Returnal Reviews
Check out Returnal Review Scores from trusted Critics below. With 28 reviews on CriticDB, Returnal has a score of:
As much as Returnal carved a niche of its own on PS5 as a stunning third-person shooter that had been masterfully blended with roguelike design, so too does it manage to inhabit a similarly unique place for PC gamers in 2023. One of the best PlayStation exclusives of 2021 has ended up being one of the best and most glossy PC shooters of 2023. Long may PlayStation Studios incredible run of PC ports continue.
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Complex systems are made simple, by committing their clutter to muscle memory, and play—good play, at any rate—requires that you, like Selene, ride its enigmatic loop.
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Returnal is a great game on console and on PC, and its brilliant fast-paced gameplay will give daring players a highly entertaining experience despite its frustrating elements.
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This PS5 port is a blast in the heat of battle, but feels trapped between two genres.
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“Returnal takes full advantage of the PS5's features to give players a fast and furious sci-fi spectacle.”
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I have to admit that I was at first worried about Housemarque doing a AAA third-person shooter. I know they have their skills in the bullet hell genre and they have nailed that with expertise. However, moving to third-person adds an additional level of player control needed for fast paced gameplay. Not only that, but a small amount of roguelite games balance story telling with the gameplay, and do it well. Hades balanced story and gameplay, but also had the benefit of being isometric, which h...
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Returnal’s shooting mechanics are solid, the game is gorgeous, the enemy variety is nice, and the boss fights are stellar. So, it’s a shame that literally everything else kind of falls apart. The rogue-lite aspects are sub-par at best and outright bad at worst.
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An intergalactic voyage to a prohibited planet. An alien landscape shrouded in mystery. A loop that brings you rushing back to the moment of a harrowing crash. One woman exploring her past as she attempts to make sense of her present. Returnal is a monumental release from studio Housemarque and Sony Interactive Entertainment. It’s one of the first PS5 exclusive releases, a pretty sizeable change of direction for the studio behind it, and probably the biggest release the roguelike genre has ...
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While there are a few difficulty issues and some iffy story beats, Returnal is a fantastically brutal, rewarding, and deeply atmospheric sci-fi action game.
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Returnal is a tightly designed roguelike with some of the best gameplay the genre can provide, and it's the first game since Demon's Souls to provide a reason to own a PS5.
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Returnal is an incredible experience, which combines a replayable rogue-lite structure with heart-pounding bullet-hell gameplay.
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Almost everything about Returnal is working towards making it the premier PS5 exclusive. Stellar graphics, a great story, and amazing gameplay make it a joy to play, but a lack of saving and the constant fear of crashes make it hard to recommend at the present moment. At the end of the day, Returnal is a fantastic game, but whether or not you want to risk wasting hours of your life on potential crashes is really up to you.
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Returnal is a mostly thrilling sci-fi action romp that suffers from a lack of scale at times. In the moment, I’m completely fixated on my run, upgrading like a fiend, and dashing around for iFrames like I was playing a Capcom game. But after that run ends and I’m looking at the bigger picture, Returnal can feel a little smaller than it actually is. Keep that in mind before you take the pricey plunge.
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Once in a while, a game releases that features an unfathomable amount of elements and Housemarque really threw in everything and the kitchen sink with Returnal but does it all come together well? I'm happy to say that it does indeed.
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Returnal is a powerful roguelike recipe offering intense combat, a drip-fed narrative of palpable dread, and a cohesive combination of artistic elements. Housemarque’s third-person shooter delivers lightning-fast action transfused with incredible exploration, featuring equal doses of intensity and lingering unease. Every run is the start of something new, but what you learn over many failures provides an extra edge as you attempt to chart the sci-fi horror world of Atropos. Returnal deftly combines gameplay, graphics, and musical composition to create a haunting tapestry that’s an absolute joy to partake in, even when a mistimed dodge or a sinister trap claims...
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Up to this point, there certainly have been games that act as selling points for the PlayStation 5, however, Returnal isn’t just a tech demo or optimized version of a PS4 game: it’s a must-play for anyone with a PS5 who isn’t afraid to work through the frustrations of dying over and over again. From the incredible use of the DualSense controller to the intriguing way the story is told overrun after run, to the addicting and satisfying combat, Returnal begs the player to hold off going to sleep for just one more try. After all, as Selene constantly reminds...
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Returnal can be messy, tough, and perhaps a little too uncompromising for a $70 game. And yet, despite the moments of pad-clenching exasperation, it remains a moreish experience even after you’ve plumbed its depths.
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Returnal is an astounding game, one that easily and instantly claims the proud title of being Housemarque’s best game to date, and is an unmissable killer app very early in the PS5’s life.
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Returnal stands as Housemarque’s most ambitious title yet, taking the studio away from the arcade genre and into uncharted territory. By a good margin, that gamble is a success. Returnal delivers in spades where it counts most, delivering a mostly-excellent experience that embraces the studio’s history and charts a path forward. Selene’s harrowing adventures on Atropos are wonderfully conveyed through exploration and discovery. Though the ending doesn’t fully deliver on the hours of build-up, it’s still a worthwhile tale to explore. The combination of roguelike design with third-person bullet-hell gameplay mechanics is a true treat, keeping players on their toes...
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Returnal’s core conceit is about breaking the cycle. Selene crashes her ship on the mysterious—and dangerous—planet of Atropos, and every time she dies, she is returned to the crash site. The world changes around each time she sets out anew, learning new things about her situation on the alien planet and figuring out how it all ties together. The goal is to find a way to free Selene from this vicious unending cycle of death and rebirth, but Returnal is so good, I never want the cycle to end.
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What should have been a hotchpotch of other people’s ideas, made worse by frustratingly high difficulty, is in reality one of the most cleverly designed video games of recent years, with superb action and endless replayability.
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Returnal is an excellent video game flirting with perfection. It has the most satisfying gameplay loop Housemarque has crafted to date, which says a lot considering the studio's pedigree. If PlayStation's other PS5 exclusives feel even half as satisfying as Returnal does, fans are in for one hell of a console generation.
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It feels immensely satisfying to be sat here in 2021, eons after playing Super Stardust HD on PS3, and see just how far Housemarque has come. Offering a visual bullet hell spectacle, a showcase for the DualSense controller and a rewarding sci-fi narrative woven around the roguelike loop, we can say with unflinching confidence that Returnal is the PS5’s best game to date.
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Returnal is a shining technical achievement, possibly the best looking game on PlayStation 5. With addictive gunplay, a brutal learning curve, and a focus on exploration and temporary buffs, roguelike fans will be in heaven. Be warned though, the difficulty level is not for everyone. Though I learned to love Returnal with time, many players may walk away frustrated.
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Roguelikes and roguelites have almost been exclusively locked to the indie scene and are almost always either top-down or 2D. Although still technically an indie studio, Housemarque is changing that through Returnal, its Sony-published AAA roguelite shooter. Even though this is a departure for the Finnish developer and different take on the genre, it’s easily the team’s best and most well-realized game and an overall brilliant experience.
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While the pre-installed platformer Astro’s Playroom did initially delight us showing off the hardware, it was essentially a glorified tech demo that others haven’t quite tried to match, especially as we’re still in that awkward cross-gen phase. And even as fantastic Demon’s Souls is, that’s still a remake of an old game.
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Before we start this Returnal review, I feel it’s important to highlight my relationship with games of its ilk. For the most part Returnal is a Roguelite, a genre I’ve never been particularly fond of. To that end Returnal bares the distinction of being one of several games (the other being Resident Evil 7) in making me actually enjoy it despite not liking the genre.
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The moment-to-moment gameplay of Returnal is sublime, with a great selection of weapons that each have a wide variety of interesting possible traits, meaningful strategic decisions that can either keep a run afloat or doom it to sink, and punishingly challenging yet rewarding gunplay that is consistently exhilarating. Even with all of this focus on action, it never drops the ball on the story. Its big issue is that runs last way too long, and there’s no way to save progress outside of putting the PS5 in rest mode. That saps the desire to immediately return and try again after...
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