Hi, this is my second post on my blog, this time I decided it will be a game review, as I warned you in the first post this blog will be chaotic. After two years I finally finished the last act of Returnal yesterday. This text is an attempt to review the game, and to justify hours I spent in it. Returnal is a 2021 roguelike produced by Housemarque studio It was nominated for multiple awards, and won Best action game category.
First I wanted to tell you something about the plot. You play as Selene, a scout for Astra corporation, who investigates a mysterious signal called white shadow that comes from planet Atropos. Despite restrictions, she decides to land on the planet and further investigate, but unfortunately her ship crashes during the approach . Selene survives the crash, and goes to investigate surroundings. Soon she finds the corpse of another Astra scout, by the id on the helmet she realizes it’s her own dead body. Shortly after, she is killed by local fauna and wakes up back in the landing zone. Selene realizes she is trapped inside a time loop that is somehow linked to the White shadow. In order to break the loop she has to find a signal source. The plot contains a lot of analogies to Greek mythology, especially in names of the characters like Selene. Story could be confusing at times, but there are explanations to be found on the internet. When you finally understand the plot you will find how good the story is.
Returnal stands out not only because of its nontrivial story, but also because it is the one of a few if not the only AAA roguelike. (Quick explanation for those who never encountered those terms: Roguelike is a game where after dying you lose most of the progress, and AAA game is just a game with a high budget). Returnal stands out as a roguelike because of being a high budget production.
Roguelike is a challenging genre, and Returnal is no exception. By the time I finished the game my playtime was around 74 hours. Experienced players are capable of finishing the game in 20, while others may struggle to finish the game at all. Returnal is a game made for patient recipients, dying here is part of learning the game, with every death you will become better at the game until you finish it. After longer runs (they can take up to two hours) I found I needed to take a break from the game for a day or so, but after that I always wanted to try one more time.
The reason is that the game is extremely enjoyable. Fighting requires constant movement and is challenging. Gameplay itself is fast-paced, compared to slower pace that can be found in other games. Game encourages players to revisit locations, as newly unlocked abilities let them explore areas previously out of reach.
The visuals in the game are stunning, resembling locations from some horror movies. Ruins look grim, and induce feelings known from movies like Alien. Amount of details only improves it. Music on the other hand is a bit less great, don’t take me wrong it’s good and atmospheric, but you seem to fade in the background. I’m really glad the creators added “Don’t fear the reaper” to the game, which is the best part of the Returnal audio.
Overall, the game is one of the best I’ve ever played and deserves at least 9 out of 10. I highly recommend it to people interested in roguelikes and/or challenging games. I do hope that Housemarque will continue to make games like this.