I was wondering what are GAF thoughts on Returnal now that we are two and half years removed from its launch and more 1st party SIE games have arrived on the PS5. Do you think it merits the title as the best 1st party Sony game released so far for the PS5 system?
As for me, I'll start and say that it's hands down the best first-party game Sony has released this generation. I'll even go further and say it's a perfect 10 out of 10, a masterpiece, and was quite ecstatic when Housemarque rightly won the prestigious BAFTA award for best game in 2021 (I'll say it deserved even more peer and critic recognition than that for all the the impressive stuff they achieved with this title but alas..). I don't know about you, but Returnal resonated with me a lot, in particular due to some of the heavy themes it alludes to that play no small part in Selene's story (e.g. isolation, depression, generational trauma and its effects on one's mental health). I played it during the height of the 2nd wave of the pandemic here in Europe (or maybe the 3rd?) just before getting my first covid shots, so I was mostly still stuck at home, working remotely; Guess this has contributed somewhat in making Selene's journey on Atropos a tad more personal for me.
With all that out of way, I'd have to say that Returnal's entire package is of very high quality. The controls are very tight, with very satisfying gunplay and punchy weapons, which it was somewhat expected from Housemarque due to their rich history with the bullet hell/shoot 'em up genre, but adapting this gameplay from 2D to 3D is certainly no small feat. The world-building and atmosphere are excellent too, with the art direction leaning and being inspired by the works of H.R. Giger and Beksinski. The storytelling is a bit ambiguous and left open for interpretation, but the Lovecraftian influences are clear alongside the many Greek mythology references you'll come across while trying to piece together Selene's story. All in all the cosmic horror is executed extremely well in Returnal, and if you're a fan of that (like I am), it pulls you right in from the get go.
The boss encounters are thrilling and unique; not too hard, not too easy, but just the right amount of challenge. I think everyone who has finished Returnal has been blown away by the build-up leading to the Hyperion fight - and of course the boss fight itself - which hopefully left a lasting impression on you as it certainly did for me. This leads me to mention the phenomenal soundtrack made by Bobby Krlic (I think I must have listened to the OST more than a dozen times in 2021, and then again when Vol.2 was released last year). And speaking of the audio aspect, in my opinion, Returnal has the best sound design of all the games released in recent years. I don't know how to put it into words, but playing with headphones felt like being transported to the planet Atropos itself. The 3D positioning for all the objects in the environment is spot on (e.g. enemies, projectiles, alien fauna, etc.), and you can accurately pin point how far an enemy is from you and from which direction they're attacking or trying to approach just by sound alone (I guess the RT audio implementation that simulates audio bounces in the game environment in a realistic way helps a ton here). Combined with the superb soundtrack, this auditory experience becomes something truly remarkable.
I played it day one, and finished it in about four days, before the devs nerfed the difficulty of certain enemies and way before they added the suspend cycle function. But even so, I found the difficulty to be quite fair for a roguelike—challenging, of course, but fair. I'll mention here here that as you progress and level up your weapons, the difficulty becomes more and more manageable, thanks in no small part to the game-changing perks you unlock on the weapons you play with. Of course, having a fair bit of luck with the item pick-ups while going through the biomes helps with a run quite a bit as well.
Lastly, the implementation of the DualSense controller was top-notch (probably the best so far, other than Astro Bot), with excellent haptics and triggers usage (e.g. pull half-way to focus aim and then all the way down for alt-fire mode). I haven't played the free DLC they released last year, however, I'll do plan to revisit Returnal soon to take care of that.
I'll end by saying that Returnal means to me what Bloodborne has meant to a whole lot of people here and other various places during last gen (e.g. game of the generation) and I consider it by far the best 1st party game on PS5, and presently thoroughly looking forward to what Housemarque will be cooking next.
