Patterns that seemed challenging at first became laughable as I mastered the game's many systems, and it feels great to complete encounters with finesse.Īvoiding things is half of the battle. Several times I said to myself, “No way,” as the game pushed another blitz of swirling projectiles onto my screen, but with well-timed dodges and jumps, I shocked even myself. Throughout the game, you may be surprised at just what you can accomplish in this regard. Boss battles take this to the next level, and you will find yourself relying on muscle memory and perhaps uttering a quick prayer while attempting to dodge growing rings, moving barriers, and hundreds of projectiles at varying speeds simultaneously. Learning each pattern on standard enemies is a constant battle as you progress, as new and deadlier abilities and patterns regularly appear. Players must avoid various objects on the screen, each with its own pattern and directional movement. With each traversal find, you breathe a sigh of relief as a checkpoint is locked in.Īpplying learned knowledge to situations and scenarios carries over to combat, which is incredibly fast and rooted in the “bullet-hell” genre. Every time you find one of these new tools feels incredible as you can finally access areas that have taunted you with treasures for many, many runs. As you make progress, areas that you couldn’t previously access become available via tools like a grappling hook, hazard-protection boots, the ability to travel underwater, and more. In addition to the temporary build that you craft each run, there are other permanent unlocks for your character to uncover. Exploring carefully and mastering each space can lead to discovering hidden powerups tucked away in hard-to-find places, whether they are behind false walls or just out of sight on a precipice above. The exploration through the biomes is procedurally generated in some respects, but you learn to recognize rooms and what’s inside each one over time. Try not to get spoiled by the story before playing the game, as it’s a pleasure to put together clue-by-clue. When things were at their worst after a few failed runs, at least I was learning more about the mysteries that tie the world together. While anything but a blissful fairy tale, the narrative functions more like a soothing balm to the endless cycle of doomed runs and discomforting discoveries. The story is communicated slice-by-slice over time as you work through different biomes, with each narrative piece adding one element to a larger puzzle that’s a pleasure to work out. Still, some players may find these asks to be outside of their enjoyment range.Īs Selene, who gets stranded on an alien planet, your journey on Atropos brings questions and exciting revelations. I felt that the challenges presented by Returnal enhanced the nature of the unknown alien planet and that these elements contributed positively to the overall game. Being willing to learn and ready to adapt your strategies and glean takeaways for future runs is essential. Death is inevitable and can be devastating. While this adds to the overarching horror elements that exude from Returnal’s core and enhances the sweaty grip-for-your-life moment of slaying a massive boss, it’s important to note that it’s possible to lose hours of potential progress in mere seconds should things go awry. There are no difficulty dials to tweak, so the experience can feel overbearing at times, especially in one of the later stages. Returnal is a challenging game that puts relatively high demands on the player.
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