Returnal gets a video with combat details

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In mid-January 2021, Housemarque released a new video of Returnal, its first big project for the PlayStation 5, dedicated to combat: weapons, tools and the upgrades protagonist Selene finds along the way. The video came out with a Portuguese dub on the PlayStation Brasil channel.

Those who follow the Finnish studio know where this idea comes from. Resogun, Alienation and Nex Machina, all released for the PlayStation 4, share intense bullet hell-style shooting, with the screen full of projectiles. Returnal takes that base to third person and mixes it all with roguelike elements: Selene is an astronaut trapped in a time loop on the planet Atropos, and each death sends her back to the start.

On the PlayStation Blog, the game’s director, Harry Krueger, detailed what the video shows. There are 10 basic weapons, more than 90 weapon traits with three levels each and 10 alternate fire modes randomly assigned to each weapon. The DualSense’s adaptive trigger separates the functions: pressing L2 halfway aims with the primary fire, and pressing all the way down activates the alternate.

There are also artifacts with their own abilities, consumables like the Kinetic Siphon, which restores health when defeating nearby enemies, and parasites, which give a benefit and a penalty at the same time. The example cited was a parasite that regenerates health when it’s low, but makes enemies leave pools of acid. Suit malfunctions are negative conditions, and Obolites work as currency to buy items or activate checkpoints. It is a risk-and-reward system that asks for calm when deciding what to carry on each cycle.

At the time, the launch was set for March 19, 2021, exclusive to the PS5.

What came next

Two weeks later, on January 28, Sony delayed Returnal by a month, to April 30, 2021. The game was well received by critics, with praise for combat, sound and visuals, and won Best Game at the BAFTA Games Awards. In March 2022, the free Ascension update brought two-player online co-op and the endless mode Tower of Sisyphus. The PC version, made by Climax Studios, arrived on February 15, 2023.

Source: PlayStation Blog.