Orbs that would usually just plague the screen as small circles (when viewed from above) now come toward you. Returnal’s bosses take the bullet-hell chaos that developer Housemarque is known for and subvert it by putting the player’s perspective front and center. This game is a take on the genre that intertwines horror with almost every aspect of itself.
Roguelikes have stopped being a niche genre all the while, more games are iterating on loop-based structures to tell stories. You do so through the eyes of Selene, a space pilot stuck in a time loop on a hostile alien planet, attempting to solve the mystery of how to escape. Traversing through them means facing increasingly harder enemies, collecting weapons and items as you explore an array of rooms per area. This PlayStation 5 exclusive introduces itself as a third-person roguelike with set levels that reorient themselves in each run, across a total of six areas. Seeing the boss struggling to stand on its feet as it tried to defeat me one more time symbolized what Returnal is about: It’s a showcase of the toll that comes from repetition. During the battle’s final phase, the enemy started attacking in close quarters in a much weaker stance, rampaging against the floor, producing shock waves with each hit, using whatever strength it had left. In another, the creature would fly quickly through the arena. In one moment, a storm of projectiles would follow my toes. All the while, the boss showcased its plethora of attacks, perhaps as a warning of what was to come. The music, which had been almost as quiet as the enemy before my arrival, quickly ramped up.
I used all of the movement options at my disposal, carefully planning their execution. Up to that point, the lessons I had learned had seemed unrelated, but they all culminated in this moment. If you want curated lists of our favorite media, check out What to Play and What to Watch. When we award the Polygon Recommends badge, it’s because we believe the recipient is uniquely thought-provoking, entertaining, inventive, or fun - and worth fitting into your schedule. Polygon Recommends is our way of endorsing our favorite games, movies, TV shows, comics, tabletop books, and entertainment experiences.
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