Developer: Housemarque
Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment
Platforms: PS5
Release date: April 30 2021
Genre: Roguelite shooter
The story follows Selene, a Greek-American ASTRA deep space scout who, during one of her missions, disobeys orders for the first time in her carreer to follow the mysterious White shadow broadcast. This will lead her to crash on the planet Atropos, a seemingly sentient and full of hostile fauna celestial body. Here she will discover that, upon death, she will re-experience her crash on the planet leading to a series of loops where Selene will discover the secrets of an ancient civilization and those of her own past.
Selene: Main character of the game, Selene is an intelligent and resourceful ASTRA deep space scout, specialized in space and planetary exploration with an expertise in combat and an avid curiosity for the mysteries of space.
Atropos: Even if it is mainly the setting where the story of Returnal will unfold, Atropos is a character in and of itself with its ever-changing nature, its different biomes (from forests to swamps, barren deserts, snow covered mountains, ancient alien citadels and more) and the secrets that it holds about its past inhabitants.
The Astronaut: Selene is constantly stalked in her dreams and in her visits to a mysterious house that keeps showing up during her exploration of Atropos by an Astronaut wearing a much older suit than her own. Who is this enigmatic figure?
The game features a number of base weapons that are augmented as you play. For example, the living Spitmaw Blaster weapon starts as a shotgun archetype you all know and love. As you progress, you'll unlock and add on various Weapon Traits, each providing a unique gameplay modifier to the base weapon's behavior. These Weapon Traits are custom tailored for each gun type – so your Spitmaw Blaster might gain exploding shells or generate acid pools upon impact; while the Electropylon Driver might extract extra loot from enemies, or generate shields for the player. These Weapon Traits will also stack, so the combined effects can lead to many surprising results that can have unique advantages and playstyles to explore. Each weapon will also have an alt-fire mode randomly assigned to it from our diverse pool, ranging from the electrical impulses of the Shockstream to the tentacles of the Tendrilpod, and everything in between.
These can be used without ever taking your finger off the trigger using the default control scheme: with the adaptive trigger on the DualSense controller, just press L2 halfway to aim down the sights and use the main fire of your weapon, and squeeze it all the way down to enter your alt-fire mode.
With 10 base weapons, more than 90 Weapon Traits (each with three levels)and 10 alt-fires, there are numerous weapon combinations to test out on your journey.
Mycomorph: A large fungus-like entity that can launch its own spores which slows down targets movement.
Titanops: Moves fast by lunging and jumping to get into range, where it can maim its target with its bladed limb.
Automaton: In addition to the rapidly firing guns, can use its claws to lash at the target or grab them.
Gorgolith: An ambush predator that lies under the sand. Can use its tail or tongue to lash at its target
Ixion: [NOT FOUND]
Infected scout: [NOT FOUND]
And more
Trailers playlist:
Housecast playlist:
1. What is Returnal?
Returnal is a third-person shooter featuring roguelike, Metroidvania and bullet-hell elements. Set in a futuristic science fiction setting, the player controls Selene, a space pilot, equipped with a suit and armed with high-tech weapons, who is stranded on an alien planet and stuck in a time loop.
2. Who are Housemarque?
Headquartered in Helsinki, Finland, Housemarque is a game developer working on console and PC. True to our core gamer audience, we prioritize stratified gameplay mechanics and impeccable audiovisual execution to create euphoric gaming experiences.
Housemarque was co-founded in 1995 by Harri Tikkanen and Ilari Kuittinen. Prior to joining forces, Harri and Ilari founded two of Finland's first game development studios – Bloodhouse and Terramarque.Today, Housemarque is one of the most experienced and well-known developers of downloadable games for console platforms, with a successful track record spanning 20+ years. Housemarque has developed arcade hits such as: Super Stardust HD, Resogun, Alienation, Nex Machina, Dead Nation, Matterfall and many others.
3. What is a Roguelike and how does it differ from a Roguelite like Returnal?
Inspired by the game Rogue, Roguelikes are games that have permadeath as a pillar of their game design and make use of procedural generation to ensure that each "Run" (each life basically) is different from the other. Roguelikes also feature inventory management and a big focus on improving your character throughout a run. Roguelites are games that retain certain elements of Roguelikes, but change others like the ability for the player to mantain some degree of progress after each death or being able to move freely between different areas after having beaten their corresponding bosses like in Returnal's case.
4. How does a run work in Returnal?
This IGN video is really useful for it: (374) Returnal: Gameplay Time Loop Explained - YouTube
5. Any technical details?
Returnal runs at a dynamic 4k/60fps and features Ray-Traced Global Illumination and 3D audio support.
Useful Links: Discover eight key ways Returnal pushes design, technology and gameplay boundaries on a new generation of hardware.
Deciphering the narrative-driven procedural horror of Returnal (Interview from Unreal Engine)
Review thread
Housemarque Discord
Many many thanks to Joule for allowing me to make this and for the suggestions, to Hey Please for the gifs, to Jawbreaker for the OT title, to Nagito for the closing picture and to my brother for the massive help with graphics and formatting.
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