Returnal PC review – prime PlayStation entertainment

metro.co.uk:

gets a new remaster we also get a PC version of exclusive, our favourite game of 2021. It was obvious at the time that Returnal owed a significant debt to Metroid Prime but playing the two games back to back that connection seems even more explicit.

That should only be considered a compliment though, as Returnal is by no means a clone and the most important similarity between the two games is that they’re amongst the best of their generation.Although the PC version has been developed by British company Climax Studios, the original Returnal is the work of Finnish developer Housemarque, who was previously best known for arcade style action games such as Super Stardust and the superb. Returnal was really their first attempt at a more expansive, action adventure game and yet it’s of such a high quality you would’ve assumed they’d been making such games for decades.We’re desperately keen to know what they’re working on next, which has been implied to not be a sequel, but any chance to tackle Returnal again is very welcome, even if this is a fairly straightforward PC port that adds little of consequence beyond a few technical refinements.

You do also get the extra DLC released after launch though and if nothing else, this has been a chance to dive more deeply into that.Although Returnal does have a narrative it is entirely open to interpretation. A bit too opaque, you could argue, but what’s important is not so much what’s going on as how it makes you feel.