![]() It means that each run of Returnal lasts far longer than in other games of the genre, which is all the more frustrating when you’re unable to save mid-run. There’s risk-reward in every boon you collect – will this help or hinder your journey? – and it’s your choice whether to explore further to improve your chances of progression but risk an early death, or jump quickly to the next biome potentially under-equipped for what you might find. The planet Atropos is no linear path to glory, but interlinking areas dense with secrets. If Hades made the roguelike genre more accessible and story-driven, Returnal leans into difficulty and exploration. ![]() And there’s Metroid here too, a woman stranded in unfamiliar territory, seeking suit upgrades to allow for further exploration through back-tracking. There’s more than a hint of both Alien and its later prequel Prometheus in Returnal ’s retro-futuristic world: the fizzing of neon-green technology, the oppressive darkness, the eerie beauty of its vast landscapes. A replica of your family home plonked disturbingly on an alien world, tantalisingly filled with secrets of your past. Isolated in a vast desert, but not alone. She’s seemingly chasing a broadcast signal, but where is the message coming from? Who sent it? And why is she trapped in this endless cycle of… Selene discovers corpses on her journey – her own corpses from previous lives – with audio logs of discoveries. You are clearly not welcome on this planet.īut it’s a planet you’ve been to before. Almost everything on Atropos is out to kill you. Hostility is at the core of the experience. It’s a horror game with cinematic trappings. It’s an exploration Metroidvania game, but an arcade shooter at heart. It’s a third-person PS5 shooter with the structure of a roguelike. ![]() Selene, the game’s protagonist, wakes up repeatedly after each death, doomed to repeat the same cycle of crashing her spaceship on Atropos, exploring its randomly generating labyrinth, and battling hordes of shrieking enemies. The second run, thankfully, went a little better. The crash of a spaceship on an alien planet. The first run of Returnal on PS5 didn’t last long.
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