Thankfully the gameplay suffers no such fault.Īlthough Housemarque has no real experience with third person action games the first thing you realise about Returnal is what a great shooter it is. The game isn’t plot heavy but continuing revelations see you begin to question Selene’s past and her state of mind before and after the crash, although we’d warn you in advance that the ending leaves a great deal up to your own interpretation and is unlikely to fully satisfy anyone. When Selene inevitably dies, she finds herself waking up from the crash once again, with (almost) everything reset back the way it was, in true roguelike fashion. All the intro reveals is that you play astronaut Selene, who crash lands on an alien world full of angry, tentacled monsters that seem to have wiped out the original inhabitants. Lovecraft to Stanisław Lem, with very little information given at first. The story is also an unlikely mishmash of influences, from H.P. There are smaller steals from other games, such as the active reload system from Gears Of War, but, despite the third person view, it’s definitely Metroid Prime that comes across as the primary inspiration. A cross between Dark Souls and Metroid Prime is probably the simplest way to describe the game, but the structure is that of roguelikes such as Hades and Dead Cells, while the third person gunplay also folds in aspects of bullet hell 2D shooters. Returnal may be a brand new IP but its heady mix of influences are clear to see. The end result won’t be for everyone but it’s an absolute triumph nonetheless. That gamble has paid off handsomely, though, with a game that marries the best of old school arcade gameplay with elements of roguelikes, Metroidvania, and surprisingly serious storytelling. They essentially bet everything on a completely new property, something companies many times their size never dare to do. They first tried to jump aboard the battle royale band wagon with Stormdivers but stopped working on it, and all other projects, to concentrate on Returnal. That was upsetting not just because they’re so good at them but because of the obvious difficulty, and financial risk, of transitioning to more complex AAA titles. They’re best known for PlayStation indie titles Stardust and Resogun but unfortunately not for the excellent Nex Machina, a fantastic top-down shooter whose commercial failure led to them foreswearing the development of old school arcade games. Returnal is by Finnish developer Housemarque who, despite a rather short gameography, have been going since the Amiga demo days of the early 90s.
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