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.
I’ve already written extensively about my experience with Returnal’s first two biomes in our early preview. We called it the first truly next-gen game. We praised its implementation of the unique DualSense features and PS5’s 3D audio. Seriously, the haptic feedback at work is some of the most impressive stuff we’ve seen felt, and the adaptive triggers make for distinct gameplay that utilize multiple levels of pressure for focused aim and alternate fire abilities. As part of that initial preview, I also said:
It’s a sci-fi bullet-hell third-person shooter roguelike metroidvania that?s simultaneously empowering and crushing, always begging for one more cycle, one more run to try to conquer the creatures and discover the mysteries of Atropos. Some runs you?ll easily work your way through the levels, and others will present you with sudden terrifying surprises that lead to a quick defeat, but that random nature just makes you want to play more.

Returnal...