Topic: Returnal

@LtSarge The total B4 boss climb is probably my favorite of the game, with the way they use music and sound to its fullest. I also found B4 to be amongst the easiest levels, so it was enjoyable to go through. I struggled a little more with B5, but not to the degree of B3. You continue to make great progress and seem to have the pre-existing skill set to make short work of these levels. I don’t know if it was because I played the launch version before they added a save feature and potentially did some “balancing” or if it was because I’d never really played a roguelike, but it took me at least a dozen teeth-gritting hours of frustration to get into the groove of the game.

Do you have a favorite weapon so far?

@Th3solution Yeah the boss climb made me even more nervous. I was prepared to just run head into the boss room but then I realised that I had to climb a tower while listening to the absolutely chilling music.

I also got the impression that B4 is one of the easier levels because it's the first level of the second act. A level like this was much needed after the intense second and third biomes.

The game does seem to have clicked with me during B3. I got very lucky with B1 as I wasn't even aware of the function of the astronaut, plus I barely prepared for the boss fight anyway. That came back to bite me in B2 as I had to learn how to properly play the game then. Now I've gotten into the swing of things and know what to do in order to increase my chances of survival.

I have some prior experience of games like this, but I wouldn't call myself an experienced player of this genre. Although I have played games for over half my life, so at some point I guess I had to have become generally good at playing them lol.

My favourite weapon is definitely the carbine. The sidearm is decent but the shotgun doesn't fit my play-style of taking care of enemies from far away so I rarely use it. I don't like the newer weapons like launcher or the one that does damage over time because I don't want to wait for the enemies to die. I need a weapon that shoots and kills fast, from far away and with precision. I was considering maining the Hollowseeker instead when you get it in B2 due to how large the magazine is and the gun's high rate of fire. But the bullets travel way too slow and I noticed this when fighting flying enemies that they were constantly evading my shots even though I was aiming straight at them. I never have this problem with the carbine, so I went back to using it. It's absolutely the weapon that fits my play-style the best.

@LtSarge The carbine has good accuracy and packs a decent punch. If I remember correctly it also has a trait (“leech rounds” I think it may be called) that restores health when you damage enemies. If you get a high level carbine with that trait you can be virtually unstoppable.

The Hollowseeker does have the portal beam trait that I loved, however. And I do enjoy the guns that do damage over time because my playstyle is more of a run-and-hide variety. 😅

@LtSarge Some of the traits and upgrades (can't remember exactly what they are called in the game) can completely change how a weapon performs. I think there is one which increases rate of fire the longer you keep firing, which is very useful for the Carbine and Hollowseeker.

My advise it experiment a little and see what works with each weapon, and don't totally write off any weapon immediately just because of a bad first experience.

@LtSarge I weirdly struggled the most in B4 out of all the places! B5 is unusual in how it works compared to the other biomes and can be tricky. B6 was another I did first time but has some brutal enemies.

I guess you’ll be planning on doing act 3 as well though?

The Hollowseeker was by far my favourite weapon and I think that’s a common opinion. Some of the traits were pretty devastating but the carbine had some decent ones. The leech rounds @Th3solution mentioned is great and I think some upgrades give a similar effect. Very handy for boss fights and the respawning B6 enemies are great for boosting your health with them too

@Thrillho @JohnnyShoulder @Th3solution @LtSarge I can't remember if I mentioned it on here or not but when I was playing the game for the first time I was totally sold on the Hollowseeker, it was easily the most fun weapon to use and had some of the best traits - Portal Beam and Portal Turret especially.

Since playing it again last year for the Tower of Sisyphus mode I totally changed my opinion as I found out just how good the Dreadbound can be once you've got some upgraded traits on it. I know that some people really swear by the Coilspine Shredder but trying that again and hoping for a similar level of redemption I couldn't get on with it but it's great that there's plenty of options for everyone.

Anyway I still get to see just how good this game is due to my wife still being totally hooked on it. Since first playing it, after swearing she'd never be able to due to its difficultly, she must now be on her 5th play through from a fresh save. About the only thing she's not done is 100% all the entries in the databank which I think is virtually impossible due to one of the items having such a low spawn rate.

Hope you carry on enjoying the game Sarge.

I struggled the most with B5 and thought it was verging on unfair. 😂

@render Yeah there were one or two weapons which I found way more useful for the dlc than the main game.

@render Actually the Dreadbound was my favorite for tight quarters, for sure. It had such a satisfying feel to it. When I tried to use it in B5 it was a nightmare though. Not effective from distance unless you never miss. 😅

(Will reply properly to you guys when I have more free time)

So you might have noticed that I haven't written anything in a couple of days. That's because I've been playing Returnal and today, I finally beat the game!

I got absolutely decimated when I started out B5. Then on my second run, I had a much easier time and beat it today actually. Then I found out that the area doesn't have a boss, which was disappointing. So I continued going through B6, which is probably my favourite biome. Everything was going so well, I had such a great setup for the final boss. I had two large health packs, two regular-sized ones, an astronaut, tons of health and upgrades to my stats. I even had a carbine with leech rounds. Then I used up all my health packs towards the end and later on I even died so I used up my astronaut. All before the final boss. I genuinely felt despair because I thought I was going to have to start all over again after so many hours spent on this run. Then I faced off against the final boss and it took me literally five minutes to beat it. It was much easier to beat than some of the other enemies in that level, which could literally take away half your health if they hit you. I was sure that it was so easy because there would be a second boss fight, but there wasn't. Credits rolled and I beat the game. Granted, there does seem to be another act left, kinda like a "true ending". But I'm telling you guys, I was this close to giving up on the game if I had died before the final boss. I'm not going to go through the entire game again, especially not when I ended it on a high note. I'm content with the ending I got and it took me around 15 hours to finish the game, so I feel like I got my money's worth out of it.

Overall though, Returnal is definitely Housemarque's best game they've ever made. Great story, fun gameplay, fantastic replayability and most importantly, it was super challenging. This is the type of game you could play forever in all honesty. There's so much content and it's so much fun to play. I'm glad that I chose it as one of my first PS5 games to play. It's one of the best games on PS5 and the perfect first game to play on the system.

@LtSarge Wow, congrats! They must have made the game easier or something since most of us played it

I completed Act 3 and didn't think it was too bad. It's mostly about collecting a special item per biome and then beating the final boss again. But if you really can't be bothered then you can always just watch the ending on YouTube.

And I agree that the B6 boss isn't that bad at all and I think it even drops health at times too. But some of the enemies in that area are just brutal; the ones that cause instant malfunctions can absolutely ruin a run in an instant!

@LtSarge That's actually a very similar final impression of the game as me, including the fact that I felt that same combination of frustration and satisfaction at the end that didn't make me want to go and search out that final act.
That being said, there's a difference between you and me. Beating the game took you 15 hours? It took me over 60 (60 hours, 67 deaths). So well done!

@LtSarge Well done on beating the game, it sounds like you made it through without many of the issues I remember facing when I played it on release. I think I must have gone through 50 deaths or more in order to finish all the acts and then a few more to the platinum. I enjoyed it so much I was happy to keep playing though and I can highly recommend going back at some point and finishing that final act plus having a go at Tower of Sisyphus.

@Thrillho Housemarque did rebalance some areas, especially the drones in B3. I think it was listed in the patch notes but there was plenty of discussion on the HMQ discord regarding the changes. That's not to take away from Sarge or anyone else who's finished it recently as it's still a very challenging experience even with that rebalancing, it's just not totally stupid in a few areas where most average gamers like myself must have spent most of our time dying.