Topic: Returnal

Oh and a side note on Biome 6 —
very annoyed at having some of the enemies shoot projectiles that not only damage you but cause malfunctions! 😩 Wasn’t expecting that either!

@Th3solution The tracking on those swines were horrible and right SOB to shake off.

This is what I meant when I said before that Biome 6 ups the ante a knotch or two.

I loved the synth soundtrack which seem to be more pronounced in Biome 6. Reminded of old school John Carpenter’s horror movies.

It's my favourite game of this new gen so far.

What a great game !

If you've got a PS5 then you have to have this game.

I should add that I've got Ratchet and Clank, and as good as that is, Returnal is better.

@hypnotoad I’m definitely not disappointed in Returnal other than the performance issues. The gameplay is so good and satisfying that I’m willing to look past it so far. Granted I’ve only had the one catastrophic crash, but if they could just fix those technical issues then the game would be a firm 9/10. Even the lack of save feature, although annoying, is easy to look past when the gameplay is this good.

I’m looking forward to Ratchet & Clank though. It will be a nice change of pace when I get to it since it’s reportedly not nearly as difficult.

@Th3solution luck definitely plays it’s part but no question skill still plays a huge role. For example, you mentioned projectiles also dealing malfunctions...I’m pretty sure I remember getting parasites that would actually give me benefits per malfunction, in which case malfunctions weren’t the worst thing in the world. The game is really quite brilliance in its ability to force you to strategize on the fly with whatever is thrown at you, kind of like life.

@Jimmer-jammer I was thinking that the whole malfunction thing is going to force me to modify my playstyle now. I mostly avoid them and rely on my own skill and find that playing conservatively gives me the best chance. All bets are off now that I’m going to be forced to deal with some, it appears.

As a related aside, in my observation it seems like malfunction probability for malignant items has been: Medium - 50/50 chance of malfunction, High - 90/10 chance, and Very High - 100% of the time.
Not sure why there’s not a “Low” probability, by the way. It’s like when you go to a restaurant and order a medium drink and they say “We have regular, large, and extra large. Would you like a regular or a large?” Just here it’s medium, high, and very high. Where’s the low? 😂

@Th3solution I played Ratchet 1st, and after beating that on the hard difficulty, I needed something harder + longer. Then I got returnal, and the difficulty is like night and day. Ratchet is still great, (And probably a better visual showcase in terms of setpieces) however it is geared towards younger players. Still quite a fantastic game!

@Th3solution ha! Excellent comparison. For me, the hardest part of B6 was dealing with the numerous smaller flying (swimming?) squid creatures that relentlessly dive right at you. They’re easy to dispatch but come so hot and heavy at times I just couldn’t manage them effectively. You know, I was satisfied with the ending at act 2 and thought I’d be done with the game but after some time away I’m really beginning to get the itch to return to it. It’s a real testament to the value of a game simply feeling so good to play.

Having a good time just leveling up weapons and gathering ether. I’m just jumping into the challenge room with a weapon with traits to level up, not worrying about dying and losing a run, just wanting to grind out some weapon progress.

One thing that has come to mind is I kinda wish the map had more information on it. I do like the map, it is accurate enough 3-dimensionally to be able to navigate most of the time, which is saying a lot given the complexity of the terrain sometimes. However, I find myself leaving a weapon or a consumable behind with intent to come back later for it after I unlock the current trait I’m working on or open up a consumable slot, and then by the time I want to go back for it I can’t remember which icon it was on the map. I’m tempted to start making notes, but I feel like shouldn’t have to do that. So I end up fast traveling around searching the rooms again. Not a huge complaint but a minor annoyance all the same. It would be nice to mark the yellow barriers too, for example. Then once I obtained the blade balancer I could go right back to all the rooms with the yellow barriers and mop up what I missed on the first pass.

@Th3solution I dunno, I think the map is fine as it is. I generally hate maps with too much info and a load of icons everywhere. Maybe some customisation options, but you ain't gonna please everyone all of the time.

@Th3solution Bit late to the party but good job on getting through B5. That mini boss can easily give you a bit of trouble. I found it best not to jump down into the room but take it out from a distance.

When I was doing B6 I was pretty much doing a full clear of B5 but not bothering going further than the mini boss in that room with the grapple in the middle or the challenge room. Hope you get a good run 👍

@JohnnyShoulder Yeah, it would be tricky to do without making the map cluttered. The Jedi Fallen Order map is a case in point. But maybe just a color coded icon to separate an item as being malignant or not; simply make the malignant items purple on the map. And perhaps a color code for a weapon with traits that need to be unlocked and those without. Like green weapons have all traits unlocked and blue weapons need leveling. That would save me some time right there.
But yeah, I’d rather have what we got rather than the JFO map or the Control map.

@render Thanks! I’m finding that clearing all of B4 has me pretty well prepared for B6 without having to go to B5. Although I say this and here I haven’t been able to finish B6 yet, so I might not know what I’m doing! 😄

@Th3solution Not sure that would work either, purple is used for ether. Suppose you could use another colour, but that might be confusing for some.

Hey guys, started Returnal today. Awesome fun, got my backside well and truly kicked at times. But I am going to love this game. The mechanics are amazing, very satisfying combat.

@NedStarksGhost Glad you like it so far. It’s an addictive gameplay with satisfying yet difficult combat.

There is a steep learning curve as you figure out how to play in the very kinetic fashion that the game uses. It’s definitely a ‘push forward’ type of combat, but there are times I can still sit back and shoot from a distance. Maintaining integrity is pretty key early on. You may have discovered that the silphiums restore some integrity (basically like a health pack restoring health) and that resins go toward building the max integrity. If your integrity bar is full then the green drops will
default mostly to resins rather than silphium. So the key in the early biomes is building the max integrity to make bosses easier, so you do this beat by not taking damage and trying to keep that bar full as much as possible during your run. Easier said than done 😅

————

As for me, I’m struggling to make it through Biome 6. I can get about halfway through before the enemy encounters coupled with the environment make it really difficult and I die. I can usually breeze through Biome 4 but then I eventually hit a wall.

@NedStarksGhost Hey welcome to the fold. Sounds like you are already enjoying the experience plenty but totally agree with @Th3solution, to make the most of it you definitely need to be aggressive and push forward. That way you get chance to pick up as many obolites as possible and maximise what you can buy from the fabricators.

There’s plenty of people on here that can offer advice though so let us know if you get stuck with anything.

@Th3solution B6 is definitely a weird one and feels quite different to the others. That was the one biome where even after completing the game I was hanging back a bit and taking things out from a distance. By that point I’d bought about all I needed so wasn’t so worried about picking up obolites.

@NedStarksGhost I’d advise that in the first biome, melee is a really useful skill. It’s a one hit kill on the smaller enemies (and gets you the obolites as you’re so close to them) and it’s also very useful against the bigger enemies to either stun them or take off a good chunk of health once you have.

@Th3solution I was lucky to get through B6 first go but I think I had the artefact that gave health based on damage and adrenaline level. Seeing as there’s the enemy that spawns those easy to kill jellyfish type enemies, you could spam those to get health back quite easily. Those malfunction hits from those other enemy types can be a killer though. The boss at the end is probably middling for difficulty so good luck when you get there!

@Th3solution that's really helpful to know about the health pick ups. I attached a parasite which let me heal on enemy kills but couldn't use silphium pick ups. I thought oh cool that seems helpful, probably won't need whatever that silphium is... forgetting what the silphium stuff was... I regretted that pretty quickly!

@render I'll be sure to follow your guys advice on the aggression. I have been a bit more stand back and shoot from distance, probably a confidence thing!

@Thrillho I didn't even know you could melee! I'll try that out when I get round to using it. Definitely sounds helpful early on against the weird blue tentacle monsters

Thanks all for the tips, I'll be sure to post regularly about my progress and thoughts!

@NedStarksGhost Weirdly you don’t have melee from the beginning but you do unlock it fairly early on.

Also, early doors it’s worth picking up different weapons to unlock their traits as that carries over between runs.