Introduction
Sony’s streak of porting their exclusives continue with one of PlayStation 5’s lauch exclusives, Returnal. Originally released in April of 2021, Returnal takes advantage of many of the PlayStation 5’s hardware benefits not just for its graphical presentation but also peripheral feedback thru the DualSense’s haptics and resistive triggers and more. In February of 2023, PlayStation Studios releases Returnal on PC and today we’ll take a look at the PC version of the game. Available now for PC via Steam and Epic Games Store, Returnal for PC takes the latest Ascension update from the PlayStation 5 and puts it on PC gamers’ hands.
Combining roguelike gameplay with Japanese bullet hell, popularized by top-down shoot-em-ups in 3D space, Returnal combines all these elements with the challenge of having no save points. Every time you die, you return to the starting point.
As polarizing as that may sound, Returnal has earned praise for its premise and now its time for PC gamers to experience the challenge that is Returnal. Originally developed by Housemarque for the PlayStation 5, for this port Sony taps Climax Studios to bring the PS5 title to the PC.
In this review, we’ll see how the game plays on PC and how it performs on a couple of the new graphics cards out right now.
Screenshots
Screenshots taken in 4K Epic on an RTX 3080
The game is split in multiple parts with areas primarily concentrated in 3 environemnts namely a lush forest, a desert and the upper mountain regions with indoor areas peppered between the various locations.
You will face multiple enemies in these areas and they will st ay dead once you get past them but once you die and reset, the areas will reconfigure and enemies will respawn.
Detail Settings and Options
Returnal’s option screen gives you a lot to work with starting with the controller. As with most Sony PlayStation title, there is an emphasis here for accessibility and we’ll talk about that a bit later on but by default the game has presets for left- and right-handed keyboard/mouse users.
As a PS5 title, the default gamepad display is the DualSense controller. So does Returnal work with an Xbox or a PS4 gamepad? The answer is yes, the gamepad display on the controller menu will change to the controller plugged, whether its Xbox or PS4. I have note tested with a Switch ProCon though. As mentioned, the best experience is on the PlayStation pads but for pure skill-based gameplay, the keyboard-mouse proved to be the better experience for me.
Its highly advised to edit the keyboard/mouse configurations for better gameplay. Actions like dodging and using the blade doesn’t allow fast, sequential input but its very unwieldy to shift to dash and to scroll up to use the blade. In my personal configuration, since there’s little need to ADS in this game, I moved the dash to right-click and moved the blade to one of my mouse’ side button. Feel free to play around the controls as it will aid you greatly if you can dodge more efficiently in the game versus actually doing combat. We’ll talk more about gameplay strategy later on in this review.
Players can change gameplay options here as well along with the audio but the bulk of the menu will be saturated by the graphics option, divided into Video and Graphics settings. Undfer video, players can change the resolution, monitor in-use (for multi-monitor setup), as well colorblind options. Graphics options presents the detail level settings as well as ray tracing options.
Returnal on PC uses ray-traced shadows and ray-traced reflections. It also supports all vendor upscaling techniques like AMD FSR, NVIDIA DLSS (no frame generation) and Intel XeSS as well as NVIDIA NIS and VRS (Variable Rate Shading) together with more traditional dynamic scaling and upsampling techniques.
Performance Testing
Test Setup
Processor: Intel Core i9-13900K
Memory: Kingston FURY Renegade DDR5-6400 32GB
Storage: Kingston FURY Renegade 2TB SSD
PSU: FSP Hydro G Pro 1000W
Cooling: ROG Ryujin II 360 AIO Cooler
Monitor: ROG PG27UQ 4K 144hz HDR1000
VGA: Listed
Settings used: Epic Preset with Raytracing settings and Upscaling technologies changed
Drivers used are the latest available as of March 9, 2023. All tests performed after March 9, 2023 patch of Returnal for Steam.
Conclusion
Gameplay
Returnal is a tough game. It makes it a point to say that in the beginning of the game. Anyone who has never played an arcade cabinet would feel nostalgic but those who grew up spoiled by auto-save systems, will probably be surprised at how Returnal plays. I remember seeing a comment when Returnal came out on the PS5 saying that they should patch-in a fast travel mode and then recalling all the hours of backtracking I had to do in JRPGs back in the PSX era.
The game starts off really punishing and its best to master effective kitting or dodge-then-shoot tactics to develop your character further. One thing Returnal is most forgiving is weapon and suit development which you retain after a cycle. This means if you have permanently gotten to a certain suit and weapon level, much of the opening enemies seem insignificant. They will increase in number as you progress though so understanding how they move, how to place yourself relative to the map is the best way to go from boss to boss without getting a scratch. Those healing items also come in handy.
In my opening hours I cycled a couple of times but I learned that you can traverse areas without killing enemies. You only need to clear enemy waves in lockdown areas and of course, boss fights but outside of those, mastering your movement will allow you to get better chance against larger waves.
Bullet hell situations will only be most present during boss fights but when you’re being engaged by multiple enemies, you’ll see some large swathes of rays coming at your. Take note that you can traverse the map freely to anywhere in your reach to evade enemy fire.
The plot itself is rather convoluted and is presented like a sci-fi horror flick or a psychological thriller. I’ve already spoiled myself about the ending when it first came out so I’ll spare you the details but our hero Selene isn’t Tom Cruise in Edge of Tomorrow, looping her day to save humanity. No no no. There’s no grand ending here that leads to something of greater importance. Every bit of lore and backstory for Returnal is about symbols. This is immediately evident with the Selene’s house appearing in the alien planet.
Ultimately, its a personal story and while kept behind and told by a very challenging game, is still veiled by vague expositions through dialog and cutscenes. Many of the original Playstation 5 reviews have noted that Returnal’s weakest characteristic was its story and I wholeheartedly agree. Sadly, there’s no way that a PC port would correct that and the game still carries this with it to PC.
PC Port Report
That being said, much of what Sony promotes for Returnal’s technological feats can easily be missed but graphically, the game looks great. Its ray-tracing options are one of the lighter applications we’ve seen as the game only gets -15% to -19% performance penalty on NVIDIA while AMD, despite being Sony’s engine for the Playstation 5, really gets punished when raytracing is enabled even at only 1080p on the RX 6900 XT by up to -39%.
DLSS and FSR does a good job keeping the PC visual experience on par with a PS5 (I can’t believe I said that) but the PS5 does employ some options to keep Returnal running at 4K60 with ray tracing on. PC gamers can tweak their options as best to suit their needs.
It is worth noting that many have complained of errors while playing this game even with a modern system. I can confirm I have experience these “fatal errors” on random occassions during this review. I have since played the game offline and had no problems whatsoever. With the arrival of the March 9, 2023 patch, I’ve since been online again and have not encountered the problem.
I am not dismissing the issue of people who are still encountering fatal errors. This is still a AAA title and with a AAA price, I highly urge potentail buyers to check recent reviews within their community to confirm the status as I cannot 100%. For now, the game runs stable on all 3 setups I have tested this on (test bench PC, 12900K+RTX 3080 home PC, 13980HX+4090 laptop).
Ultimately, if you’re up for a challenge and enjoy the 90s arcade challenge of Returnal or you just enjoy a good 3D roguelike game, Returnal is a rare example of a game that pushes players to git gud rather than publishers/devs hand-holding to get more cash. Kudos to Sony for pushing this game despite its premise and while the game’s plot may not be everyone’s cup of tea, the challenge itself plus the side objectives makes it a good distraction for completionist and challenge seekers as we await the next Sony PlayStation Studio title in the horizon.
Returnal is now available on Steam and the Epic Game Store.