BREAK THE CYCLE Fight to survive as this award-winning third-person shooter brings Selene’s story to PC. Take on roguelike challenges. Engage enemies in bullet hell-fuelled clashes. Share your journey through Returnal™ with another player.
Returnal is a third-person shooter action roguelike, billed as the first AAA roguelike, where a big-budget studio adapted the indie-dominated subgenre. He loves the story, atmosphere, biomes, bosses and Metroidvania-style traversal unlocks, and he finished the whole game and enjoyed it. His main frustration is that the roguelike elements (relics, abilities) are dull and make runs feel too similar, which leaves replayability weak. He frames the game as one he likes and wants to be better, and places it on the board with only a vague location cue rather than a tier letter.
Liked
Story and first-person segments are captivating
Big budget gives massive, immersive biomes and great visuals
Metroidvania feel: new traversal tools (e.g. sword) unlock across runs
Bosses feel cool
Core third-person gameplay is super enjoyable
Exploration and moving between worlds, especially the first time
Disliked
Roguelike elements are disappointing; studio seems not to be a roguelike developer
Relics are boring (more health, more damage, simple triggers)
Runs do not feel different enough from one another
Replayability is weak once the story is finished
The more roguelike mode (the tower) is enjoyable but should be in the core game
Top 10 of 2024 (#8)
Returnal is a third-person action shooter roguelite with metroidvania and horror elements, and one of the first big-budget non-indie roguelites. He thinks the core gameplay, presentation, story and bosses are excellent, but that the roguelite systems are disappointing. He has mixed feelings and regrets not being able to place it higher. It still lands at number 8 and remains one of his favorite roguelites he played this year.
Liked
Looks great, with huge, detailed biomes and an immersive world
Grand-adventure campaign feel that indie games rarely match
Story full of mysteries and twists that holds attention
Genuinely creepy, compelling horror segments
Crisp, satisfying controls with great sound design and visual effects
Solid movement, including the grappling hook for high-speed mobility
Fantastic bosses
Disliked
Most artifacts/parasites are simple number tweaks with no unique mechanical changes
Consumables are interesting but situational and not impactful enough to use over the weapon
Weapons drop constantly but with one weapon slot and no recycling they feel unnecessary
Chests are underwhelming, keys are hard to find, and the malignant mechanic is rarely worth the risk
Huge maps can be slow to traverse and sometimes feel like a chore
Runs do not feel different enough from one another
A third-person sci-fi bullet-hell shooter by Housemarque in which astronaut Selene relives death on the alien planet Atropos, with a roguelike run structure, Metroidvania-style traversal unlocks and a cosmic-horror time-loop story.
Critics received Returnal very well: Metacritic is 86 on both PS5 (115 reviews) and PC (Climax Studios port, Feb 2023), and it won Best Game at the British Academy Games Awards. Players are more split: Metacritic user score is 7.4 (68% positive, 12% mixed, 20% negative), and Steam sits at Very Positive (about 81%, roughly 11,100 reviews). Nearly everyone loves the gunplay, movement, sound and atmosphere; the split comes from the brutal difficulty, long runs with thin meta-progression, and (on PC) technical problems. Sony has effectively finished updating it, so PC issues that appeared after the last patch are still open. The game is fully released, not early access.
Players love
Fluid, responsive third-person shooting and movement (dash, jump, melee, adrenaline mechanic) that feels arcade-tight and addictive
Bullet-hell enemy and boss design that is readable and rewards pattern mastery; players talk about getting noticeably better over time
Best-in-class sound design, music and lighting; the oppressive, eerie alien atmosphere (Giger/Beksinski-style visuals) is widely praised
Strong voice performance by Jane Perry and a mysterious psychological-sci-fi story that rewards digging into scout logs and secret endings
Weapon traits, parasites and artifacts create risk/reward decisions inside a run; Metroidvania-style tool unlocks open up traversal
Post-launch content: Ascension update added online co-op and the Tower of Sisyphus endless mode, praised by fans who want pure gameplay with no story
Runs acceptably on modest PCs and supports suspend-cycle saves since Update 2.0, making long runs less punishing
High feel of mastery: many Steam reviewers with 50-180+ hours call it a favourite game of the decade and a Hades alternative for action fans
Common complaints
PC port stability: widely reported VRAM/memory leak and texture-streaming degradation after a late patch, forcing restarts every hour or two and never fixed
Crashes on launch or after the logos, black screens and poor frametimes for some players despite high fps
Unwanted Epic Online Services install and optional PlayStation account linking (with region-locked prompts) on Steam drew a wave of negative reviews
Co-op is buggy: lost runs after disconnect as guest, locked shops, reticle/ammo UI bugs, curses carrying over, loading-screen joins, and story progress only counting for the host
Very punishing difficulty with no accessibility or easier mode; a single early hit can cripple a run because healing only raises max health when already full
Environments are repetitive across biomes (same structures, palette swaps) and the loop feels samey after many runs
Sony effectively abandoned PC support; full price on PC years later is criticised, and the next Housemarque game (Saros) is not coming to PC
Can feel tedious
Losing a long run to a single mistake, with minimal carry-over; runs feel like they do not respect player time
Having to replay early biomes repeatedly to reach where you died, seeing the same sequences dozens of times
Random trap rooms, laser-heavy rooms and spikes felt cheap or cause lag on some PCs
Incoming attacks are hard to track in chaotic fights, making hits feel unavoidable to some
Needing to restart the PC game every hour because of the memory leak
Unlocks and permanent progression feel too minor to help performance, so the grind feels unrewarding (a top-voted negative review)
What's unique
Third-person bullet-hell shooter hybrid, rare in a genre dominated by top-down/2D roguelikes
Runs are long (often 1-3 hours) and open-ended with persistent tools and Metroidvania-style gating rather than short quick runs
Procedurally shuffled rooms paired with hand-built biome bosses and handcrafted story progression
Haptic/adaptive trigger and 3D audio design built around the DualSense, carried into a cosmic-horror time-loop narrative
Adrenaline, overload and malfunction systems (parasites, cursed items, weapon proficiency that persists) make every pickup a risk decision
Tower of Sisyphus endless mode and 2-player online co-op added after launch
Players want
Add an easier or accessibility/narrative difficulty so story-focused players can progress
Stronger permanent meta-progression so failed runs feel like they move the needle
Fix the PC VRAM leak and crash bugs and keep patching the port
More build variety: larger pool of weapons, artifacts and non-stat-boost upgrades, plus more biome/environment variety
Shorter runs or more checkpoints beyond suspend-cycle for players with limited time
Fix co-op reliability (reconnect handling, shared story progress) and drop the forced extra launcher/online services
Summarised from Steam reviews and community discussion.
Roguedex
Tier list Part 3 (2025)
Returnal is a third-person shooter action roguelike, billed as the first AAA roguelike, where a big-budget studio adapted the indie-dominated subgenre. He loves the story, atmosphere, biomes, bosses and Metroidvania-style traversal unlocks, and he finished the whole game and enjoyed it. His main frustration is that the roguelike elements (relics, abilities) are dull and make runs feel too similar, which leaves replayability weak. He frames the game as one he likes and wants to be better, and places it on the board with only a vague location cue rather than a tier letter.
Liked
Disliked