Selene, a scout and scientist, has crash-landed on an alien planet and woken up next to her damaged ship. The first thing she hears as her suit comes online is rain and squeaking, chirping plants. Among several flashbacks is an ominous astronaut and something called the White Shadow. Selene sets out to investigate, but eventually comes across a corpse of herself. She quickly realizes that she's caught in a time loop, where the planet reconfigures itself every time she dies. Every time she dies, which is a LOT, she gets flashbacks and learns to search for something called the White Shadow.
Returnal is so refreshingly weird. The planet Atropos is this alien place with few passive things and many more hostile organisms. A fresh game will have you scanning unknown objects to determine if they're helpful or hurtful, as you use or equip things that help you survive. You'll pick up the occasional weapon with a cool name and these guns are a-li-en. The game commits to making this planet feel exotic visually and audibly with superior sound design, atmospheric music ala Metroid, and 3D audio. Also, the haptics--the more sensitive and detailed vibrations and controller speaker--go the extra mile in immersion.
The game is hard and frantic. Not every room or area has actively hostile units, but even some of the plants try to kill you. It's absolutely critical that Selene not stand still: you've got to shoot, reload, dodge a lot of projectiles, but luckily the aiming is forgiving. The game utilizes half-trigger-presses that allow you to zoom and a full-trigger-press reloads your weapon. But even reloading is timed, and you get a bonus or penalized on your performance. Returnal is a rush and I am always on the edge of my seat and fully invested.
Two meta things are happening with Returnal. The developer, Housemarque, has generally stuck to fast-paced, flashy ~$20 arcade games and this PS5 title is the first time I've seen a smaller developer make the leap to a AAA title. They have a LOT to prove, and I imagine other small developers are taking notes on all the performance patches Housemarque is putting out to justify the project. There are lots of arguments about whether the game is worth $70 retail, but regardless of what you think; they did it. Dead Cells, Downwell and Hades are popular titles in this genre, with Hades having a $25-30 price tag.
The other meta thing happening is the game's genre in the context of AAA games. Roguelikes are games where you constantly die and reset exploration progress, often paired with randomly-generated maps. A 'run' could last 2 minutes or 2 hours, though you're often collecting currency, abilities or items that are permanent to your character. In Hades, defeated enemies and completed rooms yield purple gems that you can then spend on permanent stat increases and upgrades. In Returnal, defeated enemies and opened chests yield Obolites, which are spent on unlocking items that can appear in future runs. With weapons, kills work towards unlocking features that are randomly found in future finds.
If you have reflexes and like Metroid Prime, Dead Cells or Hades and spine-straightening action, you ought to play Returnal by Housemarque.
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