Returnal™

Amazing fast paced rogue lite.

[h1]Rating: 7.5-8/10 - Recommended on sale[/h1] [h2]Roguelike meets sci-fi thriller story[/h2] [h3]The good stuff:[/h3] + Developers nailed the atmosphere and ambience. I am a big fan of the retro-futuristic sci-fi aesthetic they have, especially with the menu UI (I also really like how you can hear the rain tapping on the screen when you pull it up, feels very atmospheric). The visual and sound design of each biome greatly help set up the cryptic journey you embark as you traverse through the planet. + Gunplay and movement feel great. Platforming through each room as you avoid enemy projectiles and shoot back in a bullet-hell fashion makes for a very fun gameplay loop. I especially enjoyed the overloading, stagger and adrenaline mechanics as it encouraged more aggression and quick-thinking from the player. + The parasite and malignancy systems make up for a very creative style of high-risk high-reward play. I enjoyed strategizing whether picking up a parasite or malignant item was worth it or not, and how with the right setup you can make some very fun builds out of them. + I liked how creative they got with some of the guns and gun abilities in this game, it felt more interesting to me than most typical gun styles we see in shooters + The bosses were fun both visually and gameplay-wise. The game did a good job at setting up a grandiose scene with each one with the amazing score and visuals. The boss designs were also just the right amount of creepy to fit-in with the game's story. + Enemy variety is good and helps keep each encounter fresh and fun + The story is very cryptic and open-ended by nature, making up for lots of confusion as you go through it. Even so, I think the way it was presented did a good job at keeping me engrossed throughout the whole game, to the point I was more and more interested to complete it just so I can better understand what was going on and the symbolism. I think its one of those stories where you either hate or love it for how many questions it leaves the player with. + Talking about the symbolism, without going into too much detail, I think it is awesome how much of Selene's character and story they explore through the set design alone. + I really like how well some items can synergize with each other to create some fun builds, and that those builds, despite being strong, aren't overpowered. You can wipe most rooms with ease but you still gotta be careful as things can quickly get out of control if you lose focus, and each resource you have at your disposal being valuable to the point you shouldn't be wasting them willy-nilly [h3]The not-so-good stuff:[/h3] - Although I think the gameplay and its elements are great, I do think the game misses a lot of that randomness that makes roguelikes interesting. There is not a whole lot of variety, both in maps and items but especially the maps. Maps have basically very common seeds they rotate through, which I don't mind particularly that much, but also the items are not very varied and you will quickly see all the guns, parasites effects, etc, making the game feel a bit monotonous at times. Some people may find the variety is good enough which I don't necessarily disagree with, but I also think most roguelikes tend to be much more vast and feel much more replayable because of it. Returnal's replayability feels lesser because of this to me. (The gun trait system does help keep the gun system more interesting, but still I just wish the game had an even greater scale of items and stuff to experiment with) - I wasn't a very big fan of how much backtracking you need to do for each level. It didn't bother me that much, but I think it slowed the gameplay down to a halt sometimes and killed some of the run momentum - I think many will find this game quite hard, although I actually do enjoy the difficulty and I think the game does an overall good job at balancing out the difficulty by allowing player builds to be very strong if you exploit the mechanics well and synergize items together. But, even I get a bit overwhelmed with the amount of visual clutter on the screen sometimes, and there were times I was very annoyed at falling off by accident or something while trying to dodge the multiple projectiles on my screen. - This is about the story, not a spoiler really but just in case I will mark it down. [spoiler]The story ended kind of abruptly, mostly due to the open-ended aspect I mentioned. I feel like they could've built it up a bit more before fully ending it there. [/spoiler] [h3]Final thoughts:[/h3] Returnal is definitely a very unique take on roguelikes which I overall enjoyed. The gameplay is very fun and I do enjoy the mix of action shooter with a bullet-like style. The movement felt smooth and fast-paced, I liked how well enemy encounters build off each other, and the boss fights were great, making up for a fun experience. I think it is quite telling that my biggest complaint can be kinda summarized as "I wish there was more", but the content that is there remains fun regardless. I also must note that I am a bit of an anomaly as I finished the game in 3 runs, which is probably a lot less than the devs intended, so for many the game may feel just the right size. I also think that for what it lacks in variety, Returnal compensates with its very intriguing story-telling that keeps you hooked until the end to figure out the mysteries of what is going on in this planet and Selene's mind. $80 is a lil pricy, but when it goes on sale I think the game is definitely worth a check out, especially if you are a big fan of bullet hells, action shooters or both

The gameplay is very fun, but it frequently freezes. I can't progress through the second area of the game due to the freezing. The game will also freeze while compiling shaders, requiring you to launch for a different file, which is buried in the file structure, rather than the normal steam launch options.

♥♥♥♥ the coop that was never playtested

really interesting game, thanks

Absolute gameplay