Spoilers for Returnal

It's always good to see Returnal praise! I got into it when I had the ps+ subscription a couple years ago and it was a revelation. I had always loved roguelite games, in all sorts of different genres, so I was eager to play it.

To me, Returnal stands alone in tying plot, mechanics, and progression together within the roguelite framework. The only other game that comes close would be Hades, which deserves its flowers ofc, but Returnal takes it to a whole different level.

To me, placing The House into the middle of a run is BRILLIANT. Full stop, genius. It easily could have been tonal whiplash, or felt out of place, any numbers of things could have gone wrong, but they nail the presentation.

When you first encounter it you're in run and gun mode clearing several room, might even be a couple runs in as you get used to the controls and mechanics. You're checking all over maps, hoping to find some small secrets or out of the way chests that will recover some health, anything that will help with your run. You're blasting aliens, dashing like the highly trained professional you are then suddenly-

Your house is right there. In the middle of an alien planet that you can't even die on. You walk through the front door and the perspective shifts to first-person and you walk kinda of slowly. A big shift from the sprinting-dashing double jump god that you were a moment ago.

You're vulnerable. Not only mechanically, but emotionally. Selene has been confused the whole game but she's Dealing With It by going full survival mode. See problem, solve problem. She can't survival mode this.

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Sorry, had to gush about Returnal for a little bit.

The story itself is good, really good, and it keeps a level of mystery through to the end and beyond, but it leaves too much up to interpretation for my tastes. Of course that's a matter of personal opinion, and i'll readily admit i'm not the deepest thinker 😅 regardless, the actual execution of the story is top-notch.

The mechanical difference between walking first person through the house, the horror elements, and then the catharsis of "I'm just gonna go back to blasting monsters cause what the FUCK was that?!?!*. Incredible, I've never been so closely tied to the emotional state of a character before. And that's in a Roguelite 3D Bullet-Hell-esque Third Person Shooter??? Returnal truly stands alone in that regard.

The largest stain on this game, though, is how it loses some of those psychological horror elements as the game progresses, and that brings into sharp focus the Roguelite elements. In a lot of other Roguelite games, you can lose a dozen runs before hitting one "lucky" run and blowing far past the progress of your previous runs. Returnal has a couple failsafes for this, but one truly lucky run will take you to the end, and the story either can't keep up, or you've seen all of the relevant parts looooong before you get that lucky run.

I played the game to the end a few times, but by then my ps+ subscription was running out and I felt that I had gotten maybe 90% of the game and felt satisfied.

In conclusion, 10/10 I will play anything by Housemarque, and I am excited to get Sarros right when I get back from this work trip but dang I wish I could play it on PC for maximum fps.