Developer Housemarque, known for the celebrated likes of Resogun and Nex Machina, has shared new details of its upcoming PS5-exclusive sci-fi shooter Returnal, this time focussing on the looping structure and combat driving the game’s moody, rogue-like action.
Returnal sees Housemarque moving away from the small but perfectly formed arcade experiences that have earned the studio huge acclaim over the years, and instead opts for something a little more blockbuster in outlook. The end result, which follows space scout protagonist Selene as she attempts to escape a hellish loop of endless resurrection while stranded on a deadly planet at the edge of the galaxy, blends third-person action and platform elements with a strong focus on narrative.
It’s not been entirely clear how Returnal’s rogue-like looping premise would work in practice based on previous showings of the game, but now, writing in a PlayStation Blog post, Housemarque has explained that Selene will be sent back to the start of the time loop on every death – moments before crashing down onto the planet – at which point she’ll lose most abilities and items collected on the previous cycle.
Some elements will persist, however, ensuring there’s always a sense of progress, including a strange alien device known as the Cthonos. This mysterious artifact constantly tracks your progress and permanently adds a new item to your loot pool whenever you cross a specific threshold. Items revealed so far include the smartbomb-like Dismantler and the Kinetic Siphon, which restores Health through melee kills.
As for combat, Housemarque previously promised Returnal’s shooting action would feature “volleys of bullet-hell projectiles along the way”, and it’s now gone into more detail regarding what it calls the game’s “fast and frenetic combat and intense gunplay”.
Selene has access to a mix of her own weapons and others she’s found along the way – although she’s only able to hold one at at time – and these all begin as familiar weapon archetypes which are slowly augmented by unlocking and applying various type-specific Weapon Trait modifiers.