So this game was basically just made for me. An arcade arena shooter masquerading as a roguelike, with an interesting narrative, a gorgeous sci-fi aesthetic in a bunch of cool environments, and probably the best third person shooting ever conceived.
And really that last one is all that really matters. Returnal is absolutely fantastic action game, nothing more, nothing less. Whilst it is a third person shooter, it resembles Housemarque's own Nex Machina and the likes of Twin stick shooters for the most part, with a heavy focus on enemy prioritisation, strafing, and "cutbacks" through gaps in enemy attacks, formations and such to gain positional advantages. Throw in a extremely versatile melee attack with some generous snap-to-target, a dash, and a grappling hook you get in the second area and it's just super good. It's particularly great at adapting the style to the third dimension using environmental features and verticality to evade enemy attacks and bullet formations. Add on top of that a limited, but extremely fun and varied set of weapons, and it just works so damn well. The large arena fights in particular are an absolute joy.
And then you throw on top the roguelike elements. It's a mixed bag in that whilst I feel a lot of it is pretty pointless, there's a few little aspects of it that lend such a huge amount to the game. The first is the sheer tension this adds to runs. Returnal is all about tension, the feeling of getting so far and ending back at the start with very little to your name. It makes the encounters feel even better, makes every loss of health worse, and punishes you hard when you fuck up. It's basically like getting to a lategame stage of an arcade game, and it works so well. Also ties fairly nicely with the aesthetic and narrative.
And of all things for the narrative to be actually good was the one thing I was not expecting. The closest comparison I can think of to it would be Alex Garland's Annihalation. I wouldn't want to go much further than that, but I think if you're into that sort of thing, or maybe things like Silent Hill's narratives, you'll dig this, and I certainly did. It also has some fantastic wham moments. It maybe relies a bit too hard on the use of audiologs, and this sort of narrative is never going to be for everyone, but I thoroughly liked it, and it all came together nicely for me in the end.
It's a bit rough around the edges - how it launched without a save system is beyond me, the weapon and difficulty balance is a bit weird, there's not a huge amount of different rooms per biome, and I would appreciate more difficulty options - and I get the impresison a lot of this stuff will be addressed in patches, fortunately.
But don't let any of that put you off. This is for my money, the best third person shooter ever made by a long shot, as well as just one of the finest action games available - and when you interweave that with it's presentation and narrative, it ends up something really quite special.
And really that last one is all that really matters. Returnal is absolutely fantastic action game, nothing more, nothing less. Whilst it is a third person shooter, it resembles Housemarque's own Nex Machina and the likes of Twin stick shooters for the most part, with a heavy focus on enemy prioritisation, strafing, and "cutbacks" through gaps in enemy attacks, formations and such to gain positional advantages. Throw in a extremely versatile melee attack with some generous snap-to-target, a dash, and a grappling hook you get in the second area and it's just super good. It's particularly great at adapting the style to the third dimension using environmental features and verticality to evade enemy attacks and bullet formations. Add on top of that a limited, but extremely fun and varied set of weapons, and it just works so damn well. The large arena fights in particular are an absolute joy.
And then you throw on top the roguelike elements. It's a mixed bag in that whilst I feel a lot of it is pretty pointless, there's a few little aspects of it that lend such a huge amount to the game. The first is the sheer tension this adds to runs. Returnal is all about tension, the feeling of getting so far and ending back at the start with very little to your name. It makes the encounters feel even better, makes every loss of health worse, and punishes you hard when you fuck up. It's basically like getting to a lategame stage of an arcade game, and it works so well. Also ties fairly nicely with the aesthetic and narrative.
And of all things for the narrative to be actually good was the one thing I was not expecting. The closest comparison I can think of to it would be Alex Garland's Annihalation. I wouldn't want to go much further than that, but I think if you're into that sort of thing, or maybe things like Silent Hill's narratives, you'll dig this, and I certainly did. It also has some fantastic wham moments. It maybe relies a bit too hard on the use of audiologs, and this sort of narrative is never going to be for everyone, but I thoroughly liked it, and it all came together nicely for me in the end.
It's a bit rough around the edges - how it launched without a save system is beyond me, the weapon and difficulty balance is a bit weird, there's not a huge amount of different rooms per biome, and I would appreciate more difficulty options - and I get the impresison a lot of this stuff will be addressed in patches, fortunately.
But don't let any of that put you off. This is for my money, the best third person shooter ever made by a long shot, as well as just one of the finest action games available - and when you interweave that with it's presentation and narrative, it ends up something really quite special.