The PlayStation 5, Sony’s latest generation of popular gaming console, still struggles at first. There are still fewer households that own this powerful console than they would like. However, one of the most exciting games of 2021 will be released this month with the PS5 exclusive title “Returnal”.
In the mysterious story of the science fiction thriller “Returnal”, the player slips into the role of protagonist Selene. After a landing accident on the extremely hostile space planet “Atropus”, she is trapped and must fight for her survival against the remnants of an ancient civilization. no escape. Failure, when you have to face dangers, is not an exit. After death, you are not free from the torments of the planet; She wakes up again sometime before crashing.
The third-person shooter from Finnish development studio Housemarque not only relies on the PS5’s performance and integrated 3D sound, but also on the arcade-like parts of the game, which influence the experience in an unusual way. According to Sony, players can also look forward to action-packed battles and exciting explorations using platform elements and several individual customization options.
What makes Returnal so special?
If you read our previous description of the title, you can quickly understand that it does not look particularly innovative or special. Why is there a debate in the industry about whether or not a shooter is something so special after all?
Perhaps the most exciting item to return is the heroic comeback. In the course of the story, the player is increasingly engaging with Selene’s psyche and has to make new decisions that affect progression. In every cycle that begins after the death of the fallen astronaut, the environment and the arsenal of weapons and equipment that can be found change.
Celine has to adapt to risks every time and rethink her approach to the struggle for survival. As a result, this is also required of the player. If you want to make steady progress, you need to carefully weigh each decision, because every attempt is different.
The trailer for Al-Awda story shows the exciting aspects of the story:
The protagonist with a distinct character
With Selene and her story being the essence of the game, we’re taking a closer look at the Greek-American astronaut ASTRA and her deep personality. These scouts, which have been described as ambitious and intelligent, actually followed the hitherto unspecified “white shadow” sign when they forcibly “landed” on a hostile planet and the story of Atropus begins.
There you discover the ruins of an ancient strange civilization and die in an attempt to explore it. Shortly after her death, Celine realizes she is trapped in a period of time when she wakes up in the cockpit of her spaceship just moments before the accident. She faces a death-and-rebirth cycle, and on top of all of that, she repeatedly encounters her corpses from previous rounds as the game progresses.
These remnants, according to the developers, either contain projections of other players’ deaths streamed via the game’s online system, or story-based audio recordings recorded by other versions of Selene. As a player, you can also choose to loot your corpse or even avenge your death. Such an interaction, in turn, would have its own consequences, and therefore it should be able to provoke various events.
Biofilm enemies and strange ruins
When submitting the exclusive title, we of course not only want to highlight the return mechanism, but we also want to introduce the types of opponents and the inspiration behind their visual design. Housemarque’s work, for example, relies on organic opponents such as parasites and other creatures inspired by biologically luminous creatures of the deep sea – that is, organisms that can generate light independently, such as the vampire or luminous squid – as well as the crested jellyfish.
According to the developers, the species design should create a mixture of “messy beauty” and “nightmarish aggression.” This combination is based on tentacle technology that is imitated by visual effects. But not only does the optics look exceptional, fighting with said opponents could also set new standards in Returnal, as Housemarque declared that not only individual enemy types could work together, but each individual enemy type had an individual attack pattern.
If you are looking to discover the ruins of an alien civilization as well as explore Celine’s personal history, you can explore the same background on Atropos. To do this, players can select and decode visual holograms called “Xeno Archives”. You will also learn more details and always receive new information about the original inhabitants of the planet by translating the so-called xenoglyphs.
The return is based on a combination of messy beauty and nightmarish aggression:
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