![]() ![]() Statues explode into hundreds of tiny rocks, enemies dissolve into piles of cascading voxels, and teleporters deconstruct Selene into swirls of light before cannoning her across the world. Battles are a feast of searing lasers, missile swarms and writhing tentacles. The good news is that when it’s running on ‘Epic’ settings, this version is as sumptuous as the original. While I’m usually no stickler for performance or fidelity, Returnal’s alien textures and eye-scorching particles deserve to have the dials turned up to max. That’s fine, but if you have to venture further down the scale into the ‘Medium’ settings, the drop in quality is steep, and the lively environments lose a lot of their shine. I have to admit, I fell a little short in this respect, equipped with a PC that merely matched the recommended settings, and it came as no surprise that I had to tune the graphical bells and whistles down a notch to maintain a solid frame rate. ![]() At least that is as long as you have a machine with enough grunt to keep up with its luminescent mayhem. It's gratifying to find, then, that Climax Studios’ PC port is no less essential. Not to mention that since its release Finnish developer Housemarque has addressed early criticisms and planed away rough edges, until the loop runs smoother than ever. It may not have the glamourous reputation of mega-franchise sequels such as Horizon: Forbidden West or God of War: Ragnarök, but Returnal is as much a showcase for the platform as any of them, and utterly essential as long as you don’t mind its rather punishing challenge. Indeed, for the last two years, this Sony published title has been one of the best reasons to own a PlayStation 5. And so often, her mood dovetails with your own highs and lows of elation and frustration, until every part of Returnal encases you in its loop. Selene’s journey into Atropos, through a thick jungle, a burning vermilion desert and beyond, sends her circling through a smorgasbord of emotions – from confusion to hope, despair to determination. Forget Aliens vs Predator, this is Aliens vs Groundhog Day.īut what a day it is, as Returnal combines a best-in-class third-person shooter with a deep dive into the psychology of its protagonist. Each time she falls foul of the local fauna, she pops back into existence right next to her broken ship, with no obvious means of escape. But that’s the fate of deep-space astronaut Selene in Returnal, when she ditches her single-seater vessel on a remote rock called Atropos. The last thing you need when you’ve just crash-landed on an unknown planet teeming with predatory wildlife is to discover you’re also stuck in a time loop. ![]() As long as your PC is up to the job, Returnal is a top-notch conversion of PlayStation 5’s finest, combining razor-sharp shooting with dense atmosphere and a captivating story. ![]()
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