This is something we already know, but it is sometimes good form to remember it: knowing how to sell a product is not given to everyone, especially when it is aimed at a specific audience, a niche of hardcore players moreover. But for the Sony Interactive Entertainment marketing teams, this is obviously not a problem. How to make Returnal, a Rogue-lite with a core-gamer approach, a game that could interest the general public? For Sony, it was obvious that it was necessary to focus on two strong aspects of the game: its story and the fact that it is a third-person action game. With its sci-fi approach reminiscent of films like Prometheus and its scenario based on a time loop, the angle of approach to attract the general public was all found. By coating everything with strong action sequences, interspersed with imposing creatures as bosses, it was enough to get the attention of the whole world. Please note, we are not here to say that Sony lied about the merchandise, but these arguments highlighted throughout the communication campaign are in reality only a tiny part of what Returnal ultimately represents. The latter is above all the latest addition to the Housemarque laboratories, which has undoubtedly just given us a summary of their know-how for the 26 years that the studio has existed. If Sony Interactive Entertainment has relied heavily on the story and backstory of Selene – the main character – in the latest trailers, we must not lose sight of the fact that Returnal is the new production of Housemarque. Specializing in arcade games, more specifically Shoot'em up and Run & Gun (Resogun, Alienation, New Machina, Materfall), the studio has earned a good reputation on the indie scene.
LIVE. DIE. REPEAT.
Make no mistake about it: Returnal is first and foremost a rogue-lite, in all that that represents; which means that this is a game in which you will die (a lot), get angry (often) and be discouraged (all the time), since the game also allows itself to keep one of the inherent codes of the genre: the almost total loss of his arsenal and his equipment. Worse still, every game over, you'll restart the adventure from square one, just as Selena wakes from her slumber after her ship crashes onto the ground of the planet Astropos. Said like that, it's quite a repulsive game, especially in 2021 where the player is used to having his hand taken, automatic saves helping. If the video game has become more democratic and the players have weakened, let's not forget that this difficulty, at first sight insurmountable, is part of a genre appreciated by millions. Witness the success of the Dark Souls series and all the games that resemble it. However, in order not to be too austere in an era where the assistance becomes too insistent, the Housemarque studio had the good idea to use the procedural generation of its levels. In decoded French, this means that each time you start from scratch, and from the starting point of the map, you will never find the same level once you have passed the first portal. It's both pleasant and destabilizing, because you not only have to find your bearings, but also your location. However, Returnal allows itself to make some departures from the rules imposed by the Rogue-lite genre. In order to stand out from the crowd, and probably to be a little more general public, the title of Housemarque allows itself to use shortcuts to facilitate progress, and not to frustrate the player too much. Thanks to this trick of randomly generated levels, it is therefore not necessary to go through all the levels again with each new cycle. Better still, it is not mandatory to retype all the bosses after each Game Over, which is not a luxury when you know how much the game plays on deprivation. The same goes for certain types of equipment, marked as "permanent", and which remain in Selene's possession even after each death. That being said, that won't stop Returnal from spinning your brain.
Scenario-wise, this return from scratch is justified by this time loop in which our astronaut seems stuck. Selene will ask herself a lot of questions, meet her corpse dozens and dozens of times, at very specific times in the levels, but also meet this extraterrestrial race, also decimated by a superior force. All this will therefore reinforce this desire to find this "white shadow" as soon as possible, which is constantly mentioned throughout the adventure. This plot, which turns out to be in the background, is perhaps one of the weak points of the game, Housemarque not yet having the talent of the major studios to make the narration as fluid as expected. Despite everything, it is difficult not to be transported to this universe which seems to go beyond Selene, and the player in its extension, Returnal drawing its inspiration from the side of the Seventh Art and literature. Everything is big and grand. Each monument that we cross, each building that we explore gives rise to a feeling of gigantism. We are clearly bathed in Science Fiction, sometimes with Lovecraftian hints, and for the general public, it is difficult not to see references to Alien and more specifically to its prequel Prometheus. It is true that the game is dark, in its subject and its environments, but it is necessary to advance in the adventure so that the sun rises a little more.
SHMUP THEM ALL !
On the other hand, if there is one aspect on which Housemarque has not failed, it is on the gameplay side. With 26 years in the business, the Finnish developers know how to do it, especially since with Returnal, they land with well-known shoot'em up mechanics that we will develop a little later. For now, it's important to understand how the game works. In truth, if the features seem complex at the start, very quickly, we assimilate them quite quickly. Selene, for example, is able to carry only one weapon at a time (there are 10 in total), but each of them is upgradeable, knowing that there is a secondary fire each time. If finding and unlocking guns takes time for the first few hours, very quickly, it is possible to change weapons easily. The game makes chests available, not to mention that some enemies will leave their arsenal on the ground. But where Returnal is rather square is that each gun has precise specificities which push the player to vary his game during his progress.
This mechanic, taken from Gears of War, should please Cliff Bleszinki, one of the creators, who wondered why no other game had taken up his ingenious idea of gameplay.
If the notion of ammunition has been ousted from the gameplay of Returnal, know that the latter is based on a recharging mechanism which forces the player to think before letting his finger pressed on the trigger. Basically, as soon as the weapon is overheated, you have to wait several seconds before it cools down and is operational again. The player can then speed up the process by tapping at the right time. If the timing is respected, we can shoot again. If this is not the case, the weapon jams and we lose precious extra seconds, which can be tragic during a boss battle. This mechanic, taken from Gears of War, should please Cliff Bleszinki, one of the creators, who wondered why no other game had taken up his ingenious idea of gameplay. However, where Epic Games' TPS rewarded the player with more powerful bullets if the timing was respected, Returnal unfortunately does not value the player's skill. No bonuses, nothing. How ungrateful...
In fact, to get bonuses, you have to turn to the side of the adrenaline gauge that Selene has. In addition to his life bar, our astronaut has a second gauge which fills up according to the number of enemies killed. Once at its peak, the adrenaline gauge gives access to a superior strike force and even a protection bonus, knowing that it is possible to evolve the combination of our character thanks to parasites found here and there on Astropos (the latter can also cause malus at certain times of the game), but also through manufacturers, handy alien machines to continue to improve Selen's performance. However, to access it, you will have to glean obolites or ether, another resource from this mystery planet. In short, you have understood it, Returnal is a game in which the loot has a very important part, which means that exploration will be necessary to advance, and to fully understand the labyrinthine level design of the game. head, it will be necessary to be strong against the various enemies. Alone, average creatures are not very fierce, but in groups they can become very difficult to bring down, since their shots become both more numerous and more difficult to avoid. This is where Returnal recalls the liabilities of Housemarque, in love with shoot'em ups, and its ballets of heavy shooting that illuminate the dark sky of the planet Astropos. Returnal is a game in which you should never remain static, and the dash button that allows Selene to move instantly also makes her invincible for a fraction of a second. It is also during the clashes with the bosses that Returnal offers a spectacle worthy of the name, both visual and sensory. Thanks to the skills of the DualSense, the player is constantly alerted by what is happening on the screen, via the localized vibrations of the controller. If you also have a good gaming headset in your possession, we suggest that you make use of the 3D Audio that accompanies the game for complete and total immersion.
SUFFERING IS ALSO A FORM OF PLEASURE
If the show is largely there, Returnal can in no way be considered a technological killer app for the PS5. Admittedly, the game offers a very successful atmosphere and has solid arguments to face other shooters of the same caliber, but the latter could very well have been released on a PS4 Pro. So yes, some would say the 60fps stays constant, even during boss battles where shot particles flood the screen, but nothing that makes it feel like a next-gen game. . We have indeed seen more impressive at the end of gen 'PS4, especially on open world moreover. Of course, we are aware that Housemarque does not have the financial means or the same workforce as a behemoth like Naughty Dog or Santa Monica, but the Finnish studio still manages to surprise us. Too bad, however, that the environments are partially destructible, we would have liked more interaction with the sets. A last word before parting and the thorny question of lifespan. Quite frankly, for a game such as Returnal, it is quite random to set a suitable scale, the whole functioning according to the skill of the player and his ability to find his way. Because yes, if the Game Over will push you to start over, we will also waste a lot of time relocating ourselves on the map, despite the mini-map to help us. One of the leitmotifs of this Returnal is above all not to give up. But as the monk Henepola Gunaratana said so well: "There is no pleasure without a certain pain. There is no pain without a certain pleasure".
