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Returnal
By Chad Sapieha,
Common Sense Media Reviewer
Common Sense Media Reviewers
Punishing sci-fi shooter rewards player perseverance.
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Returnal
Community Reviews
Based on 3 parent reviews
"Souls-like" gameplay, undoubtedly a hard game.
Tricky game, Ok for all
What’s It About?
RETURNAL is a third-person shooter set on a mysterious alien world where it's seemingly impossible to permanently die. Selene, an astronaut from Earth, crash-lands on this planet, finding herself lost amid sprawling, ancient ruins. She's soon attacked -- and killed -- by some very aggressive aliens, only to wake up next to her ship unscathed and find the world around her has shifted and shuffled. Baffled and terrified, she heads out ... only to be killed and respawned again. Each time she ventures out, the world rearranges itself, and each time she's killed and wakes up, she realizes she's lost virtually all of the progress she's made -- her collected guns, weapon proficiency, and resources gone. All she's left with is the knowledge of what she's already experienced, which, hopefully, will be enough for her to make it a little further and learn a bit more of this strange world's secrets before she dies again. Eventually, she'll find her way to specific objectives, such as powerful bosses or locations that will help progress the story or reward her with specific bits of gear that won't disappear on respawn, such as a red energy blade that can cut through barriers to reveal hidden areas. But achieving objectives takes practice and skill, as well as a hard-won understanding of how the game's many consumables, boon-bestowing alien parasites, and gear can be used to your advantage to increase the odds of success during challenging battles. The Windows PC version of the game boasts enhanced graphics -- including new ray-tracing effects that improve details in lighting and shadows -- when running on high-end gaming rigs. It also adds the Tower of Sisyphus, Co-op modes, and Suspend cycles for play.
Is It Any Good?
This fast-paced action adventure isn't for the faint of heart, but it rewards the player's perseverance toward solving what's happening on this mysterious planet. Returnal assumes players understand (or perhaps teaches players the value of) tenacity, and that before you can claim a satisfying victory, you must first fail. A lot. And learn from those failures. The whole premise of the game is to fight to the bitter end, go down with your finger firmly on the trigger, and then wake up and do it all over again -- hopefully a little better. But it's not all doom and gloom. Assuming you make it a little further each time, you'll discover new items and strategies that you'll be able to use going forward, and you'll be rewarded with tantalizing bits of story -- such as alien scripts that must be translated, or a glimpse of Selene's pre-mission life -- that slowly but surely reveal what everything means. These are the dangling carrots that will keep dedicated players going, even after multiple deaths without any progress.
It all hinges on the action, though, which most players will likely either love or hate. The controls are tight and the weapons feel gratifyingly powerful. Developer Housemarque has made admirable use of some of the novel features of Sony's DualSense controller -- which can be used with the PC edition -- including the two-stage trigger for aiming, haptic feedback to quickly convey key information, and the built-in speaker to create a multidimensional soundscape. But the enemies themselves are of the "bullet curtain" variety, which means they emit huge waves of floaty energy balls in complex patterns that players must dodge by running, jumping, and dashing. Judging the depth and distance of these orbs as they approach is challenging at best, frustrating at worst. And since reaction time is vital, maintaining a crisp, high frame rate is key. This isn't a problem when playing on PlayStation 5, but if you try playing on a lower tier gaming PC, the frame rate will likely dip during busy scenes, which makes things even tougher. Even with a steady frame rate, it'll take time and effort to adapt to this style of combat. If you manage to make it through to the other side, though, you'll likely discover the reward to be worth the trouble. Returnal skips the mollycoddling and assumes players can take a bit of punishment, and there are plenty of serious gamers out there bound to take up the challenge.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about Selene's character strengths. How do you think you'd feel if you were placed in a situation where you were imperiled seemingly without end, and even death offered no escape? Is her courage and determination believable?
What would it be like to explore an alien world? Do you think people will ever go to planets outside our solar system? What might they find?
Game Details
- Platforms: PlayStation 5 , Windows
- Pricing structure: Paid ($69.99)
- Available online?: Available online
- Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment
- Release date: February 15, 2023
- Genre: Third-Person Shooter
- Topics: Adventures , Space and Aliens
- ESRB rating: T for Blood, Mild Language, Violence
- Last updated: February 24, 2023
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