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Returnal for PC | Review Thread

The Cockatrice

The Cockatrice

Member
TintoConCasera said:
Does it compare to DOOM Eternal in that sense? I loved the feeling of persecution the enemies gave me in that game, you stop moving 2 seconds and bam, surrounded.
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If we're talking about Doom Eternal Nightmare, specifically the challenge levels in the DLC(that took me a million tries to win it), Returnal is easier. Bosses are the only challenge and they require good timing and learning their attacks. Other than that, its a roguelike, its random mechanics and shenanigans will kill you more than anything else. Risking is not always rewarding. I hate rogue-likes and almost always avoid them but I played it on PS5 and really enjoyed it so I doubt you wont enjoy it either. Only other roguelike I enjoyed was Hades.
 
Captain Toad

Captain Toad

Member
GHG said:
I'm not sure why this is getting the reviews it is considering the stuttering issues. Do PC reviewers just not care anymore or what?
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Because you don't base a review solely on that. Returnal is an amazing game. It has performance issues on PC. Both can be true and the latter is much more likely to be improved than the first.
 
winjer

winjer

Member
ChoosableOne said:
I agree with what you said about roguelites in general(Hades, Spelunky, Dead Cells, Risk of Rain 2 etc), I was bored quickly while playing them. I've been playing this game for 22 hours now. Sometimes I got angry, sure, but I wasn't bored for a moment, whether because of it's atmosphere/story or mechanics . Biomes are based on similar areas, but the order of those areas changes everytime you play (even some enemies change as well). And lots of interesting and fun weapons and traits available. For these reasons, no two adventures are exactly the same. I know, that's the claim of this genre:messenger_grinning:, but I've only been able to enjoy it in this game(Void Bastards was good too). I bought most of the Dead Cells DLC's but I keep playing same three levels in every run and I die. I know it's my bad but still...
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I played many hours of Hades and Dungeon of the Endless. These are games that are good, despite being rogue lites. But I always felt they would have been much better games with a proper campaign.
I never really finished Hades, because after a 30 hours I was feed up with repeating the same mission over and over.
 
FoxMcChief

FoxMcChief

Member
Yeah, this game just ain’t for me. I’ll stick with Hades if I want to play a loop type game. Game looks cool. I just don’t feel that drive to keep going. Thank you Extra for saving me some money.
 
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Zimmy68

Zimmy68

Member
FoxMcChief said:
Yeah, this game just ain’t for me. I’ll stick with Hades if I want to play a loop type game. Game looks cool. I just don’t feel that drive to keep going. Thank you Extra for saving me some money.
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But doesn't Hades start you on the same map every time? I think I died twice in Hades and noped out because of having to go through the same rooms/enemies again.
Returnal is all random. The world you traverse through is not the same the next time you play. The pick ups are different.
 
FoxMcChief

FoxMcChief

Member
Zimmy68 said:
But doesn't Hades start you on the same map every time? I think I died twice in Hades and noped out because of having to go through the same rooms/enemies again.
Returnal is all random. The world you traverse through is not the same the next time you play. The pick ups are different.
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Returnal handles the level layout exactly the same. They are cookie cutter rooms that can all piece together easily. You will likely see the same 4-5 rooms in every run. That’s fine. Hades does that as well. It’s a staple to the genre. Prefab rooms that can connect.

Im actually surprised there’s not a mode to create a map of your own using the prefab rooms.

Maybe I’m just not a fan of the twitch shooting. Im probably done with the game.
 
crazepharmacist

crazepharmacist

Member
Shtef said:
I've uninstalled it. I died at the first boss and was put back to start with just the pistol and all warp points were gone (I thought that if you unlock warp gates they will remain unlocked if you die?), plus all the eneimes were much harder.
The game is gorgeous and i love the atmosphere, i just wish it was regular single player, metroid type game.
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Man that’s where the fun is. You try again and hope you have a better run with better pick ups and weapons. By the time you finish the game, you’ll be wishing there was some kind of new game + mode where the difficulty is even higher. I envy being you right now. I wish I could go back in time and be at the point where you are now and play this game for the first time again. Reinstall it dude and give it another shot
 
ChoosableOne

ChoosableOne

ChoosableAll
After 35 hours of playtime, I "really" finished the game. It was a great experience. When I got back into the game for the real ending, I tried to play the last 3 biomes as slowly as possible, because I didn't want it to end right away. But I must say, carbine and leech ammo make this game very easy. After seeing this, I couldn't spend much time on other weapons because the game is extremely difficult with them. I don't think they have that balance well. Maybe I had such a hard time with other weapons because I played with keyboard-mouse and auto-aim turned off, because I've seen those who say that a few other weapons also make the game much easier.

I'll take a break from the game for a while, maybe play it again another time. Playing a game from start to finish excites me for the second time(first time was Sekiro), normally I can never play a game twice(I didn't play Sekiro twice:messenger_grinning:). In that respect, I found this game very successful. I highly recommend it for action/TPS lovers.
 
Eiknarf

Eiknarf

Member
FoxMcChief said:
I finally fired this up on the PS5 yesterday. I got my way to the second area. Not sure where all the high praise is coming from.
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Is it a frustrating game? I literally held off on buying this for my PS5 because of constantly reading how frustrating it is -

I was so excited for it but read that there are extremely long runs without save points and they take a really long time and the game recommends using rest-mode to take breaks. Seems unnecessary.

People don’t typically have hours at a time to commit to a game session.

But even if they do, frustration is still frustrating

So again, does the fun outweigh the frustration?
Is it “Bloodborne/Dark Souls” difficult?
 
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FoxMcChief

FoxMcChief

Member
Eiknarf said:
Is it a frustrating game? I literally held off on buying this for my PS5 because of constantly reading how frustrating it is -

I was so excited for it but read that there are extremely long runs without save points and they take a really long time and the game recommends using rest-mode to take breaks. Seems unnecessary.

People don’t typically have hours at a time to commit to a game session.

But even if they do, frustration is still frustrating

So again, does the fun outweigh the frustration?
Is it “Bloodborne/Dark Souls” difficult?
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I wouldn’t say it’s frustrating. I just don’t feel like the runs respect my limited gaming time. I’d rather play more Horizon 2 where every second of what I do matters. As far as loop games, I’d rather play more Hades.

I also bounced off of Deathloop really early too.
 
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ChoosableOne

ChoosableOne

ChoosableAll
Eiknarf said:
Is it a frustrating game? I literally held off on buying this for my PS5 because of constantly reading how frustrating it is -

I was so excited for it but read that there are extremely long runs without save points and they take a really long time and the game recommends using rest-mode to take breaks. Seems unnecessary.

People don’t typically have hours at a time to commit to a game session.

But even if they do, frustration is still frustrating

So again, does the fun outweigh the frustration?
Is it “Bloodborne/Dark Souls” difficult?
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" but read that there are extremely long runs without save point"

You can "suspend" your run whenever you want. Just select "suspend cycle" when quitting and continue where you exactly left off when you load it up again.

"does the fun outweigh the frustration?"

After few hours, yeah. First 2 hours great but then the hard times begin. This difficult period lasted 5-10 hours for me, then I grasped most of the mechanics and started to overcome the difficulties of the game. If you collect health items when your life bar full, your life pool expands. There is also a room where you can respawn with all your items even if you die (you can activate it for a certain fee in each chapter). You can also come back from the dead, for once, with the astronaut item. After encountering bosses, shortcuts/portals that allow you to reach to boss rooms faster becomes available. I learned all of this a little too late.

"Is it “Bloodborne/Dark Souls” difficult?"

At start, it's harder than those, it seems impossible to beat a boss. But as you progress, it becomes way more easy, especially if you find decent guns/artifacts on your runs and explore every room you can find(without skipping biomes). Finding leeching ammo in this game has similar results to finding "Rivers of Blood" in the Elden Ring. After a while, my health bar wasn't even halved in many bosses, and I enjoyed
this
 great music as I was bouncing around
Hyperion(fourth boss).
 
Eiknarf

Eiknarf

Member
FoxMcChief said:
I wouldn’t say it’s frustrating. I just don’t feel like the runs respect my limited gaming time. I’d rather play more Horizon 2 where every second of what I do matters. As far as loop games, I’d rather play more Hades.

I also bounced off of Deathloop really early too.
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Oh Deathloop? That’s another one on my “should I buy?” list?

What’s your take on Deathloop
 
P

Poppyseed

Member
Beat this game today. Ironically, the third boss gave me the most trouble, and then I one-shot every boss to beat the game after. The PC version still has issues, and seems to get more and more hitch-y as time goes by, almost memory-leakish. It needs a performance patch, that's for sure. Otherwise, stellar game. Really, really good. Atmosphere is top-notch, music is perfect, and the DualSense controller with this game is such a treat, though there are a few bugs with it not always working correctly every time you boot up in terms of haptics.
 
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