Returnal - "Hades x Aliens x Metroid" - PC version officially confirmed

Its hard to resist this and have some psn credit on my us account, but may save it for ratchet.

I love it. I just want to keep playing but now it's work time

Supporting My Local Mule Sanctuary Since 11/11/2014.

Captain Kinopio wrote:I wonder if this is the first real test of whether people will pay £70 for new releases. New franchise, strong reviews, looks gorgeous. You'd think everything is setup for it to perform well.

It wasn't really on my radar but after the reviews it is the sort of thing I might take a chance on at £40.

I'm not willing to spend £70 on pretty much any game. I think if Sony was struggling a bit more in terms of revenue and profit, I'd feel slightly better about it, but after their personal best (I think) financial report, these increases are especially egregious.

Zilnad wrote:Two hours in and I almost beat the first boss on my first attempt. First impressions are very good. Looks great, intriguing mystery and the combat is really satisfying.

I thought I did beat it on the first go, but then discovered it has multiple health bars and got completely owned.

I came across one of the houses in that run but couldn’t get in because it was locked. Key might have been in one of the side routes but I was sticking to the main one mostly so didn’t find it.

jiggles wrote:
Zilnad wrote:Two hours in and I almost beat the first boss on my first attempt. First impressions are very good. Looks great, intriguing mystery and the combat is really satisfying.

I thought I did beat it on the first go, but then discovered it has multiple health bars and got completely owned.

I came across one of the houses in that run but couldn’t get in because it was locked. Key might have been in one of the side routes but I was sticking to the main one mostly so didn’t find it.

I noticed it had multiple health bars and I'd gotten it down to the final one but at that point it really ramped up in difficulty.

I also found the key you mentioned. Definitely seek it out on your next run. If I remember correctly it's a "permanent" item so you just have to find it the once.

15GB update

Bugger. (I want to start playing it *now*)

Peter Crisp wrote:Boomerang has sent this so I should have it by the weekend.

I only noticed the other day that one of their dispatched games arrived by 2nd class post. I got quite pissed at that and was gonna suggest maybe they should send new releases out via 1st class. (But I never did.) And then Returnal arrived today and it's 1st class :toot:

Saint of Killers wrote:Bugger. (I want to start playing it *now*)

Peter Crisp wrote:Boomerang has sent this so I should have it by the weekend.

I only noticed the other day that one of their dispatched games arrived by 2nd class post. I got quite pissed at that and was gonna suggest maybe they should send new releases out via 1st class. (But I never did.) And then Returnal arrived today and it's 1st class

ShopTo are being sneaky strawberry floats these days and have stopped sending out stuff via 1st class which is a bit risky.

Mafro wrote:15GB update

Another one?! There was a 10GB one last night

Yep rather liking this.

Got to first boss and thought I was pretty hot gooseberry fool

aye this is strawberry floating brilliant.

Going for £80 on Amazon marketplace :lol:

Sold out on Amazon proper.

I don't think I've come close to the first boss yet :lol:

Found a few weapons and unlocked alt-fire though. Seeing quite a few Housemarque traits in this, both ones I enjoy (dashing through attacks to avoid damage) and ones which grate. (They always throw in one too many of something, be stuff you collect or abilities. In this I am finding the various coloured collectables a bit much.)

Played a few hours of this tonight and got to the second biome, really enjoying this so far. Managed to beat the boss on my first attempt, but I was quite lucky in that I had an artefact that resurrected me on death, and a parasite that would regenerate my health to around 20% whenever I dropped too low so that saved me a few times.

About a 60 minute run got me through the house and beating the first boss before dying at the start of the second biome. Then another 60 minute run got me through the house a second time and through what I assume is most of the second biome. Those house sections are creepy as strawberry float

I was playing without headphones this evening and the biggest advantage is being able to hear the controller speaker. Much easier for me to parse that the shnnng! is for a tool coming off cool down when it’s literally coming from the thing in my hands, separate from the rest of the game audio.

Tbh, I kind of think with the 3D audio they have there there should be an option for a “virtual” controller speaker that sounds like it’s coming from ever so slightly in front of and below you. The way it is now, any audio that was intended for the speaker just gets added to the main mix and with a soundscape as overwhelming as this game uses, it just kind of gets a little lost.

jiggles wrote:About a 60 minute run got me through the house and beating the first boss before dying at the start of the second biome. Then another 60 minute run got me through the house a second time and through what I assume is most of the second biome. Those house sections are creepy as strawberry float

I was playing without headphones this evening and the biggest advantage is being able to hear the controller speaker. Much easier for me to parse that the shnnng! is for a tool coming off cool down when it’s literally coming from the thing in my hands, separate from the rest of the game audio.

Tbh, I kind of think with the 3D audio they have there there should be an option for a “virtual” controller speaker that sounds like it’s coming from ever so slightly in front of and below you. The way it is now, any audio that was intended for the speaker just gets added to the main mix and with a soundscape as overwhelming as this game uses, it just kind of gets a little lost.

I've only done the first house section but yes, very creepy. It's a blatant rip-off of PT though :lol:

I don't normally use headphones with games but have been with this so far and I agree it's been difficult to tell when the cool down for my alt-fire has finished, I might try it without headphones tomorrow to see what bits are supposed to be coming from the controller.

Mid-save points are likely coming going by a Housemarque tweet. (They linked a reddit post about it and went on to say they're listening to fans but have nothing to announce as yet.)

Where did YOU shoot the first statue?

Just beat the second boss on my first try! I'll be honest, I got really lucky with a parasite and item combination that resulted in a healing consumable replenishing itself throughout the whole fight.

Now I can start using those yellow glowing points to access new areas.

Odd one this.

The setting, atmosphere and and story elements are doing some incredibly heavy lifting for what feels like a rather pedestrian cycle (at least in the first biome).

Gameplay is serviceable, but not incredibly interesting. It’s punishing as one hit is so debilitating, but that’s not the same as being an interesting challenge.

Maybe it’s coming from Hades which was near perfect in terms of progression/unlock - but also variety of combat to keep runs interesting .

RNG seems to play a *very* big part in this and there’s nothing (so far) you can do to mitigate it (unless you’re very skilled)

But things like you’re only upgrade weapon was a shotgun? Good luck on boss!

Room 2! 200 money units for an item! You have that right?

I got Psrike to nearly dead (last bar) on first attempt as I had astronaut and rocket launcher and healing parasite. No other random build had come close. I had few decent attempt suboptimal build and one amazing build but the game crashed.

Similarly malfunctions - rng. You met get ‘kill 10 enemies’ or you might get ‘open 2 chests. What? There’s no chests in remaining rooms? Sorry. Shame’

It doesn’t very like an interesting knowledge choice of risk/reward. Just constant unknown gambles.

But you often don’t have a choice. ‘You *need* power and artifacts to progress? Better open this mystery box! Oh shame you’re poisoned, only got a single use shield and used your key. Better luck next time!’

5 hours and I don’t feel like progressed much in the last 2-3 of them. Running through the same time consuming large rooms (sometimes fighting the same 4 types of enemies) hoping this time to get a viable combo to try the boss.

Theres no slight incremental progression to counter balance the rng and asking you to do the same 20 minutes to even attempt the boss (with or without decent build is punishing. Imagine having to do all the the areas of dark souls again each time you want to try a boss.

Its incredibly compelling though , even though I’m not sure it’s all the good underneath.

Returnal - "Hades x Aliens x Metroid" - PC version officially confirmed

Who is online

Affiliates