Returnal. Arcade shooter for the PS5.

Anyone played this yet? It's a very addictive, fast paced, third person arcade shooter. The jist of the story is that Selene crash lands on a hostile alien planet with an array of strange aliens wanting to kill her.

Everytime you are killed, you are returned back in time, to the crash landing. All permanent unlocked abilities stay with you but the money etc you have looted are reset.

I find the game very unique. First impressions on the combat:

1. Weapons are responsive af. Dualsense's haptive feedback is great at "feeling" each weapon.

2. Tight, snappy controls. You hip fire majority of the time but can also hard aim, which is nice.

3. After all these slow shooters, we finally get one with SPEED. It can get erratic at times, especially with boss fights where you have to jump, dash, dodge and shoot at the same time lol

4. Difficulty is BRUTAL. I think I'm either really bad at the game or this is just that hard. 2nd boss took me 14 hours, let that sink in lol

5. The gameplay reminds me of Vanquish, those classic arcade bullet hell shooters and a tad bit of Zone of the Ender's thrown in.

Overall, really enjoying it thus far.

Yes, I've played maybe 6 or 7 hours now I think. Beat the first boss and I'm getting quite a challenge from the second area. It plays well and I'm enjoying it, but some of the roguelite elements are grating on me a little bit. It's funny you mention Vanquish - even though Returnal isn't really that similar to it, it reminded me of it too! I suppose that's probably a compliment in of itself, haha.

Gregorinho wrote:Yes, I've played maybe 6 or 7 hours now I think. Beat the first boss and I'm getting quite a challenge from the second area. It plays well and I'm enjoying it, but some of the roguelite elements are grating on me a little bit. It's funny you mention Vanquish - even though Returnal isn't really that similar to it, it reminded me of it too! I suppose that's probably a compliment in of itself, haha.

The rogue lite element of it is actually annoying but the gameplay is so addictive, I don't mind it lol 2nd boss is solid so be well prepared.

I guess the reason it reminds us of Vanquish is because the pace of both shooters are similar...and the dash with the jet pack of course.

Yeah I agree, I am finding it quite addictive at the moment. I do wish though that you had the option to spawn directly in to the new world after you've beaten the boss - it's not like Spelunky where you can beat the game in 10-15 minutes and I am finding going through the same rooms over and over a little tiring. I know the teleporter usually isn't too far from the crash site, but that's just my preference.

Do you know how many guns there are in total? The most recent one I've found is the Hollowseeker, but I think I prefer the others to it...

Gregorinho wrote:Yeah I agree, I am finding it quite addictive at the moment. I do wish though that you had the option to spawn directly in to the new world after you've beaten the boss - it's not like Spelunky where you can beat the game in 10-15 minutes and I am finding going through the same rooms over and over a little tiring. I know the teleporter usually isn't too far from the crash site, but that's just my preference.

Do you know how many guns there are in total? The most recent one I've found is the Hollowseeker, but I think I prefer the others to it...

No idea about the number of guns but the hollowseeker is ideal for the 2nd boss.

Btw there is a shortcut to the 2nd boss, so you don't have to climb up to him through the rooms.

I don't go through many rooms, in biome 1 if I haven't seen the gateway to biome 2 after 60 seconds, I restart the cycle lol