Returnal

Developer Housemarque

Publisher SIE

Format PS5

Release Out now

We die, and our next run begins before our body’s hit the floor. Returnal is, in many senses, the first truly next-gen game on PS5: its production values are off the scale, its use of the DualSense is remarkable, and in its best moments it is like nothing we’ve seen or played. But PS5’s SSD might just be Returnal’s star, making an already compulsive game even harder to put down by throwing you back into the action in seconds. Ultrafast storage isn’t just a hardware feature, it’s a design tool in its own right.

Returnal is at its best when played at similarly high speed. There are times when the screen is filled with deadly enemy ordnance, you’re low on health and out of restoratives, and all you have left is your own skill. On instinct alone, you weave in and out of the hail of fire. You zip around the level like a sci-fi action god, not standing still until you’ve somehow cleared the room without taking a scratch.

The two keys to this are keeps the former simple: a floaty jump, a dash with generous invincibility, and a powerful melee sword swing, with -like traversal abilities folded in as you progress. The weapons, however, are a marvel. Powered by a -style active reload, they drop with perk-like Traits, and a powerful alt-fire mode governed by a long cooldown. They have evocative sci-fi names (Rotgland Lobber is a particular favourite), are built for spectacle, and balanced such that you feel capable, but never game-breakingly so. Early on, weapons drop with a single Trait, but by game’s end they come with four, and the stacked effects can be thrillingly absurd.