses and see whether you can face the terrors together and survive or die together.

I'm sure there are many more things I'm not aware of because I'm sure I've only scratched the surface. But I'm sure I'll be back for more soon.

This concludes my review of this game, while my opinions may be met with criticism, that's what makes gamers unique, you don't have to like the same things that others do, nor do you have to agree with them.

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- Pawkt

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