What’s going on gamers? I’ve been getting a lot of use out of my PS5, my first ever owned Playstation console, and recently happened upon this gem of a game that I initially had no interest in! It’s amazing how well streaming games serve as marketing tools, (Take note game developers!) as well as how fast I went from watching this game to playing it myself.

Without further ado! Let’s jump into this review~

Gameplay

To start off, this game is by all means a rogue-like with the main core of gameplay being a third person shooter. You’ll run around in a gorgeous 3D environment; dashing, jumping and shooting enemies all around you while dodging streams of bullets that bring back horrific memories of those ‘bullet hell’ games… if you don’t know what I mean look up the Touhou game series.

As you progress through the game you’ll unlock different weapons, artifacts and power-ups to help you survive the madness of each room of enemies, traps and possibly self imposed handicaps depending on the choices you make. What do I mean by that?

When picking up items/opening chests there is a chance where you can also obtain malfunctions, these help to balance the game so that the player doesn’t pick up too many upgrades too fast and imposes a type of risk every time you decide to take an item.

This isn’t always the case but just like with all cases of RNG, you’re bound to have something annoying holding back your real power.

To further add to this, if you take too many malfunctions, you risk losing items/artifacts that you already picked up, forcing players to decide what is more important and placing a certain amount of risk with how much you enjoy looting.

Not to worry though, you can remove these malfunctions by performing the task underlined below it and removing it entirely.

A nice thing about this game is if you’re stuck with a weapon that you don’t enjoy, you won’t have to go too long without finding another weapon that may be up your alley. I tended to like using the shotgun and the heavy machine gun as many traits they came with were great for clearing not just rooms of multiple enemies, but bosses as well!

When it comes to the items, which may be just as important as the weapons, you have artifacts, consumables and parasites. The first two are self explanatory, artifacts are like passive upgrades and consumables that you can use for a certain effect including healing, damage boosts and so on. Parasites however are like the malfunctions but in a +/- kinda way.

One other thing that should be noted for those that aren’t familiar with rogue-likes, you will die in this game… quite a few times. However, this is intentional as dying in this game continues important story aspects and explains other aspects of the game to the player, so feel free to throw a run or two!

Some things will stay with you when you die such as new weapons, items or permanent upgrades like a grappling hook. You will however lose whatever weapons/items you currently had and will restart with a basic pistol and your base health. This provides a sort of metroid-vania kind of feeling where you will be able to explore new areas with your upgrades that you weren’t able to before. Along with this, any progress you made through each level will be completely reset back to the beginning, allowing you to find things that may have not been accessible before.

Each run you play will have a randomized room layout and enemies in each room will never be the same as before. I will say though that there are certain story checkpoints that will place you within a certain tier of levels so you don’t completely restart the game.

One feature that I like is that the game also has online leaderboards and challenge runs that are updated every week to test your skills with a certain build against other players. This provides a fun challenge from the actual game and even gives you rewards for the main game for each challenge you complete!

The major gripe I had though when it came to the gameplay was how short it felt and realistically you could beat the game in as easy as a few runs if you were skilled/lucky enough to get a good run going. Hopefully they’ll add more content in the future to compensate for that. Additionally, I’d like to see a gameplay mode that incorporated multiplayer.

Story

Without going too much into the nitty gritty, the game follows a lone astronaut who becomes stranded on an unknown planet and is forced to figure out where she is and the meaning behind why she can’t seem to escape.

As you progress through the game, you’ll find remnants of her past as she tries to piece together how the last few events before her trip to space are tying into this oddly detailed planet. As I mentioned before, some things in the game can only be found by death and returning back to the starting point, a feature that is also talked about within the story.

As of now, there are two different endings with the true ending explaining the entire events of the astronaut’s past and how it ties into the game. Most people will probably not unlock this ending at first as you will have to essentially find every collectible piece of lore to obtain it and you will not find everything in one run. The game makes it easier to find these things however after you beat the final boss for the first time.

I’ll spare you the details of the horror themed psychological thriller and allow you to find that enjoyment for yourself 🙂

Music and Atmosphere

When it comes to the music and the feelings the game gives off, it’s meant to elicit feelings of fear and isolation. Your character is stuck on an abandoned planet that is light years away from home and nothing here seems to be friendly.

The music is meant to be draining and suspenseful as you take on each challenge and wonder if you’ll survive until the end. Go and give the soundtrack a listen if you’re curious about it.

Each level as well has a feeling of desolation and darkness. From a gloomy forest to a chilling frozen wasteland, you’ll feel the tension of being alone and forced to fight strange monsters all the while figuring out what exactly was this bizarre planet you stumbled upon.

One of the best parts of the music I found were the boss fights and given the reaction you will have to fighting them for the first time, the music does an excellent job at sending chills down your spine and making you want to scream for help as you dodge endless flurries of bullets.

Graphics

This is a game on the latest and greatest of gaming consoles…

OF COURSE IT’S GOING TO LOOK GORGEOUS

The game itself runs in 4k with 60 FPS if you have the TV/monitor to run it and I’d highly encourage you to do so as it provides for a very smooth and visually appealing experience.

There are options for visual and performance settings so whatever you pick is your preference but you can’t go wrong with either one to be honest.

If this is what we get to look forward to in terms of what the next generation of console graphics are looking like on PS5, I’m sold.

The combination of 4k and 60 FPS, and one day 120 FPS, may be the new sweet spot of gaming in terms of visual/performance balance. I’m also a PC gamer and enjoy my FPS, but console gaming may finally be starting to catch up in that regard and unless you’re playing Counter Strike, FPS will not be the defining factor in every game.

Ok no complaints here, let us continue…

Summary

To tie it all in, Returnal is a rogue-like shooter with horror/psychological thriller themes to create an experience that gives a strong impression of what the future of the PS5 will look like, and honestly I feel honored to be starting my Playstation experience on this console and can only anticipate how future games will look and play and hope they are as good as this game.

For anyone getting a PS5 and are not sure what games to pick up, you cannot go wrong with this one.

While the game itself is fairly short, it is a rogue-like and from a gameplay standpoint is a lot of fun and with online leaderboards you won’t ever have nothing to do in the game whether it be unlocking the full ending or being the best of the best in run times.

I certainly hope they continue to pour more content into this game as it has potential to be a staple in the PS5 library for any owner.



As always,

Brother Ghesh out~