[Intro]
When I think about the most important titles in my life, I usually remember old games. These are: Alone in the Dark 1, CnC 95 (I like RA, but less) Doom 1 & 2, WoW, WarCraft 2 (1 is a beta version in my opinion, today I consider this title not very playable, and part 3 is too young, although in terms of the level of "importance", it is the most important of the whole trilogy), StarCraft Brood War, Unreal Tournament, Age of Empires 1 & 2. There are also titles from SNES and other consoles - Super Castelvania IV, Donkey Kong 1-2, Pokemon, Tekken, Mortal Kombat 1-2, Cadilacs & Dinosaurs, Aladdin, MediEvil. As for the ones I've never played (or played very little), but would really like to, because they are a significant part of my memories, these are Ecstatica, Tomb Raider 2, TLoZ: Ocarina of Time, Metal Gear Solid (I don't remember which one, the one where the boss could be defeated by swapping the memory card, or the socket to which we plug the controller). I'm sure I've missed a few titles, but anyway, each of the above is exceptionally important to me. The reasons are different - they are related to an important period in my life, they were groundbreaking, despite the passing years they haven't lost their quality (apart from the graphics) or they have influenced my personality.
When it comes to relatively new games, 2 programs have joined my top 10 most important programs. They are Doom Eternal and Returnal. I didn't expect this 2 to join the group of these titles. Yes, it was recommended to me by two trusted friends, among others for this purpose, but I am quite "picky" and I am not a patient person. I have rejected many games, including Mass Effect or Panzer Dragoon remake after a few or a dozen minutes of play. And it is difficult to play Returnal when you are impatient. The game also requires humility, control of emotions and planning, because we often have to choose and calculate our choices. And above all, not to go crazy, because after a few sessions, it can tire your brain and fingers out. I usually avoid such games, because I prefer to have fun, not get nervous. In the case of Returnal, it is different. Similarly to Half Life 1, I immediately felt that I was dealing with a great game. And when I was killed for the first time by the encounter with 1 mini-boss and saw the word "Returnal", I was already sure that this is a great game that I will definitely play through.
[Story & My interpretation]
The beginning of the game immediately reminded me of the beginning of Alien. Astronaut Selene travels through space and at some point she receives an SOS signal. Like the crew of the USCSS Nostromo, our heroine flew to a mysterious planet known as Atropos. Unlike the characters in Alien, Selene is stuck on a planet and keeps reliving the same day, like in the movie Groundhog Day. That alone isn't the worst part. Much worse is discovering her own bodies and recordings of herself. With each new discovery, we have more and more unanswered questions. Are we the original Selene or a clone? Why do we encounter each other's bodies even though we recently crashed on this planet? What happened here and how do we escape? After my second playthrough (at the time of writing this, I haven't learned the real ending yet - I have the last fragment of the sun in Biome 6 to collect), I already know some of the answers, but other questions have arisen. I won't tell you the plot, because it doesn't make sense anyway due to the specifics of this title. Randomness and insinuations are built into the foundations of this game.
From what I know from one of my friends who recommended this game to me, the creators' goal was to leave the interpretation of the scenario to our imagination. We only get bits and pieces of information, seemingly contradictory or irrelevant, but they make sense when we learn a lot of them and put them together in our heads. In terms of directing, building tension, dosing of script fragments, this is an exemplary title for me. The atmosphere is so thick, especially during the scenes in Selene's house, that you could cut it with a knife. I was scared as hell at some points. The scenes in the lonely, creaking house with the atmospheric, perfect sound like the most beautiful woman in the world, reminded me of my panic fear of Alien: Isolation, which I played once and never went back to. During the scenes with mom and dad (or should I say, without them) they fucked me up emotionally. A tear rolled down my cheek. Especially since in a few moments the creators stretched the string a bit to hit our emotions even harder. They succeeded, they knew exactly what they wanted to achieve. These cutscenes / mini games initially made no sense, but then everything came together nicely in my head. The intention and precision of this project can be seen in every aspect. Since I was a child I like to analyze everything, and pointing out the lack of logic and coherence gives me a certain pleasure. In Returnal I couldn't do that, everything makes sense. It doesn't matter what my interpretation is, and I have 3 scenarios in my head. Selene is mentally ill and imagined everything. Selene's life collapsed after what we saw in the ending. Selene is not the heroine of this game, but someone else. Each of them and the ones I rejected are equally real and during the game we get various suggestions.
At some point in the game (for some time now, I'm so good that I can listen to YouTube at the same time and I'm doing pretty well, excluding mini-boss fights), while listening to various materials about games on Polish YouTube, I told my girlfriend that every element of the gameplay can be justified by the plot. Today I'm not sure about this thesis, but on the other hand, it can be seen in many examples. The plot, despite its "controlled chaos" and free interpretation, shows that Selene's life has collapsed and she has to rebuild it. It seems to me that the first episode concerns the place we see after defeating the last Boss. The second Biome takes place in the hospital - the heat from the operating lamps, fever, parasites (diseases? surgeries? prosthetics? - I'm asking in the context of the game). The third is the hope that everything will be fine, that after this hell everything is heading to a happy ending. The fourth is a return to the old dump. In some ways better, in others worse. The Ice Biome is the phase of cold, loneliness, when Selene has no one around and is absolutely alone. The sixth is a final attempt to come to terms with his disability and being forgotten by the rest. At this stage, and actually at the previous one too, I found chat logs where she spoke about it directly and only after finishing it did I know what it was about. The Tower of Sisyphus, the DLC I'll talk about at the end, is a pretty cool, slightly looser and ironic commentary by Selene to herself and the players. You'll understand when you play the game. Yes, I'm only referring to one of the possible interpretations. There's also the thread about the ancient inhabitants of Atropos, but that's not my head-canon. I like mine better. And since this is a requirement in this game, I use it xD. But seriously, I'll pay more attention to it when I play Returnal for the 4th time and learn the true ending of the game. And I'm not mentioning other possible interpretations because I wasn't interested. One of my friends said that he once spent a few hours listening to them. He told me this and that, I accepted it. I confirmed some observations and that's all.
When I first saw the ending with my girlfriend, almost everything became clear to us. It's hard to live differently when you've lost the opportunity to live like "them". Like most, relatively healthy, people. Forgive me, but I won't tell you the ending. You can easily find it on YouTube. I'm not mentioning it because maybe some people will want to try Returnal after this text. Coming back, Selene has a hell of a lot of time to think about her life and try to build it anew. One form of escape is to create her own world, where her own rules apply. I'm not surprised, since the heroine has so much time and significantly limited possibilities of action (if she is in a psychiatric ward, like Sarah Connor in T2, when she went crazy after the accident or moves in a wheelchair), she has many hours to think and tire her body. And if a person does not work or does not do something that takes up a large part of their day, they go crazy. And building a new world from scratch and trying to cope with why she ran away from the truth takes a hell of a lot of time. Constantly falling and getting up is an apt analogy to one of the forms of dealing with trauma. I have a few interpretations of what could have happened, but regardless of everything, some things are constant. Sadness, loneliness, the unpleasant fate that awaits and befell many people. In these moments, I felt similar emotions as with The Irishman. I mean the final scene, in which one of the characters looks at the coffin at the end of his life and is proud of it. In both the case of Returnal and Martin Scorsese's production, I felt how the scenes, sounds and plot struck the same chords.
[Gameplay & Game Mechanics]
The game is a TPP and Roguelike. While I don't have to explain the TPP abbreviation for a long time (Third Person Perspective, we observe the action from behind the hero's back), Roguelike titles are less popular. The main feature of this genre is the significant randomness of the world. You will never complete another exactly the same run. They will always differ from each other, if not in the layout of the rooms or the order, then in the items they contain. Yes, there are some similarities, or rather I should say patterns, but from what I have noticed, it does not affect the gameplay. The next two important features are the inability to save the game and the fact that death ends the game, and the player has to start almost from scratch. I don't know if the game fully supports randomness. In one of the last texts about Returnal, I said yes, but now I'm not sure. On August 31st, I was so lucky that in the fifth biome I entered a room, cleared it, went to the next one after doing the same, and then came across exactly the same one as a moment earlier. For this reason, absolutely every decision we make must be strictly calculated. "Should I take this item or that one? Which one will be more useful to me? Open this box, or leave the key for the next Biome or maybe increase my HP with it? Is it worth risking the fight in this room?" There were 5 times when I genuinely put the controller aside to think about my next steps. More than once I had to think for a minute about which item to leave and which to take for the Boss fight. Or the other way around, sometimes it happened that the game gave me artifacts from the beginning, thanks to which damage was welcome. Thanks to that I had bonuses to HP, free healing and damage. Or parasite upgrades. Such boss fights, especially having Hollowseeker with portals shooting laser beams, were less stressful. Returnal, although difficult, makes the game easier for those who really want to play it.
Each time we start with a basic pistol near our spaceship, having zero gold (here called obolite). There is also a second currency known as ether, we can carry a maximum of 30 pieces on us. Thanks to obolite we can buy consumable items, upgrades (greater armor, repair reinforcement, shortening the cooldown on Alternate Fire - each weapon has two firing modes, basic and stronger) and artifacts. We buy these in so-called "fabrics". Sometimes we see one fabricator, sometimes 2, sometimes 3, depending on how the randomizer decides. Excluding "permanent fabricators", which are always in the same place, but offer different (although repeatable) items. We can also exchange it for ether (and vice versa, if we need this second resource). Ether is the only thing (apart from weapon upgrades, slots for additional consumable items) that stays with us permanently. Thanks to it, we can purify contaminated items (keys, medkits, item chests) if we do not want to get damaged. Medkits are divided into two groups, large, medium, small silicon (restores life) and resin, which extends the life bar. There are also regular crates and locked crates, to which we use keys (the same as for locked doors). As for weapons, we have a pistol, two rifles, two types of rocket launchers, a sniper rifle, a sword. Each of them has its own Perks, which are among the few elements developed throughout the game. Once unlocked, they will stay with us until the end and will be possible to draw throughout the game. With the killing of each monster (or obtaining a calibrator), our proficiency in using the weapon increases, which causes more damage. In addition, we have damage and parasites, which not only harm us, but also help. And if we have the right items, the reinforcements are even more noticeable. We can have a maximum of two damages, the third one ends with critical damage, which can cause us to lose resin, a random artifact, a key (allowing us to open a closed door or chest) or some health points. Damage requires us to collect a certain amount of obolite, resin, use consumables, open a certain number of chests, kill a certain number of enemies or do something else. The consequences of regular damage are temporary loss of life, reduced HP, inability to pick up new weapons, reduced damage, map damage (I hate this the most), etc. Parasites are small creatures that give us several benefits (increased gold collection range, greater armor, increased HP, lifesteal etc.) and weaken us (picking up items deals damage, inability to pick up new weapons, jumping from heights deals damage etc.). We can have a maximum of 5 such creatures.
The whole thing is bloody difficult. The game is built to kick our ass after a hard day at work. And when we think that we have finally beaten the Boss "and now it will be easy", we get kicked in the face in the next Biome and start from scratch. Or 4th Biome, because that is where we reach the only "check-point" (apart from the possibility of pausing). Get used to it, the game will trample and spit on your ego at least a dozen times. I do not recommend starting this when you are sad. Even now, despite my greater patience, it still hurts xD. At the same time, you can't blame the game. My girlfriend Asia, when she knew much less about games half a year ago than she does now, often said that the game was stupid. I replied that she was wrong, because it was always my fault when I died. As Arkadikus said in his review, that's how I know about Nemesis and the epic fight with him. Ok, sometimes the game gives really hopeless items, but it's never completely hopeless. It was always my ignorance or oversight. True, there are bugs in this game, but they are very sporadic. For about 200 hours of play (Playstation shows this much, but the game was on for 30-40h for various reasons, at first Asia played with me, but she quickly gave up before the difficulty level) 2 bugs that caused the game to have to be reset are very few.
Boss fights are an epic and unique experience, or at least the first time and when we finally defeat them, if the first encounter was unsuccessful. This is due to three reasons - the sound, which I will write about in 1 of the following paragraphs, the atmosphere resulting from the previous and next reason, and the risk. Each of them has 3 lives. As I said, when we die, we lose everything. We flush 1, 2 or 3 hours of our lives down the toilet. Fighting regular monsters is made easier because you can hide behind some objects and have more space. The fact that regular monsters' attacks do not take up most of the screen is also not without significance. Even if we come across a mini-boss with extremely frustrating skills (stronger armor, greater mobility, more attacks than regular shooting from the mouth), it is mainly a matter of patience and methodical killing of the monster. In the case of fighting real Bosses, we risk everything. True, once we defeat them a few times, it is easier, but the pressure remains. Never, even when I was as powerful as Superman and blew up everything in my path with just my breath (and Selene's backpack was full of health kits and artifacts), did I take a Boss lightly. This is the final straight, for which we will get 5 units of Aether and a random artifact, and victory is already within reach... Something like the final straight during a race, when our nerves have not been begging for a break for a long time, not to mention the muscles that have already touched the limits of their capabilities for the 5th time. We will make one big mistake or a few smaller ones, almost all of our development goes to waste and we start from scratch. I will not lie, I felt excitement during every fight. Phirke, Ixion, Nemesis, Hyperion, Ophion, Algos. Each of them looks intriguing and stands out from the rest. My favorites are Ixion and Nemesis. The first one because of the design, different stages of the fight (I like each one - when he uses his wings, flying around the map like a miniature Deathwing from WarCraft, stands still or loses control of himself) and the frustration that pours out of him. Especially when he's banging his paw on the ground like a drug-fueled lunatic (the thing is, such people get superhuman strength and it's hard to calm them down), while shouting at the top of his lungs. Secondly, because of how you fight him.
During the game I promised myself that I wouldn't look at the internet so as not to make the game easier for myself, but I accidentally heard that the fight with Nemesis is an epic event (the review of Arkadikus that I mentioned a moment ago). Well, I can confirm that. Never in my gaming career have I seen such a monumental fight. After the end of the first stage, Nemesis destroys the arena where we fight and we continue our fight, falling down all the time! It's not that difficult, the game gives us a lot of time to get to the upper platform and you have to try hard to die that way. Despite everything, jumping like a monkey, avoiding damage and methodically killing Nemesis is not easy. Nevertheless, the first time I literally lost my speech and I could only stare at the TV with delight. And I had something to look at - a 65-inch TV and good sound system. Every cell in my body was tense, like a guitar string. Now I'm doing too well and I can handle Bosses, but before, when they were a bigger challenge, it looked like this. I would prepare for the fight like a boxer before entering the ring. I would drink water, breathe deeply, feel terribly pressured, smoke tobacco to calm my pulse. "If I don't succeed, I'll try again tomorrow, because I have to work in the morning..." I would say to myself. I would sit down and focus much more than when killing Valkyrie in GoW or the main Boss in Doom 5. I could return to them instantly, but not to Bosses in Returnal. Because of that, for a few minutes, all my attention was focused on the TV. My heart was pounding like crazy and I would either turn the game off in resignation or rejoice in the victory. Just as the game is quite sparse in terms of graphics, models, etc. (everything looks nice, but you can see that it's not a title like the new God of War), the Boss fights are a great show! Projectiles attack us from different sides, we often have to use the recoil precisely to avoid damage (if we use the recoil or the sword at the right time, we do not receive it), and if we do not have much armor, we will feel these hits more, which additionally increases the adrenaline. Oh, I forgot about it - for each kill of an enemy, our adrenaline bar is charged, which resets after the first damage received. Adrenaline has 5 levels and each of them provides certain bonuses. Additionally, we have artifacts that strengthen us using the adrenaline level, we also have items or skills that will allow us to maintain this level despite several hits. Returning to the Bosses. The fights with them are a show straight from the best games I have seen. And in the case of Nemesis, I really do not remember ever playing a better, more spectacular and more epic stage. Besides, the fight with each of the Big Enemies is at least good. The atmospheric fight with Phirke. Or dancing in the arena with the flying and screaming Ixion. An epic fight with Nemesis. Hyperion... I don't know what to say about him. Ophion the easiest Boss, such a symbolic challenge so as not to tire the player at the end. Algos is challenging, but with the additional weapon, it's not super difficult. And the Tower is a bit faster to complete than the Biomes in the original Returnal. Each one has a suitable background music that perfectly emphasizes the epicness of the event and fits the mood. The sound is equally excellent. Sometimes I think, watching my PS5 videos, that winning is just an additional satisfaction to this beautiful show. Another example of how carefully planned the game was.
[Sound and Tower of Sisyphus]
And you can definitely hear it in the music and sound. I don't know enough about these aspects, but experts are even more delighted than I am. From what I've read, the developers focused the most on the sound and well... The music is thoughtful and refined, and the sound is so clear that I could hear everything perfectly. The ricochet of weapons, alternate shots, the rustle of leaves that we touch, the sounds made by monsters depending on where they are and where they attack from. The finals of each Biome and others.. I don't play with headphones, but when I have too much money to buy headphones, I'll check it out. As for expert opinions, just look at the list of awards and nominations on IMDB.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12496966/awards/
Impressive, isn't it? Selene's voice is great in both the original and Polish versions. At first I wasn't thrilled with it, but as soon as her voice started to crack and Selene went crazy or cursed, I was delighted with the best voice actors from anime, or the new voice of Kratos. Both of them modulate their voices very well, adapting it to the situation.
Ascension is a free DLC for the game, although I call it the Tower of Sisyphus. This is because the main feature of this add-on is the challenge in the form of the Tower. The entrance to the additional content is right next to our crashed ship and we can get to it after defeating Ixion, Boss 2 of Biome. The rules are simple - we start with a pistol, all our statistics, amount of gold etc. are reset, we enter the teleport and start fighting. With monsters, ourselves and time. Starting from the end, the faster we clear a given level and go higher, the more points we get. Each subsequent stage is more difficult and more stressful. Every dozen or so levels, we fight a Boss. In this case, the creators made only one model, adding additional lives to the 2nd and 3rd versions (the first Algos has only one life) and other forms of attacks. And after each fight, we get one permanent damage that we cannot remove and we can make purchases in the fabricator. The creators have also added at least one new weapon (I've heard there are two). It's the Disgorger, which shoots different types of bullets, depending on which one we draw. How could it be any different in the case of Returnal, hehe. If we find another type of weapon later, the previous one changes the type of bullets to the current one. When I first used Disgorger, I said to my girlfriend - "Asia, come see my new toy". The swarm of enemies disappeared in 2 seconds, and for a moment I felt like a tiny student who was shooting a heavy weapon for the first time. After I turned on Disgorge, the pad started throwing itself in my hands like a furious bull at a rodeo! I massacred enemies like the Nazis did some of the Allies during the Normandy landings, even though 3/4 of the bullets pierced the air. I had to really use force to control the controller and focus on aiming. But the experience after turning the volume on the TV to high was incredible! I felt a bit of what my friend felt at the shooting range when she grabbed a caliber that was too heavy and felt the force of the recoil. As I said in the segment about the plot. Selene sometimes breaks the fourth wall in this DLC, talking to us or commenting on her actions. She also made a sarcastic or malicious joke about her disability a few times. I haven't completed Ascension yet, but it's only a matter of time, because I've already encountered the 3rd form of Algos once. Not enough excitement? Well, the creators have also added the option to play in co-op (I've played twice, I prefer solo), daily challenges, in which we can compete in exactly the same arena with the same rules with players from all over the world (just like in the Tower of Sisyphus, in the form of a points ranking). Additionally, the game has a great and well-thought-out online mode - when we connect to the Internet, we find the bodies of players who have fallen. We can collect their item (paying for it with ether) or fight their corrupted version or the monster that killed them, for which we will receive ether.
[Summary]
Before I start praising how imperfect this game is, I will say something else. For a few years now I have been working on my flaws and irritating character traits that I have had since I was a little girl. I will not talk about my private life, I only mentioned it for one reason. No one, apart from my partner (and some friends, buddies), managed to teach me humility, cool action, the need to calm my nerves, relax and patience like Returnal. While making the platinum trophy, I went through several stages that were broken up into smaller episodes (I will not describe the latter, because it will excessively and unnecessarily expand the text). I was frustrated thinking that I would never get through it because I was too weak. Then I decided I would get through it, but I would spend too much time on it, which frustrated me again, but less. Then I spent an hour preparing a plan perfectly tailored to me, drilling into my head the things I needed to work on (agility because I am quite a slow person, focus, shutting off from all external and internal stimuli) and wrote down a list of items that I needed. I accepted that it would be a difficult task, but I promised three friends (a friend from my city, whom I've known since childhood - he doesn't have a PS5), my girlfriend and most of all myself, that I would smash to smithereens all the tasks that the programmers from Housemarque had prepared for me. Then came the stage of slight pride. I completed the game, obtained quite a lot of items and achievements, but there were even more challenges ahead of me. For a short time I was frustrated again, but when I remembered my manly resolution, I returned to methodical play. Skipping the most difficult stages, I no longer have to focus solely on the game. During this adventure, my partner and I watched my progress. At first, I was afraid of challenges and acted quite conservatively. Then I ran like a monkey that had inhaled a large portion of amphetamines. Often I don't even look at the mini-map, which cost me a few times with minor injuries. I precisely jump from opponent to opponent, using recoil and my sword. Or I avoid damage by using the game mechanics, because if we use the sword or the recoil at the right moment, we won't take damage). And despite 200 hours on my account, the game still gives me pleasure.
I cared because I hadn't felt that feeling for years. Several times while playing Returnal, I saw in my mind's eye the iconic sequence from the 4th part of SW (A New Hope). The one where Vader senses Obi Wan's Force. I thought, whispered under my breath, said to my girlfriend, exactly the same thing when playing Returnal. It's a simple, refined, perfect, complex and well-thought-out product!!! Such titles are an outstanding rarity, because they require a lot of work at every stage of production. From what I see, the studio made money on this game, but I don't know if it would have been if not for Sony's help. Fortunately, Sony was and probably is delighted with this studio. They bought them in 2021 and from what I see, the creators of Returnal have said several times that thanks to Sony, their next game will be even bolder. They will not return to the Returnal brand, they are planning a new IP. It's a good decision, because I can't imagine what else could be added to this production except doing something completely different, using only a well-known brand. It's like Terminator 2, there is no point in adding anything. I don't know how it will be in a few, or especially a dozen years, because games age faster than movies (mainly because their production process is much more complex), but due to the uniqueness of this title, I think I will be able to compare it to James Cameron's cult film in 2035. If only because, like T2, Returnal is a complete work that was thought out from A to Z already at the moment of starting work. And this is visible from the very beginning and throughout the game my impression did not change even for a moment. Even when I got pissed off a few times because of my low skill. As for me, Returnal deserves a rating of 10/10. It was a wonderful adventure that I will remember for my entire gaming life.
In the last text about Returnal, I made a mistake. I don't know why, but it seemed to me that Cecile floated out of the car while paralyzed. However, she had control over the upper half of her body, I noticed this on the second playthrough
My gameplay: