Returnal - RLLMUK and BAFTA GOTY 2021 - Free Ascension DLC out now!

[Curtis]

7 hours ago, Dave White said:

Hey @Curtis do you mean just make your way back to the ship and sleep using the nearest warp point? 

Yeah use the nearest warp point (theres always one in T11 before the boss) and teleport back to T1. Your ship will a quick hop-skip-jump away. Go sleep, then warp back to whatever zone you were in.

 

You can't do it beyond Biome 1 because the gate to 2 is one-way only.

[Wiper]

I thought people in here might be interested (if disappointed) to read the below about Returnal's sales figures, as there was discussion in here in the run up about how well it might/mightn't do, but you might not have seen it buried in the 'Would you pay £70 for a game' thread. Sorry to say I'm a part of the problem here, not having bought Returnal because it's outside of my price range.

 

2 hours ago, mdn2 said:

 

 

39 minutes ago, mdn2 said:

 

He expected it to outsell Pokémon Snap (which sold about 26,000 copies, apparently) but it didn't. 

 

It's interesting to see how well Returnal does. I do think the £70 price tag is the biggest issue the game faces, though. 

 

[Minion]

Finally killed the second boss, did pretty much full runs except for Phrick so i could get tooled up, lost my astronaut in biome 1 and almost quit but decided to continue and here we are! Man this is addictive, what a game.

[Thor]

Nah, we have a thread for that. This is for the game.

 

Edit: @Wiper

[Minion]

Oh FFS!  get to biome 3, there is a long walkway right at the begging, I see a side corridor below, broken and needing to air dash into it, I do so, nothing in there, no way out except falling to my death. WHY would they taunt the curious like that :'(

[Minion]

2 hours of a run gone just like that, thats fucking bullshit.

[idespair]

You needed to look up and to the right at the end of that corridor...

[Minion]

15 minutes ago, idespair said:

You needed to look up and to the right at the end of that corridor...

 

You mean the one I got stuck in? There was nothing there? I'm gutted I had a proper good loudout, get to the new area and get stuck in a dead end death trap  Still it finally let me do the daily challenge after killing the 2nd boss.

[idespair]

 

6 minutes ago, Minion said:

 

You mean the one I got stuck in? There was nothing there? I'm gutted I had a proper good loudout, get to the new area and get stuck in a dead end death trap  Still it finally let me do the daily challenge after killing the 2nd boss.

I went in that passage the first time I hit the third biome, and almost made the same mistake. If you look up to the right at the dead end you’ll see a hook point, which usually leads up to some Resin. From there you can jump back down to the walkway.

 

It’s really easy to miss

[Minion]

Just now, idespair said:

 

I went in that passage the first time I hit the third biome, and almost made the same mistake. If you look up to the right at the dead end you’ll see a hook point, which usually leads up to some Resin. From there you can jump back down to the walkway.

 

It’s really easy to miss

 

Fuck man NOoooooooooo  I can't believe I just suicided as I thought it was a dead end fuck I',m an idiot. Thanks for telling me though it's better than thinking the game was broken.

[BitterToad]

So this morning I was a big fan of Returnal but was unable to quite do enough to get past the first boss. I jumped into a run I was half way through yesterday and decided to mop up everything in the area before taking on the boss. I knew it was a bit of a busted flush of a run because I hadn't picked up a certain item but decided to go with it anyway as a way of practice, of learning. 

 

I have been playing the game all day, have just beaten the boss of Biome 2, and haven't died once. 

 

This is the best first impression I've had of a game since Bloodborne. I cannot tell you on how many levels it clicks for me. The gameplay is perfect; it's so fast, so hard, so think on your feet frantic. It reminds me a lot of DOOM 2016, that feeling of just, just knowing what you're doing. Having the very basic idea of how the game works and then letting it lead you around these incredible spaces as you dispatch foes on complete in the zone auto-pilot. Twirling around bullets, darting past lasers, dodging melee attacks at the last moment as you wreak your own havoc through it all just because you are in a zen like murder state and you are better than all these bastards. 

 

And then outside of the combat there's the environments, the slow tease story, the fucking atmosphere mate! It brings to mind Metroid Prime and Arrival and Alien and those are really good things to bring to mind! It's maybe a little derivative but it feels so laser focussed in what it's trying to present that it's never been an issue at all for me. I'm intrigued by the story and the world and that would be enough on its own but attached to that incredible gameplay I'm just finding myself completely unable to stop thinking about it in the way you are with the best games. Yes, it's given me Dark Souls brain and I LOVE IT.

 

If Sony have gotten greedy and sent this, a new IP, out to die at £70 they will never be forgiven. It'll be the biggest scandal in gaming since the Titanfall 2 release date. It's absolutely wonderful, a big hot soup of so many of my favourite ingredients, and I want to play every single thing Housemarque have ever made or will ever make over the next fifty years. 

 

(I reserve the right to change my mind on all of the above if the next run I go on doesn't give me the things I like or if the game gets too hard at any moment and makes me angry and sad.)

[jonamok]

After about a 90 minute perfect run-up, I finally had the almost perfect build for Ixion on my 10th or 11th attempt. Almost a double health bar, health vials, astronaut. Decent gun too.

 

And nope. Phase 3 is just too much shit for me to handle. Next run, into his phase 3 again, thankfully not as much effort put in as last time, and I had my first hard crash. Full power off, database rebuild etc. Fuck this game etc.

[Nate Dogg III]

1 hour ago, Minion said:

 

Fuck man NOoooooooooo  I can't believe I just suicided as I thought it was a dead end fuck I',m an idiot. Thanks for telling me though it's better than thinking the game was broken.

 

I did exactly this too. Was kinda furious, like, how the fuck could the algorithm produce a layout with a killroom in it. Would soon learn that chamber is always in the starting room, and yes, there's a grapple point.

 

Mad to hear about all these crashes and interact glitches and stuff, was none of that in the review build. Must be the day-one patch that's caused it.

[Thor]

38 minutes ago, BitterToad said:

This is the best first impression I've had of a game since Bloodborne.

Yep. Despite my earlier misgivings, during the previews in the run up to release I kept thinking 'this could be the PS5's Bloodborne'. I've only done Biome 1 and seen a little of 2, but it's certainly shaping up that way. 

[p1nseeker]

I had the sound cut-out completely during a boss battle. Put me right off

[jonamok]

38 minutes ago, p1nseeker said:

I had the sound cut-out completely during a boss battle. Put me right off

 

That's how my hard crash started. Earphones suddenly exploded with a load of painfully loud crackling and popping, and had to yank the buds out. Then it froze. I could get back to the menu, but when I tried to close the game it tanked the PS5.

[sid]

I would love to see a bit of PN03 (GameCube) animation on the dodging , it would take on Rhythm action vibes imo 

[Majora]

Maybe the only major gripe I have with the game is that the environments that initially seem so foreboding and atmospheric soon just become a background for you to sprint through for the 30th time. Biome 1 may as well be Green Hill Zone now for all the threat or sense of foreboding I get from seeing the same rooms over and over.

 

It's very easy to get to a stage where it's many hours since you last had a house section or heard a new audio log or got a new bit of story or even saw a new room and at that point the environments can start feeling a little mundane. Not the combat, which is always magnificent, but I don't think they've quite nailed the marriage of narrative and rogue-like simply because it is so easy for the narrative progression to come to a shuddering halt and be absent for so long.

 

On that note of shuddering halts, I'm going into biome 3 boss fight with a 269% long health bar. I'm genuinely a bit terrified at the prospect of failing again.

[Dave White]

What a phrick. 

 

that is all 

[Majora]

34 minutes ago, Majora said:

On that note of shuddering halts, I'm going into biome 3 boss fight with a 269% long health bar. I'm genuinely a bit terrified at the prospect of failing again.

 

Biome 4 get! Didn't even need any of my consumable items in the end. My tip for the Biome 3 boss is to just use the weapon they leave for you outside the fight. None of the other weapons I took in came close to doing the amount of quick damage that one did and in this game time is everything.

 

My other tip would be

 

Spoiler

Abuse the fuck out of the grappling hooks in phase 3. You're invincible as long as you're grappling.

 

[imp]

44 minutes ago, jonamok said:

 

That's how my hard crash started. Earphones suddenly exploded with a load of painfully loud crackling and popping, and had to yank the buds out. Then it froze. I could get back to the menu, but when I tried to close the game it tanked the PS5.

 

Yeah, I've had this a few times while using headphones plugged into my controller. Hasn't happened once since I stopped using the headphones though.

 

Post-biome 3 spoilers:

 

Spoiler

Biome 4 has been brutal to me since my first run. So many times I walked from the spaceship to the first room only to encounter a mini boss and get slaughtered before I even get to change out my pistol. I've got to the point where I'm clearing out the whole place fairly consistently now though, and have got a load of great new traits for weapons which is helping massively as well. Made some decent head way into biome 5 last time, feels great to be making steady progress now I'm getting used to the absolute neon madness the game has become.

 

[df0]

Oof, level 3 boss.

I need a bigger boat arsenal set of skills.

[IainGamer]

Love the atmosphere of this game but just too bloody hard.  Can’t even beat the first boss. 
 

my problem is I can’t dedicate the time to this that it needs.  Having kids, dog etc just impossible.  Plus it is all so confusing still to understand what the best choices are and what everything means.  
 

Stunningly  put together but needs far too much investment of time with out save points. 

[mexos]

Play for a bit, get some nice weps. Fall off a ledge that doesn’t look like a ledge. Die. Huge monster comes from nowhere. Die. 
 

Everything looks the same. I have no idea what’s going on. I’ve died like 10 times and am now wondering if this was a good investment.

[mexos]

18 minutes ago, IainGamer said:

Plus it is all so confusing still to understand what the best choices are and what everything means.  

This. I don’t feel like I’m doing anything other than running from one place to another collecting stuff I don’t understand, being shown lots of things I need thing for before they will work. I don’t know where I am going, why, anything. Run about a bit shoot baddies if you can make them out seems to be the level of depth so far. I’m getting bored.

[jonamok]

Find the melee weapon in biome 1. Twat stuff with it. Go back to your ship for a free health recharge. Find the house key, explore the house. Grab the item that gives you. Upgrade your weapon at chests. Try out a few parasites. Find the shop and buy some perks. Decode some glyphs. Find the boss room. Fight boss. Die. Repeat until you beat him, though getting there is shorter after the first attempt. Move onto biome 2. I doubt the story makes any real sense until a fair bit later.

[SuperCapes]

So I am so madly in love with this game however...

 

 

Spoiler

Just beat Nemesis, what a flipping mad fight that was... in awe at the amazing music and cinematic after... wait... I lost everything I had on that run????

 

full stock of artefacts, thousand plus ob, space man, and some incredible parasites. Resi shields, health regen when shooting. The flipping works. Snatched from under me. I felt like I couldn’t be killed, and may smash this in one sitting.

 

absolutely brutal. 
 

not to worry. Still sensational like.

 

[macosx]

Spent a few hours on this today and by the end of then I was whizzing through the levels carving tentacles up, whereas at the start I was really tentative. Def, has that Dark Souls feel. Got the boss on biome 1 to last stage and I feel he will fall tomorrow. Loving the way the levels remix.

[IainGamer]

Just played another 2 hours tonight and getting bloody fed up. Still stuck in the same first level and it just seems to get harder!  
 

Waste of money. 

[tobert]

I am terrible at games, I bounced off Bloodborne and Demon Souls so was very surprised to beat the boss on my first attempt. I would say that it was at the end of a very long run which ended up with some excellent gear including a parasite which revives health and an artifact which does more damage when health is  low and an astronaut.

 

I honestly went in thinking I was going to get my arse kicked but it was relatively straightforward. I think really tooling up and using the ship to top up health are really important (or you get very lucky with the RNG).

 

Also turn sprint to "always" for the boss.