** Official Returnal Thread **

Held off buying this, but started playing on PSPlus the other day. Absolutely love the production, presentation, controls are pretty good. Audio is amazing.

Been beaten down by the first boss a few times now, but still just figuring out the weapons and getting quicker at zipping through the first area, and what things I need to collect.
 
Just got a bit frustrated by it because it feels like you want to do the biomes so you build up all the supplies and boosts you need for the later bosses and they are so repetitive after a while. I know you can miss them once you have got to a certain point but it seems to disadvantage you massively.

Any thoughts from the pros on here?
 
Great game, finally managed to get to level 4. Th game gets a little bit easier the more you play, although it is still easy to get overwhelmed sometimes which can end up in some cheap death due to how random the game is.
Wish there was an easier mode too, not sure why the developers are sometimes so stubborn and just make one difficulty, I do get it why and all that but not everyone has the skill to complete a game like this.
 
apatia77 said:
Great game, finally managed to get to level 4. Th game gets a little bit easier the more you play, although it is still easy to get overwhelmed sometimes which can end up in some cheap death due to how random the game is.
Wish there was an easier mode too, not sure why the developers are sometimes so stubborn and just make one difficulty, I do get it why and all that but not everyone has the skill to complete a game like this.
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Totally. It's a good game, but between the difficulty and having my progress reset by the frequent patches in the weeks following its launch, I just lost interest rapidly. I didn't feel it respected my time as a gamer, so finished Elden Ring twice and Horizon Forbidden West instead.
 
Totally echo the sentiments listed above however once you get past Biome 3 (IMO the most difficult by some margin) and you unlock the Electro Pylon Driver you should find the game far easier as that that thing is great at dealing passive damage whilst you take stock as to what is going on.

I only felt that were 2 things that were cheap in the game namely the turrets that shoot the red spheres and the severed who can hit 1 hit you when they spawn close to you. Just need to collect the rest of the xenoglyphs in the other biomes to get that coveted Helios trophy. One of the best games I've had the pleasure of playing can't wait to see what Housemarque come up with next.
 
I started this last summer when the new PS+ structure started last year and it became available with my sub.

Worked through Biome 1 and 2 and stopped just before the 2nd boss. Haven’t actually been back to it since last July!

Finally came back to it on Saturday. Smashed the 2nd boss on my first attempt. Worked through Biome 3 and killed the boss on 2nd attempt. I had used the reconstructor once I was tooled up and so was in a strong position to have another bash. On my first attempt at boss 3 I had an astronaut and some healing vials but was using a gland lobber weapon and just didn’t do enough DPS. On my second attempt I swapped to carbine with high calibre, bonus damage and tracker swarm. Wiped the floor with the Biome 3 boss on my second attempt without needing to heal!

Worked through Biome 4 and rebuilt my loadout and got another astronaut etc. I reached and beat boss 4 on my first run without needing the astronaut. Still don’t quite believe it! I was red on integrity though.

Started Biome 5 and it’s a steep difficulty spike. Got mugged by two Frost Severed. Survived it but had to use my astronaut. Moved through the level till I reached a mini boss Severed. That mofo killed me but I was so close. Literally just a couple more hits he would have been down. So frustrating.

So I’m starting again from Biome 4 and rebuilding my loadout. Can’t seem to find an EPD for love nor money at the moment though. All my weapon drops have been terrible. Might need to start a new run.

Loving this game and happily my initial nagging doubts about getting bored have not bore fruit (*chortle*), perhaps partly due to how quickly I have progressed through the biomes which has been a surprise given everything I have read about the difficulty. Going to try and get to the end, but I need to master Biome 5 and it’s a little trickier than previous biomes! :)

I felt gutted for Selene in the cut scene after finishing Biome 3. Such a clever aspect to the story.

I guess I’m late to the party with Returnal, but I wouldn’t be disappointed if I had paid full price for it. Cracking game so far.
 
The Rot Lobber isn’t great early on but fully upgraded on all traits it’s a beast and it eats everything. I didn’t find biome 5 too bad probably 3 goes at it until I finished it. Not everyone can appreciate the loop of this game but once it clicks it’s bloody incredible. Visuals and audio are second to none as well. One of the best PS5 games so far if you’re into the style.
 
Yesterday I pushed through to Biome 6 and got to the boss. I miss timed some dodging and got killed half way through the 2nd phase.

But I have now unlocked the pyro caster so I’m going to try and level up the traits on upcoming runs. I didn’t realise there was a shortcut to Biome 6 from Biome 4, which was a nice surprise. Seems like late game weapon traits are really needed for good DPS. So I might just grind for a bit and hopefully see more of Biomes 4-6 whilst levelling up weapon traits.
 
Finished this today.

Downed last boss in about 90 seconds using EPD with max bolt duration - absolutely melted him.

Now I’ve gone right back to the start to try and grab all the extra info and items etc.

Thoroughly enjoyable game. Some aspects feel cheap on occasion though. Like super difficult enemies randomly spawning at the start of a run. I could perhaps accept that this is the point of a procedurally generated environment if it didn’t routinely repeat the same environs and enemies elsewhere.

Genuinely pleasantly surprised as I was expecting a super difficult, super grindy game but it hasn’t been that way at all. It has been tough at times, but not silly.

My boss attempt count has been really low compared to other souls/rogue like games.

12 attempts to down all bosses. Downed a couple on my first try.
 
BuffetSlayer said:
Finished this today.

Downed last boss in about 90 seconds using EPD with max bolt duration - absolutely melted him.

Now I’ve gone right back to the start to try and grab all the extra info and items etc.

Thoroughly enjoyable game. Some aspects feel cheap on occasion though. Like super difficult enemies randomly spawning at the start of a run. I could perhaps accept that this is the point of a procedurally generated environment if it didn’t routinely repeat the same environs and enemies elsewhere.

Genuinely pleasantly surprised as I was expecting a super difficult, super grindy game but it hasn’t been that way at all. It has been tough at times, but not silly.

My boss attempt count has been really low compared to other souls/rogue like games.

12 attempts to down all bosses. Downed a couple on my first try.
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How many deaths/time? I was rubbish but got the the end eventually!
 
Plainsong said:
How many deaths/time? I was rubbish but got the the end eventually!
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So I’ve been working through biomes 1-3 again so couldn’t check. Just restarted cycle after getting to the end of Biome 3.

Currently sitting at 19 deaths and 1 day 13hrs play time. But if I’m honest, I reckon you could probably knock a good 8hrs off of that and about 2 deaths that have occurred since I defeated the last boss.

I’ve explored 268 areas, eliminated 2,493 enemies and only picked up 7 malfunctions. I’ve used 6 parasites.

I’m trying to find all of the sun face fragments and get the explorer trophies at the moment. Got the first 3 fragments already and I’m only missing 7 scout logs. The glyphs are gonna need a bit more work though. I’m currently missing 26 ciphers.

I’m going to try and platinum this game but we will see how it goes!
 
alreet99 said:
Crazy game. 4 hours down, back to the start having achieved nothing and not understanding anything. So addictive though.
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You will have unlocked weapon traits so each run will get better. Don't get frustrated. You might have to push through the pain barrier until you unlock that favourite weapon. Once it clicks it's amazing.
 
Well, it’s taken a bit of time due to the RNG style of trophies for certain things but I finally got the Platinum to drop :)

What a journey!!

Final stats
Play time: 74hrs
Deaths: 30
Malfunctions: 19
Parasites: 26
Areas explored: 317
Hostiles eliminated: 7,494

This is the first time I’ve ever felt compelled to get a Platinum. Never bothered pursuing them before. Need a rest now though - searching for ciphers and missing scout logs almost broke me!! :p
 
This game is the shooter equivalent of Sekiro in terms of the adrenaline rush it gives, incidentally Sekiro is the only game I bothered to plat:P

I'll go back to this as soon as I break out of my RE4 Remake addiction:D
 
alreet99 said:
Crazy game. 4 hours down, back to the start having achieved nothing and not understanding anything. So addictive though.
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I'm about 7 hours down and the exact same.. Still not beat the first boss, got him down to his final bar a couple of times now but keep making silly mistakes and some runs I've done have just been massive wastes of time.

But can feel it coming!!
 
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Defy Belief said:
I'm about 7 hours down and the exact same.. Still not beat the first boss, got him down to his final bar a couple of times now but keep making silly mistakes and some runs I've done have just been massive wastes of time.

But can feel it coming!!
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Beat him last night :D

Now on a good run, high integrity, decent weapon and some good consumables too.. Hoping this means I'll get past biome 2, but not holding my breath :p

Edit, phew, just managed to beat it, must've had about 2mm in my health bar.. Was a mistake going for an uprated pistol, would've been much better with a carbine or similar.
 
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