Returnal is a game I never thought I would beat. It's first stage and boss are so brutal I feel most players will spend most of their total playtime stuck here. Once you start to master the game and beat the first boss, the rest of the game starts to come significantly easier. Because of this extreme difficulty curve its hard for me to try to convince people who have given up on it to try again. They will most likely fail, and fail, and fail until hours later when they finally get it. I can't in good conscious say to those people struggling here that they have to or should suffer through this in order to make it through to the end. But, if somehow you do claw your way out of the first stage like Selene fighting through this impossible loop, I think the game is absolutely special and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it since I beat it.
The art direction in this game is absolutely mesmerizing. Glowing flora and fauna in a dark rainy forest, a giant lifeless desert that hides a tall mountain among its rock formation and sandstorms, gigeresque city scapes that blend mechanical veins with stone, its all done fantastically well. I loved being in the ever-shifting world of Returnal, and I feel sad that the difficulty/pacing of the game had me spend so much more time in the forest rather than the later areas.
Gameplay is fast paced and addicting, and while it gets easier to overcome the more you play it, it never becomes easy. It demands your attention all the way through. The bullet hell attacks are done in cool shapes and styles and keep the pressure on always. The bosses, despite them being very few, were all absolutely fantastic in design and mechanics. After I beat this game, I wanted to play more. The story was also a very unexpected plus for me in the end.
I wont spoil the entire game's story here on a review, but while I was expecting much more concrete progression in the logical events of the story, I was instead given something more unexpected. The story is like the world, illogical and impossible to fully understand, but the focus of the story is much more interested in the emotions of the player and the character. Symbolism, allusion, and subtext are king when it comes to putting everything together. I haven't played a game that pulled off a story quite like this ever. It's very impressive with what they were able to tell with what little direct story telling they provide.
All in all I loved this game. I can't in good consciousness give it a perfect review because of the issues with difficulty and pacing I outlined in the first paragraphs, but I would have no problem recommending this game to anyone with a PS5.
-PS, the adaptive trigger alt fire is EASILY the best and most innovative feature I've seen with a controller ever and I'd love to see more of it.
The art direction in this game is absolutely mesmerizing. Glowing flora and fauna in a dark rainy forest, a giant lifeless desert that hides a tall mountain among its rock formation and sandstorms, gigeresque city scapes that blend mechanical veins with stone, its all done fantastically well. I loved being in the ever-shifting world of Returnal, and I feel sad that the difficulty/pacing of the game had me spend so much more time in the forest rather than the later areas.
Gameplay is fast paced and addicting, and while it gets easier to overcome the more you play it, it never becomes easy. It demands your attention all the way through. The bullet hell attacks are done in cool shapes and styles and keep the pressure on always. The bosses, despite them being very few, were all absolutely fantastic in design and mechanics. After I beat this game, I wanted to play more. The story was also a very unexpected plus for me in the end.
I wont spoil the entire game's story here on a review, but while I was expecting much more concrete progression in the logical events of the story, I was instead given something more unexpected. The story is like the world, illogical and impossible to fully understand, but the focus of the story is much more interested in the emotions of the player and the character. Symbolism, allusion, and subtext are king when it comes to putting everything together. I haven't played a game that pulled off a story quite like this ever. It's very impressive with what they were able to tell with what little direct story telling they provide.
All in all I loved this game. I can't in good consciousness give it a perfect review because of the issues with difficulty and pacing I outlined in the first paragraphs, but I would have no problem recommending this game to anyone with a PS5.
-PS, the adaptive trigger alt fire is EASILY the best and most innovative feature I've seen with a controller ever and I'd love to see more of it.
chandler
1 year ago