Update: Housemarque promised the new Returnal patch would release today, 14th June, and it's kept true to its word. The update is available on the PlayStation 5 now, and weighs in at 5.6GB. A lot of the feedback we've read online has been extremely positive so far — there are a ton of tiny tweaks and quality of life improvements — so it may be worth diving back in when you can.
Original Story: Returnal is a wonderful game, but it has its fair share of issues. While we've encountered almost zero bugs in our time with Housemarque's PlayStation 5 title, many players have been dealing with glitched Trophies, unreliable Activity Cards, and more miscellaneous problems. Fortunately, the developer has been working to patch everything up, and the latest major update is around the corner.
Patch 1.4.0 is set to release next week on Monday 14th June, and it has a pretty long list of changes and fixes. Top of the notes are some fixes to Trophies, which haven't always been triggering when they should. With the new update installed, you'll be able to replay "certain Act 1 & Act 2 Trophies", possibly implying that you can replay bosses. Additionally, for some Trophy scenarios that can't be replayed, those Trophies will be retroactively awarded.
For those trying to complete all the biome surveys, certain Scout Logs have been added to more locations, meaning these rarer collectibles will be more likely to appear, and a particular Cipher that could be unobtainable has been fixed. Furthermore, the Activity Cards intended to track your progress on surveys will provide accurate information with this patch.
There's plenty more besides: audio and DualSense haptics improvements, rebalanced enemies, weapons, and bosses, all kinds of bug fixes — it's a hefty patch, this one. Click through here to read all the patch notes.
Are you still plugging away at Returnal on PS5? Shoot down to the comments section below.
[source housemarque.com]
Comments 50
Will it make me better and capable of finally getting those 3 keys in a single run, because otherwise I'll never finish the game
I may have to give up on them patching in saving and just return to the game (after ratchet). Just can't play for 3-4 hours at a time.
Is there a save game feature yet?
@Gatatog Build your health, save and buy health extensions, buy health packs, and put your time into that lightning rod gun. I beat the game easily by doing this.
Bought this yesterday and am enjoying it. It's certainly more difficult than I imagined, but I'll continue powering through!
Ahh, I thought it was the recent system update that had caused my Activity Cards to start working properly again. It has been a bit of an annoyance this past week or so trying to complete the surveys and having to cross reference my data log with an online guide to see what was missing from which Biome. Regardless, it's working again for me
Also I have had a trophy bug or two but refused to move on before it popped. Had to beat one or two bosses multiple muultiple times. Wish I had just left it until I was more skilled and my weapons were OP because I'm absolutely beasting the bosses for fun now.
Audio and haptic improvements? Can they be any better then they already are??
Yep currently grinding for platinum....4 more surveys thats pretty much it, so this is very welcome news!
Again, day one buying is for mugs. Look at the state of the game now with all the patches compared to launch.
Great news, I'm taking a break on this at the moment for R&C but I'll return for the surveys.
Hell yeah, I’m still playing Returnal. It’s my favourite PS5 game yet (though, I’ve only just started Ratchet and Clank).
Will pick this up again after the new patch. I love the game but had too many crashes.
I only have one crash while playing it in early portion of the games. The problem with this game rogue like element is sometimes it isn't fun to take weapon/upgrade if there's always downside, it's like I'm being punished because using usefull weapon/upgrade.
Won’t be playing this for a while, just have far too much on my plate atm but glad things are getting fixed. Maybe by the time I eventually get around to playing it there will be no issues left at all.
I have the clear act 3 but not act 2 trophy! Glad I can finally get the platinum
Everything in the game worked fine for me on the latest patch, but more stability and improvements are always welcome. I’m just waiting for Returnal to get some new content now!
No save update? How long is it going to take to not act like a horrible PS2 save system. That should be the number 1 priory for updates. It’s not complicated at all to fix as far as the save system idea, not sure how lucky of a coding joke they dug themselves.
@Jaz007
Frankly being able to just save at the “shop” locations would be good enough for me.
@Gatatog hang in there man. It took me around 2 weeks to complete that biome. Grind the previous biome before you go in, trust me.
It's a beast of a game for sure, just to hard for little old me. Enjoying Ratchet now, and absolutely loving it !!!
Finally got the platinum tonight but great game that I'll keep going back to.
Yeah, it's kind of ridiculous that they still haven't implemented a save system yet. They were acting like it's so complicated before, basically saying they weren't sure what to do.
These fixes are all well and good, but I'm not even considering touching the game until they add some sort of a save system. I know for a fact that at least something in my room would get destroyed if I tried to play this game right now (obviously the restarting just isn''t for me).
Still holding out for a save system. Ratchet and Clank got my money now. Too slow adding that save feature 😬
@Gatatog biome 5? The key to beating the mini bosses and bosses is never. stop. moving. Specifically, utilize the grappling hook to zip you all over the [room], over and over and over again. Lick off shots at the boss(es), dash, then zip across to the first available grappling point. Rinse, and repeat.
No point in playing after the patch. Other than fantastic shoot 'em up gameplay, the challenge is the only thing left after the story x 2. Any DLC coming?
@jfelloff I hope so, but it's still early, we are still only six weeks from when the game was released. You can always go for the Platinum — hopefully the patch makes the RNG less frustrating ...
@Gatatog unsolicited advice, you're invincible while grappling. I would move, fire some secondary fire, stay a moment or two then dash/jump and grapple to the other side of the room.
cool, I held off playing at the weekend for this patch to come loving this game so far.
They haven't added a Save Game feature yet right? I want to know before playing this game so I know whether or not to download the patch, because I want to play Returnal as Housemarque intended me to play, as games of old were once played.
@Porkman85 As far as I know, Ratchet and Clank hasn’t had any issues?
@FatalBubbles nothing game breaking but it has bugs, the ones I saw were mostly related to falling out of the world, but since checkpointing is great, nothing to drive me mad. And they were extra rare, so practically, it's all good.
Question is—will it stop hard-crashing my PS5??? I am nervous to reinstall, but it might be time… Really hope I can play without killing my system! 😭
@OmegaStriver
Ive learned this from other games with similar upgrades. I always go for health first, i can always somehow skeet my way through a section with just a tad bit more health. My 25 years of hammering through Doom really pays off in these types of games. Run and gun and keep running lol
@FatalBubbles Ive been playing it since Saturday night, no issues whatsoever I had a couple issues when on ps5 remote play from another room with my ps4 in it.
I did notice on some games like rift apart, you cant view patch notes on console. Just thought id throw that out there, maybe im looking wrong. Lol
Picked it up at a discount when I bought Ratchet and Clank, and haven't started it yet. I'm hoping they'll listen and add improved saved game options, or I may never be able to start it, really - with multiple people in the house playing multiple games on the PS5, I can't always guarantee I'll have it to myself for hours, or that what I leave paused in Rest Mode will still be running when I come back.
@RobN
I hear this a lot; but having put many hours into Returnal, there hasn't been a single time where it would have made sense to interrupt a run and come back to it later. You might as well just end the run if you get interrupted. You won't be in the same frame of mind, you won't have the fresh practice with the specific build you have, and you are unlikely to even remember exactly what you were doing/planning.
Also keep in mind that multi-hour runs are not as common as you might think. Most of my runs are 30-60 minutes. Yes I have had the occasional ~2 hour run; but those are rare. There are big, obvious short-cuts all over the game to get you back from the start to where you left off in minutes (including huge boosts that help make up for not grinding through previous levels again)
For example (depending on your randomized layout of course) you can get from the starting ship in world 1 all the way to world 3 (where you will get a nice bonus that increases your weapon proficiency to level 9) in less than 2 mins.
This game was utterly destroying me so I'm taking a break from it to play Ratchet and Clank.
@RubyCarbuncle R&C is so much more relaxing 😂
@thedevilsjester That's good to hear. I sometimes have a half-hour here and an hour there to slip in some gaming, and something like Ratchet and Clank (or, dare I say it, Genshin Impact - my kids pulled me in and I play with them sometimes) works well for that. I'll have to see how Returnal fits, I'd just seen enough good things written about it to give it a shot.
Those of us who got the platinum before 1.4 know we did something spectacular and the way it was meant to be done. 🙃
@RubyCarbuncle @eagletrippin I actually think R&C can be harder on the highest difficulty setting than Returnal, or I’ve just got so used to Returnal that I can’t actually play anything else 😂
@render lol when I first booted up R&C I started on the highest difficulty. That area where you face 6 or 7 large enemies, died like 7 times😂 I took me a few days to die that many times in Returnal. I eventually had to turn down the difficulty to medium talk about humbling experience...
But still, Returnal due to its horror themed environments (versus the cartoonish, animated film environments of R&C), frightening enemies, and most importantly the whole 'Die, and start from the beginning' nature make it so much more intense. Any room you enter, could be your last ...
EDIT: And there is a major adjustment period after playing Returnal, because R&C is so much slower. Used being able to zip across rooms & maps in Returnal. Unfortunately R&C's dash move isn't nearly as good as Returnal's, lol
My trophies are still f*cked. I’ll need to restart the entire game to earn the platinum. Thanks Housemarque.
@Jaz007 the save issue is so overblown. Only whiners are still complaining about it.
@render Actually I was surprised at how difficult Ratchet and Clank was myself at the hardest difficulty. You can't doodle that's for sure and despite people saying the game isn't difficult I certainly wouldn't call it easy either, not by any means.
@eagletrippin Can't argue with that.
@eagletrippin Yep I had the same problem there and just couldn't believe I was getting beaten so badly. The dash problem is worse because you start without it and by the time you are used to not having it they give it you and then you forget to flippin use it!!
@RubyCarbuncle Totally agree, it can be really hard. Especially in that battle arena if you are on a harder difficulty, the ammo doesn't seem to stretch very far.
@nessisonett You should get on their discord server and have a good complain on there as other people have been asked to open a ticket for their issues. It does seem to be that others are still reporting issues with trophies so worth pursuing.
@render Can’t even be arsed anymore. Just going to sell it on.
@AgentGuapo Eh, I get the game save frustrations. Giving people the ability to save takes absolutely nothing away from the rogue-like experience. I've had to play until 2 or 3 in the morning just because if I placed my PS5 into rest mode, then I run the risk of my wife running her hair straightener in the morning which often times flips our breaker switch to our TV area in our house. I've put Retunral into rest mode before, and my PS5 didn't wake back up — had to do the hard shutdown, and rebuild the database. Can't rely on system-level saves, when from the PS5 launch, putting Spiderman into rest mode was breaking consoles ...
Loaded it up today, after hours of trying to get the audio log 9 in biome one b4 update got it on first room I entered, platinum trophy back on now hopefully get it this weekend and can finally put it to bed and carry on with my other games. Brilliant game fair play but it did look like I was going to give up on the plat before this update.
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