An art driven souls-lite game set in the rebirth of your home planet. Return home, explore the mutated landscapes, slash, roll, and shoot your way through enemies. Find parts to repair your ship and collect resources. Purchase items and equipment from merchants to fight ancient bosses.
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A minha empolgação inicial com Return foi morrendo com o tempo. O que começou como um jogo empolgante e diferente, virou uma experiência maçante, se tornando uma pesquisa por uma arma melhor incessantemente. Era orgânico, ficou chato.
cool style, promising setup, great artwork. 1d world without map, pointless "exploration", barely functional combat, cheesy bosses.
This game feels like a game design smoothie to me… Okay hear me out. It’s sorta like Hyper Light Drifter in its art style and world design. But it lacks the interesting combat and intrigue that its world had. It’s has light survival horror elements but that definitely should be taken with a grain of salt. Because these elements felt less and less present as the game went on. It has a world that feels like hollow knight’s world. But with less intrigue to dig deeper or lore that makes you ask questions about the nature of your quest. And it feels kinda souls-y? But without most of the depth that souls-likes bring. Not to say that this game is trying to blatantly copy other games. It definitely has its own identity and has plenty to enjoy. But throughout my playthrough I found myself drawing a lot of comparisons to other games. And finding that other games accomplished some of the ideas at play here a little better. Not saying anything was abysmally executed. Far from it. It’s just that there’s a lot to love. And a lot to be indifferent about.
But starting out with negatives doesn’t really do this game justice. Because there’s a lot to like on display here. The artstyle is definitely the thing that I enjoy most. Everything from you to monsters is shaded with blacks. And it’s only offset by vibrant colors in the background and on the sprites. It’s a super neat style that I don’t think I’ve ever seen a game do. The pixel art is beautiful. It makes the game feel really alive and lived in, by townspeople and aliens alike. And the soundtrack, while not outstanding, always fit the mood super well. And set up every area to be its own thing, and to have its own identity. If you choose to pick this one up because of its artstyle. You will not be disappointed. However the game’s other elements I find a little bit lacking. The combat is very simple and not super interesting. You get a melee option and a ranged option. You can find different weapons throughout the world so there’s variety at least. But the enemies aren’t satisfying to beat. The weapons aren’t satisfying to use. It’s very… bland… And the game is super short. Now this isn’t too big of a problem on the surface. But the fact that I beat it in a little under 4 hours and have no reason to jump into “new game plus” is a problem. There’s little reason to replay the game. The only thing that wasn’t accessible was a few weapons. Which didn’t bring me back in because the combat was very lacking. And while the adventure itself was fun for one playthrough. I have 0 interest in going back to this one unfortunately. So for $20 you’re getting about 4 hours of game time. With not very much replay value, which is a shame.
The price tag is my biggest holdback but I don’t dislike the game as a whole. It’s a fine, very pretty, and challenging souls-like with a neat world and awesome artstyle. I paid $16 for this one but I’d wait for it to go for a little cheaper. $10? $12? Something in that ballpark. But I can still recommend it, because I enjoyed my time with it despite its flaws.
3.5/5
But starting out with negatives doesn’t really do this game justice. Because there’s a lot to like on display here. The artstyle is definitely the thing that I enjoy most. Everything from you to monsters is shaded with blacks. And it’s only offset by vibrant colors in the background and on the sprites. It’s a super neat style that I don’t think I’ve ever seen a game do. The pixel art is beautiful. It makes the game feel really alive and lived in, by townspeople and aliens alike. And the soundtrack, while not outstanding, always fit the mood super well. And set up every area to be its own thing, and to have its own identity. If you choose to pick this one up because of its artstyle. You will not be disappointed. However the game’s other elements I find a little bit lacking. The combat is very simple and not super interesting. You get a melee option and a ranged option. You can find different weapons throughout the world so there’s variety at least. But the enemies aren’t satisfying to beat. The weapons aren’t satisfying to use. It’s very… bland… And the game is super short. Now this isn’t too big of a problem on the surface. But the fact that I beat it in a little under 4 hours and have no reason to jump into “new game plus” is a problem. There’s little reason to replay the game. The only thing that wasn’t accessible was a few weapons. Which didn’t bring me back in because the combat was very lacking. And while the adventure itself was fun for one playthrough. I have 0 interest in going back to this one unfortunately. So for $20 you’re getting about 4 hours of game time. With not very much replay value, which is a shame.
The price tag is my biggest holdback but I don’t dislike the game as a whole. It’s a fine, very pretty, and challenging souls-like with a neat world and awesome artstyle. I paid $16 for this one but I’d wait for it to go for a little cheaper. $10? $12? Something in that ballpark. But I can still recommend it, because I enjoyed my time with it despite its flaws.
3.5/5
Wonderfully sculpted dog vomit