It isn’t uncommon for me to overcome challenging games, because I have a limited time to find the most out of them. In high school, I passed every instrument’s one-on-one score, but also earned five stars all of them, such as “The Fire and Flames”. I earned the platinum trophy in each game of Souls on PlayStation, from Demons Soulsall all the way to Dark Souls 3. It was the time when it became quite a big time.
What makes Returnal so difficult?
Fast forward to 2021, when free time is not as accessible as it is by now. It was the year that Returnal came out. This game is free for PlayStation 5 and is known for its difficulty and was developed by the Sony-owned studio Housemarque. You play in Returnal, as Selene, an astronaut, stranded on a planet called Atropos. There are many other organisms in the world that shelter unwanted animals. There’s a killer, but the catch is you must restart from the very first biome every time you die and die. All run creation gives the new stage layout one random time, with multiple enemies, and items filling the biome. The deadly boss will test your skills and close each biome. There is also a constantly unchanging feeling of unease in the midst of this experience. There are no checkpoints, but for example, there are several exceptions. So, you’re already having to be back home at the beginning of the first day – and only if you die on the second biome, and you have a tendency to go back to the beginning of the first. Without your items being loaded, there are very few things in there. That game, which is similar to Souls RPGs, was shrouded with mystery. Returnal doesn’t tell you anything. It has basic instruction. Even though a lot of the time it takes to develop a few tricks that do you like to avoid. This means there will be a lot of trials and mistakes in play, consuming much time. Should you be able to swim? Jump in the water and find out? Do you know if the cliff will have such a meaning? Jump and pray. Despite all that, making progress in Returnal is difficult. I remember spending hours and hours on the first biome alone before reaching the boss before dying halfway through the battle. Making it in the game as far as I can without having anything to show it is demoralizing, and causing me to drop several ships. Nothing about that game always inspired me, but I could never make a steady progress. I thought I should never get through that.
I’ve done a good exploit.
Returnal received a 2.0 update in October 2021. The update featured a photo mode and allowed the suspension of the game. Previously, there were no ways to re-sign, without having to start back at the first biome. If you closed the app in the middle of a run or your game crashed, it was over. But with the new suspension feature, players can now create a temporary save point, leave the game and get back in where they left off. If they die after that, then the game will turn over, but if it isn’t at the moment, that lets them play another game until it is over, before it can start in Returnal. As soon as the update was announced, I knew what I would have expected. Since the suspension feature temporarily saves your game, I think you can upload it to a USB drive or a cloud to preserve it forever. I was wrong. You can essentially use this to provide a backup, so you won’t need to start from the beginning. Each time I came across a difficult area such as a hard platforming section, or a challenging wave of enemies, I would set out a suspension point, upload the latest Returnal saved to the PlayStation cloud and dive back in. If I failed to perform a particular section, or if I died, then I would simply download the save to start the game and restart the entire recovery. This is obviously not the way in which the game will be played. You want to master this game to get you to the point where you can adapt to anything that is used in the realm of the game by thinking, quickly. The problem is, I have no time and many others have to dedicate to returningal so that they can play it this way. It is a shame because the fundamental way it was designed automatically make it a large portion of players never achieve its final goal or even its second areas.
Because you are not playing rightly, you’re not correct.
When I emailed about this, the response was mostly positive, but a few players criticized me for not playing the game correctly. While I can think that this is a orthodox way of playing, I don’t hurt anybody by using this exploit. This is not a multiplayer competition with clear winners and losers. It’s a single-player adventure to complete. This exploit makes you invincible or change the game, which only makes it simpler for players to get through that without much spare time. Your return is a consideration. I appreciate the clever formula and all its nuance. In college I would have played this game the way I wanted to. When someone who doesn’t have the time or the energy to master a game like me, it is nice that I can still play one of 2021’s best games. I prefer cheese the game, and still have a chance to play it, but will not miss out on the amazing experience! That’s what’s about Returnal: Once it clicks, it’s one of the most memorable and satisfying games of the past ten years, with or without an exploit.
