When Returnal first came out in April this year -- and what a year -- I knew I was going to absolutely adore it. Everything about the look and sound, cribbing from such distinct sci-fi horror sources as Edge of Tomorrow, Prometheus, and Annihilation, just worked for me, in a way that made me rather annoyed that I didn't have a Playstation 5 to actually play it on.

And yet, the initial reaction seemed somewhat -- muted. To be clear, I'm not talking about a lack of coverage, oh no, one of the first true PS5 exclusives coming out in the middle of a bone-dry release drought meant everyone was talking about it, but the things most outlets and players had to say were... mixed. Like me, they were digging the style, but the actual gameplay was much more divisive. If I had a dime for every piece or blog or tweet I read around the time that said something to the effect of, "Returnal looks great and is a lot of fun to play, but it's punishingly difficult and the roguelike elements are dull," I'd probably be pretty close to having the $70 to pay for it.

I'm sure there's a larger conversation that could be had about this -- PS5 games continue to stir controversy simply by existing at the $70 price point. A AAA full-price roguelike is already a lot for some people to swallow, but one of the first AAA console exclusives at SEVENTY DOLLARS? O o f. And so, the initial reactions of a lot of people seemed to have the game caught in a Catch-22: either it was too content-light and repetitive to justify its $70 price tag, OR it was so excruciatingly difficult that no one in their right mind would ever finish it unless they enjoyed grinding a lot, OR, worst case, both.

So, not wanting to do the terminally online thing of "throwing myself in to defend the vague conception of a game I think I might enjoy against people who, you know, have actually played it" I simply kept quiet and marked the game off as, "you know what, I'm pretty sure I'm going to love this if I ever actually play it" in my head.

8 months later, PS5 in hand, I'm happy to report -- yeah, I love Returnal. But I'm not going to talk about what everyone already knows, that is, that it looks amazing and plays great -- yes, it does. Instead, I'm going to talk about the more controversial elements of the game and explore how they ended up mostly working for me.

Some Caveats

That being said, I'm going to clear something up right away, and that's that the Returnal of December 2021 is a very different beast from the Returnal of April 2021. Specifically, that it now has an actual "Suspend Run" feature that doesn't ask you to rely on the fickle PS5 rest mode to keep progress during runs. So yeah, up-front, I had a better experience than a lot of people because of this, and the lack of this feature at launch is downright inexcusable. It'd be one thing if this was a Hades or Dead Cells where runs last about 30 minutes to an hour, but no, Returnal runs go on for AGES, they're more Binding of Isaac length than anything, with lots of backtracking and such. Once you know what you're doing, you can finish a run in about an hour or an hour and a half, but on your first time? It's not an exaggeration to say it could go, 4, 5, 6 hours. That's a lot to ask for in one sitting. So already I'm having a better time than a lot of folks did at launch.

The other caveat is more simple: everything about the gameplay and feel is right up my alley, in a way where this was always going to be a stacked deck for my enjoyment. I love fast-paced, hectic games that are difficult (see, Super Hexagon, Devil Daggers, Ikaruga, Doom on higher difficulties, etc.) and make my reptile brain take over, so I didn't have nearly the same "wait what?" reaction to the bullet-hell inspirations.

With this all in mind, let's dive in earnest, with perhaps the most incendiary point up-front:

What Makes a Game Difficult?

I beat the game in about 14 hours with only 9 deaths, and on my very second run I got to the fifth biome. I spent a lot of time learning enemy patterns in the fifth biome, because there are these flying robot guys who are absolute fuckers to fight alongside some of the first enemies who have projectiles you can't dash through, but the first run I beat the fifth biome on was also the run where I beat the game (there are six environments overall). And so, when I recall my time with Returnal, the word "breezy" comes to mind, which is not at all the common experience.

Why this disparity? Well part of it may be just, the luck of a run. I don't recall any particularly busted items on that trailblazing second run, but I did keep my health up pretty regularly with the "2% of damage dealt is converted to health per each adrenaline level" ability. But of course, even that requires you to keep a consistent adrenaline level, which means not getting hit while killing at least 3 enemies, and it's absolutely useless in boss fights if you get hit once, so that didn't feel particularly unfair.

But overall, I have to say this game is a lot easier than I expected from all the chatter. Each biome has a "Reconstructor" that gives you, essentially, an extra life in each level for the low cost of 6 Ether. This isn't to mention the extra life artifacts and parasites you can find. On one run I had, essentially, four lives, and this wasn't even playing Optimally either, this was picking up any old weapon to grind new Traits in the last area of the game. Once you finish an area, it's very easy to just run to the warp to the next zone on subsequent runs, and they don't require you to fight bosses again. And those bosses? I beat each one on my first try. They're a lot of fun, they're incredible to look at, and the bullet hell/phases make it feel like a struggle, but they're pretty simple patterns.

So yes, Returnal is difficult, but there's not too much "Bullshit" in the game that makes it feel slanted against the player. I think players are responding to something else that I'll get into in a moment.The only examples of truly egregious/rotten moments I can think of from my time with it were: one time watching a friend play, they jumped into a side room they shouldn't have been able to access yet -- essentially, a room with the floor as lava before they got the upgrade that let them walk through it without being hurt -- and the game's hit reactions kept throwing him further back from the exit, creating an essential death trap that ruined an otherwise fantastic run. That was bullshit. Or the time I dropped into an enemy arena, and two huge enemies spawned right next to me and hit me before Selene's "I have dropped a large distance" landing animation finished playing. I survived, but that was a feelbad moment. Plus, some attacks have heavy knockdowns that can put you in rough spots as you're standing up. What people might be responding to, though, is...

Returnal is a Swingy-Ass Game

And by that I mean most of the core gameplay, like you'd expect from Housemarque's arcade shooter background, is incredibly momentum based, and this can be exhilarating and heartbreaking in equal measure. That adrenaline system I mentioned earlier? It's essentially a combo meter -- get lots of kills without getting hit, and you start getting significant bonuses. Such significant bonuses, in fact, that it begins to feel like they're not a reward or bonus, but a necessary part of the game, and not having them is a punishment rather than the status quo. The rewards are, "Increased Weapon Proficiency," as in, the stat that dictates how good the weapons you find are. Okay, that's essential. "Increased Melee Damage," eh. "Seeing enemies through walls" YEP that helps. "Increased Reload Window" -- so Returnal operates with an active reload mechanic for guns, but unlike a Gears of War where you have plenty of time to focus on the reload, you tend to do this while you're dashing through a swarm of bullets or running from a charging enemy. So it's pretty stressful, but the rewards for getting it right give you extra and more damaging bullets, so -- that also begins to feel Essential. And finally, for getting to level 5 adrenaline, you get +50% of all currency found in the environment or dropped by enemies, plus a one-time shield that absorbs a hit for free. That is HUGE. And getting those bonuses is the difference between being able to afford an item in the shop or several, because the prices are rather steep -- we're talking 350 for a lot of items, 150 or 200 if it's cheaper. So when you don't get adrenaline? Or it's a particularly difficult run? You don't just feel out of a flow state, you feel starved out of parts of the economy.

The result is a game with hard swings at any point which make it engaging, but also potentially stressful. Fights can go from hopeless to cakewalk or back in the span of just a few seconds. But what I really enjoy about this setup?

Returnal Depends on the Player's Mastery of the Mechanics to Progress

Roguelikes have evolved in an interesting way this past decade or so. When the Rogue renaissance first started picking up in earnest with Binding of Isaac and FTL, these games leaned heavily into the player's own skill and adaptability being the main driver of progression. For example, when you start a new run in Isaac or FTL, the only difference is your knowledge of the game's items, and hopefully, your skill in the gameplay. Isaac especially is all about "what does that pill do? Oh, it sucks, great," and then knowing not to pick it up on a future run. FTL has different ships that unlock over time, and Isaac allows you to unlock new characters, but these are each just variations on the core gameplay, and no one ship or character is going to just make the game easier. Risk of Rain 2 is similar, the only progression being new characters and items.

Contrast this with the contemporary etiquette for roguelikes with examples like Dead Cells, Hades, and Rogue Legacy, which allow you to carry permanent upgrades from run to run -- health, damage, etc. This has the positive effect of making players feel like they have something to work toward -- even the most botched run gives them X amount of experience or gold or whatever toward unlocking the next permanent upgrade that'll make their future runs just a little bit easier. It makes sense, and given the universal acclaim for these games, it obviously works and resonates with players. But here's the thing, and this may be the hottest take in this essay:

I really, really don't like this.

I've beaten Dead Cells and Hades, and while I acknowledge that both of them, Hades especially, are objectively amazing games -- Hades' art, story, gameplay are all (chef's kiss) -- this progression system kind of encourages some of the most boring play patterns possible. It encourages grinding to make future runs easier. It reminds me of early days Dark Souls advice to grind with the Drake Sword to buff your stats -- yes, that technically works, and yes, it makes the game easier, but is that actually any fun? No! The answer is absolutely not. (It might not surprise you at this point that Sekiro is one of my favorite From games, simply for that precision of focus and discouragement from boring play.)

So when I'm beating Hades for the tenth time to get the actual ending, if not the truest true ending, I don't actually feel accomplished, I feel like I put in the minimum number of hours to make the experience easier for me. Genuinely, I have no clue how much better at the game I got, I just know my health bar is bigger and I have more lives. And it's not like Hades doesn't have that high skill ceiling -- speedruns of that game are amazing and the builds can get really wild and fun -- but it's just the main storyline never really asks you to engage with that as much as I'd like.

Enter Returnal, which transfers nothing between runs but potential new items to find and new routes and Metroid-esque abilities. That's it. The abilities unlock additional loot in each area, so you do get a benefit, but are still asked to engage with the game mechanics to the fullest. By the end of Returnal, you will be better at the core mechanics, to the point that when I retried the first area, I sped through the first three levels in about an hour and not feeling in danger once. It's a very rewarding curve.

Of course, this also has the flipside: if you do not get to a certain level of proficiency with the mechanics you will not have an easy time progressing. And this is what I think everyone responded to so vehemently when it came out -- they were expecting the Hades style of progression, and instead found something much more akin to Binding of Isaac.

The one thing I'll potentially call a misstep is the fact that Returnal has such an upfront story component -- something that makes players want to see your game through -- but then gating it behind such a gameplay-centric progression system. Hades might not be my favorite as a game, but it makes total sense why they made it so easy to engage with --- they knew players would want to see it through! And I think Returnal is a little cruel for not even giving people the option, or an "Easy Mode Toggle," or anything like that.

Returnal is a Good Roguelike

Something else that surprised me was how well the roguelike mechanics worked for me. Especially in the early game, a lot of the items, weapons, and bonuses feel kind of samey, but once you unlock stuff in the later games some very specialized builds can come about. Melee builds, adrenaline builds, lifegain builds, shield-heavy builds, these are all doable and change your playstyle a fair bit. Plus, the ways you can synergize between parasites and abilities is really neat -- for example, some parasites give you substantial bonuses but increase your Alt-Fire cooldown. This is usually a bad thing, but some abilities give you +10% armor when your alt-fire is on cooldown. So these two go very well together, and I think all of Returnal's abilities are very intelligently set up like this. I think the closest comparison to an RPG I could make is Borderlands -- the upgrades appear very dry and statistical, but they can result in some fun, broken builds. But if you're expecting any crazy upgrades like Risk of Rain, you'll be disappointed.

Another surprise is there's more weapon variety than I was led to believe at first. The pistol and assault rifle feel pretty similar, but there's some big changes to both that can happen that change the feel quite a bit. (High Caliber fires slow and heavy rounds, where Rising Pitch makes the assault rifle feel more like a rapid fire LMG.) Aside from those, late game guns get more interesting. My favorite is the Electropylon Driver, which shoots out pylons that create webs of electricity around them -- this lets you shoot enemies offensively and put down traps near yourself defensively, but it's also a genuinely viable and powerful weapon.

The Story...

...is fine. The world and feel and tone are incredibly promising, and there are some creepy atmospheric sequences, but the actual resolution and payoff is underwhelming. I don't want to spend all this time learning about a cool, creepy alien planet only to learn it was all a fever dream. Seriously, I thought writers were past this!

I Don't Know How to Wrap This Up

So yeah! This is a little more scattershot than the stuff I usually write up on here, but I just finished the game and truly loved my time with it, so I wanted to get this all out there while my opinions were still fresh. I totally get why some people bounced off of it so hard, but I think a fair bit of that had to do with the nonexistent save system. If you're interested, I say check it out! But maybe on a sale, because $70 is a lot.