Returnal™

Not a expert in roguelike games. but massive fan of Hades 1&2. Strong points : - Graphics : Returnal is visually beautiful to me, the colorful bullets, the hostiles, art direction is cool. - Atmoshpere : scifi/gloomy i really dig that - Sound design : yes please, it felt cohesive and immersive. Average - Gameplay : some really enjoyable mechanics/action scene/challenge. the gunfight are cool, the overload system and some artifact/combo are nice. but also some very weak/sloppy points see below. Lame : - General mechanics / roguelike aspect : the gun management, the artifacts, consumables. nothing makes sense to me. Coming from Hades, where each run is a blast, here my progression is heavliy dependend on luck of finding good artifacts. and most of the runs are kind of annoying. the roguelike aspect of this game is just lame, it adds nothing. its just there to fit the narrative/story but from a game aspect its just like a nightmare mode on a regular game. - movement : this is super lame, you only have dodge and jump. that's it. its a damn bullet hell, they could have added so many layers, at least a double jump, double or triple dodge, varying speed with objects and consumables. counter with melee. so many things that seem basic which made me feel like playing a demo or unpolished game. - Map design : I spend so much time to room the map for consumables and stuff which is super annoying, i understand its good to have some calm between action moments but this is so poorly done, it feels like a chore honestly. they could simply have added a hook on the entrance of each room to skip the room more rapidly and put just one reward chest before leaving the room instead of having to redo the exact same scavenge hunt everytime you die. my god so annoying. - malfunction/parasites : again instead of making the game more challenging, it makes it super annoying. basically once you pick up some items you get a punishment, which is to do random stuff like kill X hostiles. super stupid system. Hades and the chaos boons just works way better. - !! spoilert alert !!! having to restart from scratch on the second act is pure laziness from the developper. its basically having to redo the same stuff in the same map, just the skin is different. i was so pissed it killed my motivation/joy !!! spoiler finished. Don't get me wrong, i'm having super good moments, and i do see some strongs points in the game. However coming from hades and after seeing the reviews i do think this game is widely overrated and lacks depth/replayability. i like challenging games, i spend countless hours on hades and ghostrunner but the mechanics needs to be well thought to enjoy dying. While returnal was fun during the first act. after spending 30ish hours im done. which all in all is ok but it seems to me this game could have become a classic but missed their chance.