Sony's slate of software for 2021 is looking amazing, and part of that is Housemarque's roguelike shooter Returnal. Today, a new trailer has been released, showing off a couple more minutes of gameplay from the PlayStation 5 exclusive.
The video shows off a variety of weapons and tools you'll be able to equip as you explore the hostile world of Atropos. In typical Housemarque style, your guns and abilities are all super flashy, and there look to be some really interesting weapon types. There are your usual go-tos, like a machine gun, but even that gets a sci-fi boost with alternate fire modes. The Electropylon Driver looks cool, firing off nodes that then outline an area of damage. The trailer also highlights some new environments, parasitic lifeforms that will alter gameplay, and mysterious alien artifacts you'll find in each run.
Writing on the PlayStation Blog, game director Harry Krueger explains the team's desire to create a super-replayable, "one more go" experience. Feeding into that is a variety of weapons, Weapon Traits, and other tools that will make each run unique.
Weapon Traits will give your guns extra effects, meaning you could end up with a shotgun-style weapon with exploding rounds, or that extracts extra loot from enemies, for example. These traits also stack, so you could end up with a seriously powerful weapon if you get far enough. Weapons get randomly assigned alternate fire modes, which will also help change things up.
Interestingly, Selene can only hold one weapon at a time, so you'll be forced to switch up your strategy on the fly. Fortunately, upon each death, you won't lose everything; some abilities and upgrades will persist between runs, making this more of a roguelite than a roguelike.
Add to all this the Cthonos device that gives you a random item each run, powerful tools like the Dismantler, and Parasites that will both help and hinder you in various ways, and it sounds like variety won't be a problem in Returnal. There's more info on the PS Blog post — it's sounding really exciting. What do you make of these new details? Fire away in the comments section below.
[source blog.playstation.com]
Comments 77
Looks great! We just need a state of play demon souls style!
Looks quite entertaining.Probably wait till it comes to plus though.
No question it looks great but there's that price tag to contend with,ill wait for your review.
This is why Sony need a gamepass alternative. There’s no way I’d pay £70 for this but I’d give it a shot on a similar service.
It’s kind of like a mix of Anthem and Warframe in gameplay but has the feel of the Aliens movies, to some degree.
This has piqued my interest.
Yep, looks really cool, interest levels increased!
Hmm I’m as likely to spend £70 on this as I would £40 if I am honest. Whether I get it or not will be determined by reviews and what else I’m playing at the time. Does looks very good though!
Why don't people see this as a £70 game? Because of the developer or because you feel like no game is worth £70? This is a game with a story, good gameplay, cool world, I just don't understand how it's not a £70 game if other similar games are (unless it's because it's being developed by Housemarque).
@Fenbops They don't need gamepass. Wait for it to be on sale at the price you would buy it. If you don't want it that much, you will wait. Simple as that.
@theMEGAniggle I think people just see it as a triple A game made by an indie studio and that it's a new IP. If it had mass effect on it, people would be saying it's totally worth the $70. Funny thing. This look waaaaaay better than mass effect andromeda.
I hope it gets 85+ in reviews. Should be enough to convince the naysayers. I'm interested in it because the alien/planet theme wasn't used at all last gen. Except for doom and the failures of mass effect andromeda and anthem.
@theMEGAniggle Personally because I'm not sure I'd even like it. I'm not a big fan of procedural stuff, but the game looks neat.
€80 is a lot of money, and I'm only willing to drop it on something like God of War. Plenty of other new titles are €60, so it needs to be truly special for me to consider buying it at full price. Most games drop in price quickly too; so it's very tempting to just wait a couple of months. If it was priced at around €40, it would be a no-brainer.
@LiterallyDoNotCare could be waiting a long time, doesn’t even look like a game I’d pay £50 for.
@Fenbops Why not just give it away for free?
Looks decent if you are into roguelike type games but, possibly due to my age and lack of spare time, continously dying and repeating the same sections has zero appeal to me. I have tried and i really do wish these things would click with me as games like Hades get a lot of praise, alas they just dont and, at £70, there is absolutely no chance im picking this up.
Looks awesome and great fun at the same time
@get2sammyb no one is saying that.
@Fenbops The downside with Game Pass and similar services is that it favours smaller and cheaper games over the big stuff Sony likes to make. Quantity over quality essentially. You need plenty of games to keep the service relevant and up and running; and since customers are only paying a fraction per game, development costs can't be too high.
@Fenbops Then wait some more. I really don't see a problem. Do you want it or not? It's worth the $70 for me if it gets 85 or similar score on metacritic for me, so sony won't undervalue it if people find it valuable. The game won't flop either. People will buy later and they'll make the intended earnings still.
@Fenbops well. Because you have gamepass, games come at no additional cost. It's that how good you think xbox games studios games are?
That the only reason you would play them is because they are free on gamepass? Jim Ryan already said they are going the premium way.
I would pay $70 for gears 6, but hey. I guess I find value in xbox games.
@Octane Especially if you have to feed 23 (30) studios + third party games you put in there with just ocassional 15 million users (although I think it caps at 30m after the 9th gen is over).
Looks great, definitely interested in this, will wait for a review first, if all sounds good will pick it up asap.
@LiterallyDoNotCare that’s fine. I said since day one I won’t pay £70 for a new game, the price hike was too much, especially for games like this. Hell there was even an article on push square about how the price could hurt it. If you’re happy to pay Sony’s premium fair enough, your choice man.
Also your point about Gears 6, I wouldn’t pay £70 for that but I won’t have to. So kinda mute.
@LiterallyDoNotCare I'm seeing a lot of complaints about it not being worth £70 because it's a roguelike but not the greatest comparison but that would be like not thinking dark souls is worth £70 because you die a lot.
@Octane that's such a disservice to the developers. I don't have a lot to say about that because it's your opinion but clearly there must be hours and hours of content otherwise it wouldn't be £70. We saw with Miles Morales, even though it had so much action, it was a mini sized experience and priced accordingly. I'm very excited for this game as equally as I am for Ratchet
Have to say I agree with most people here. It looks like a good game, but it's a high risk at the new £70/$95 price tag here in the UK. It almost feels like Sony need justify why we should have to pay this much money for each or even any game.
I suppose it's really just a case of "let's charge a high price and catch the people who'll pay it, then sell it at a lower price to the people who can wait for a sale later on.". My new PS5 console hype has fallen off now and I have plenty to play while I wait for the cheaper pipeline of games, patched and ready to go, to come along in six months or so.
It might seem silly, but had this been a launch title I probably would have got this instead of Miles Morales and Remastered. Now I can wait.
Looks great. Get heavy PT vibes everytime I see that doorway...
@JapaneseSonic facts.
I think past ventures by the developer is hurting this game. Just like how people were sure Horizon would fail just because Guerrilla had only done fps games. Hopefully the people voicing their shortcomings about this game are in the minority (usually happens) and this game can go and do well.
I would grab it if it gets an average metacritic score of 85 and above. Housemarque is very talented.
This game looks like a mess, I hope im wrong.
@Fenbops I agree and disagree with sammy depending on the game. D. All stars? Yeah. Seems like a free to play with good graphics, but Returnal could have as much content as gow or hfw.
I won't get it since I don't have a ps5 or plan to anytime soon, but I would have if the game reviews say it's worth it. He might change his mind. Nothing is definite and that's the behaviour we are seeing. Nobody knows, but act like it's going to be a 5 hour game.
Well, because you don't have to for gears, you shouldn't for Returnal? Not every third party publisher and console manufacturer has to make a service now so you are able to afford all the games. Sorry. This is not a reality.
I seem to be in the minority, but this game looks like a lot of fun. I plan to get it at full price to support HM.
I'm officially hyped now, this looks super good
@theMEGAniggle I'd say Ratchet is not worth it and Returnal is. Even Detroit wasn't worth the $60.
Sony prices their game with what they think it should be priced. Lost Legacy, Shadow of The Colossus, Sackboy, Miles weren't priced the highest.
So they think it's not at the right price because of the genre? Hades almost won goty with that genre. Dark Souls is a good comparison. If it was easy, it would be a decent length game, but there is a purpose for that. Idk. This is a new genre in the triple A style. It's something different. Same people that say Death Stranding is worth the $60? Where are they now? Oh. Because it doesn't have kojima name on it. Ofc. Is Callisto not worth the $70 too? What about Bioshock 4 made by that new and unknown studio? Oh. Has Bioshock 4 name on it. Right.
Like Reggie said. Every triple A dev was an indie dev before.
@theMEGAniggle I don't think it is. Everyone has their preferences. Some people think FIFA is worth €60. You couldn't get me to buy it for €10. There's only one or two games every year that are a must buy for me. The rest of the games I play depends on how expensive they are, and how much I think I'd enjoy them. Like I said, I'm not a big fan of procedural games. So this one isn't on the top of my list, but since it's backed by Sony, I would like to give it a try someday (since I like most of the stuff they develop/publish). Just not at launch. I'm still catching up with 2019 and 2020 games, so there's no hurry either.
@Odium You're not a minority. The most vocal people are the minority but they seem big.
Look at tlou2 and its 74 user voted awards. All that hate, disliked bars for what? Turn down for what is what ND said.
@LiterallyDoNotCare games have different values, I’d pay more for a new Gears game than this, but still wouldn’t pay £70.
But one side here is offering a service where you don’t need to pay a large amount of money upfront for new games and one is. Simple as that.
I’d pay 70$ for it. Shame I can’t find a PS5.
@Fenbops That's fine that you think gears is more worth it. Maybe because of the multiplayer. Played it on my brother's xbox and it's still pretty fun.
Thing is. These games have no mtx. Look at how Halo Infinite will be the last halo and it will be a GaaS. Same with forza. Fable could be one too. Like a monster hunter. So they can afford it because kids these days spent more on mtx than games themselves. Yes. I know they are making Avowed, Hellblade 2 (which the first one was an indie game) etc... but we don't know the length of these games yet. Outerworlds looked like a double A game but was priced as a triple A.
@LiterallyDoNotCare can agree with you on that. Gears/Halo/Forza all have pretty horrible microtransactions. It’s not cool.
Anyway man thanks for entertaining me during a boring day at work, peace!
This game looks amazing, people can complain about the price but if we find out that it isn't a short game and is worth multiple playthroughs then it's worth the money. We just need a State of Play to showoff this game.
@Fenbops No problem. I'm just not a pro-service video game guy. That's all. I think I already established that here and on purexbox. Saw the games the service currently has and I either play them or would buy the few that I care about.
I'm trying to convince my brother to play resident evil 7 but he's scared and to play nier automata but he think's it's anime stuff, but even he, which barely has played anything, didn't find value in it. He tried doom eternal and monster hunter but deleted them and only sticked with gears 5 and only because of the multiplayer, hence a point why those games work well on a service.
Won't be paying full price does look interesting though.
Looks great. for some reason it reminds me of remedy control.word up son
I'm still in the mindset that £70 was always for the "Deluxe" versions of games with add on content that you don't need to enjoy the game. I do like the look of it, but can't justify it. Maybe gameplay will change my mind or a good sale 😬
@theMEGAniggle For me it’s because it looks like a glorified arcade game. Perhaps I’m wrong, and I would honestly love to be wrong here. My interest is piqued by the style and setting, but I’m also very cautious because so far I’ve seen nothing showing this game to be a large scale adventure. Looks like a mid-size $40 game to me - at least, so far. I think people just need more info - I know I do before I make a decision on this one.
Looks like a day one purchase for me. Love third-person stuff. Love the visuals.
Yes day one, read another article earlier on this. Its seems its built for loads of replayability. So yes the price might be high but its probably a game I will go back to time and time again.
I'll wait for reviews but more than likely I'll be getting this when it comes out for full price. Love the dev and these style of games.
Oohhhh look at all those lovely colours! This should look stunning in 4k HDR. The more I see of this the more enticing it looks, and Housemarque are a studio that know how to deliver...
looks kind of samey to past games. different premise and story of course but watching it, I feel deja vu.
I know theyve been posting dev diaries but i hope it gets a state of play as well.
@LiterallyDoNotCare
You speak nothing but facts. There are too many people that are blinded by brands. If this game was being developed by a different studio, you just know there wouldn't be a million articles and comments about being overpriced. I can't wait to see this game in March.
@Octane Of course. fu*k fifa btw
@everynowandben how does it look like an arcade game? It looks like a 3rd person action/shooter.
I’m getting more interested in this as time goes on. It looks like a lot of fun with a good central mystery to unravel.
@theMEGAniggle Imagine if Nex Machina was played from a 3rd person perspective - it would still be an arcade style shooter - that’s what this looks like to me.
@theMEGAniggle Thanks, although I don't always do.
The game could be bad and these people would have said I told you so, but they are not in a position to jump in conclusions as of today.
Yes. People are blinded by brands. It's why apple keeps selling their tech.
not sure what to make out of this game... I think I'm just too thirsty for some next gen s++t so I will probably get this once price drops a bit... Hard to justify paying 110AUD for it on launch... I donno
Hi there fellow gamers.
The more I see of this game, the more I want to play it now.
Like some of you have mentioned, if Hades story can work as a roguelike game, and it does super well, this can to.
This is Housemarque chance to bring they "A game" to the big leagues, so to speak.
They already have mastered how to make an awesome and addicting gameplay loop with their previous games and Returnal just seems like the natural evolution for them as a videogame team.
Super excited for it.
Cheers, stay safe and happy gaming to us all
I’m getting Dead Space mixed with Dark Souls vibes
Very nice
@Octane... If I may ask, What's truly special about God Of War?
@everynowandben I don't know man, I feel like there's a lot more to this game in comparison to arcade games. And even in comparison to full games, it looks really really good imo.
@LiterallyDoNotCare tbf, apple tech is pretty good, but that's just it, it could be greater, they just don't go the extra mile that other companies have to go through to get noticed. I feel like you have sense. The game COULD be bad but from what they've shown I just can't fathom how people can come to the conclusion that it's lacking.
Why is everyone obsessing about £70? If you like the look of the game, want to play it, want to support the developer to make future games and want to play a native PS5 game then you're just going to have to deal with the new new. Inflation is here to stay. Better get used to £70
@GREGORIAN Brilliant game mate!
@dannybuoy well that’s your opinion. I find raising the price here in the UK by £20 during a pandemic while record numbers of people are losing their jobs pretty bad. When people have less disposable income and you raise the price of games, less people will buy them. It’ll hurt the industry in the long run.
@theMEGAniggle Red Dead Redemption 2 was only £50 at launch.
@dannybuoy This is not the result of inflation. it's a company driven price hike.
But don't you think the additional 'back to square one' development costs for working with a new platform and the associated costs for the company (which includes salary rises, inflation linked expenditure etc) all go towards the price rise? I dunno. Unless Sony are just plonking an extra £20 on to recoup R&D costs and to turn a profit on the hardware as they had to match Microsoft's price. I don't know.
looks like a solid game, but nobody is going go buy this at $100CAD. sony is nuts for releasing this at the highest price tier. i expect numerous sales and a permanent price drop to occur within 3 months of release. naturally, this will be yet another housemarque game that fails to meet sales expectations due to the reasons mentioned. it is a shame that such a telented studio is going to find itself in financial turmoil if sony abandons them.
@AK4tywill no it wasn't 😂😂
It was £60 at launch, every full game is always £59.99, from fifa to Rdr2.
Its a day one even if i dont own a PS5 yet supporting this awsome title. 🤩👍
Out of all the games i own (shocking number) i always find the housemarque games the ones i always go back to..resogun is always installed as is nex machina..matterfall is an awesome turrican esque shooter so if i have to pay full whack for this i unapologetically will..
@theMEGAniggle No it was definitely £50 at launch. I checked the receipt, I picked it up from a Tesco Express while I was in my final year at uni. Games here have never been £60 at launch. For a while the retail price has been £54.99 though I've never seen retailers actually sell them at that price (except GAME).
@AK4tywill maybe yours was discounted?? Even still, I got Spider-Man at launch for £59.99, AC Syndicate £59.99, both at Smyth's so idk where you're getting yours from.
I like the look of it but roguelikes aren't my thing.
@theMEGAniggle It wasn't discounted, no. Unless you got the special editions I don't think you're remembering correctly as that wasn't the retail price anywhere. Some media outlets list the launch retail price when they review games. You can see in the Wired article for AC Syndicate it was £49.99 at launch and in the Metro review for Spiderman it was £54.99.
https://www.wired.co.uk/article/assassins-creed-syndicate-review
https://metro.co.uk/2018/09/04/marvels-spider-man-review-does-whatever-a-ps4-can-7912963/
I think this comprises a significant price hike and that's why people are getting whiplash from it and games that don't have AAA levels of hype like Returnal will likely suffer.
Game looks great but I can't justify spending $70 on a brand new IP I know next to nothing about.
Will wait for it to hit $30 in a year or two.
@AK4tywill I'm not gonna argue over £5, I paid what I paid. Rightly so, the hike to £70 is so sad to see, especially when games are quite expensive in the first place, it's just moving closer to an expensive hobby, like the PC space.
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