Topic: Returnal

@Th3solution It was 23h for Act 2 (which is technically beating the game for the 1st time) and 59h for platinum. I don't know how long it took me to get Act 3 (and the proper ending) done but it's not the longest part of the game, so probably 30-ish.
It's probably quicker than average but I know there are crazy people out there who have done it way quicker still

@Voltan Yeah, in my panicked searches online about game crashes and console freezes with the game, I came across threads in Resetera and Gamefaqs (with their associated toxic posts) where people were taking about how easy the game is and how it’s not even a challenge to play so they’re doing no-damage runs and beating that game in a couple hours, etc. I think some of that is just flat-out lies or exaggeration. But it does make me feel like I can run through this game to the end after all. If my game doesn’t start crashing repeated, that is. 😄

Hunting down my earlier post, apparently I was 15 hours and 33 deaths for Act 2. I really really don’t want to be that guy, but I didn’t find the game that hard. It had elements of BS though.

@nessisonett I thought it was just as hard as it needed to be

@Voltan It’s more hearing people take 40-50 hours just sounds alien to me. Like I would say I had plenty bad runs in my playthrough, so if it had taken that long then I probably would have chucked the game by then.

@nessisonett I think it's how different people approach the game. Yours was 30 minutes per run on average. Mine was 50-ish minutes. But I see a lot of people post stats like "45 hours, 17 deaths" too - I have no idea how you get that kind of result tbh

@Voltan Yeah, my runs were either half an hour or less then I died or I went the whole 2 and a half hours. Very one or the other.

@Th3solution Unless the error is directly from using rest mode and again it keeps happening, you are fine on using rest mode and wouldn't worry about it so much. Of course everyone's experience will be different, but my handful of crashes with the game all came from when not using rest mode.

I think that is the standard message everyone gets from the game when powering it on from rest mode, I even get it if I switch to watch YouTube or something on my PS5. Strange how you didn't get it this time however.

@nessisonett @Voltan I think my death count is around 50. (Not in front of my PS5 at the moment so going from memory)
So that means an average of a little over one death per hour. Certainly some runs are only 15 minutes where I dink around and try to avenge a scout corpse in the first biome and die, along with some being 3 hour runs. So about an hour per run seems about right.

If I had longer stretches to devote to the game (or if the game had an actual save function 😛) I think my playtime and death total would be much less. I purposefully do a lot of throw-away runs just to gather ether and level up some weapon traits. In fact that’s what I was done yesterday when I crashed.

So there’s definitely an element of time availability per game session that favors people having large chunks of time to devote to honest full-fledged runs. Which is fine - it is what it is. I’m less concerned about the lack of save issue as I am that the game crashed unexpectedly. My positive vibe on the game definitely took a hit with that. I know ness you had a lot of crashes and it’s just a real bummer.

@Th3solution Yeah, me and Kid had a few awful crashes during runs that were looking good. I’d like to hope that there’s been patches since then though so they should be a lot less frequent.

@JohnnyShoulder Yeah, in one of my resumes from rest mode I had a short message saying something like “checking console save file…” for like a split second. But only that once. The rest of the time it’s just letting me know it disconnected from online.
Good to know it happens to you, even if jumping over to another app like YouTube. I think that must be pretty standard fare.

I’ve been curious if the wide variance of who has crashed and when the happen all relates to internet connectivity and maybe the variability in ISP stability. I’m not very tech savvy but my gut tells me it’s issues with the PS5 OS and the game code trying to save and sync online.
As long as my game is functioning properly when I try it out later this evening, I’m going to just continue to play it with auto-sync disabled and just manually upload to the cloud at the end of my play sessions. It runs the risk of losing an entire session of progress if things go South and a crash occurs, but I want to try and experiment. (Unless someone else has tried this and knows if it makes a difference on crash frequency)

@nessisonett The current patch seems to be the most stable since I haven’t read as many horror stories like yours and @Kidfried ‘s since. That’s partly why I was so surprised when it happened so severely yesterday. Obviously it need more patching 😄

I had one crash my first play through. Reading this makes me want to jump in again and see how quick I'm getting through the levels. Dragon Age Inquisition taking up my time atm, but a good break between missions would be a few runs of returnal.

@Voltan @nessisonett @Th3solution
A quick look for me again and it was;

Act 2: 25 hours, 17 deaths
Act 3: 47 hours, 45 deaths

@Thrillho your runs are a little longer on average than mine, at least in the early game. Looks like it gets closer to 1 death / hour toward the end though.

Well, Returnal Nation, I can say that my weekend has already been a success. After starting up for the first time in almost a week, I was able to make it through Biome 5 and actually a fair way through Biome 6.

First, I was pleased to discover my save was fine from that awful crash / PS5 freeze and repair that my last session caused. When I booted up I did get that error code CE-107117-7 in the dialogue box when I woke up at the Helios in Biome 4 like I’ve been getting every once and a while. But I clicked “continue” and it was working fine after that and didn’t appear to have lost any progress.

I made it through Biome 5 mainly with the aid of a parasite that brought me back after death, an astronaut, and a reconstructor. So actually it took me 4 tries on the same run in order to make it through to the end. I also had some item that healed a small amount per damage dealt which I think was helpful. I poured resources into added protection and got lucky a few times with escaping by the skin of my teeth. The challenge room down the right path was probably the hardest part, which I actually did second. I did the left path first which was just about as hard; the mini boss room was pretty intense. The middle path was probably the easiest, but maybe it seemed that way because I did it last.

As for Biome 6, I was expecting to be able to go under water, but I wasn’t expecting the whole biome to be underwater! I like the aesthetic and it adds a nice new feel to the gameplay with the jumping being a tad more “floaty.” I’ve not been shy about my disdain for underwater levels in games, but so far this doesn’t feel all that difficult to navigate, so I think they struck a nice balance here. I made it as far as obtaining the Pyroshell Caster and what I’m guessing was a mini-boss there who made short work of me. I guess it feels like maybe halfway through the Biome maybe?

Anyways, so no more crashes and it’s been smooth sailing from here. I do really like the Dreadbound. Great in close quarters.

I’m taking a short break, maybe get back into tonight or tomorrow a little bit.
Is there any point in going back to Biome 5? I figure I’m staying clear of there and just jump from 4 to 6 on my next run.

@Th3solution congrats!! Those mini bosses in biome 5 were intense, eh? I never did go back to biome 5 but I suppose there are fabricators and the like that you could use. I always got a reconstructor room in biome 6, I definitely recommend using it! It saved my bacon on my winning run, though I learned that a boss’s health is reset when using one. Glad your weekend is off to a satisfying start!

@Th3solution When I was playing I usually did everything up to the drop in biome 4 and went straight to 6. But then again I'm probably more of a YOLO kind of player than most

@Th3solution Biome 4 is easy to run around and get some obolites and health under your belt. Biome 5 was a big fat nope for revisiting for me!

@Jimmer-jammer Quite intense. I definitely felt a relief when I made it past the last side route and got the third and final key in B5. I had an easier run to the mini-boss on the left side, but the boss was tough. Thankfully had a Hollowseeker with serrated rounds and portal beam 2 so I could shoot and then run and dodge while the auto-damage worked on it. Because the path to the last room there was a little easier, I had left behind some silphium pick-ups in some of the rooms to go back to after the mini-boss room and fill the health back up for the next leg.

Then I died once in a random over-run room, then twice in the challenge room. The astronaut brought me back first, but the second respawn from the parasite came at the expense of a chunk of integrity, so I had to do the last part of the biome with basically 85% of the base suit integrity. 😖
And when I reconstructed after the third death, it was still at the 85% level integrity. But somehow, I think the challenge room was easier on that last attempt, even though I had been reconstructed at lower health. Or maybe I was just ‘gitt’n gud’ by then. Either way, I was able to clear that and the last route to key #3 also, all in that gimped condition.

Not bragging - I know I got a little lucky too.

@velio84 @Voltan @Thrillho Thanks for the advice, chaps. I’ll probably clear B4 and see where I am and maybe do the quick visit just to the fabricator room on B5 if I have left over obolites.