Its formula, which sees you playing as a lost astronaut trapped in a time loop who returns to the moment of their crash each time they die, is typical of the roguelite genre, steadily ratcheting up the stakes by holding the prospect of permadeath over your head. Nevertheless, it has a pacing problem, and it's not just because it lacks an auto-save feature. You can feel that arcade pedigree in its bones, from its rapid pace to its love of particle effects and big, fat energy bullets. With fewer than 100 employees, Housemarque - until recently an arcade developer - still feels like something of an indie itself.
In its defense, Returnal is much more than a cynical repackaging of established tropes from the indie space. Considering how popular roguelites have been over the past several years, it was inevitable that some major developer would eventually tackle the genre that has so effectively popularized challenge runs and permadeath. It features many of the elements that have proven successful in Hades, Dead Cells and other games, particularly in the way that it makes dying over and over again into a storytelling conceit. Returnal is being touted by some observers as one of the first ‘triple-A roguelites’ - a big budget version of the successful indie genre. Or to put it more simply, I think runs in Returnal take too long to complete. It’s more that, in my opinion, the expectations surrounding blockbuster games are an awkward fit for the traditionally lean, fast-paced roguelite genre. Nor is it a bad game, as our positive review can attest.
At that moment I wondered if I would have the time and energy to finish Returnal. As I watched the flaming wreck of the Helios dive through the atmosphere for the hundredth time to crash on the planet below, I took a deep sigh and put away my PS5 controller.
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