I didn’t play Returnal when it came out in 2021 because I wasn’t in the mood to have my ass kicked over and over again, but I felt like I knew a lot about it. I heard it was painfully difficult and that a lot of people never made it past the first boss. I heard it was the first great 3D bullet hell and that more games should follow in its footsteps. I heard that the DualShock features were great and that the lack of a System Save was terrible. But what I didn’t hear was anything at all about the story, or what Returnal is actually about. After finally playing through it this weekend, it’s the only thing I want to talk about. There’s something profound about the way the experience of playing Returnal mirrors the themes it explores, and I think Housemarque deserves a lot more credit for the novelty it brought to both the roguelike and the time loop game.
