Returnal

brady12 · 30-04-2021 8:57am #1

Any one buy this ?

Penn · 30-04-2021 9:25pm

brady12 wrote: »

Any one buy this ?

Yeah, played over an hour earlier. Made it to the first boss but got killed.

It's definitely an interesting game. Fun to play though very disorientating trying to figure out what's permanent, what's required etc. Looking forward to getting deeper into it though.

dreamers75 · 30-04-2021 9:53pm

I see EG went up its own hole with their review.

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2021-04-29-returnal-review-magnificent-and-monstrous

I just want useful reviews in text not some idiot trying to get subs on youtube, who is either paid or not paid for the review.

Still dont know if im gonna buy this game, boards games forum to the rescue.

brady12 · 30-04-2021 11:00pm

dreamers75 wrote: »

I see EG went up its own hole with their review.

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2021-04-29-returnal-review-magnificent-and-monstrous

I just want useful reviews in text not some idiot trying to get subs on youtube, who is either paid or not paid for the review.

Still dont know if im gonna buy this game, boards games forum to the rescue.

And other reviewers putting in stupid woke or political statements into their reviews for it which have nothing to do the game ðŸ˜‚

Metroid diorteM · 30-04-2021 11:03pm

I have it and I love it. If you like metroid at super speed all grown up do not hesitate.

Very unusual game.

Vicxas · 01-05-2021 8:00am

This guy doesnt try and sell you Youtube subs, i always find him very very good:

johnny_ultimate · 01-05-2021 8:38am

Couldn't resist ordering a copy after reading the reviews. Sounds absolutely fascinating - amid all these reports of Sony doubling down on their safe bets, they're releasing what sounds like their most unusual exclusive in quite some time.

Looking forward to giving it some time next week.

brady12 · 01-05-2021 11:49am

Vicxas wrote: »

This guy doesnt try and sell you Youtube subs, i always find him very very good:

You should listen to his podcast with mr matty plays called ham radio . And then their podcast on Colin moriarty last stand media called defining duke . Very honest guys and no bull**** with them .

McDermotX · 01-05-2021 6:07pm

TBH.....don't think I'll 'return' to it until a patch or two has addressed a few things - even with Housemarque suggesting they are looking at better save implementation.
Have had three separate bug incidents since yesterday....one an outright CTD, but on two other occasions, the game developed an issue whereby you couldn't interact with anything, even unlocked doors wouldn't open plus you end up clipping through elements.

Forced to restart cycles.........didn't realise buzz-killing was an added feature of the game :pac:

Shooting feels good, nothing revolutionary in that regard, but smooth and fast and when you're in a cycle for long time, you do get a wonderful feel for it. Graphically fine, but some texture-work is somewhat weak, at least in the initial few hours. Doesnt make you sit up or anything, but generally fine. Sound is excellent.

fixXxer · 02-05-2021 12:16am

Really really enjoying this. The sound is phenomenal, headset is a must. Died a few times and reset but I've not get cheated. I died because I made to many mistakes not because the game was unfair. Just found a house key, hoping to use it before I get killed next.

earthwormjack · 02-05-2021 11:59am

Really interested in picking it up but I think I'm gonna hold off until they add a save and quit option. The amount of time required for a run in this type of game is far to long for them to have not offered that option.

Penn · 02-05-2021 12:58pm

earthwormjack wrote: »

Really interested in picking it up but I think I'm gonna hold off until they add a save and quit option. The amount of time required for a run in this type of game is far to long for them to have not offered that option.

Yeah, I can see their reluctance in a way to stop people using save file abuses to roll back losses/deaths. But at the same time, I was going to play yesterday evening but only had about an hour, and didn't want to be doing well and have to quit out. Not 100% sure how well the resuming from rest mode works, and there's been a few times I've had the PS5 in rest mode but when it wakes up it resets itself, so ended up not playing at all.

Hope they can introduce something in it. If people abuse save files, that's on them. Not like it's a multiplayer game where it gives people unfair advantages over others.

Penn · 02-05-2021 10:12pm

Made it about halfway into second biome. Definitely pick up and buy any astronaut figures you can get. They're absolutely vital.

The main thing that sucks about dying is losing weapon proficiency. I could rush to the gateway to the second biome, but am I going to end up with really underpowered guns compared to having gone through all/most of the first biome again? I'd nearly prefer if weapon proficiency was a slower but permanent upgrade to make subsequent runs quicker and easier. Would take a little of the sting out of dying a long way into a run.

Penn · 03-05-2021 9:26am

The Phantom Pain wrote: »

Regarding a save&quit feature, I suggested this very thing on the PS5 thread and also brought up the fact that you can stop people from abusing the feature by simply only allowing to quit outside of combat. There's surely going to be moments of downtime so just enable the ability to quit without losing progress during such moments. It's such an obvious quality of life fail but of course wannabe badasses are going to pretend that somehow allowing people to quit a game without losing progress is for casual noobs.

For me it's just a time thing more than anything else. If full runs are going to take 2+ hours that's going to be seriously limiting on when I can play.

At least have save points at the start of each biome or something, and autosave as soon as you die which overrides your save file.

Grumpypants · 03-05-2021 10:45am

There is a few things you can do to help.

Look for a cracked wall with some red behind it that can be broken with a melee hit. Behind that is a data cube and you can print a gun in the data processor (behind first boss) and keep the gun for future runs. You might get a second cube behind the boss too.

If you find the big circle with a alien figure outline. It needs 6 ether. But using it gives you a respawn with all your stuff intact. Expensive and only works once.

The astronaut figure lets you come back from dead so handy against the bosses.

I also found a robot figure but I've not found out what it does.

If you unlock the fast travel outside the big gate to the boss. Leave the boss and head off and get your adrenaline up full. You can then fast travel back at any point.

My main issue with rest mode is when I come back later I find my 5 year old daughter has been in and has been playing horizon zero dawn so my rest mode save is gone.

Penn · 03-05-2021 10:51am

Grumpypants wrote: »

There is a few things you can do to help.

Look for a cracked wall with some red behind it that can be broken with a melee hit. Behind that is a data cube and you can print a gun in the data processor (behind first boss) and keep the gun for future runs. You might get a second cube behind the boss too.

If you find the big circle with a alien figure outline. It needs 6 ether. But using it gives you a respawn with all your stuff intact. Expensive and only works once.

The astronaut figure lets you come back from dead so handy against the bosses.

I also found a robot figure but I've not found out what it does.

My main issue with rest mode is when I come back later I find my 5 year old daughter has been in and has been playing horizon zero dawn so my rest mode save is gone.

For the thing behind the first boss though, wouldn't that mean you have to fight the first boss again?

An issue with rest mode I saw people mention this morning since there's a patch out or incoming, is that once the patch installs, it'll reset your game if you had it in rest mode.

McFly85 · 03-05-2021 1:55pm

Ended up going halves on this with my nephew, and played it for an hour or so this morning.

Overall, I’m enjoying it. I love the atmosphere, I love the gameplay. It’s got that thing I find in the souls games, where I’m terrible at it but death doesn’t bother me too much and I find myself wanting one more go.

I had one crash though coming up to the first boss, which in a game like this is more annoying than most! Back to the start but at least the permanent items I got on the previous run. It will take me forever to finish unless they implement a feature to save mid-run too, after the crash I had almost gotten to the first boss again but had to give up the TV! I’d be shocked if they don’t end up implementing it soon enough.

McDermotX · 03-05-2021 3:13pm

1GB patch out for this.
Nothing specific but appears to be a hotfix for some of the cycle breaking bugs

not a good start......load it up, first door unresponsive, can't interact with objects

Housemarque ? Seriously lads

Do not want to hear something like you have to start a fresh game

Retr0gamer · 03-05-2021 3:57pm

Lots of people complaining about no mid mission saves. Was wondering why they don't save intermittently but actually came across this issue with emulation recently. It's because of the ssd. It would be really bad for the ssd to write so much to it

Pain in the arse but that's the current price for ssd tech.

No quick save is really dumb though.

McFly85 · 03-05-2021 4:11pm

A souls like save system would be ideal, just allow the user to save and exit. Once the game is loaded the save is deleted.

johnny_ultimate · 03-05-2021 4:26pm

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Lots of people complaining about no mid mission saves. Was wondering why they don't save intermittently but actually came across this issue with emulation recently. It's because of the ssd. It would be really bad for the ssd to write so much to it

Pain in the arse but that's the current price for ssd tech.

But intermittent saving isn’t an issue at all for any other PS5 game I’ve played?

On the topic, I can absolutely see how they settled on ‘no mid-run saves’ as a design choice. I think it was the wrong call, though, given the apparent length of runs, and would be confident it’ll be addressed fairly promptly. Perhaps a good example of why roguelikes or lites as a genre particularly benefit from early access releases so the balances can be adjusted before 1.0.

As someone who turns off and plugs out my PS5 as a matter of course, just leaving it in rest mode certainly isn’t a solution or even option really.

fixXxer · 03-05-2021 4:37pm

Heading to the level boss. I have a very specced up carbine but I'm in absolute bits from room after room of fighting. No consumables, only an absolute sliver of health. In desperation I start searching the blue doors and find a regeneration bed. I'm saved I think! Press to use it and one of them jumping titan fellas spawns. Kills me in one hit :pac: Thanks game.

Retr0gamer · 03-05-2021 5:20pm

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

But intermittent saving isn’t an issue at all for any other PS5 game I’ve played?

On the topic, I can absolutely see how they settled on ‘no mid-run saves’ as a design choice. I think it was the wrong call, though, given the apparent length of runs, and would be confident it’ll be addressed fairly promptly. Perhaps a good example of why roguelikes or lites as a genre particularly benefit from early access releases so the balances can be adjusted before 1.0.

As someone who turns off and plugs out my PS5 as a matter of course, just leaving it in rest mode certainly isn’t a solution or even option really.

I'm playing dragon quarter at the moment. It has a temporary save system where you can save anywhere and it exits the game but when you load that save it deletes it after loading. Seems like a decent compromise.

If they were worried about people backing up saves and restoring them then there could be an always online solution. To be honest it's not a competitive multiplayer game with no plans to be so I don't see what the aversion is. It's a huge amount of effort for someone to go through to cheat and if they want to do that then let them.

Grumpypants · 03-05-2021 7:42pm

Just make a mode with no saves and a mode with saves. Then people can choose.

Penn · 04-05-2021 12:28pm

Have made it about halfway through the second biome twice now. I don't mind dying and restarting. But the lack of ability to save is a real mis-step imo. It can take long enough to work your way through the first biome to build up health, proficiency etc, that I'd love the ability to stop at some point and say I'll pick it up again tomorrow. Because even if I am in the swing of things and I die, I look at the clock and know I can't sink another few hours into it. My time playing the game is being more limited by the game itself rather than my own schedule.

I might leave it for a few weeks, see if they relent and announce some kind of save feature.

McFly85 · 04-05-2021 1:31pm

Penn wrote: »

Have made it about halfway through the second biome twice now. I don't mind dying and restarting. But the lack of ability to save is a real mis-step imo. It can take long enough to work your way through the first biome to build up health, proficiency etc, that I'd love the ability to stop at some point and say I'll pick it up again tomorrow. Because even if I am in the swing of things and I die, I look at the clock and know I can't sink another few hours into it. My time playing the game is being more limited by the game itself rather than my own schedule.

I might leave it for a few weeks, see if they relent and announce some kind of save feature.

I’m the same, on lunch at work and usually I’d be tempted to jump in for a bit, but considering I’m guaranteed no progress I’m not bothered.

Right now it’s a game that demands entire afternoons at the very least to feel like you can make progress, which is a bizarre choice for any game in this day and age!

Penn · 04-05-2021 2:04pm

McFly85 wrote: »

I’m the same, on lunch at work and usually I’d be tempted to jump in for a bit, but considering I’m guaranteed no progress I’m not bothered.

Right now it’s a game that demands entire afternoons at the very least to feel like you can make progress, which is a bizarre choice for any game in this day and age!

Exactly. Even if I have maybe 2 hours free and I die just over an hour into the run, I know I'm unlikely to get any further than that in the next run, so can't really justify going again. I know some progression things will build up and carry over, but I'm also likely to have to prematurely end the run myself.

Grumpypants · 04-05-2021 2:34pm

Same here. I love it but the notion that I'll never finish it is really off putting.

I had expected that once I got to biome 2 that I would restart in that biome. But going all the way back is just too much.

I've too much to play in such a small gaming window each week to piss about with it.

johnny_ultimate · 04-05-2021 3:28pm

Had my first run there... well, technically two since the game crashed mid first run

Save please!

That quirk aside... it’s bloody fantastic, isn’t it? The shooting is particularly fantastic - it controls great, and Housemarque really understand the grim beauty of a symmetrical screen of deadly bullets. It’s the atmosphere, the sound design and visual direction that are more surprising though: brilliantly drawing some of the bleaker, eerie chapters of sci-fi that games often ignore in favour of the space opera. An enemy eerily rising from the mist; a strange sarcophagus hiding some vaguely cursed item; the shriek of a ‘bad thing’ as a room finally unveils its grim secret. It wears it Alien influences on its sleeve (the little animation when you boot up your computer is pure Weyland-Utani) but it understands it better than most games, and indeed films, to bear the official licence. There’s strong Metroid Prime vibes too, albeit with a world that’s even more aggressive and mysterious.

To see Housemarque jump so confidently from their arcade shooters to this - both retaining and evolving their design philosophy - is a bit of a thrill tbh.

Returnal

Comments