Returnal: Creative Story-Telling with Great Challenge

So I am going to be honest. I picked up this game blind not knowing anything about it. This is now going to be one of my favorite games of all time, and at worst it makes the top 10 in my list of all time greats.

Returnal tells the story of Selene who is stuck within a time loop, dying and returning to the site of her crash. She doesn't know why she is stuck in the loop, but she presses on exploring the alien planet known as Atropos. You fight off various alien lifeforms and proceed to discover what has caused you to be within this loop via flashbacks, hallucinations, and audio logs from her past self.

This is my first time playing a rougelike for more than five minutes and not getting bored. Usually I am very picky about my games, but I got this on a whim and was hooked instantly. A story that has you guessing what will happen next is something I have been missing in the game department. Every new audio file I grab I would sit and listen for any new information on the story. Also scenes within the house were always keeping me on the edge of my seat to figure out what would come next. Even after beating the game I was not able to figure out the story until I sat down and did some hard thinking and looking at other people’s thoughts. I am not saying the story is terrible, but it has a lot of different paths that could be interpreted depending on the person. I do think there is one correct answer, but you will need to dig a bit for it. The thinking and steps to figure out a game and piece together all of it was probably one of my favorite parts about this game. The story-telling is top notch, and for me that is naturally the most important part of any game for me.

The gameplay feels so smooth. I typically hate shooters, but when I pick up the controller I could not set it down. The movement and haptic feedback is top notch and shows off what this console can do. You not only hear raindrops on the controller, but you feel them too. I felt immersed in this gameplay without the headphones, and when I put them on. I can only describe it as the perfect immersion within the game.

The only thing I would even gripe about, and in the game it makes sense mostly, is the difficulty scaling. I think I struggle mostly on the third biome, while I can blow through the final biome not taking any damage. This is mostly due to attributes on the guns, which you get some VERY broken ones later on. And from what I see, there is a cap to certain proficiency levels in each biome. Once you hit 15 or higher, the game felt a little easier. You gain these levels by killing enemies and finding items that boost it. So the longer your run, the better. But it does not ruin it as you need to be able to juggle multiple enemies a lot and these attributes to guns help stay in the fray and no power-up will ultimately help you skimp on mechanics.

Overall, 5/5 a mastapiece and now I am going to jump back in now to platinum this game

Please watch your step 'cause I'm feeling myself
Throw a flag on the play, man somebody get the ref
Go blah da da da dol, man somebody get some help
Pulled up on the block
Hit the Quan