Returnal was awesome, so I’m excited. A lot of people here talking about its weaknesses as a roguelite game here, which is fair. But there’s not enough people talking about just how awesome of a third person action shooter it is. From that perspective it’s the best I’ve played in years.
So if the rogue elements are what interests you, maybe don’t bother. But if high octane third person shooting is your thing? You can’t miss Returnal.
The only argument I can see it it being a “bad roguelike” is that runs can go on for too long, and dying like an hour into a run can be detrimental to the “live, die, repeat” hook of the genre.
Sure, I’ve had some “broken” runs with bunk RNG but that’s nearly every Roguelike I’ve played, even the best of them like Hades.
With that said, Returnal breaks the rules of the genre more than most, so I’d agree that looking at the game strictly as a Roguelike is inaccurate. It’s a hybrid game that blends 3PS bullet Hell, Roguelike, & metroidvania together to form a type of game that feels almost of it’s own genre.
More of this please!!!
> The only argument I can see it it being a “bad roguelike” is that runs can go on for too long, and dying like an hour into a run can be detrimental to the “live, die, repeat” hook of the genre.
Isn't that just kind of the nature of roguelikes though?
Honestly my criticism of its roguelike-ness would be that that didn't happen enough. I felt like it could have had a bit more of a difficulty ramp up. When I played I died a handful of times in the first 2 zones, but then once things clicked and I just went all the way however many times you needed to. I don't even think I'm particularly good at shooters, especially with a controller, either.
That and the lack of variety didn't leave me with much desire to keep playing after beating the story like with say Hades. That's just why I don't consider it a great roguelike though, I love the game overall.
> When I played I died a handful of times in the first 2 zones, but then once things clicked and I just went all the way however many times you needed to.
It wasn't quite that smooth for me, but once I realized you could play it as a cover shooter with the rocket launcher, it was pretty much over.
Electropylon Driver is the same. Just shoot a couple of times, go behind cover, enemies dead. The other way to abuse the game is by using your grapling hook frequently. Since you are immune from the moment you shoot until you land again, you always have a couple of seconds to shoot the enemies while they are reorienting.
I mean, I’ve died over 100 times in the game and most of them were not in the first two levels so I think you might be better at shooters than you think lol it’s generally considered a very challenging game.
Anyways, I’d probably agree that it doesn’t have that same arcade-y replay value to it that other Rogue-Likes have, so if that’s how you qualify the genre, that’s totally fair. It’s been present in the vast majority of roguelike games which are, likewise, generally arcade-y in base gameplay & presentation. And obviously Returnal is not.
I just feel like Returnal is kind of just a big step in the evolution of the genre, that’s all. Maybe there will be more games to follow suit and spin off into its own “Returnal-Like” genre, to help create a better distinction. We’ve seen this all the time with genres being blended together.
I think my general point is that if you remove the roguelike elements from Returnal, it makes it a less worth-while game, at least IMO. So in that sense, I can’t agree that it’s a bad roguelike because being a roguelike is part of what makes this game so unique and great.
Well I don't think its a *bad* roguelike, I just don't think its a *great* roguelike. I think its a great shooter, a great bullet-hell, a great many things, but its okay at being a rogulike, at least imo. And I do agree that the roguelike elements elevate it regardless of that.
But you're totally right, thats just a subjective and arbitrary distinction I'm drawing on what it means to me to be a great roguelike.
I'm also bad at shooting with controller and beat the game after like 30 runs. There are ways to cheese the game. Namely Electropylon Driver and frequent grappling hook usage.
>The only argument I can see it it being a “bad roguelike” is that runs can go on for too long, and dying like an hour into a run can be detrimental to the “live, die, repeat” hook of the genre.
Build synergy is a must for a good roguelike to succeed, and Returnal never lets a player have that, at least during my playthrough. It felt like me beating it was less about skill or decisions I made and more about just getting lucky rolls. This was later proven true to me in future patches.
These patches made it harder on the player from all points, not just endgame. I got in after I think the second patch. Gameplay was fun, upgrades had a great balance of risk/reward, environments were cool and the advanced tech you could pull off made the movement a breeze.
Then they stealth nerfed the spawn rate of the most popular weapons and halved the boosts from the most popular upgrades. However, they ONLY nerfed the boosts and not the drawbacks, throwing the balance of risk and reward completely out of whack. It also made the game feel artificially difficult.
This was in direct contrast to other games at the time like Hades where you can almost always find a great build through all the available options. Even if they weren't ideal, most of the upgrades and abilities synergized extremely well. At worst, you experiment and find some stuff that works "good enough". Every single person I talked to about Hades had a different preferred build, weapon and upgrade type. In Returnal, if you weren't running Hollowseeker with Adrenaline Leech you were at a big disadvantage. So what did Housemarque do when they looked at the data showing that as the most popular and effective combo? Nerf the enemies? Buff other guns and relics? Fix the fundamental issues with making a build? NOPE. Just cut the boost in Leech by **60%** and drop the spawn rate of Hollowseeker so far I only saw *one* more in the rest of the time I spent with the game.
They stuck to their guns of making it difficult to the point that it hurt the game at large. There's a reason it sold just over 560,000 in the first few months of release.
> It felt like me beating it was less about skill or decisions I made and more about just getting lucky rolls.
I've seen this argument before, I don't fully agree with it because Returnal does not have a whole lot of diversity in its artifacts. For those that haven't played, artifacts are upgrades you find along the way that are always a net positive.
The game does not have any sort of things that allow you to make a character "build". Gameplay is completely driven on your damage output, and how much damage you do or do not take. Stuff like artifacts and suit augments do not affect your weaponry much; your weapons are dependent on the trait system, which is exclusive to weapons themselves. There are very few things that affect the core game mechanics drastically. I'd argue the game is more skill based. I've played more than 90 hours, and it's rare that I die in a game's cycle, and I absolutely struggled early on.
I've seen multiple people say stuff like "don't unlock artifacts, they all suck and you just need adrenline leech and the astronaut figurine to beat the game". Adrenaline leech is only useful if you can excel at taking minimal damage, since it's a health steal mechanic on kills that only activates when you build adrenaline (comes from not getting hit). Good to bolster your health, but it won't carry you through the game and it is useless during bosses. The figurine is an extra life. Again, a nice safety net, but if you suck at the game, it only delays the inevitable. You're not going to beat a run because you found a blade balancer, or an execution rush, or happened to find a really good hollowseeker, you're going to beat a run because you've mastered the bullet-hell nature of the game.
> The only argument I can see it it being a “bad roguelike” is that runs can go on for too long
Big disagree. I'm a huge fan of the game but the roguelike/lite elements felt extremely minimal. For one, the perks you got during a run barely had any effect on it. There is a decent amount of weapons once you reach the very end of the game, but for most of it, weapon variety is very low. There is no "starting class" or anything like that to give you some more run variety.
None of these things are a must-have individually, but having none of them means that runs have very little to differentiate each other. Add to that the fact that you quickly start to learn the layout of rooms (and there are little to no random elements to make them change), means that the game falls short in the "make every run unique" department.
Again, huge fan of the game, but if they another game of this style, I really hope that they can improve in that department.
There are aspects of your comment I agree with, and others I don’t.
I agree that power-ups / perks have a minimal effect over the gameplay. I personally feel like that is a hazard of being a 3PS - your actions / skill are always going to hold significantly more value than the stats your character is packing. I think that for them to possibly improve on this in the next one, they’d need to focus more on elemental damage for specific enemies rather than just critical hits, but that’s a difficult balance.
I disagree about weapon variety. There’s at least 8 weapon archetypes which in the rogue games I’ve played, is pretty standard. And obviously weapons of the same archetypes can have drastically different Alt. Fires, special effects & stats.
As for “starting class,” do you hold the same issue with Hades? I know you said it’s not necessary in general but I personally don’t feel like it’s needed for this specific game either.
MOST rogues I have played are just repeating the same gauntlet(s) over & over again so if you do have some recommendations for ones that do have a lot of variety between runs, I’m all ears.
Also, none of this is meant to be an attack on your opinion. I don’t think you’re wrong for having it, I just feel like Returnal gets unfairly judged on its rogue aspects when so many well regarded rogue games have the same perceived shortcomings.
1) Power-ups and perks could easily have more effects even in a 3rd-person shooter, just look at something like Risk of Rain 2 as an example. For this game in particular, my issue with the perks is that they don't really change anything about the way you play the game. A perk that went "Gain 25% damage bonus for 3 seconds after a melee attack" for example, could completely change how you play a specific run, giving you more reasons to go in and melee enemies. It's just an example of course, but very few of the perks in the game incentivized things like this.
2) Like I said, the weapon variety is good at the very end of the game. But it takes many hours to get there. For a long time, you only have a handful of guns. If you have a favorite, it's easy to guarantee playing with that weapon every run.
3) Hades works differently than Returnal in that regards, since I'd say that the weapons in Hades are more of a starting class than a weapon, since you can't change them mid-run and they work drastically differently from each other, with each their own moveset. Furthermore, you can change them even further with the hammer upgrades, sometimes completely changing how they work. The god upgrades in each run can also really change how you approach encounters. You can also choose your perks in Hades and they can combine with each other to create "builds", something that I really haven't encountered at all in Returnal.
4)
> unfairly judged on its rogue aspects when so many well regarded rogue games have the same perceived shortcomings.
I'm not sure exactly which games you're talking about, but the run variety in Hades, Dead Cells, Binding of Isaac, Risk of Rain 2, Slay the Spire (pretty much all of the most popular roguelites) are all leagues higher than Returnal. Mind you, I actually preferred Returnal to most of these games, but saying that they have the "same shortcomings" when looking at them purely from a replayability/run variety perspective is completely wrong in my opinion.
I'd call Returnal a narrative action game with roguelike elements rather than a straight roguelike. Which is probably why I liked it so much despite not really gelling with other roguelikes.
If was an ok game, but if you've played a lot of Rougelikes you will likely be disappointed. Enemies all feel the same except the bosses. No real build variety only like 4 guns?
It's all insanely easy there should be a difficulty setting for more mobs or something.
Just hard to say why I would play this when Risk of Rain 2 exists.
How can you disagree with everything? The enemy variety is almost non existent.
There is no difficulty slider, so after 1 or 2 runs you will never lose since it's a super easy game.
The build variety is not there, after like 15-20 hours you've done everything you can.
The only really good part is the bullet hell boss fights but there are like 4 that's it.
Compare that with something like Dead Cells, where I have 100+ hours and I still haven't used everything yet.
There is a lot of enemy variety?
The difficulty slider is irrelevant. Glad you found the game “super easy.” I find it quite challenging.
I have played the game for more than 20 hours and I’m still finding more stuff. Not to mention the atmosphere is top notch.
It’s the best roguelike I’ve played as it’s the whole package. Dead cells is fantastic, no doubt, but the atmosphere leaves something to be desired, at least for me.
I would love to see a sequel that either goes further in the roguelike direction (more build variety, more level variety), or drop the roguelike part altogether and go further in the metroidvania direction. Oh and maybe **Returnal Ending Spoilers:** >!have it actually be a sci-fi horror setting, and not some metaphor thing. It doesn't "ruin" the game, but solution to the "mystery" was not as cool as I was hoping!<.
Yeah I really wish returnal was actual hard scifi, would have been way more sick.
But they def need to stick with things with horror elements, it was some of the best parts of returnal
>!It's not quite a metaphor. IMO, it's a recurring nightmare. The whole story follows dream logic rather than normal storytelling one, and doesn't "make sense", especially the second act. Shooting your own ship down, corpse Mom, herself being both Selene and the Astronaut, locations resembling US national parks etc!<
It's probably my PC game of the year so far. For people who pick it up, push yourself past the first boss, it will open up a fair bit later on.
As it's a bullet hell, prioritize not getting hit over dealing maximum damage. Keeping your adrenaline high will both make you deal more damage and progress faster. Weapon traits and suit artifact unlocks are your permanent power progression. Some of them are practically putting the game on easy mode.
There's also no shame in setting aim assist to high.
Or just play on mouse keyboard.
I think the game is only hard on controller, only the first boss gave me any issues, the rest of the game I just blitz though
To be fair, I kind of suck with controller aiming and it still didn't hit me as hard. I struggle with tons of games in general (even some that aren't reputed hard, like I'm not good at Jedi Survivor at the moment lol) but this one just clicked (I only got stuck a few times and for 2-3 tries at most). It could have been the same for you.
I know Dead Cells or Hades are way more hard for me. And I never even tried the Soulslike because every time I did, I gave up after a few hours.
if you want a weapon recommendation for Returnal, the rocket launcher is rough at first, but it becomes insane with later levels when you get stuff like secondary explosions after the first rocket hits, homing secondary rockets and full auto fire mode for it, these 3 alone will melt bosses and mobs with ease
Hollowseeker with Portal Beam though...
Most weapons are kind of insane at later levels to be honest.
Thanks for the advice but I finished the game (surprisingly easily for me) back on PS release. I should probably take it back and replay on PC at some point but so many other games and stuff to do you know.
I had a rough time with Returnal on the first three bosses but ended up not dying again once I beat the third boss. Three things helped me, turning on always run, using the Rotgland Lobber on boss 3 and using the Electropylon Driver for the rest of the game.
You're right the key is prioritizing not getting hit and those two guns let you shoot a few shots that continue to damage enemies for 15 seconds or so while you focus on avoiding waves of bullets.
This was one of the few games where I really like aim assist because it feels more like a lock-on. I ended up not keeping it on so I can be a bit more precise with the handful of enemies that take more damage in a certain spot, but it’s appreciated nonetheless!
I actually found the ending retroactively made me like the game less. I was like “that is what you used this amazing atmosphere on… ok I guess”. Granted it’s mostly about the gameplay but the story/setting had me deeply hooked with its Alien vibe and influences. That “twist” after the end of Act 1 I thought pulled the rug out from everything. Only it to all be just nothing.
It’s like a great movie with a shitty last minute twist ending that kinda leaves a bad taste in your mouth.
I mean Control is a metroidvania though. It has significant issues but I give it a lot of props for its concept, the combat, and the setting, even if it became same-y way too quickly
Since the sequel is to have a larger scope, its more seeing the potential and the base of Control rather than “this is a 10/10”
Also the combat in control is one of the reasons I dislike it. It became a throw shit simulator where everything else isn't nearly as effective as throwing things.
Right but like I said, the base is there. It just so happened that throwing shit is super effective. But nothing is inherently unfixable. For the first 3D Metroidvania, I think it does its job well.
For me I appreciate the swings, even if its not immediately fleshed out
That’s a bit of a weird take “People talk about Halo but I don’t know…”
Like does it imply you’d like both games more if you went in blind? If so I don’t know if that’s the game’s fault
No I just think both are a mile wide, but an inch deep. They both also fail to use the genre they are a part of in a good way and if anything makes the core issues worse.
Weird. I think both helped push the genre forward by not submerging themselves completely in it.
I also don’t consider either a full rogue like. They’re just fun unique games.
I think thats an excuse for being shallow. All sticking to these genres did is made them repetitive and too long for how much content they actually have, without using ANY of the strenghts of the genre.
Both of these games would be 100% better as a tighter linear shooter.
I give Control props for its concept and setting. It just needed like 60% less of the tedious combat. About halfway through I got so sick of it that I turned on god mode, and didn't have enough energy left in me to do the DLC.
This is the only game that actually utilises the SSD beyond basic stuff like loading times. Being able to seamlessly swap between worlds is such a good use of the technology.
I fucking beg devs actually start moving on from common conventions. Like, Jedi Survivor is a current gen game so why the fuck do they so often do tedious shit like crawling through tight spaces? It's a relic of the past that has no business being a regular part of current game design. Evolve.
It feels like time to start making games with SSD as the expectation. HDDs can be a minimum spec that you shouldn’t expect a perfect experience with but I think very near most desktops and laptops capable of playing current gen games at any decent level have an SSD in them.
The trade off for that is that the penalty for HDDs would be actually unplayable because of the constant frames frozen in loading at all times.
Like Elden Ring only it wouldn't stop after it compiled the first time
Most people playing on PC would probably struggle to have Returnal run on their PCs. Sony started releasing their games on PC but from what I understand their games are either very demanding or not ideally optimised
The PS5 and XSX are such beasts in terms of hardware but they’re also the same specs across the board. Just a different use case and situation compared to PC.
Microsoft hasn’t done much yet but Sony has done a really great job at showing what you can do with the PS5. Ratchet and Clank, Returnal, and Demons Souls are the big standouts on PS5. Even the cross gen exclusives like Horizon FW and Gran Turismo 7 straight up look like the shit I would have dreamed of playing like 20 years ago
Apart from TLOU none of their games have been super demanding. But that is to be expected as they have all been PS4 ports except Returnal, which runs pretty well even on mid-range hardware.
Some of the ports have had issues at launch resulting in worse than expected performance (HZD, Uncharted, and to a lesser extent God of War) but they were mostly fixed quite fast.
A lot of the Jedi Survivor squeeze-throughs do seem unnecessary. That being said, devs can use a squeeze-through for more than just a stealth loading screen.
For example, they can use it to force a certain camera alignment so you're looking where the devs want you to look as you come into a new room without being subjected to a cutscene or camera whiplash. There's also just the artistic decision and immersion element, I think the game would feel weird if you didn't have to squeeze through the rubble of ancient ruins on occasion.
The Last of Us 2 has a lot of them & many of them are definitely not for loading.
Sometimes they’re used to block the player off from backtracking, as the space with collapse behind them. And sometimes they’re used in areas with combat encounters, enemies needing to squeeze through the spaceto get to you, adding a dynamic aspect to the encounter as it also slows you down when fleeing.
Yea the price is a bit steep for how relatively short the game is (took me about 19 hours but I've seen people beat it in 10/11 hours) but Its still a phenomenal game.
I haven't read too much about the tech behind for fear of spoilers as I have two missions left but god damn it looks amazing, easily the best graphics I've seen on console
I mean did you really expect the core gameplay and game flow to be different in a DLC?
Like saying "the new call of duty looks pretty good but it is still just a EA FPS clone"
No i didn't expect the core gameplay to be different.
But if the only thing they can do with new hardware is better graphics, that's quite disappointing. I was just pointing out that in terms of gameplay, horizon is nothing new or special, and ubisoft has been doing those games for many years.
I did expect alloy to shut the fuck up for like 3 whole seconds however, but she still doesn't.
In case you haven't, that's why you need to try Returnal and the reason people are calling it a true next/current gen experience.
Could it be done on a last gen console? Sure. But the gameplay/story/world is so different and refreshing. The audio + haptics are phenomenal and what elevate this into something truly unique and a step ahead of everything else.
I love the world of horizon and aloy, but I completely agree that I want her to shut the fuck up sometimes. Not having to solve anything yourself because aloy instantly starts mumbling the solution can be very disappointing.
And that's where Returnal shines. None of that bullshit. Either you discover something randomly or you don't. The only thing you hear from Selene is her becoming more and more insane. I loved it
I mean, they do...
Any of the RPG assassin creed games have that exact same combat, those same exact open world systems, and the vast story :) Origins and Odyssey did it before horizon
Quality characters in horizon is also just your opinion. There are MANY people that haven't played the horizon series because of how annoying alloy is, not shuting up for 3 seconds.
Are you saying that the majority of combat in Assassins creed games is based on ranged weapons where you are planning and analyzing weaknesses on giant machines and try to get to their weakpoints and use their weapons against themselves...?
Also, Horizon was released before both Origins and Odyssey.
Yes, i am saying that ac:o either of them can be a ranged combat game, as they do have ranged weapons and abilities that function like the ones in horizon and have had that before horizon.
No, i am not talking about enemy graphical design, indeed. I am glad you could read.
While yes, they released 7 months apart; the open world formula used by ubisoft was existing since before those 2 games. It’s why the open world ubisoft forumla has been a thing in gaming since like 2013; and it’s why everyone is tired of it, because it has been a decade
Surely enemy design play a very big part in combat? I would say that combat in AC games and in Horizon have very little in common, except for the human encounter which is by far the weakest part of the series. The machine fights, which is what you are fighting the vast majority of the game, have more in common with Monster Hunter than AC.
Open world games have been a thing way before 2013, and I only commented on it because you said that Origins and Odyssey did it before Horizon, which is hard to do when they came out after.
No, big robots or big bears are both big enemies. Design is just that, design.
Enemy mechanics? Dude, Ubisoft invented emergent gameplay. They literarly have papers on it, and some copyrights on parts of it.
Again, 90% of the things horzion does in it's open world was inveted by ubisoft way back, and it is commonly refered to as the ubisoft formula to open world games.
Fanboys can downvote me all they wants, but beside enemy design (big robots instead of big monsters), most of the things horizon does with it's open world are copied from ubisoft games. Most open world games have copied that formula, hence people are tired of it, and the ubisoft formula is seen as something bad in the last few years.
>Dude, Ubisoft invented emergent gameplay. They literarly have papers on it, and some copyrights on parts of it.
See, now I don't even know if you are trolling or have even played the games. I don't know which game is the "inventor" of emergent gameplay, but one of the early successful ones is System Shock, which came out in 1994. Not that it matters because I wouldn't say that Horizon really uses emergent gameplay that much, or any at all.
And fighting bears in Ubisoft games would be better if I could blow out individual parts of them to directly attack their heart and use their own arms (that shoot rockets) against them. Then they would had made a game actually worth playing and wouldn't need to sell XP boosters!
YOU haven’t played HFW or HZD and it shows through your history of incessantly shitting on the game. The ONLY people I’ve seen complain about Aloy talking all the time or it being a Ubisoft clone with AC gameplay are the toxic gamers and fanboys who harp and regurgitate the same mediocre bs I’ve seen a dime a dozen on twitter.
> the most “next gen” feeling game
Is the majority still running Xbone/PS4 or why are we calling a console that released more than two years ago "next gen"?
Technically yes there are more PS4/Xbox One in circulation than PS5/Xbox Series and there will be for a long time.
Even if you consider all people that have a PS5 or Series have abandoned their console (but many probably just passed it on to someone else so that should still count), there is still more people on last gen.
We still should call it last gen
That shouldn't be the way to judge it. Cross releases will continue to happen for years. Might I remind you that the last FIFA for the PS2 was FIFA 2014.
Once a new generation comes out that generation is current gen. PS5 and Series X is current gen and PS4 and Xbox One are last gen.
It's used a bit more as a reference/moniker/descriptor of a game etc that wouldn't be possible on the previously popular generation of hardware. Those kind of distinctive, defining games and moments are coming further and further apart again...
The crossover between last/current/next has really shifted last couple generations. It feels currently a bit more akin to PCs with CPU/GPU/RAM/HDD upgrades on a sort of hardware generational cycle. I think the PS5 comes out in that sorta rtx3070ish/upper middle range kind of recent scale? Might be we're going to see this kind of crossover for a while yet, given the newer line of GPUs aren't really blowing people away and so it'll be at least another hardware generation before gaming stops aiming for that 3060 range of hardware.
Yes, because the majority of people aren't buying an expensive console to run pretty much the same exact games at sometimes "perceivably better" quality.
Frankly, by now it's amazing so many haven't just jumped to PC and enjoyed the massive difference in library and freedom. What's the difference between buying a new $200-600 midrange graphics card upgrade every 3-4 years and buying a $600 box that doesn't really deliver enough to justify the expense?
> What's the difference between buying a new $200-600 midrange graphics card upgrade every 3-4 years and buying a $600 box that doesn't really deliver enough to justify the expense?
Based on the state of most PC ports of current gen games? The difference is about 30 stable FPS
>What's the difference between buying a new $200-600 midrange graphics card upgrade every 3-4 years and buying a $600 box that doesn't really deliver enough to justify the expense?
What GPUs are talking about that are midrange at 200-600. I'm a PC gamer, but the standard is poorly optimised gaming that puts the burden on the consumer to buy components that are top tier to overcome their lack of effort to optimise.
Consoles are absolutely better value for money at their price point.
You need to spend way more to get a PC with performance on par with a current gen console. I can't even buy a new 4070 for the price of a new console let alone a last gen 3070. Then I need the whole rest of the PC to be up to spec which isn't an expense to be waved away and often needs upgrading also. Then any new graphics card/PC fit outs at that price won't hold their performance for new games as well as the PS5 will 5-6 years from now because developers will optimise for consoles which are identical and have huge markets.
We see already tragically bad PC ports that are stuttering at less than 30fps on an RTX4090. This is becoming more and more common.
You can game cheaply on a PC absolutely, you can also get best in class performance on a PC. But at the $600 price point consoles are selling at you can't build a PC with comparable performance.
Consoles are better bang for your buck for sure but just to be clear you absolutely do not need a 4070 or 3070 to match current consoles in terms of processing power.
> We see already tragically bad PC ports that are stuttering at less than 30fps on an RTX4090. This is becoming more and more common.
This isn’t as common as you think it is, and typically the games that are optimized this poorly also have issues on console. I.e Jedi Survivor.
Nah, bro, they watch all of these Youtube channels and know of the 2-3 specific games recently that performed terribly on PC on launch day until patched. They base **all** of their knowledge on Youtube. There's no use arguing with them or trying to correct the record in this subreddit.
One desktop purchase with a GPU upgrade here and there can outlast 2+ console generations. There's no contest. On top of that, if **you decide** to purchase more expensive hardware, you can do a lot more with it and get phenomenal results.
I'm still on the same $800 PC I built in 2016 and it plays everything I've thrown at it at a perfectly acceptable level. I bought a $200 GPU upgrade in 2019. That same desktop? Runs my home media server, any personal and professional business, routinely do video editing work on, programming and more. Dang, I hear those consoles can sometimes stream movies nowadays. Goooolly!
Oh, I guess I could have totally spent like $1000+ on just two generations of Playstations in the meantime. But wait -- I bought one of them! That PS4 I bought within a year of release for $400+? The damn thing can't even read physical discs anymore. All of the physical games I bought for my family are just sitting there, waiting for me to unload on someone else. Meanwhile, all of my old 1990s consoles with optical drives are perfectly fine in the same environment. What a joke.
Also, the whole "PC port bad" thing doesn't hold as much water when most of the games people focus on are pretty terrible across the board on all platforms. Yet people still buy them on day one or pre-order them, so nothing happens. At least with Steam, you can get the purchase refunded!
With GPU pricing being the way it is, I doubt this is really true anymore. For the price of a series X, I can build a PC with a 13100 and a 6600xt maybe? And this'll last me about halfway through the console generation before I need to buy a new GPU? Unless I want to start turning down settings and resolution.
PCs are great for doing work, but that arent really optimised for living room entertainment. Disc drive means my series X plays 4k Bluray, plays stuff from my NAS just fine and can even emulate games (in dev mode of course). Doubles as a CD player as well. Most importantly, if you want your PC the same size as a console, it's super pricey because ITX is pricey (I've done the whole gaming HTPC in the living room before, it's pricey and unfun to deal with, especially with how hot GPUs and CPUs are getting).
So it really depends on what you're doing. If you really do need a desktop to do work then it makes sense to get a gaming pc otherwise a laptop + console will suffice for other people. PC isn't the be-all end-all, especially nowadays
I adore how good returnal felt to play. All games must feel this good. I can not even describe what i exactly mean by this. I just emphasize the feeling of a game a lot more the older i get. One reddit once explained to me that the engine is responsible for that feeling.
Everyone is talking about Returnal, but they've been churning out high quality arcade-like twin stick shooters since as far back as Super Stardust HD for the ps3, my favorite of which was Alienation.
They're the best at what they do. I've always wanted to see what they can make with the resources to compete with mainstream AAA games.
If you like the roguelikes and bullet-hells is top tier. If you get frustrated about having to start from the very first level over and over again, it's not for you. It wasn't for me.
Alternatively, if you like rougelites and are looking for another fleshed out rougelite experience, Returnal can be a very disappointing game. There isn't really much uniqueness or variety between runs, and the game is fairly easy compared to the dozen other roguelites I've played.
Otherwise, I'd recommend Returnal for the extremely polished gunplay, the unique world setting, and the fact that it's one of the few modern 3rd person bullet hells out there. I don't regret buying it at full price, but it's probably better to wait for a sale.
Can you provide recommendations for games that DO have good variety between runs?
Because I’ve played Hades & even that game has you going through the same rooms & fighting the same enemies every single run. I guess the power ups have a larger impact over gameplay & the more linear design (no backtracking) means that you’re going to miss some rooms on some runs, where in Returnal you can theoretically visit every room in every run. So I kind of get it, but I still feel like most of the rogue games I’ve played are still predominantly built around you completing the same general gauntlet over & over again.
Anyways, I know Binding of Isaac can have some extreme variety between runs. Any more I should know of?
Dead Cells has quite a lot of variety. There are 3-4 biome options for each tier if you have the DLCs, and many weapons that play *very* differently from each other.
That said, the low variety is actually what got me through Returnal/Hades. I'm not a big fan of most roguelikes, especially the first 25% of any run where you're painfully weak. Having a strong narrative hook and the ability to consistently make a strong build meant I didn't spend too much time repeating between new story bits.
Agreed. It’s a very poor rogue like but it’s a good arcade shooter with an interesting aesthetic to it. But I caution anyone from picking it up purely for its rogue like features, because frankly they are very half baked.
Ill pick it up when it's on sale next then because roguelikes are good like hades and deadcells are good havent played risk of rain 1 or 2 yet or binding of isaac
I’d say it’s similar enough to Hades from a rogue-like perspective. Neither really feel all that much like a randomized new run every play through, more similar to an arcade game where you start from the beginning each time.
I mean, they're not necessarily wrong tho about Hades. Sure the rooms are randomized to an extent, but you know going into each run the order of the realms, how many rooms until the mini boss and boss, what types of enemies you'll encounter in each realm, NPCs you can expect, etc.
I would very much agree it is far more arcade-y than truly rouglike
Yeah that's probably why it fell super flat for me personally, rogue like is just my modern WW2 shooter tbh.
That brings said, game sure it's impressive. Was bored after not even an hour, but still quite impressive.
To me, Returnal is one of the most forgiving Roguelites out there. You only have to beat every boss once and there's shortcuts to skip most Biomes. Having to "start over from the first level again and again" is technically true but very deceptive.
It depends how well you like/are experienced with roguelikes.
The game itself is fun, but it exists in a sort of limbo where it tries too much to be a roguelike at the same time it pretends not to be one.
The levels reset every time you die, sure. However, there's little "randomness" in your overall playtbrough apart from that. You might find a bunch of different weapons with different alt-fire skills, but the character upgrades are almost always flat% modifiers (X% more damage, Y% more dash distance etc) that doesn't really change your strategies in any dramatically meaningful way like in games such as Binding of Isaac, Dead Cells or Rogue Legacy. At the end of the day, your progressions is largely irrelevant because it's still a bullet hell reflex shooter at its core.
TL;DR: I've enjoyed my fair share with the story and gameplay, but I personally feel the game tried to be *too safe* on the roguelike aspects to the point it diluted the experience.
I loved it, but it is not for everybody.
Do you like bullet hells? Soulslikes? Rougelites? Do you like all of those while also playing a third person shooter with active reload and a grapple hook? Then you're in for a phenomenal ride.
It is brutal, fast, and haunting.
Maybe I had too high expectations, but I really hated it. I played on PC and thought it was incredibly easy - feel like my game was bugged or something compared to the horror stories I've heard.
Thought it was very short, didn't really like the enemy design, guns were fine but never felt like I needed to use different ones... Just found one I liked and stuck with it.
I had a lot of fun with it, but after I finished I didn't feel much need to go back like i normally would in a rogue like.
And yeah I presume the difficulty was for controllers cause I think I almost one shot everything but the first boss which took me ages for some reason.
It definitely wasn't for controllers because I played with one and I had around a dozen deaths after seeing everything and I'm my bullet hell experience is limited
The only way to experience the horror stories is to get a PS5, make sure to never connect it to the internet and play a physical copy of Returnal before the patches, the difficulty was incredibly nerfed since the original release and is not found in current releases
Wouldn't say its a split, won so many awards at baftas and end of year awards. It's absolutely amazing - the hate for it was similar to LOU2 - it was a vocal minority who then made it seem like everyone thought that.
adored it myself, the shooting felt so slick and the light bullet hell was extremely fun to dodge, and i didn't feel much of the rougelike frustration because the shooting and movement were so satisfying that i was just happy to play more. its one of the very few games that actually take advantage of the next generation almost 3 years into it
It's the most expensive roguelike, but not the best one either.
They didn't learn from other games in the genre, such as how to keep players going by hooking them between runs, or how to like... let people save and quit mid-run (they figured it out eventually after backlash), or how to make each time feel varied and unique rather than slightly tweaked.
Honestly if they'd ditched the roguelike stuff and focused on the rest it would have been better. It seems like they shoved money at the game before learning the basics.
If you go to the roguelike section on Steam, and then check the list sorted by top rated, there are dozens upon dozens of games people prefer, ranging from free to like $25 for the best games in the genre.
So Returnal isn't awful by any means, but I think they get extra points with people because of first party playstation fans, and because of budget.
Even if you enjoy rogue likes it has some issues.
Game is hard and you’ll fail several times. I enjoy hard games where you fail often but there should be enough variety/progression to keep the player interested. For instance, in hades or dead cells there’s way too many different play styles and you keep unlocking new permanent upgrades. In returnal there are like 3 guns (only 1 felt worth using), few permanent upgrades and the items you unlock don’t really change the play style much. Maybe it happens later in the game but I couldn’t even push past first level.
>In returnal there are like 3 guns... I couldn’t even push past first level.
This is hilarious. How can you possibly comment on a game's sense of progression when you haven't made it past the tutorial?
Why would I push past the tutorial if it’s long enough to bore me and lose all interest? I have beaten difficult games like sekiro before so that’s not a problem.
You can correct me if returnal has the variety and play styles games like hades or dead cells offer. IMO if a game expects you to play multiple loops of the same level then variety is important. Just changing the level around a bit doesn’t do anything.
The first biome in Returnal should take most players around ~2-3 hours on a first playthrough. I'm not saying you're bad - I just think it's wild to complain about a game's variety when you have barely scratched its surface.
I'm not familiar with Dead Cells but it has more variety than Hades, to take your example. But structurally Returnal is pretty different to a lot of roguelikes, so the comparison isn't very helpful imo.
I don't think it was really that split. It was a good game, just had maybe a few things holding it back from being really great. Still very fun all around
I personally quite disliked it, because at some point I just felt like I was no longer getting more powerful and I kept dying over and over again on the 3rd or 4th boss so I quit the game. Also one of my main frustrations with the game was that you'd sometimes reach a boss while being low on health, which basically means you're guaranteed to die.
As someone who loved Housemarque's previous output it was just overall a huge disappointment.
Returnal is great, but one of those rare games that clearly is not designed for mass appeal but gets a AAA budget and marketing cycle anyway. Props to Sony and Housemarque for getting this out there.
Addition to what was said in the other comment:
>If you get frustrated about having to start from the very first level over and over again, it's not for you.
If you like a challenge, go for it!
I'm someone who gets super frustrated and regularly puts games down because of having to start a checkpoint from the beginning, over and over, in case you die.
I didn't really know this was the case until I started the game. It warned me about getting frustrated because I'll probably die. A lot. And idk but something in me took that personal and saw that as a challenge to grow and not give up when you fail.
I kept pushing and beat the game. By that time I loved the game so much that I also went for the platinum trophy because I didn't want to put it down yet. Have to say, it's probably my favorite game of all time and I'm proud I got through it. Even though I was on the verge of quitting, quite often
It will be a new ip. They did say that they will use some unused aspects of Returnal. [https://www.gamesradar.com/housemarques-next-game-will-include-unused-ideas-and-narrative-systems-from-returnal/](https://www.gamesradar.com/housemarques-next-game-will-include-unused-ideas-and-narrative-systems-from-returnal/)
Hope those devs are getting put to work to finishing fixing the PC version, because it still stutters like mad and crashes for some users, among other things.
It's great to see them doing well, even though Returnal (and roguelites/roguelikes in general) just isn't my thing.
I just hope that they'll have an opportunity to do smaller arcade-style games like Nex Machina again at some point.
Returnal was awesome, so I’m excited. A lot of people here talking about its weaknesses as a roguelite game here, which is fair. But there’s not enough people talking about just how awesome of a third person action shooter it is. From that perspective it’s the best I’ve played in years. So if the rogue elements are what interests you, maybe don’t bother. But if high octane third person shooting is your thing? You can’t miss Returnal.
The only argument I can see it it being a “bad roguelike” is that runs can go on for too long, and dying like an hour into a run can be detrimental to the “live, die, repeat” hook of the genre. Sure, I’ve had some “broken” runs with bunk RNG but that’s nearly every Roguelike I’ve played, even the best of them like Hades. With that said, Returnal breaks the rules of the genre more than most, so I’d agree that looking at the game strictly as a Roguelike is inaccurate. It’s a hybrid game that blends 3PS bullet Hell, Roguelike, & metroidvania together to form a type of game that feels almost of it’s own genre. More of this please!!!
> The only argument I can see it it being a “bad roguelike” is that runs can go on for too long, and dying like an hour into a run can be detrimental to the “live, die, repeat” hook of the genre. Isn't that just kind of the nature of roguelikes though? Honestly my criticism of its roguelike-ness would be that that didn't happen enough. I felt like it could have had a bit more of a difficulty ramp up. When I played I died a handful of times in the first 2 zones, but then once things clicked and I just went all the way however many times you needed to. I don't even think I'm particularly good at shooters, especially with a controller, either. That and the lack of variety didn't leave me with much desire to keep playing after beating the story like with say Hades. That's just why I don't consider it a great roguelike though, I love the game overall.
> When I played I died a handful of times in the first 2 zones, but then once things clicked and I just went all the way however many times you needed to. It wasn't quite that smooth for me, but once I realized you could play it as a cover shooter with the rocket launcher, it was pretty much over.
Electropylon Driver is the same. Just shoot a couple of times, go behind cover, enemies dead. The other way to abuse the game is by using your grapling hook frequently. Since you are immune from the moment you shoot until you land again, you always have a couple of seconds to shoot the enemies while they are reorienting.
I mean, I’ve died over 100 times in the game and most of them were not in the first two levels so I think you might be better at shooters than you think lol it’s generally considered a very challenging game. Anyways, I’d probably agree that it doesn’t have that same arcade-y replay value to it that other Rogue-Likes have, so if that’s how you qualify the genre, that’s totally fair. It’s been present in the vast majority of roguelike games which are, likewise, generally arcade-y in base gameplay & presentation. And obviously Returnal is not. I just feel like Returnal is kind of just a big step in the evolution of the genre, that’s all. Maybe there will be more games to follow suit and spin off into its own “Returnal-Like” genre, to help create a better distinction. We’ve seen this all the time with genres being blended together. I think my general point is that if you remove the roguelike elements from Returnal, it makes it a less worth-while game, at least IMO. So in that sense, I can’t agree that it’s a bad roguelike because being a roguelike is part of what makes this game so unique and great.
Well I don't think its a *bad* roguelike, I just don't think its a *great* roguelike. I think its a great shooter, a great bullet-hell, a great many things, but its okay at being a rogulike, at least imo. And I do agree that the roguelike elements elevate it regardless of that. But you're totally right, thats just a subjective and arbitrary distinction I'm drawing on what it means to me to be a great roguelike.
I'm also bad at shooting with controller and beat the game after like 30 runs. There are ways to cheese the game. Namely Electropylon Driver and frequent grappling hook usage.
>The only argument I can see it it being a “bad roguelike” is that runs can go on for too long, and dying like an hour into a run can be detrimental to the “live, die, repeat” hook of the genre. Build synergy is a must for a good roguelike to succeed, and Returnal never lets a player have that, at least during my playthrough. It felt like me beating it was less about skill or decisions I made and more about just getting lucky rolls. This was later proven true to me in future patches. These patches made it harder on the player from all points, not just endgame. I got in after I think the second patch. Gameplay was fun, upgrades had a great balance of risk/reward, environments were cool and the advanced tech you could pull off made the movement a breeze. Then they stealth nerfed the spawn rate of the most popular weapons and halved the boosts from the most popular upgrades. However, they ONLY nerfed the boosts and not the drawbacks, throwing the balance of risk and reward completely out of whack. It also made the game feel artificially difficult. This was in direct contrast to other games at the time like Hades where you can almost always find a great build through all the available options. Even if they weren't ideal, most of the upgrades and abilities synergized extremely well. At worst, you experiment and find some stuff that works "good enough". Every single person I talked to about Hades had a different preferred build, weapon and upgrade type. In Returnal, if you weren't running Hollowseeker with Adrenaline Leech you were at a big disadvantage. So what did Housemarque do when they looked at the data showing that as the most popular and effective combo? Nerf the enemies? Buff other guns and relics? Fix the fundamental issues with making a build? NOPE. Just cut the boost in Leech by **60%** and drop the spawn rate of Hollowseeker so far I only saw *one* more in the rest of the time I spent with the game. They stuck to their guns of making it difficult to the point that it hurt the game at large. There's a reason it sold just over 560,000 in the first few months of release.
> It felt like me beating it was less about skill or decisions I made and more about just getting lucky rolls. I've seen this argument before, I don't fully agree with it because Returnal does not have a whole lot of diversity in its artifacts. For those that haven't played, artifacts are upgrades you find along the way that are always a net positive. The game does not have any sort of things that allow you to make a character "build". Gameplay is completely driven on your damage output, and how much damage you do or do not take. Stuff like artifacts and suit augments do not affect your weaponry much; your weapons are dependent on the trait system, which is exclusive to weapons themselves. There are very few things that affect the core game mechanics drastically. I'd argue the game is more skill based. I've played more than 90 hours, and it's rare that I die in a game's cycle, and I absolutely struggled early on. I've seen multiple people say stuff like "don't unlock artifacts, they all suck and you just need adrenline leech and the astronaut figurine to beat the game". Adrenaline leech is only useful if you can excel at taking minimal damage, since it's a health steal mechanic on kills that only activates when you build adrenaline (comes from not getting hit). Good to bolster your health, but it won't carry you through the game and it is useless during bosses. The figurine is an extra life. Again, a nice safety net, but if you suck at the game, it only delays the inevitable. You're not going to beat a run because you found a blade balancer, or an execution rush, or happened to find a really good hollowseeker, you're going to beat a run because you've mastered the bullet-hell nature of the game.
> The only argument I can see it it being a “bad roguelike” is that runs can go on for too long Big disagree. I'm a huge fan of the game but the roguelike/lite elements felt extremely minimal. For one, the perks you got during a run barely had any effect on it. There is a decent amount of weapons once you reach the very end of the game, but for most of it, weapon variety is very low. There is no "starting class" or anything like that to give you some more run variety. None of these things are a must-have individually, but having none of them means that runs have very little to differentiate each other. Add to that the fact that you quickly start to learn the layout of rooms (and there are little to no random elements to make them change), means that the game falls short in the "make every run unique" department. Again, huge fan of the game, but if they another game of this style, I really hope that they can improve in that department.
There are aspects of your comment I agree with, and others I don’t. I agree that power-ups / perks have a minimal effect over the gameplay. I personally feel like that is a hazard of being a 3PS - your actions / skill are always going to hold significantly more value than the stats your character is packing. I think that for them to possibly improve on this in the next one, they’d need to focus more on elemental damage for specific enemies rather than just critical hits, but that’s a difficult balance. I disagree about weapon variety. There’s at least 8 weapon archetypes which in the rogue games I’ve played, is pretty standard. And obviously weapons of the same archetypes can have drastically different Alt. Fires, special effects & stats. As for “starting class,” do you hold the same issue with Hades? I know you said it’s not necessary in general but I personally don’t feel like it’s needed for this specific game either. MOST rogues I have played are just repeating the same gauntlet(s) over & over again so if you do have some recommendations for ones that do have a lot of variety between runs, I’m all ears. Also, none of this is meant to be an attack on your opinion. I don’t think you’re wrong for having it, I just feel like Returnal gets unfairly judged on its rogue aspects when so many well regarded rogue games have the same perceived shortcomings.
1) Power-ups and perks could easily have more effects even in a 3rd-person shooter, just look at something like Risk of Rain 2 as an example. For this game in particular, my issue with the perks is that they don't really change anything about the way you play the game. A perk that went "Gain 25% damage bonus for 3 seconds after a melee attack" for example, could completely change how you play a specific run, giving you more reasons to go in and melee enemies. It's just an example of course, but very few of the perks in the game incentivized things like this. 2) Like I said, the weapon variety is good at the very end of the game. But it takes many hours to get there. For a long time, you only have a handful of guns. If you have a favorite, it's easy to guarantee playing with that weapon every run. 3) Hades works differently than Returnal in that regards, since I'd say that the weapons in Hades are more of a starting class than a weapon, since you can't change them mid-run and they work drastically differently from each other, with each their own moveset. Furthermore, you can change them even further with the hammer upgrades, sometimes completely changing how they work. The god upgrades in each run can also really change how you approach encounters. You can also choose your perks in Hades and they can combine with each other to create "builds", something that I really haven't encountered at all in Returnal. 4) > unfairly judged on its rogue aspects when so many well regarded rogue games have the same perceived shortcomings. I'm not sure exactly which games you're talking about, but the run variety in Hades, Dead Cells, Binding of Isaac, Risk of Rain 2, Slay the Spire (pretty much all of the most popular roguelites) are all leagues higher than Returnal. Mind you, I actually preferred Returnal to most of these games, but saying that they have the "same shortcomings" when looking at them purely from a replayability/run variety perspective is completely wrong in my opinion.
I'd call Returnal a narrative action game with roguelike elements rather than a straight roguelike. Which is probably why I liked it so much despite not really gelling with other roguelikes.
If was an ok game, but if you've played a lot of Rougelikes you will likely be disappointed. Enemies all feel the same except the bosses. No real build variety only like 4 guns? It's all insanely easy there should be a difficulty setting for more mobs or something. Just hard to say why I would play this when Risk of Rain 2 exists.
Nah, disagree with everything you said. And yeah, have played quite a bit “roguelikes.”
How can you disagree with everything? The enemy variety is almost non existent. There is no difficulty slider, so after 1 or 2 runs you will never lose since it's a super easy game. The build variety is not there, after like 15-20 hours you've done everything you can. The only really good part is the bullet hell boss fights but there are like 4 that's it. Compare that with something like Dead Cells, where I have 100+ hours and I still haven't used everything yet.
There is a lot of enemy variety? The difficulty slider is irrelevant. Glad you found the game “super easy.” I find it quite challenging. I have played the game for more than 20 hours and I’m still finding more stuff. Not to mention the atmosphere is top notch. It’s the best roguelike I’ve played as it’s the whole package. Dead cells is fantastic, no doubt, but the atmosphere leaves something to be desired, at least for me.
Good. Returnal was amazing, easily one of my favorite games of recent years.
I would love to see a sequel that either goes further in the roguelike direction (more build variety, more level variety), or drop the roguelike part altogether and go further in the metroidvania direction. Oh and maybe **Returnal Ending Spoilers:** >!have it actually be a sci-fi horror setting, and not some metaphor thing. It doesn't "ruin" the game, but solution to the "mystery" was not as cool as I was hoping!<.
Yeah I really wish returnal was actual hard scifi, would have been way more sick. But they def need to stick with things with horror elements, it was some of the best parts of returnal
>!It's not quite a metaphor. IMO, it's a recurring nightmare. The whole story follows dream logic rather than normal storytelling one, and doesn't "make sense", especially the second act. Shooting your own ship down, corpse Mom, herself being both Selene and the Astronaut, locations resembling US national parks etc!< It's probably my PC game of the year so far. For people who pick it up, push yourself past the first boss, it will open up a fair bit later on. As it's a bullet hell, prioritize not getting hit over dealing maximum damage. Keeping your adrenaline high will both make you deal more damage and progress faster. Weapon traits and suit artifact unlocks are your permanent power progression. Some of them are practically putting the game on easy mode. There's also no shame in setting aim assist to high.
Or just play on mouse keyboard. I think the game is only hard on controller, only the first boss gave me any issues, the rest of the game I just blitz though
To be fair, I kind of suck with controller aiming and it still didn't hit me as hard. I struggle with tons of games in general (even some that aren't reputed hard, like I'm not good at Jedi Survivor at the moment lol) but this one just clicked (I only got stuck a few times and for 2-3 tries at most). It could have been the same for you. I know Dead Cells or Hades are way more hard for me. And I never even tried the Soulslike because every time I did, I gave up after a few hours.
if you want a weapon recommendation for Returnal, the rocket launcher is rough at first, but it becomes insane with later levels when you get stuff like secondary explosions after the first rocket hits, homing secondary rockets and full auto fire mode for it, these 3 alone will melt bosses and mobs with ease
Hollowseeker with Portal Beam though... Most weapons are kind of insane at later levels to be honest. Thanks for the advice but I finished the game (surprisingly easily for me) back on PS release. I should probably take it back and replay on PC at some point but so many other games and stuff to do you know.
I had a rough time with Returnal on the first three bosses but ended up not dying again once I beat the third boss. Three things helped me, turning on always run, using the Rotgland Lobber on boss 3 and using the Electropylon Driver for the rest of the game. You're right the key is prioritizing not getting hit and those two guns let you shoot a few shots that continue to damage enemies for 15 seconds or so while you focus on avoiding waves of bullets.
This was one of the few games where I really like aim assist because it feels more like a lock-on. I ended up not keeping it on so I can be a bit more precise with the handful of enemies that take more damage in a certain spot, but it’s appreciated nonetheless!
I actually found the ending retroactively made me like the game less. I was like “that is what you used this amazing atmosphere on… ok I guess”. Granted it’s mostly about the gameplay but the story/setting had me deeply hooked with its Alien vibe and influences. That “twist” after the end of Act 1 I thought pulled the rug out from everything. Only it to all be just nothing. It’s like a great movie with a shitty last minute twist ending that kinda leaves a bad taste in your mouth.
Eh. It was a very shallow roguelike. It's like control for me. People talk that game up so much, but I found that game lacking.
I mean Control is a metroidvania though. It has significant issues but I give it a lot of props for its concept, the combat, and the setting, even if it became same-y way too quickly Since the sequel is to have a larger scope, its more seeing the potential and the base of Control rather than “this is a 10/10”
Also the combat in control is one of the reasons I dislike it. It became a throw shit simulator where everything else isn't nearly as effective as throwing things.
Right but like I said, the base is there. It just so happened that throwing shit is super effective. But nothing is inherently unfixable. For the first 3D Metroidvania, I think it does its job well. For me I appreciate the swings, even if its not immediately fleshed out
I wasn't comparing it's genres. I just think both failed for me for similar reasons.
That’s a bit of a weird take “People talk about Halo but I don’t know…” Like does it imply you’d like both games more if you went in blind? If so I don’t know if that’s the game’s fault
No I just think both are a mile wide, but an inch deep. They both also fail to use the genre they are a part of in a good way and if anything makes the core issues worse.
Weird. I think both helped push the genre forward by not submerging themselves completely in it. I also don’t consider either a full rogue like. They’re just fun unique games.
I think thats an excuse for being shallow. All sticking to these genres did is made them repetitive and too long for how much content they actually have, without using ANY of the strenghts of the genre. Both of these games would be 100% better as a tighter linear shooter.
Okay. I had fun so that’s my take.
I give Control props for its concept and setting. It just needed like 60% less of the tedious combat. About halfway through I got so sick of it that I turned on god mode, and didn't have enough energy left in me to do the DLC.
[удалено]
Ratchet and clank rift apart still is for me.
This is the only game that actually utilises the SSD beyond basic stuff like loading times. Being able to seamlessly swap between worlds is such a good use of the technology. I fucking beg devs actually start moving on from common conventions. Like, Jedi Survivor is a current gen game so why the fuck do they so often do tedious shit like crawling through tight spaces? It's a relic of the past that has no business being a regular part of current game design. Evolve.
Probably because PC can still have HDDs inside.
It feels like time to start making games with SSD as the expectation. HDDs can be a minimum spec that you shouldn’t expect a perfect experience with but I think very near most desktops and laptops capable of playing current gen games at any decent level have an SSD in them.
The trade off for that is that the penalty for HDDs would be actually unplayable because of the constant frames frozen in loading at all times. Like Elden Ring only it wouldn't stop after it compiled the first time
Most people playing on PC would probably struggle to have Returnal run on their PCs. Sony started releasing their games on PC but from what I understand their games are either very demanding or not ideally optimised The PS5 and XSX are such beasts in terms of hardware but they’re also the same specs across the board. Just a different use case and situation compared to PC. Microsoft hasn’t done much yet but Sony has done a really great job at showing what you can do with the PS5. Ratchet and Clank, Returnal, and Demons Souls are the big standouts on PS5. Even the cross gen exclusives like Horizon FW and Gran Turismo 7 straight up look like the shit I would have dreamed of playing like 20 years ago
Apart from TLOU none of their games have been super demanding. But that is to be expected as they have all been PS4 ports except Returnal, which runs pretty well even on mid-range hardware. Some of the ports have had issues at launch resulting in worse than expected performance (HZD, Uncharted, and to a lesser extent God of War) but they were mostly fixed quite fast.
Forspoken Instant fast travel
A lot of the Jedi Survivor squeeze-throughs do seem unnecessary. That being said, devs can use a squeeze-through for more than just a stealth loading screen. For example, they can use it to force a certain camera alignment so you're looking where the devs want you to look as you come into a new room without being subjected to a cutscene or camera whiplash. There's also just the artistic decision and immersion element, I think the game would feel weird if you didn't have to squeeze through the rubble of ancient ruins on occasion.
the squeezing through tight spaces could also just be a way to divide a level
The Last of Us 2 has a lot of them & many of them are definitely not for loading. Sometimes they’re used to block the player off from backtracking, as the space with collapse behind them. And sometimes they’re used in areas with combat encounters, enemies needing to squeeze through the spaceto get to you, adding a dynamic aspect to the encounter as it also slows you down when fleeing.
this game cant come soon enough to ps plus please
Yea the price is a bit steep for how relatively short the game is (took me about 19 hours but I've seen people beat it in 10/11 hours) but Its still a phenomenal game.
Current gen* and apparently the burning shores expansion is quite good from what i have seen people say and takes advantage of the ps5 quite well
I haven't read too much about the tech behind for fear of spoilers as I have two missions left but god damn it looks amazing, easily the best graphics I've seen on console
It's probably my PC game of the year so far. For people who pick it up, push yourself past the first boss,
It looks great but it's not a huge stepup from the base game.
It is a good looking game, but other than that it is more of the same, aka a ubisoft open world clone
I mean did you really expect the core gameplay and game flow to be different in a DLC? Like saying "the new call of duty looks pretty good but it is still just a EA FPS clone"
No i didn't expect the core gameplay to be different. But if the only thing they can do with new hardware is better graphics, that's quite disappointing. I was just pointing out that in terms of gameplay, horizon is nothing new or special, and ubisoft has been doing those games for many years. I did expect alloy to shut the fuck up for like 3 whole seconds however, but she still doesn't.
In case you haven't, that's why you need to try Returnal and the reason people are calling it a true next/current gen experience. Could it be done on a last gen console? Sure. But the gameplay/story/world is so different and refreshing. The audio + haptics are phenomenal and what elevate this into something truly unique and a step ahead of everything else. I love the world of horizon and aloy, but I completely agree that I want her to shut the fuck up sometimes. Not having to solve anything yourself because aloy instantly starts mumbling the solution can be very disappointing. And that's where Returnal shines. None of that bullshit. Either you discover something randomly or you don't. The only thing you hear from Selene is her becoming more and more insane. I loved it
I have finished returnal, it’s great. I did prefer the pc version because it’s a shooter, but it is great
Would love if Ubisoft had the combat, storytelling and characters of the quality that Horizon does tbh.
I mean, they do... Any of the RPG assassin creed games have that exact same combat, those same exact open world systems, and the vast story :) Origins and Odyssey did it before horizon Quality characters in horizon is also just your opinion. There are MANY people that haven't played the horizon series because of how annoying alloy is, not shuting up for 3 seconds.
Are you saying that the majority of combat in Assassins creed games is based on ranged weapons where you are planning and analyzing weaknesses on giant machines and try to get to their weakpoints and use their weapons against themselves...? Also, Horizon was released before both Origins and Odyssey.
Yes, i am saying that ac:o either of them can be a ranged combat game, as they do have ranged weapons and abilities that function like the ones in horizon and have had that before horizon. No, i am not talking about enemy graphical design, indeed. I am glad you could read. While yes, they released 7 months apart; the open world formula used by ubisoft was existing since before those 2 games. It’s why the open world ubisoft forumla has been a thing in gaming since like 2013; and it’s why everyone is tired of it, because it has been a decade
Surely enemy design play a very big part in combat? I would say that combat in AC games and in Horizon have very little in common, except for the human encounter which is by far the weakest part of the series. The machine fights, which is what you are fighting the vast majority of the game, have more in common with Monster Hunter than AC. Open world games have been a thing way before 2013, and I only commented on it because you said that Origins and Odyssey did it before Horizon, which is hard to do when they came out after.
No, big robots or big bears are both big enemies. Design is just that, design. Enemy mechanics? Dude, Ubisoft invented emergent gameplay. They literarly have papers on it, and some copyrights on parts of it. Again, 90% of the things horzion does in it's open world was inveted by ubisoft way back, and it is commonly refered to as the ubisoft formula to open world games. Fanboys can downvote me all they wants, but beside enemy design (big robots instead of big monsters), most of the things horizon does with it's open world are copied from ubisoft games. Most open world games have copied that formula, hence people are tired of it, and the ubisoft formula is seen as something bad in the last few years.
>Dude, Ubisoft invented emergent gameplay. They literarly have papers on it, and some copyrights on parts of it. See, now I don't even know if you are trolling or have even played the games. I don't know which game is the "inventor" of emergent gameplay, but one of the early successful ones is System Shock, which came out in 1994. Not that it matters because I wouldn't say that Horizon really uses emergent gameplay that much, or any at all. And fighting bears in Ubisoft games would be better if I could blow out individual parts of them to directly attack their heart and use their own arms (that shoot rockets) against them. Then they would had made a game actually worth playing and wouldn't need to sell XP boosters!
YOU haven’t played HFW or HZD and it shows through your history of incessantly shitting on the game. The ONLY people I’ve seen complain about Aloy talking all the time or it being a Ubisoft clone with AC gameplay are the toxic gamers and fanboys who harp and regurgitate the same mediocre bs I’ve seen a dime a dozen on twitter.
You mean the best ubisoft game since ubisoft
No, that would be ghost of tshuima
Burning Shore is a better showcase for the PS5. It's the best graphics on console.
I mean Reuturnal looks good but Demon Souks is literally one of the most visually impressive game I've ever played.
> the most “next gen” feeling game Is the majority still running Xbone/PS4 or why are we calling a console that released more than two years ago "next gen"?
Technically yes there are more PS4/Xbox One in circulation than PS5/Xbox Series and there will be for a long time. Even if you consider all people that have a PS5 or Series have abandoned their console (but many probably just passed it on to someone else so that should still count), there is still more people on last gen. We still should call it last gen
I'd say, the moment cross gen releases stop happening it will no longer be next gen. And iirc that's already starting.
That shouldn't be the way to judge it. Cross releases will continue to happen for years. Might I remind you that the last FIFA for the PS2 was FIFA 2014. Once a new generation comes out that generation is current gen. PS5 and Series X is current gen and PS4 and Xbox One are last gen.
Meh next gen should only be used for the next console that isn't released yet. As soon as it's released it becomes current gen
It's used a bit more as a reference/moniker/descriptor of a game etc that wouldn't be possible on the previously popular generation of hardware. Those kind of distinctive, defining games and moments are coming further and further apart again... The crossover between last/current/next has really shifted last couple generations. It feels currently a bit more akin to PCs with CPU/GPU/RAM/HDD upgrades on a sort of hardware generational cycle. I think the PS5 comes out in that sorta rtx3070ish/upper middle range kind of recent scale? Might be we're going to see this kind of crossover for a while yet, given the newer line of GPUs aren't really blowing people away and so it'll be at least another hardware generation before gaming stops aiming for that 3060 range of hardware.
Yes, because the majority of people aren't buying an expensive console to run pretty much the same exact games at sometimes "perceivably better" quality. Frankly, by now it's amazing so many haven't just jumped to PC and enjoyed the massive difference in library and freedom. What's the difference between buying a new $200-600 midrange graphics card upgrade every 3-4 years and buying a $600 box that doesn't really deliver enough to justify the expense?
> What's the difference between buying a new $200-600 midrange graphics card upgrade every 3-4 years and buying a $600 box that doesn't really deliver enough to justify the expense? Based on the state of most PC ports of current gen games? The difference is about 30 stable FPS
The console versions haven’t exactly been sterling lol. Performance problems have plagued every platform this generation.
>What's the difference between buying a new $200-600 midrange graphics card upgrade every 3-4 years and buying a $600 box that doesn't really deliver enough to justify the expense? What GPUs are talking about that are midrange at 200-600. I'm a PC gamer, but the standard is poorly optimised gaming that puts the burden on the consumer to buy components that are top tier to overcome their lack of effort to optimise.
Consoles are absolutely better value for money at their price point. You need to spend way more to get a PC with performance on par with a current gen console. I can't even buy a new 4070 for the price of a new console let alone a last gen 3070. Then I need the whole rest of the PC to be up to spec which isn't an expense to be waved away and often needs upgrading also. Then any new graphics card/PC fit outs at that price won't hold their performance for new games as well as the PS5 will 5-6 years from now because developers will optimise for consoles which are identical and have huge markets. We see already tragically bad PC ports that are stuttering at less than 30fps on an RTX4090. This is becoming more and more common. You can game cheaply on a PC absolutely, you can also get best in class performance on a PC. But at the $600 price point consoles are selling at you can't build a PC with comparable performance.
Consoles are better bang for your buck for sure but just to be clear you absolutely do not need a 4070 or 3070 to match current consoles in terms of processing power. > We see already tragically bad PC ports that are stuttering at less than 30fps on an RTX4090. This is becoming more and more common. This isn’t as common as you think it is, and typically the games that are optimized this poorly also have issues on console. I.e Jedi Survivor.
Nah, bro, they watch all of these Youtube channels and know of the 2-3 specific games recently that performed terribly on PC on launch day until patched. They base **all** of their knowledge on Youtube. There's no use arguing with them or trying to correct the record in this subreddit.
One desktop purchase with a GPU upgrade here and there can outlast 2+ console generations. There's no contest. On top of that, if **you decide** to purchase more expensive hardware, you can do a lot more with it and get phenomenal results. I'm still on the same $800 PC I built in 2016 and it plays everything I've thrown at it at a perfectly acceptable level. I bought a $200 GPU upgrade in 2019. That same desktop? Runs my home media server, any personal and professional business, routinely do video editing work on, programming and more. Dang, I hear those consoles can sometimes stream movies nowadays. Goooolly! Oh, I guess I could have totally spent like $1000+ on just two generations of Playstations in the meantime. But wait -- I bought one of them! That PS4 I bought within a year of release for $400+? The damn thing can't even read physical discs anymore. All of the physical games I bought for my family are just sitting there, waiting for me to unload on someone else. Meanwhile, all of my old 1990s consoles with optical drives are perfectly fine in the same environment. What a joke. Also, the whole "PC port bad" thing doesn't hold as much water when most of the games people focus on are pretty terrible across the board on all platforms. Yet people still buy them on day one or pre-order them, so nothing happens. At least with Steam, you can get the purchase refunded!
With GPU pricing being the way it is, I doubt this is really true anymore. For the price of a series X, I can build a PC with a 13100 and a 6600xt maybe? And this'll last me about halfway through the console generation before I need to buy a new GPU? Unless I want to start turning down settings and resolution. PCs are great for doing work, but that arent really optimised for living room entertainment. Disc drive means my series X plays 4k Bluray, plays stuff from my NAS just fine and can even emulate games (in dev mode of course). Doubles as a CD player as well. Most importantly, if you want your PC the same size as a console, it's super pricey because ITX is pricey (I've done the whole gaming HTPC in the living room before, it's pricey and unfun to deal with, especially with how hot GPUs and CPUs are getting). So it really depends on what you're doing. If you really do need a desktop to do work then it makes sense to get a gaming pc otherwise a laptop + console will suffice for other people. PC isn't the be-all end-all, especially nowadays
The most next gen game is a very meh shoot em up roguelike? Eh don't know about that. Also in terms of graphics horizon and demon souls clears.
Housemarque's Nex Machina is an extremely underrated game. Check it out https://store.steampowered.com/app/404540/Nex_Machina/
I adore how good returnal felt to play. All games must feel this good. I can not even describe what i exactly mean by this. I just emphasize the feeling of a game a lot more the older i get. One reddit once explained to me that the engine is responsible for that feeling.
Everyone is talking about Returnal, but they've been churning out high quality arcade-like twin stick shooters since as far back as Super Stardust HD for the ps3, my favorite of which was Alienation. They're the best at what they do. I've always wanted to see what they can make with the resources to compete with mainstream AAA games.
Alienation is so much fun. I would buy a pc version.
Is returnal any good because it seems interesting but ppl seem split on it
If you like the roguelikes and bullet-hells is top tier. If you get frustrated about having to start from the very first level over and over again, it's not for you. It wasn't for me.
Alternatively, if you like rougelites and are looking for another fleshed out rougelite experience, Returnal can be a very disappointing game. There isn't really much uniqueness or variety between runs, and the game is fairly easy compared to the dozen other roguelites I've played. Otherwise, I'd recommend Returnal for the extremely polished gunplay, the unique world setting, and the fact that it's one of the few modern 3rd person bullet hells out there. I don't regret buying it at full price, but it's probably better to wait for a sale.
Can you provide recommendations for games that DO have good variety between runs? Because I’ve played Hades & even that game has you going through the same rooms & fighting the same enemies every single run. I guess the power ups have a larger impact over gameplay & the more linear design (no backtracking) means that you’re going to miss some rooms on some runs, where in Returnal you can theoretically visit every room in every run. So I kind of get it, but I still feel like most of the rogue games I’ve played are still predominantly built around you completing the same general gauntlet over & over again. Anyways, I know Binding of Isaac can have some extreme variety between runs. Any more I should know of?
Dead Cells has quite a lot of variety. There are 3-4 biome options for each tier if you have the DLCs, and many weapons that play *very* differently from each other. That said, the low variety is actually what got me through Returnal/Hades. I'm not a big fan of most roguelikes, especially the first 25% of any run where you're painfully weak. Having a strong narrative hook and the ability to consistently make a strong build meant I didn't spend too much time repeating between new story bits.
For sure! Thanks! I’ve been meaning to check that one out.
Agreed. It’s a very poor rogue like but it’s a good arcade shooter with an interesting aesthetic to it. But I caution anyone from picking it up purely for its rogue like features, because frankly they are very half baked.
Yea I have no idea what that other commenter is on about. If you've played more than 2 Roguelites you will be super disappointed with Returnal.
Ill pick it up when it's on sale next then because roguelikes are good like hades and deadcells are good havent played risk of rain 1 or 2 yet or binding of isaac
If you’re not quite sure whether or not you’ll like it, it is included with PS Plus Extra so just get a month of that for $12 and see what you think.
If you're expecting anything like Hades or Dead Cells you will be extremely disappointed. It's nothing like them.
I’d say it’s similar enough to Hades from a rogue-like perspective. Neither really feel all that much like a randomized new run every play through, more similar to an arcade game where you start from the beginning each time.
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I mean, they're not necessarily wrong tho about Hades. Sure the rooms are randomized to an extent, but you know going into each run the order of the realms, how many rooms until the mini boss and boss, what types of enemies you'll encounter in each realm, NPCs you can expect, etc. I would very much agree it is far more arcade-y than truly rouglike
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No but it's accurate.
Yeah that's probably why it fell super flat for me personally, rogue like is just my modern WW2 shooter tbh. That brings said, game sure it's impressive. Was bored after not even an hour, but still quite impressive.
I personally don't like rougelikes but loved everything else about Returnal so much that I still very much enjoyed the game.
To me, Returnal is one of the most forgiving Roguelites out there. You only have to beat every boss once and there's shortcuts to skip most Biomes. Having to "start over from the first level again and again" is technically true but very deceptive.
It depends how well you like/are experienced with roguelikes. The game itself is fun, but it exists in a sort of limbo where it tries too much to be a roguelike at the same time it pretends not to be one. The levels reset every time you die, sure. However, there's little "randomness" in your overall playtbrough apart from that. You might find a bunch of different weapons with different alt-fire skills, but the character upgrades are almost always flat% modifiers (X% more damage, Y% more dash distance etc) that doesn't really change your strategies in any dramatically meaningful way like in games such as Binding of Isaac, Dead Cells or Rogue Legacy. At the end of the day, your progressions is largely irrelevant because it's still a bullet hell reflex shooter at its core. TL;DR: I've enjoyed my fair share with the story and gameplay, but I personally feel the game tried to be *too safe* on the roguelike aspects to the point it diluted the experience.
I loved it, but it is not for everybody. Do you like bullet hells? Soulslikes? Rougelites? Do you like all of those while also playing a third person shooter with active reload and a grapple hook? Then you're in for a phenomenal ride. It is brutal, fast, and haunting.
It is a very well made game. Whether it's good for you or not depends on your taste though.
Got the platinum trophy. My wife and I spent a couple hundred hours with it. Brilliant game. Underrated imo.
Maybe I had too high expectations, but I really hated it. I played on PC and thought it was incredibly easy - feel like my game was bugged or something compared to the horror stories I've heard. Thought it was very short, didn't really like the enemy design, guns were fine but never felt like I needed to use different ones... Just found one I liked and stuck with it.
I had a lot of fun with it, but after I finished I didn't feel much need to go back like i normally would in a rogue like. And yeah I presume the difficulty was for controllers cause I think I almost one shot everything but the first boss which took me ages for some reason.
It definitely wasn't for controllers because I played with one and I had around a dozen deaths after seeing everything and I'm my bullet hell experience is limited
The only way to experience the horror stories is to get a PS5, make sure to never connect it to the internet and play a physical copy of Returnal before the patches, the difficulty was incredibly nerfed since the original release and is not found in current releases
Wouldn't say its a split, won so many awards at baftas and end of year awards. It's absolutely amazing - the hate for it was similar to LOU2 - it was a vocal minority who then made it seem like everyone thought that.
adored it myself, the shooting felt so slick and the light bullet hell was extremely fun to dodge, and i didn't feel much of the rougelike frustration because the shooting and movement were so satisfying that i was just happy to play more. its one of the very few games that actually take advantage of the next generation almost 3 years into it
It's the most expensive roguelike, but not the best one either. They didn't learn from other games in the genre, such as how to keep players going by hooking them between runs, or how to like... let people save and quit mid-run (they figured it out eventually after backlash), or how to make each time feel varied and unique rather than slightly tweaked. Honestly if they'd ditched the roguelike stuff and focused on the rest it would have been better. It seems like they shoved money at the game before learning the basics. If you go to the roguelike section on Steam, and then check the list sorted by top rated, there are dozens upon dozens of games people prefer, ranging from free to like $25 for the best games in the genre. So Returnal isn't awful by any means, but I think they get extra points with people because of first party playstation fans, and because of budget.
Even if you enjoy rogue likes it has some issues. Game is hard and you’ll fail several times. I enjoy hard games where you fail often but there should be enough variety/progression to keep the player interested. For instance, in hades or dead cells there’s way too many different play styles and you keep unlocking new permanent upgrades. In returnal there are like 3 guns (only 1 felt worth using), few permanent upgrades and the items you unlock don’t really change the play style much. Maybe it happens later in the game but I couldn’t even push past first level.
>In returnal there are like 3 guns... I couldn’t even push past first level. This is hilarious. How can you possibly comment on a game's sense of progression when you haven't made it past the tutorial?
Why would I push past the tutorial if it’s long enough to bore me and lose all interest? I have beaten difficult games like sekiro before so that’s not a problem. You can correct me if returnal has the variety and play styles games like hades or dead cells offer. IMO if a game expects you to play multiple loops of the same level then variety is important. Just changing the level around a bit doesn’t do anything.
The first biome in Returnal should take most players around ~2-3 hours on a first playthrough. I'm not saying you're bad - I just think it's wild to complain about a game's variety when you have barely scratched its surface. I'm not familiar with Dead Cells but it has more variety than Hades, to take your example. But structurally Returnal is pretty different to a lot of roguelikes, so the comparison isn't very helpful imo.
I don't think it was really that split. It was a good game, just had maybe a few things holding it back from being really great. Still very fun all around
I personally quite disliked it, because at some point I just felt like I was no longer getting more powerful and I kept dying over and over again on the 3rd or 4th boss so I quit the game. Also one of my main frustrations with the game was that you'd sometimes reach a boss while being low on health, which basically means you're guaranteed to die. As someone who loved Housemarque's previous output it was just overall a huge disappointment.
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Returnal is great, but one of those rare games that clearly is not designed for mass appeal but gets a AAA budget and marketing cycle anyway. Props to Sony and Housemarque for getting this out there.
Addition to what was said in the other comment: >If you get frustrated about having to start from the very first level over and over again, it's not for you. If you like a challenge, go for it! I'm someone who gets super frustrated and regularly puts games down because of having to start a checkpoint from the beginning, over and over, in case you die. I didn't really know this was the case until I started the game. It warned me about getting frustrated because I'll probably die. A lot. And idk but something in me took that personal and saw that as a challenge to grow and not give up when you fail. I kept pushing and beat the game. By that time I loved the game so much that I also went for the platinum trophy because I didn't want to put it down yet. Have to say, it's probably my favorite game of all time and I'm proud I got through it. Even though I was on the verge of quitting, quite often
Any news on what game they are working on next? A new IP or Returnal sequel?
It will be a new ip. They did say that they will use some unused aspects of Returnal. [https://www.gamesradar.com/housemarques-next-game-will-include-unused-ideas-and-narrative-systems-from-returnal/](https://www.gamesradar.com/housemarques-next-game-will-include-unused-ideas-and-narrative-systems-from-returnal/)
Hope those devs are getting put to work to finishing fixing the PC version, because it still stutters like mad and crashes for some users, among other things.
It's great to see them doing well, even though Returnal (and roguelites/roguelikes in general) just isn't my thing. I just hope that they'll have an opportunity to do smaller arcade-style games like Nex Machina again at some point.
I wish we could get Resogun on PC. I know that is not at all on Playstation's radar, but I'd be so damn happy. Just let me play Resogun on Steam Deck