Returnal is an excellent arcade shooter that recently got that little bit better with its latest patch. A widely recognised criticism was that players couldn't save and quit part way through a run, forcing you to either see the run to the end or give up your current progress if you needed to stop playing. Housemarque finally addressed this with the Suspend Cycle feature, which gives you a one-use save state so you can continue your run later. However, players have quickly found a workaround that lets them save scum through the dangerous world of Atropos.
The Suspend Cycle function creates a save that, when you resume it later on, is deleted, which means you can't keep reusing the save over and over again. Only, you sort of can. Once you use Suspend Cycle, you can hop out of the game, upload the save to the cloud, and then continue. When you die, you can just download that save and pick up where you left off. Suddenly, you've got infinite chances to progress your run further, if you can be bothered to go through the extra steps.
Obviously this goes against the game's rogue-like structure; this is a game in which you're meant to die and restart repeatedly. However, if you're really struggling against a certain boss, or if you were having a good run but made a silly mistake, this exploit might be the safety net you need to keep going.
At this point, we don't know if this will be patched out, but you might as well take advantage of it while it's there, if you feel you need the leg up. How are you getting on in Returnal since the last update? Tell us in the comments section below.
[source kotaku.com]
Comments 37
I personally wouldn’t do this but if you buy the game and wanna cheat or scum it whatever. It’s a single player game it’s not like you’re affecting anybody else’s. The only person they’ll be fooling are themselves.
The suspend cycle update has been very welcome and I have progressed further into the game in the last few days as a result.
But I won't be exploiting this, and don't think pushsquare should really be highlighting it as its clearly not intended or in the spirit of the game
Given you need PS Plus for cloud saves… they could probably market that as a ‘cheat’ for Returnal.
The game received an update today so i guess it's already patched.
I hope they don’t somehow patch it out. Let people play the games they paid for in the way they most enjoy.
I'm surprised you can even do this after all the discussion about should this game/should this game not have a mid run save feature. I figured this would be the first thing Housemarque wouldn't allow when developing this.
@glassmusic @Fenbops I agree. Given it’s a £70 RRP game, the least they can do is just turn a blind eye.
Earlier in the game I might have used that, but then the game finally clicked for me, and I'm sold. Sounds tired, but the more you play, the better you get. And I'm enjoying the game much more than when I started. Not playing now, but intend to try platinum that. Don't really care about saving a run (and yes, I have a toddler), I'm okay to continue from scratch.
It’ll be a minority of people who can be bothered to save scum and if gives people more enjoyment then so be it. Sounds like a lot of effort.
As an avid save-scummer for over 30+ years, I have to say that if I’ve chosen to go that route in an offline game its my choice and there is really no reason for someone to try and police it.
For example I beat Hades fair and square without save scumming. The second time I got to Hades I wanted to learn the fight and wasn’t gonna do that getting there once every couple days - so I save scummed and don’t regret it, and won’t apologize. I don’t know why this is controversial.
I beat this game (Returnal) and platinum'ed it "legitimately" months ago.
However, I did "save-scum" on Demon's Souls --- not typically my type of game/genre, and for a first-time player it could be brutally punishing: To die from a single hit or fall, and have to start from the beginning of the world, excluding one or two shortcut save points along the way --- fighting & clawing all the way back from the start only to die to the armored spider and having to do it all over again, again & again, made me want to break controllers. I was pissed at feeling like I wasted $70, but this exploit made the game fair, still extremely challenging, and fun to me. So, yeah, no shame here.
@Ward_ting save scumming using the cloud isn’t new, trophy hunters use it when it suits them to get some platinums easier. It’s not something I’d do as I can’t be arsed and I don’t care about platinums enough but plenty of people do it.
Not exactly news. It's the whole reason why Housemarque resisted adding the feature in the first place, after all.
@nessisonett Its up to the creators they can patch it out if they dont agree with it. Dont agree that everything needs to be what everyone wants.
I could not even get past the first enemy in Nioh but i tried several times and got it and had a blast. The game was/is hard but sometimes the yourney to get there can be just as much fun.
It's a single player game, who cares if someone save scums??
I remember I had a run of the gods and had such OP drops and weapons I was a beast and beat 3 bosses in the one run and made it to the under water biome only to be beaten by a lowly mid tier boss.
This is the whole point of the game tho, you keep playing to try and get a epic run, having the ability to save scum defeats the whole point of the game. Lucky it's such a process so most people won't know or bother.
And it needs it in this game, because the runs like mine can go for hours and if you need to stop you need to be able to resume once at least like they did.
@viktorcode I think it's not really that you get better, you do, but in returnal it's more that the start is hard as you have no weapons or skills. Once you get a few descent weapons the game is exponentially easier.
To anybody saying that people shouldn't do this because it's against the spirit of the game... Maybe some people actually want to just experience the game's story, graphics, and DualSense features and could care less about being faithful to the rougelike genre.
People should be free to "ruin" the experience if they feel like it. Sure, if it never gets patched out and I finally get the game at some point, maybe I'll miss out on some of the game. I'd rather do that then miss out on the game entirely. The fact that it's a rougelike game is the only reason why I didn't already play this right when it came out as I had it pre-ordered before I realized what it was. All the "faithfuls" can still enjoy the game the way they want to, so who cares what we would do?
Honestly there are way more important things in life than gamers “cheating” systems in order to complete games or nab trophies so I don’t care either way. If you buy a game you’re surely entitled to do exactly what you want if it means you’ll ultimately get the most out of it. As someone who put in 215 hours of solid, satisfying gameplay to “legitimately” gain the Platinum I’m happy with myself for the achievement and the thrilling experience of progression in the face of seemingly overwhelming odds but if someone wants to exploit the new feature and finally finish the game then I’m not one to criticise and just think it’s sad that we live in a society that’s so quick to judge and damn others.
If it ‘offends” you then go ahead and do things your own way, enjoy gaming and be true to yourself but let’s not descend into playground insults and unnecessary online hatred just because some people happen to want to do something different, eh?
I remember a few years back watching Stephen Fry and he said something like games are the worst kind of media (don't think he said worse but there you go lol) because with a book or film if you don't understand it you can still get to the end, even though you can't understand it, with video games if you're not good enough then you can't progress and can never get to the end unless you understand what you are doing 😉.
Really grateful for the suspend cycle option - and I beat the game well before this patch was released. Now I feel like I can “pick-up-and-play” to clean up all the collectables and just have fun with the game.
That said, I tend to play way better when I’m a couple hours deep in a single session. Played for about two hours the other day, suspended my cycle, jumped in later that night and died almost immediately! 😫
Ah it was just a matter of time before people started doing this. I remember when it was discovered that version 1.0 had the dev console and people were trying to exploit that. It’s just one of those things and those that take those routes are really just cheating themselves.
And that’s fair enough if they are happy with that. It doesn’t effect any of us that completed the game the hard way, we know we did it. I’d have been disappointed if I’d have resorted to doing that personally as I feel I’d have missed out on part of the experience. Knowing that death means having to go back to the beginning puts extra pressure on you but also brings greater rewards.
Still it’s nice to know that others are getting to appreciate this amazing game.
Like a lot of people are saying, do whatever you like in your single player game. Your experience, you paid for it.
I was about to fly in on my ivory tower and look down upon the peasants who employed such disgusting practices while I have taken the noble route of beating the game legitimately…. Until I remembered that I save scummed to be able to experience all three endings of Bloodborne on a single playthrough. 😔
No need for this. Im a 42 year old with sausage fingers and i still get by. Git good and leave the purity of the platinum alone.
@bimboliquido Yes, I do think I'd enjoy Returnal for it's story and graphics. If neither were good enough to want to enjoy, then why is it considered to be a great game? Just plugging away at an empty game just so you can say you beat it would be pointless, so I'm sure there's more to the game than it being a difficult game as a rougelike. I guess this game isn't that great though if it's not good enough to be experienced as a normal game and is only useful as an exercise in failure until you finally overcome the frustrations to continue on and beat the game. Not saying people shouldn't enjoy frustrating games, but I think there might be more to this than that if it's truly a Game of the Year contender.
I get what you're trying to say with the comparisons, but (not you) I still find it ridiculous that people are getting so worked up over something that means absolutely nothing to them. You in general, but it doesn't change the game experience for you. It doesn't change the accomplishments and platinum you worked for. Why it's such a big deal what somebody like me would do with the game is almost sad considering you can still play the game however you want, just like whether somebody wants to "cheat" or not to experience the game how they would have preferred.
As I've said already, I care more about getting to experience the game's graphics, story, and gameplay with the DualSense rather than the repeated frustrations of playing it as a roguelike. It's nobody's business how a person plays a game but the person who is playing it.
To those saying Housemarque will patch this - I’m not sure how they could. The game wouldn’t know the save data changed unless it saved additional meta data that wouldn’t be affected by syncing the old save. The only way to do this would be uploading it outside of the console, and that:
Anyways, myself and others said this would be possible when the save feature was first mentioned, so it’s really not surprising or a big “discovery”
In my opinion, those who do it are ruining their experience but it doesn’t affect anyone else so do what you will.
I know some must love it but isnt 'once you die you start from the very beginning' akin to the Co-Op games of the 80s. i.e. pac-man and space invaders. That was OK for the arcade owner who wanted your money pumped in relentlessly but for a home console single player game I just dont get it (and I know some do). If I play Doom 2016 I expect to die lots, and I expect to upgrade myself and my stuff a lot (all like Returnal) - but I would be very frustrated in I had to start the whole game again every time I died (even if I could keep my upgrades). Just seems bonkers. Why not give players the choice. Some games do e.g. doesn't The Last Of Us have a 'die once and restart' difficulty setting?
And for those that suggest the idea of restarting is that you can get even better upgrades, then that doesn't rule out having saves. Again you can do that in Doom 2016; you can replay a previous level just for extra secrets and upgrades and yet keep saving and moving forward.
I really dont see the downside of having a save system. Seriously, what is the downside?
That all sounds like a lot more effort than just playing the game, and in the meantime people for whom life gets in the way occasionally can now enjoy this game.
@lindos there is no downside I said this ages ago when I played the game and my save corrupted and it reset my game to the beginning losing all progress. I gave the game one more chance then sold it before this update. I was told at the time ‘this is what the developer intended, it doesn’t need a save system’ even though the game was fundamentally broken without one.
@PhantomMenace84
I agree. When I sit down to play Returnal for a few hours I notice that my first few runs are usually trash with really bad RNG on artifacts and weapons. Or worse, I get thrown into a room a high level enemy right after I leave Helios. After I die about three or four times, the RNG gets a lot more forgiving and I can progress much farther.
The run I’m currently on is the best I’ve had since unlocking the depths. I’ve had really good RNGs with parasites on this run. Getting max benefits with easily worked around cons.
@lindos
Returnal is a different beast than Doom. The two are nothing alike beyond being shooters.
Restarting isn’t bad at all. Returnal is divided into story segments. Currently I’m on the Depths, or the 2nd story beat third biome. When I die, I don’t go back to the very beginning of the game. I go back to the fourth biome.
Another thing is that once you get permanent unlocks the game presents you with shortcuts. For example, Biome 4 has a short cut to the depths so you don’t have to go through Biome 5 again. You can go straight to Biome 6.
It’s a brilliantly designed game and it’s pretty forgiving of mistakes. Every enemy has a pattern that you learn to exploit over time and every weapon is viable against every enemy (except for the pistol, I hate that piece of garbage).
Unlike a lot of other modern games, it doesn’t hold your hands though. And it’s all about compromise between good and bad effects. The parasites are the best example. They often bestow extremely helpful bonuses. But as a consequence they also have negative effects that you have to learn to work around on your run.
I will say this. I do like the resume feature. Mainly because I have a busy life and I can get called for work or to help family at any time. It’s also helpful because I jump between single player and multiplayer games.
That said, I use it as intended. I don’t use it to cheat or save scum. I only use it when I need to leave the game.
@R1spam I domt care but i couls see why the developers wont like it. Its somehow breaks the game and takes away from the gameplay loop.
@TheRedComet You make it sound way less terrible then some people make it out. Have the game not console i thought i had one but i was to late..... ☹️
I really want to play it.
If someone gets the game and finds this is the way they need to progress then I don’t see why people have to criticise. Maybe people haven’t got the time or energy to dedicate to a game like this but can still enjoy it in other ways.
No clue what save scumming is, but good to know.
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