![]() ![]() ![]() #Insurmountable game review upgradeNot every upgrade is entirely a blessing. When you have a strong understanding of your tools, you can find a rhythm for working any combat scenario that’s specific to your build. And you always have a sword, which lets you disable enemy shields and can quickly dispatch enemies who get in close. As your weapon level grows, the weapons you find have better stats, along with more and better perks. Each weapon type also comes with randomly assigned perks, which you unlock by killing enemies and which persist across runs. Her arsenal ranges from classic pistols and assault rifles to the Electropylon Driver, which fires posts that generate laser beams between them, allowing you to trap an enemy in a deadly laser grid. Selene can find a small but nicely varied array of guns for herself, as well as artifacts, which offer passive upgrades. More importantly, it’s an easy and very tangible way to see your skills improve run to run. In fact, it pays to know when to skip a reload, rather than risk delaying your next attack. Given the ridiculous number of bullets you have to avoid at any given time, it can be tough to work in a quick reload between dodges. There’s also an active reload mechanic, which helps you dish out as much bullet hell as you take. ![]() With every kill, Selene builds up adrenaline, which provides temporary bonuses, like a more powerful melee attack and a glowing aura that makes enemies easier to see, so long as you don’t take damage. Returnal’s combat mechanics reward players who can perfectly dodge enemy attacks while keeping their composure. The only way to make things more manageable is to kill your enemies, so you're constantly planning your offense and defense-looking for a route to safety, while also taking aim and whittling down the opposition. That can be a challenge: Sometimes the number of bright beams and orbs on screen gets so unwieldy, it feels impossible to keep up. Unlike most "bullet hell" shooters, where you're looking down from overhead, Returnal puts projectiles in your face and makes you react quickly and gracefully. Each enemy species has its own bullet type with a predictable pattern to learn, but when you put four or more together, even the simple enemies can create complex, beautiful light shows that will put you down if you aren't at the top of your game. In a large combat arena, the room very quickly fills with a gauntlet of neon orbs and beams of light for you to sidestep, jump over, and dash through. Though some swipe at you with teeth, claws, and the aforementioned tentacles, most of your enemies have the ability to shoot some kind of bright, colorful projectiles at you. Selene wanders through the procedurally arranged and populated landscapes of Atropos hoarding gear, upgrading her health and weapon level (called proficiency), and gunning down the planet's strange-looking, tentacle-wiggling creatures, all of which want you dead. ![]() Everything else, including her weapon, "artifacts" that provide passive upgrades, and consumables like healing items disappear with each death. It falls into the broader definition of a roguelite-Selene starts each run from the crash site but holds a few key upgrades and one of two in-game currencies from run to run. Yes, "return" is in the name, which is a not-subtle-not to Returnal’s run-based structure. To explain much more would give away too much: You want to know as little about Returnal and its story as you can going in.īy clicking 'enter', you agree to GameSpot's Stranded, Selene makes some startling discoveries on the planet, including the game's titular trait: When she dies, Selene "returns" to the site of the crash, seemingly unharmed. When you start Returnal, interstellar scout Selene Vassos crash-lands on an alien planet, Atropos, which is broadcasting a mysterious signal. A shifting, but not jarring pace, an unpredictable narrative, tough-as-nails gameplay, and a constant sense of ambient terror-Returnal's many moving parts coalesce into a rare shooter that grabs you with its mechanics and its story and never lets go, seducing you with its challenges and a foreboding sense of dread every step of the way. But while it borrows from all those genres, its unique flow ensures that its chaotic shooting galleries and creepy storytelling feel decidedly new. On the one hand, it is very much a pastiche of existing game genres: Play one run and you will see how it very clearly draws elements from roguelikes, Souls-likes, metroidvanias, action-platformers, bullet hell shooters, and horror games. ![]()
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