First Thoughts on (and a few tips for) Returnal

Before I start, there will be very mild spoilers here, basically stuff you learn a few minutes into the game. This is all based on Biome 1.

I’ve been dying for a game to play on the PS5 that felt “next-gen” ever since I got one. Some games like Control and Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla have PS5 editions that do look noticeably better than the PS4 version. But they still didn’t feel like a leap forward.

While I certainly don’t feel that Returnal will be looked at years from now as a quintessential Playstation 5 game, It is the first game so far that I’ve played that felt to me like a “PS5 game.”

Other than getting into and out of your ship, which triggers an animation that takes a few seconds, once the game starts, there is no loading. The visuals are stunning, with vibrant colors lighting up an otherwise dark world (at least in the first area).

It’s the first full length PS5 game I’ve played so far that really takes advantage of the improved haptics in the new controllers. Rather than just feeling your controller rumbling, you can feel the pinpricks of rain falling on you.

(For this section about the story, the only spoilers I will include are story elements you learn a few minutes in.)

The game begins with your small spaceship crashing into an alien planet. You find out very quickly that you have been here before. You know that because you find your dead body. You can’t remember being here or dying, and as you proceed through the game, you start to learn more about how you ended up here.

Whenever you die, you start over back at your crashed spaceship. Some of the things you did on previous runs carry over, most of them do not. For example, there will be some red force fields that you can’t get past until you get near the end of the first section. Once you get the thing you need, you will still have it when you die and start over.

If you know what a roguelike game is, you are familiar with this idea. If you don’t, you might not be used to this style of game. I thought I would hate it, but so far, I’m enjoying that each run I learn a little more about how to fight one type of enemy or a strategy that will help me on a future run.

So far, the biggest issue I have is there is no way to save a run. You can put your PS5 in rest mode and turn off auto-updates, but there should be a dedicated way to save. I’ll be honest that it is a pretty big drawback, and is what keeps me from wholeheartedly recommending it.

Overall, I am really enjoying it. It’s frustrating to figure out exactly what you need to do, do it, and still die when you are so close to success. But at least so far, it hasn’t turned into overwhelming frustration.

A few tips

If you are booting up Returnal for the first time, here are a few things that I’ve learned by dying a lot.

1. Save the chests for later. Your weapon proficiency will dictate what level of weapons you can find in a chest. It takes a while to build up your weapon proficiency, and it resets after you die, so if you open the chests as you find them, you will throw away a chance to get a much better weapon later. The boss at the end of the first biome is much more manageable if you have a level four gun.
2. Hold down fire. You can fire a little faster by pulling the trigger with each shot, but there’s a big downside: It’s a lot harder to time the overload mechanic that way. If you hold down your trigger, when you run out of ammo you then have to release the trigger and pull it again to active overload. This is good because it’ll be a lot easier to time it.
3. Get Moar Health: Try to build up your integrity (health) meter as much as possible by getting the health (green) items when you are already at full health. If you keep doing this, you will increase the amount of health you can have. Always look on the minimap for the green crosses that indicate where to find health. Sometimes you have to go higher or lower than where you are to get them.
4. Melee FTW: Once you can melee attack, it is often the best way to attack the harder enemies. There’s a guy who looks like a bright yellow Groot who is one of my least favorite things to face. Dash to avoid their attacks and get in close and melee a couple times, and you can kill them without taking damage once you get the hang of it. It can also be helpful if you realize you are shooting one enemy and have another one near you. Once you get the hang of shooting, dashing, and melee, you can take on a lot of enemies at once without getting demolished.
5. (Don’t) Lock the Gates! Sometimes when you go through a gate, you’ll enter lockdown. If you get in the habit of stopping as soon as you enter a new room, you’ll be able to tell that this room will lockdown and you can come back later if you think you are about to get demolished. For example, come back when you get a better gun.
6. Use the Doors: If you find yourselves overwhelmed, and the room isn’t locked down, you can use the doors to your advantage. Leave the room, the door will slam shut behind you. Then open the door and attack a little and go back before they can hit you. You can also wait for your alt-fire to regenerate. Rinse, repeat. Is this a little cheap? Yes. Will it help you die less? Also Yes.
7. Use your ship. In the first biome, you can always go back to your ship and sleep in your bed. You might have to leave the ship, then go right back in and do it again. You can use this to get back to full health. Sure it takes a little longer, but if you heal this way, you can use the green health items to increase your max health bar! (Tip 3 above).

(Update: With patch 1.3.4 and up, they have changed this. As of May 9, it appears that once you beat the first biome boss once, you can only heal once at your ship on subsequent runs, and it doesn’t restore much health.)

1. Don’t be afraid to start over. Get in the habit of checking your starting weapon after you re-spawn each time. If you have a crappy alt-fire mode, and when you open the first door you are faced with a ton of enemies, don’t be afraid to re-start, whether by running Leroy Jenkins style into a mass of bad guys or just selecting “Restart Cycle.” You’ll learn that there are sometimes that the deck is stacked against you, and you might as well just start over.

Update: If you want to see what the first boss looks like, and what it looks like to come very close to beating it without succeeding, here is what that looks like! There are no story spoilers here, other than what the first boss looks like, I guess.