Returnal Review

9/10

Returnal is a (you ready for this?) 3rd person action shooter that is rogue-like with 'bullet-hell' like combat sequences and a story delivered in a quality not unlike many games in the horror genre. As awkward as that sentence was to situate, this game delivers an experience unlike any game I have ever played. All of the elements I have just mentioned have been experienced before in other titles, but I've never played a game that executes so many styles so well and makes them all fit cohesively. Not to make an excuse for a 1st time review to leave out information but the less you know about this game going into it, the better. Discovery is the name of the game and the rogue-like structure plays nicely with how the story is interpreted to the player.

The visuals range from uncomfortable to awe inspiring with Housemarque (the developer) hitting on every atmosphere they intend to bring to life. You can tell this game was built from the ground up with PS5 hardware in mind with some of these sprawling locations appearing in an instant in front of your eyes. The specific high speed storage requirements that Sony still hasnt 100% confirmed clearly had games like Returnal in mind in terms of what performance is needed to deliver the intended experience.

Gameplay is smooth considering how chaotic the action can get and the range of available weapons should find a way to make any style of action fan feel comfortable, and most importantly, powerful. Within these weapon types there are categories of traits that even make the same weapon feel like it plays 2 or 3 different ways.

To me, the combat and gameplay are the areas that I feel deserve the most praise, even with the visuals and sound design (also top notch) being as incredible as they are.

Im skipping the story entirely because every "Wait, what?" moment is drive to get back in and play again.

This game took me 60+ hours to Platinum and I think deserves a 9/10. This is a system seller in my eyes.