Returnal™ Reviews

True next-gen game. The visuals and sound come together to make the difficulty worth it. Tough but fair deaths. Play it for more than an hour before you set it down, and try the Tower as soon as you unlock it. Roguelike bliss.

Before playing this game all I knew about it was three things: it's a bullet hell, a third person shooter and a roguelike; and so I went into my playthrough expecting just that. What I didn't expect was a story that (no exaggeration) shook me to the core. The story isn't just some random text and little bits you find here and there, like in other roguelikes. I am not kidding when I say that - while the gameplay is obviously very good - the thing that kept me going was the story. I wanted to keep going to find out what was going to happen to the world and more importantly: us. It didn't take very long until I realized that this game is something very special and now that I finished it I am sure that this is probably my favorite game of all time. All of this sounds like I'm kidding, but I'm not. This game is a masterpiece. Now, after this intro let's talk about the things that make this game what it is. First of all some technical stuff. I played Returnal on max settings, raytracing on with upscaling disabled at 1440p resolution. I had no performance issues whatsoever except some rare moments where my framerate dropped slightly though I have to admit that this doesn't have to mean anything as I'm playing on a 7950X3D and a 4090. The game never crashed and the only bugs I encountered was me getting softlocked due to geting stuck on some object. The games visuals are great and fit very well together with the story and what is happening. Each "stage" you visit has a very distinct look and the areas within those stages do feel well designed and good to walk around and fight in. The sound design is fantastic and one of its songs is so good its part of my playlist now. Each enemy makes a distinct noise that helps you telling them apart and helps you knowing what exactly you're fighting which is nice. The guns sounds are well made and if you use something with a lot of firepower the game makes sure you know that you're holding something [b] powerful [/b]. Now for the gameplay. It took me 19.5hrs to finish that game (or rather the story) with act 1 taking me 7.7hrs, act 2 taking me 6.6hrs and act 3 taking me 5.2hrs. Runs didn't take too long and where usually around 1hr for a successful one. The game itself isn't too difficult and gets easier the longer you play though it is quite punishing and every mistake you make has quite the impact. Even when you feel like you have a lot of health and are safe you can suddenly lose 70% of your life to one hit of some big enemy and at that point you're basically one mistake from dying. This may sound like the game is really diffcult but it's not like you can't avoid taking damage. Besides a few weapons, most guns feel very strong and can do some serious damage and get stronger and stronger over the course of a playthrough with many different upgrades you can unlock which also applies to your character. What was a bit annoying was that sometimes it is weirdly annoying to hit certain enemies with certain guns where even when you're aiming directly at them the bullets seem to not go where you're shooting which is a bit weird but not that bad in the end. The way guns work is also a bit different from other games I've played. Instead of the usual "shoot, reload, shoot" this game works in a way where if you stop shooting a gun it will slowly reload itself and you can't manually reload. Once you run out of bullets most guns feature a small "quicktime event" where you have to hit a skillcheck to reload instantly and are otherwise forced to wait for some time. Speaking of guns, let's talk about the enemies. There is a good variety in enemy design and what the do with them starting of quite normal and "easy" but later reaching that point where you can really feel the bullet hell part of the game. Every now and then the was so much bullet hell happening that the time to actually attack the enemy was very limited and depending on the gun felt quite bad because some of them have to be charged, though I expected it so i wasn't annoyed by it. At some point in the story the same enemies you fought before change (won't say how or why as to not spoil anything) and gain new abilities and do more stuff in general which does keep it fresh even when you keep fighting the same enemies over and over. As for bosses I do like the way they're designed and their difficulty feels good though the last boss is way too easy in my opinion. The last thing I want to mention is the movement. While it feels quite good overall I had some issues with it feeling a bit too slippery which could be attributed to a skill issue but it made me tilt a few times due to me falling down into the void and losing health so there is that. Overall I strongly recommend the game and give it a 9.5/10 (-0.5 because of the movement [strike] or my skill issue [/strike])

The best thing about this game is the combat. i really like how smooth and fluid it feels, I am looking for games with similar feel, but i haven't had much luck.

It's fun. Was testing my 5090 with some games, tested this got sucked into it, plan on beating it. It does heat my processor up a bit, and has some stutters here and there but overall is a fun game.

There is so much in this game that I love. The movement and gun play is amazing. The dodging feels intuitive and is really satisfying to utilize. There is variation in the weapons that you can acquire, but not so much that it becomes overwhelming. This game also provides a nice challenge, and can be mildly difficult at times. In addition to all of this, it is possible to play this game co-op which alleviates some of the challenge, but increases the fun dramatically. If you enjoy rogue-likes, then I would recommend giving this game a try.

It's challenging, it's spooky, and it has great environment and sound design. Highly recommend if you like action sci-fi roguelike existential horror.

Great game, could have a bit more replayability imo and its a shame the co-op is a total afterthought. apart from that its a good experience

This would be a 10/10 on Steam if it wasn't for the glaring performance issues. If you have a Ps5 I would recommend playing it there [it was free at one point for PS+ Members]. The performance on PC can be hit or miss. You may find yourself in an area with multiple enemies and frames can drop down well below 60. While this is not a deal-breaker, it is very inconvenient when this game leans heavily into having a single life in a cycle.

Great atmosphere, great gameplay. Absolutely recommended.

After 40 hours and finally making it to the 5th biome, I've decided this is my favorite game Sony has published since Bloodbourne. Unique take on the Rogue-like genre due to blending strong production values with a gameplay loop you'd normally find from the Indie scene. I took me awhile to learn to be aggressive taking risks in terms of pickups but once I did, the game clicked. Movement and gun-play feel good. There's a nice variance in weapons. Returnal tells an interesting story while not asking you to put your controller down unlike most narrative driven games. Great atmosphere which calls back to the mystique I had the first time I played Metroid on the NES. This mashup of bullet time and Rogue-like genres contains great atmosphere, fun moment to moment gameplay, and an interesting mystery to unravel.