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Returnal is a brand new survival horror game published by Sony Entertainment. Developed by Housemarque, this game is a PlayStation 5 exclusive, and it has finally released today.
This rogue-like third-person game follows the footsteps of Selene, an astronaut who has crash landed on an alien planet. The game picks up from her crash and follows her as she navigates her way in order to survive on that planet.
Returnal release date and other details
As mentioned before, Returnal has already gone live for PlayStation 5. The game has a file size of approximately 56 GB. Pre-loading the game was available for PlayStation 5 users who had pre-ordered it. Pre-loading for Returnal went live on April 25th, five days prior to its release. Those who'd pre-loaded the game found Returnal sitting in their game library the moment it went live.
Returnal is the first game from Housemarque Studios that focusses on a defined narrative. Their previous titles, Resogun and Nex Machina, didn't have that much of a narrative, but received positive reviews for their gameplay. Returnal, on the other hand, boasts complex gameplay that goes hand in hand with the narrative of the story.
Having said that, Returnal takes a multi-pronged approach when it comes to the narrative. In an interview with the BBC, Harry Kruger, the Game Director for Returnal, went on to say that the game was one of their most ambitious projects ever.
"One of our original goals with Returnal was to take this unique brand of explosive arcade-inspired action and unique tech and the flair we bring to our titles and really crank that up to 13 with Returnal. You could describe it as a bullet-hell arcade adventure which is enriched with a lot of rogue-like elements."
Despite that, it follows the Housemarque formula of gameplay very naturally. He further went on to state that they wanted to tie the narrative to the gameplay itself, so that both these aspects felt they were a part of the same thing. He goes on to say that the entire game was built around replayability, similar to the loop in Fortnite.
Greg Louden, the Narrative Director for Returnal, further added that this was the first shot they got at showing what the Housemarque way of story telling was. He went on to say that the narrative of the game was just like their gameplay - easy to learn but difficult to master.
