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+---
+title: "Returnal is fantastic and you should play it"
+date: 2023-04-21
+series: reviews
+tags:
+ - steam
+ - ps5
+ - masterpiece
+---
+
+The gift of life is small, fleeting, and marvelous. In Returnal you
+play as Selene, an astronaut that crashed on a planet named Atropos.
+She explores the planet a little bit and the local fauna attacks her.
+Selene tragically dies in the process, the credits start to roll, and
+you just ponder for a moment that Selene's gift of life was just
+terminated by an uncaring world. The credits speed up, the camera
+pulls back and
+
+Selene wakes up at her crash site just like you did before.
+
+She came back. She explores again and finds her decaying dead body
+with a recording next to it. She didn't remember making a recording,
+you didn't see Selene making a recording in-game. But it's there.
+
+Selene plays the recording and you hear her voice. It _was_ her. You
+are sure of it. She is sure of it.
+
+She explores more. She dies. She comes back. She explores more. She
+dies. She comes back. She keeps coming back every time she dies.
+
+<xeblog-hero ai="Ligne Claire" file="another-battle" prompt="1girl, hoodie, pants, sword, portal, landscape, cyberpunk, space needle"></xeblog-hero>
+
+Returnal is a science fiction philosophical roguelite third-person
+action-adventure game for the PlayStation 5 and PC. It is nearly
+flawless and is easily one of the best games I've played in recent
+memory.
+
+<xeblog-conv name="Numa" mood="delet">You're just putting random words
+together at this point, there's no way any of that makes
+sense.</xeblog-conv>
+<xeblog-conv name="Cadey" mood="coffee">Do you know of a better way to
+describe Returnal then?</xeblog-conv>
+<xeblog-conv name="Numa" mood="thinking">Good point. That's reasonable
+yeah.</xeblog-conv>
+
+Combat flows like a hot knife through alien butter. The enemies are
+all visually distinct with their own attack patterns, ideal strategies
+to take out, and weapons that are good against them. Combat flows more
+smoothly than Metal Gear Rising: Revengance, which is something I
+didn't even know was possible.
+
+In the game Selene has one weapon and you can get better weapons by
+killing enemies to gain proficency. However, the weapons themselves
+can't be upgraded. You can upgrade various perks of the weapons, but
+not the weapon damage itself. You need to swap out for new weapons as
+you go along. To play Returnal is to be in a ballet of risk analysis
+as you swap through weapons, artifacts, parasites, and consumables on
+the fly; making sure you have what you need to take on the challenges
+being thrown at you next.
+
+I could wax philosophical about this game all day, but I honestly
+believe that I should leave the rest for you to discover. This game is
+a 10/10 masterpiece. My only complaint is that I can't play it on my
+Steam Deck.
+
+It's worth playing, but if you feel like a lot of the nuance and
+metaphor is going over your head, [Returnal is a Hell of Our Own
+Creation](https://youtu.be/fimmD9EtVd0) by Jacob Geller is a fantastic
+overview of a lot of the finer points that you will miss at first. Be
+warned, there are spoilers.
+
+I did have to turn the settings down on my PC to play this, but I also
+got a 4080 while I was playing this game. The 4080 does _wonders_ for
+this game, but I can't quite max it out yet. Need to figure out why.
+
+Overall, I wish there were more games like this. I can't wait to see
+what this studio makes next. Hopefully with Steam Deck support next
+time.
+
+<xeblog-conv standalone name="Mara" mood="hacker">Fun fact: this post
+was originally drafted on paper. What you're reading is the third
+draft of this post. The first draft is available below in case it's
+interesting to you.</xeblog-conv>
+
+<xeblog-toot url="https://pony.social/@cadey/110234374591597923"></xeblog-toot>
+