Returnal (PC Version) Review: An Absolute Mind Destruction Game You Must Play

Who doesn’t like well-constructed games, with great plots and equally amazing graphics? As a PC owner eagerly awaiting any PS4/PS5/Xbox release for PC, this was exciting news. Fan favorite and BAFTA Best Game winner Returnal has already wowed many PS5 gamers since its release in April 2021, but now all keyboard users can access it to enjoy time loops. surreal as main. character, Selene.

Now, if you don’t know what the game has in store, let’s just say it’s nothing short of going through a few levels of purgatory. It is not a casual game; that’s something to remember. Absolutely not for gamers who don’t enjoy roguelike third-person shooters or gamers who expect big rewards throughout the plot.

However, this leaves more room for you to experience an adrenaline rush with the fast-paced scenario and repeat the cycle until you prove yourself worthy enough to win the game. The game was originally designed and developed by Housemarque, which is a Finnish game development company.

Sony Entertainment published Returnal on the PlayStation platform, and key concept artists include programmers Ari Arnbjörnsson and Markku Velinen, artists Ville Kinnunen and Suvi Jarvinen, writers Gregory Louden and Luke Maulding, and composer Bobby Krlic.

I’m not a fan of roguelike games, but I quite enjoy some interesting stories, like Bloodborne, Resident Evil, Genshin Impact, and Detroit: Become Human to name a few. So this game naturally caught my attention for its vivid graphics, crazy gameplay and alien boss fights.

A brief synopsis of the return.

Long story short, the game begins with you taking on the role of an astronaut named Selene Vassos, who crash-lands on a planet called Atropos to search for a mysterious signal called “White Shadow”. Leaving her spaceship, Helios, he begins his journey to explore the seemingly desolate ruins of a planet with unknown fauna sprouting from every nook and cranny to unlock every time he passes through a locked door.

With each exploration, you’ll find yourself fighting flying blobs resembling squids, wolf-like creatures, and monsters with split tentacles ready to attack you at any moment. Throughout the entire game, you will receive new information about Selene, the extinct alien life on the planet, and a floating balloon referred to as an “iORB” by the main character that resists any kind of attack. he.

As the game progresses, you will learn that every time the main character dies, there is a reset in the time loop and somehow the planet is redesigned. So if you die, you have to play the game again. Yeah, that means right from the start, which sounds pretty frustrating, right? Well, unless you’re one of those who doesn’t want to give up and spend your 15 hours playing the final clause.

Then you will be absolutely thrilled. (He reminded me of Dormamu and the deal). Upon further exploration, you will find 20^he19th century architecture. Precisely, a house, and there you will find the keys to it and the memories that flood your brain, glimpses that you are unaware of and cannot reconstruct. So what does this mean exactly?

You will notice that with each death and each repetition, there is a physical manifestation of your movements and the places where you will find the corpse of your character, which little by little will bring you closer to the truth. One thing to note about this masterpiece of a game is that the planet will continue to age, but you will be stuck in a time loop.

With each reset, you can keep the skills you learned, but the exploration part is something you still have to figure out every time your character comes to an end; either by a hostile attack from the speculated creatures or by falling to their death in the endless abyss. There are six biomes to clear, presenting you with various bosses, upgrades, health packs, and challenges.

With each step you take, you’ll be in a better position to face the planet and its endless lair. And that will make your chances of surviving a bit better, but you have to keep in mind that every failure is the result of your own actions. If you die, it’s your turn; If you live and survive, it’s up to you. How you’re supposed to make it a little less tiring is to dive into the loop and make the most of it.

Comeback: PC specs and performance

When it comes to the PC requirements for this game, it is a demanding game to say the least. Of course, you don’t want to play this game that requires a lot of visuals and details to get pixelated or experience abrupt lag while shooting an enemy.

You’d need a minimum of 60GB of SSD storage, a 16GB RAM requirement, and a 64-bit operating system, and if you’re gaming on low settings (which, absolutely, will be a fail experience for any PC user), then a GTX 1080 or Radeon RX 580 with a Ryzen 5 1500X or i5-6400 processor will do the job.

Well, my gaming laptop is not a knight in shining armor with such beastly performance, GPU or processor. But, with my AMD Ryzen 5 and 8 GB of RAM, it provides a great experience at 720p/60 FPS settings. So it is inexplicable how the developers have made this game suitable for all types of gaming PCs and laptops. It’s worth the four years of pushing beyond the limits.

Users with older graphics cards will have trouble running the game in 4K, which I’d say is the best experience for any PC gamer, but 1080p resolution will give you the same experience, just with a little less expectation. But, if you are a gamer with the latest processors and GPUs like RTX 30 and above, don’t worry! It’s the ideal situation for you to enjoy a visual feast without lag or frame rate drops.

When your screen is flooded with enemies and their colorful attacks, you can expect a slight frame drop. If you have a well-built PC, then the game will recommend you play it on the “Epic” setting, which will give you a 3440 x 1440 resolution.

One great feature of the game that I noticed is that it gives you numerous options to customize your gaming experience. To improve frame rate quality, this includes AMD’s DLSS, NIS, and Nvidia’s FSR. Beyond this, you can adjust all aspects of lighting, environment, and post-processing settings.

You also have the option to have FPS, CPU, GPU, temperatures and RAM consumption displayed live on the screen while you continue to play. I have to admit. The developers did an excellent job refining every aspect of this battle for survival, including keybindings and keyboard rapid aiming.

If you’re someone who switched from PS5 to PC, it can take a while to adjust to the different triggers and moves. Once again, you have the option to connect your controller and take charge of the game with haptic play.

If you’re playing with your DualSense, you’ll notice that pressing L2 halfway will activate rapid aim, and pressing it all the way down will activate alternate fight mode, which will help you deal with close-range battles. This is pretty considerate from a game company that focuses only on PlayStation games.

Returnal also doesn’t fail to bring that cinematic experience to viewers with different aspect ratios such as 21:9 and 32:9 monitors, which can be easily accessed in the settings menu for gamers to get used to their taste.

Return: PC version review

Overall, I would say that the performance of this game on PC is nothing less than a great adventure, with the developers doing the perfect job to offer the best to their PC customers as well. You as a player would be delighted to experience three different endings for the game and understand why this roguelike is known to be one of the hardest games out there.

Absolutely not for the faint of heart, someone who is easily triggered, or someone who expects too many rewards. The game itself is a constant battle; you die, resurrect, and come back through the pits of an unknown civilization. Since it is a fast-paced game, you can expect to complete the entire walkthrough in just 15 hours.

So if you are a casual gamer, this game is definitely not for you. Maybe you can even ditch the concept of difficulty levels, since you start on the hardest setting. That just explains that it’s going to be a bit tricky for newbies to understand the mechanism and how not to get stuck in a loop for the next few hours.

final verdict

For $60, it is an absolutely mind-blowing game that will leave you satisfied with the game mechanics, game lore, and wonderful graphics. I would definitely say that the PC version is something that should be on your computer as it is well worth the money and time you put into it. The only thing I would suggest is that you make sure you are someone who wants to invest in this game as it is challenging to play.

Our rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐(4/5)

Also Read: The World of Otome Games is Tough for Mobs Chapter 52 – Release Date, Spoilers and Where to Read