![]() ![]() That the L2 trigger serves the dual function of enabling primary fire (when pulled halfway) and alternate fire (when pulled all the way back) is just icing on the cake and another small way in which the PS5 improves the overall gaming experience. ![]() From the gentle pitter-patter of rain - something that actually ramps up the tension, rather than serves to relax - to the varying recoil from different weapons and all the way to the satisfying ‘chuk’ sound it emits when your alternate fire cooldown is complete, this is high-quality immersion. The DualSense controller too comes to the party and almost instantly conjures comparisons with the haptics work Japan Studio's Asobi Team did on Astro's Playroom. Whether it’s the environmental sounds that get softer and louder depending on how far you are from their source (the sound of rolling thunder overheard is a prime example) or that audio cues do a much better job than visual ones in alerting you as to where the impending threat is coming from or even the eerie humming that pops up intermittently, the sound design is immaculate and made that much better by the technology on offer. Returnal’s tone, in equal parts frantic and foreboding, is beautifully brought to life by the system’s Tempest Engine for 3D audio. Back when Sony’s latest games console released in India in February, I’d opined that “for an audio-visually rich and tactile gaming experience that extends beyond teraflops, resolution and frame rates, you'll be hard-pressed to find a better device on which to do your gaming than the PS5”.įrom the time the opening video plays and the game unceremoniously drops you into protagonist Selene’s space boots and consequently, the deep end, everything about this feels extremely cinematic. Sure, it looks great, but then it isn’t the only (or the first) game to run at 60 frames-per-second and feature ray-tracing. Off the bat, this is the game that should have accompanied the PS5's arrival, for a number of reasons. Returnal comes nearly six months since the system launched globally - almost three months since the India launch - and it makes the PS5 seem essential at long last. It is through exploring biomes (six in total) and picking through data recordings, runes and the discarded remains of other astronauts (that you very swiftly realise are Selene herself from a different cycle) that you begin piecing her story together.īefore we get into the game or indeed its brutal difficulty, there’s a very pertinent point to be made: The ninth generation of gaming finally feels like it’s upon us, and let no one tell you otherwise. Sony Interactive Entertainmentįinnish video game developer Housemarque’s Returnal tells the story of the aforementioned astronaut, who crash lands on the planet of Atropos with little apart from a few flashes of memory and a busted-up ship log to tell her how and why she got there. As the mother struggles to free herself and her daughter from the car, the tentacle-like smoke that restarts Selene's lifecycle on Atropos engulfs the screen, pulling the player back into the depths before the game fades to black.Screenshot from Returnal. ![]() As mother and daughter both start to drown, the mother witnesses the same alien creature at the bottom of the water that Selene sees after her final Returnal boss battle. She returns her attention to the road just in time to witness the figure of an astronaut (the same astronaut that Selene has been having visions of) standing in their path. The mother swerves to avoid the astronaut, and crashes through the bridge’s wall and into the water below. While distracted, the mother begins to drive across a bridge over a large body of water. When there is static on the radio, the mother tries to retune the sound system and takes her eyes off the road. The vision shows the mother and a child traveling along a dark and winding road in their car. However, Selene experiences this vision as a mother. ![]() Once Selene interacts with this creature, she witnesses another vision of her past (having experienced others throughout the game's narrative). This creature seems to be the source of Selene’s constant life and death loops on Atropos. After the final boss battle in Returnal, which sees Selene make her way down to the watery depths of Atropos, she comes face-to-face with a large and many tentacled alien monstrosity. ![]()
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