That's why I think both the lack of saving and the difficulty discussion are overblown, taking focus away from the things that make Returnal interesting and centering instead on mechanical aspects of the game that were purposely, thoughtfully designed.

Returnal Survival Guide: Essential Tips & Tricks To Know Before Playing.Returnal expects you to die and return to your starting point and, in fact, provides more story and context when you do. There are also logs in the Helios computer that illuminate what's going on (somewhat-it's all a bit vague and trippy in a New Weird fiction sort of way) and some specific story moments that only become available as you defeat bosses and enter new biomes. So Returnal's story is built expecting you to die and replay portions of the same biomes over and over. You need the map to rearrange itself to find them. If you don't die, you can miss those items because they're tied to the game's procedurally generated map. Returnal is littered with audio logs left by past Selenes during other attempts to reach her goal, a strange broadcast on Atropos called White Shadow, and clues to the alien civilization on Atropos that seems to have been wiped out. If you're clearing more than one biome at a time, you're not dying enough.Īnd indeed, every new run rearranges the world before you, causing you to stumble on new information. Figuring out why you're in this eternal loop of returns-Returnal, get it-is part of the story.

Every time she's killed, Selene awakens again at Helios, fully cognizant of everything that she experienced up until her last death. Like some other roguelikes, Returnal is the story of a time loop. If your run is lasting hours, you should, uh.die. Your runs aren't meant to be hours long, but divided into manageable bits with clear goals. Roguelike fans have been mentally primed to try to go as far as possible in a single run, but that actually flies in the face of how Returnal is made and should be played. If you want to stop playing, you'll have to give up everything you've earned on a run-and as some have said, runs can last hours. Returnal opens with a message telling you that if you quit the game at any point, your current run will end, and you'll be returned to Helios, protagonist Selene's crashed spaceship. That's caused some critics and players to complain that Returnal is too punishing-some of the popular consensus is that you'll have to really step up your shooter skills to hang with it.Īt the same time, much has been made about another aspect of Returnal: the inability to save mid-run. Now Playing: 11 Returnal Tips to Help you Survive By clicking 'enter', you agree to GameSpot's

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