I've been enjoying Returnal - but I think it has a big design flaw that often puts me off playing it: there's no time pressure.

You can explore every room, find every upgrade, and scour the map before finally committing to the next boss fight. And there's no reason not to!

So that means that the optimum way to play is to draw out every run until you've picked up everything. It slows the pace of the game and turns bite-size "runs" into high-commitment sessions.

Plus this can also make you pretty overpowered by the time you finally take on the boss.

This is an issue that roguelikes can run into (I think Enter The Gungeon falls into this trap too). But there are so many solutions out there!

Classic roguelikes have a hunger system. Spelunky has a ghost that appears if you wait around a level for too long.

Dead Cells has doors that only open if you get to them quickly. Hades and FTL are always moving you forwards, so you literally can't explore the whole map.

Obviously you can choose to speed up, skip rooms, & rush to the boss door. But without an incentive or punishment, many players will optimise the fun out of the game, to some degree.

(Also worth saying: some people will enjoy the slower, more methodical pace this design elicits)

This is complicated by the fact that you can't save mid-run in Returnal. And I suppose you could argue that your real-life commitments provide the time pressure?

But then again, you can simply suspend the PS5. And there are better, more accessible ways, to add pressure.

Anyway, would love to hear your experience with the game in this regard: do you find yourself scouring the map or rushing to the next area? Does the thought of having to spend an hour on the next run, in order to play most optimally, subtly put you off?

A fair point people have raised is that pushing your luck - fighting enemies to get more upgrades instead of moving on - is its own kind of pressure. I’ve experienced that to a degree in Returnal (i.e. screw the gold containment doors)