Topic: Returnal

Had a great run or two last night (depending on how you count it!)

On my first run, I had a good run through biome 4 then headed straight to biome 6, heading directly as I could to the boss rather than fighting the assorted monstrosities you meet - and ended up completing Act 3! I even had a bit of luck and found the last cipher I needed in biome 6, and a datacube, on the way.

After the ending (woah!) I restarted, and did an exhaustive run of biome 4 and almost all of 5, then as it was time to stop for the day, I thought I'd just zip over to the containment room in biome 6, to have a first crack at that. I died ... but the b6 survey trophy popped just after I died, so I think my portal beam finished off the last enemy as I died!

@JigsawPieces Well done for finishing act 3. Like you say the ending!! I'm still trying to decide what it all means but it's interesting reading other peoples opinions.

How many trophies have you got left to do?

@render Thanks! Yeah, I've been enjoying being able to dip into various articles and threads about story theories, now I don't have to worry about spoilers. As you say - still trying to decide what it all means, but I love that it's so open.

I've got four trophies left to do, I think - the multiple parasites one, and the surveys for biomes 2, 3 and 5. For b5 I'm after a single cipher, but I have more work to do in the other two (especially the b3 containment room).

I have to say I was having a lot of fun with the Dreadbound yesterday, at a decent level and especially once I unlocked the expanding / exploding traits (that's what I was working on).

It's a bugger when you miss a drone in a big open space though, waiting what feels like half an hour for the shards to return!

@JigsawPieces I found doing the parasite one a lot of fun. I basically forced myself to pick up every single parasite that I found regardless of how good I thought it was. It actually worked out quite well as I had a good run that go. I can imagine it could have gone the other way too.

I found the same with the Dreadbound, a lot of fun when you hit things right in the face, but just as you say it's a bum trembling moment when you miss!! 😂

@JigsawPieces @render Yeah I had the exact experience with the Dreadbound in B6 last night! I love the sound it makes also! The weapons just feel all kinds of awesome, and they all feel different from each other.

It is easy to take for granted some of the things the game does to make the experience feel so good to play. It is only when I've played another game and I miss some of the features.

I've seen some people comment that they think this could easily be a PS4 game. I'm not so sure, as it would be a seriously compromised experience with how fluid everything is, how much is going on screen at the same time, how immersive the Dual Sense and 3D audio make the game etc.

@JohnnyShoulder I'm with you 100% on that. There's no way the experience would be the same on the PS4. Every other game I've played after this just feels like it's lacking in both atmosphere and feedback compared to this. Even Ratchet and Clank, which does some pretty cool stuff through the haptics and triggers, doesn't quite get there like Returnal does.

It especially all comes together in those chaotic moments where you are being hammered from all sides. The fluid motion of Selene as you are frantically dodging or grappling, those satisfying controller sounds as you hit that overload or wait for the alt-fire to recharge, the haptics firing in tandem with your chosen weapon. It just ticks all the boxes for me.

First playthrough after the 1.4 update (after taking a break from R&C), definitely found the drones to be nerfed. And Hyperion was definitely more difficult — he actually killed me! But the child's toy revived me. Ultimately, drones killed me in Biome 5, but i was already on the verge on stopping my game... The run altogether definitely felt more "fair". For example, i did not get 4 consecutive Spoiled Resins slap me. lol. I think I even got a couple new rooms in Biome 4. And they tuned one of the (what I like to call) "POWER" automatic lasers that 'pump' across the poisonous floor in one of the side rooms in Biome 4, the laser is faster & more frequent, and will definitely hit you if you don't time it correctly.

@render Agree 100%. I really like R&C, but while I am playing it, I am thinking about Returnal LOL

@eagletrippin @adrianthealchemist Glad it is just not me with the lasers. Been caught out a few times with those.

I went back to Returnal after two weeks and had two pretty good runs. Still haven't beaten the third stage. I can pretty much get to the last bit without any trouble but then I keep making silly mistakes in the room before the boss.

I'm starting to wonder whether I'm using the best strategy or not. At the minute I'm clearing out the first stage until I have enough coin for the HP upgrade and the health pack and then I'm jumping straight to stage 3 and just crossing my fingers and hoping for quick access to a good weapon. I tried just skipping straight to stage 3 but I don't like not having the HP upgrade etc.

@johncalmc I used the first biome money to grab an Astronaut Figure. They’re always handy.

@johncalmc You can totally bail on that room if you want though, you don't have to kill everything in there. Just try and locate the exit as quick as you can, either a translocator sphere or grapple points going upwards. If you get out of there quickly then you'll have more of your health intact for the boss. That room is almost worse than the boss what with the combination of turrets, big a** automatons and those broken crawling ones.

@render Well, that thought had crossed my mind but the room goes into lockdown so there's no escape. Or can I get out if I'm just really fast?

@johncalmc If it's definitely the same room we are talking about then there's always a way out. It's the one you get into when you go over the bridge, through the xenoglyph archive and up the stairs as per this https://youtu.be/xnzDZXjf7Jk?t=1061? If so then several times I've just got the hell out of there by some means, either the sphere at the back like in that video or sometimes you can just grapple up somewhere and run up the stairs.

@render +1. Bailing out of that room is pretty much essential, and I always found a way out (despite generally being in a huge panic!).

@render Oh right I've been fighting absolutely everything in that room like some kind of madman

@johncalmc You won't be the only one, I was doing the same each time too until I realised you could do that 🤯

@johncalmc I managed to kill everything in that room, but the key for me was having Rotgland Lobber at about level 15. That destroyed everything in that room really easily, and even made short work of the big sentinel. I did go through biomes 1 and 2 to get everything up to a decent level. That is when I also beat the boss too.

You can absolutely do a runner though, but everything you haven't killed does come up after you, so don't hang around for too long.

Not sure if this is bragging or admitting I don’t have common sense but I beat everything in that room every time
I don’t think I ever died there (unlike some other rooms in the bridge control tower).