Returnal

 

Developers : Housemarque

Publishers : Sony Interactive Entertainment

Platforms : PS5

            Eternal is a powerful roguelike recipe offering intense combat a drip fed narrative of palpable dread and a cohesive combination of artistic elements. House marks third person shooter delivers lightning fast action transfused with incredible exploration featuring equal doses of intensity and lingering unease every run is the start of something new but what you learn over many failures provides an extra edge as you attempt to chart the Sci Fi for a world of Atropos eternal deftly combines gameplay graphics and musical composition to create a haunting tapestry that's an absolute joy to partake in. Even when I miss time dodge or a sinister trap cleans your life or turtles a challenging game that puts relatively high demands on the player. There are no difficulty dials to tweak so the experience can feel overbearing at times, especially in one of the later stages. While this adds to the overarching horror elements that exude from Eternals core and enhances that sweaty grip for your life moment of slaying a massive boss. It's important to note that is possible to lose hours of potential progress in mere seconds should things go awry, death is inevitable and can be devastating. Being willing to learn and ready to adapt your strategies and glean takeaways for future runs is essential. I felt that the challenges presented by return or enhance the nature of the unknown alien planet and these elements contributed positively to the overall game. Still, some players may find these asks to be outside of their enjoyment range.

            As Celine who gets stranded on an alien planet, your journey on Atropos brings questions and exciting revelations. The story is communicated slice by slice over time as you work through different biomes with each narrative piece adding one element to our larger puzzle. That's a pleasure to work out while anything but a blissful fairy tale. The narrative functions more like a soothing bombed the endless cycle of doomed runs and discomforting discoveries. 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. Also, try not to get spoiled by the story before playing the game as it's a pleasure to put together clue by clue.

            The exploration to the biomes is procedurally generated in some respects, but you learn to recognize rooms and what's inside each one over time. This knowledge is power. Exploring carefully and mastering each space can lead to discovering hidden power. UPS tucked away in hard to find places, whether they're behind false walls or just out of sight on a precipice above. In addition to the temporary build that you craft each run, there are other permanent unlocks for your character to uncover as you make progress. Areas that you can previously access become available via tools like a grappling hook hazard protection boots, the ability to travel underwater, and more. 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 but each traversal find you breathe a sigh of relief as a checkpoint is locked in.

            Applying learn knowledge to situations and scenarios carries over to combat which is incredibly fast and rooted in the bullet hell genre. Players must avoid various objects in the screen each with its own pattern and directional movement. Learning each pattern on standard enemies is a constant battle as you progress as new and deadlier abilities and patterns regularly appear. 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. Throughout the game you may be surprised at just what you can accomplish in this regard several times I said to myself no way as the game pushed another blitz of swirling projectiles onto my screen but with longtime dodges and jumps I shot even myself. patterns that seem challenging at first became laughable as I mastered the games many systems and it feels great to complete encounters with finesse. 

            Avoiding things is half the battle. The other half is shooting back and maternal you unlock a variety of different weapons with various modes of fire and trades to unlock over time, which is sort of a permanent progression mechanic that improves your damage output from run to run. I became a huge fan of the rocket and grenade launcher archetypes and their various tweaks which allow me to pay more attention to getting out of the way while issuing my payloads. However, you never really know which weapon will be your best option during a run so you had to become comfortable using a lot of them regardless, this keeps things fresh and have me stuck with one of my least favorite weapons during a particularly tough boss fight. But it's all part of the freshness that comes with each run. You never know what you're going to get and you have to use everything together to survive in true roguelike fashion. You may have runs with excellent weapons where you make a ton of progress across multiple biomes and and others do you may perish or rumor to end your adventure.

            Risk and reward are intricately tied together and maternal as there are numerous upgrades you can find that come with a risk of a malfunction that develops your character when collected. This means you might be able to increase your health pool or collect some bonus resources. But you might get a serious penalty as a price like losing 85% of your damage while stationary. You can ditch these penalties by completing different goals so careful planning for when to take on the risk of malfunctions is essential as you can completely change the way you play. A late game biome plays with the concept of issuing malfunctions or getting hit by some enemies which as you can imagine is a massive incentive to up your dodge game. Learning how to manage malfunctions is a long process of weighing when and if to pick up specific bonuses and it can make a huge difference on a run. Again, the theme of learning over time comes into play here and I enjoyed tinkering with my risk profile and each run some runs say when you're off to a bad start. The philosophy just comes well I'm gonna die anyways, why not roll the dice and sometimes those dice roll in your favor.

            Returnal is a delightful emotion for the senses even if the aspect it's trying to convey is horrifying, lingering dread it nails it in this regard is drenched with both in your face monstrosities and lurking terror. And then the designs are hideous amalgamations of tentacles and teeth. Which feel right at home in this bizarre alien hellscape one of the late game biomes is incredibly distressing to explore and may even significantly deter some players with the Lassa phobia.

        The soundtrack primarily composed by Bobby Kerlick of midsummer provides a haunting backdrop that contributes immensely to return was constant and rising sense of trepidation. The unnerving melodies gnaw at the back of your mind long after you set the controller down one stage in particular hinges on music and the feeling that you get while climbing up to the boss as it gets louder and louder exudes caca phonic anxiety. Feedback from the dual sense controller is a nice touch to the overall ensemble providing nuance from the tiniest droplet of rain. The impact of a titanic monster crashing into you at a high speed return is a relentless nightmare. That's a dream to play. The journey is full of horror and terrible discoveries but also unbridled curiosity and wonder if you have the taste for it. This is an adventure that begs to be experienced.