Remembered I finished all the main story content of Returnal recently and forgot to talk about it.
Ahhh man I really love the story in this one. It uses the main hallmarks of Roguelikes in such interesting, fun, and cosmically scary ways. And boy do I love cosmic horror (at least the stuff that doesn’t totally reveal the scary stuff, and lets your imagination fill in the blanks. Or… at least this one!)
What starts out as a spooky survival-shooter across this unknown alien planet soon turns into this psychological-horror-drama about the main character’s psyche, her neglectful upbringing, the cycle of abuse that she has been passed on, and the cycle that she has to/had to learn to break.
There are multiple interpretations of the events in the story and it’s completely intentional by the developers, which I think is super neat.
Housemarque writer says creating Returnal’s mystery was a ‘tightrope walk’ | VGC
While often praised for its sophistication, Returnal’s narrative has also been accused of being impenetrable due to its complexity.
“It was a tightrope walk. My boss Greg Louden, the narrative director, and I tried to ensure that both sides were included. So I was more ‘let’s make it more mysterious, let’s let the player puzzle it out with the community while Greg was kind of like ‘Okay, but we have to make sure that they understand some of this story”.
There’s essentially 3 main interpretations to the events transpiring in the game, and you can mix and match elements between them all thanks to the magic of false recollection/dream state/beyond human comprehension.
Jacob Geller has a fantastic video about one such interpretation of the main story
Much of the MC Selene’s story is told through audio recordings you can find, of her discoveries and later her insane ramblings, talking about glorious gods, fate, and a higher power that has kept her trapped in this cycle. They’re always a treat to find, and always very well-acted by Jane Perry. Her struggle, mania and confusion come across really well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TN1yoG9-Bdo
And then there’s the on-planet lore of the aliens and Atropos.
The way the Entry Logs of each creature are conveyed in the menu is super cool and also gives me some fun chills with how they tie into the death-looping. A lot of the descriptions have [UNDEFINED TERM] inserted or [LOOPING ERROR] as if it’s something that even a computer can’t process, or inexplicably can’t be defined by what we know.
The special permanent upgrades are neat in that they have a special error message that they can’t be removed by any tool or under any circumstance, as they have been linked the the suit’s core systems, or something to that effect.
But overall it’s a fantastic sci-fi roguelike with a gripping story, though yes it starts off with a pretty steep learning curve. You just have to get into a good flow state, get used to dodging, and experiment with your favourite damage/dps weapons.
