Time to talk about game difficulty.

I think a big part of what makes Returnal hard is people don’t get how it works because I feel like people keep saying things about it that are really not my experience over like 30 hours.

Like first, yes, guns and equipment are random, but it felt super forgiving. Every gun, as you use it, gains more and more perks and as you unlock perks they stay unlocked. So today you pick up a crappy pistol but tomorrow you pick up a pistol with homing shots.

Your build really matters, yes, but if you’re at all paying attention you’re constantly finding health upgrades and suit upgrades. Enemies drop stuff, there are chests everywhere, you can purchase upgrades all over.

You do have to engage with the game such that you actually learn how to beat its enemies and how to avoid their attacks. That’s part of it. The story is specifically built assuming you lose a bunch. If you don’t? You miss out.

So at least some of the described pain is the narrative experience as designed.

Seriously though I beat the first three biomes in one run. My first run. I got a little lucky — I came across an item that gives you a free life and another that heals you to a minimum when you’re hurt I also got so far without dying *I restarted because I’d missed all the story*

Yes areas are hard, yes fights are tough, but if you’re learning through experimentation and exploration you quickly find ways to become pretty powerful. The game’s full of shortcuts and power boosts to get you up to speed.

All this to say that I think the tough thing about Returnal is it doesn’t tell you anything about anything and expects you to pay attention and figure it out. Learn what items do and how they’re good, pay attention to the map and pick up everything.

Game difficulty is this discourse we often have about what’s too tough and who’s good and whatever but in the case of games like this the experience is meant to echo the narrative in key ways. Sometimes it’s supposed to be tough. Sometimes tough isn’t tough just for touch’s sake.

But I also think you have to engage with the game on the game’s terms. If you’re not into bullet hell games (I’m usually not at all), well, it is one. If you’re not someone who wants to try item after item to gauge its usefulness (like most roguelikes), well, that’s key.

And I really just did not have that experience of it being super Dark Souls tough. I think I average a death like once every two hours if you look at my stats. I’m not especially good. I took my time, went slow, paid attention, saved resources for good items.

Anyway I’ve just had a really lengthy and interesting experience with Returnal and it’s story and we’re never going to talk about that because the game’s going to be mired in “is it too hard” discussions forever and a bunch of people will never touch it because of that.