Returnal: PS5 Review in progress

Developed by Housemarque

Published by Sony Interactive Entertainment

Platform: PS5

A spaceship soars through the skies.

A malfunction hits, and its sole pilot grapples desperately to save the ship from crash-landing, but fails miserably.

Suddenly, they find themselves alone on an alien world, with limited means of escape and no real clue what lies ahead.

It's an old science-fiction trope, and it's also the premise of Housemarque's PS5 debut, the roguelike Returnal.

Only this time, there's a twist - the pilot, Selene, finds herself on an ever-changing world, and stuck in a timeloop as she dies only to be reborn again, stuck at the start of her crashed ship and facing everything all over again. But this time around, each death brings about a whole new world to explore, and even more enemies to face - and further mysteries to unravel.

This mesh of Groundhog Day, Ridley Scott's Prometheus, the Live Die Repeat ethos of Edge of Tomorrow,the exploration/ scanning elements of No Man's Sky and a run-and-gun game is more than the sum of its parts - it's maddeningly frustrating, terrifyingly disorienting and utterly compelling as it unfurls its mystery upon you.

From its utterly stunning opening sequence where space stars glisten, and hurricanes appear to swirl around the planet Atropos, the game's visuals are truly impressive, building on what the PS5 should be offering as a cinematic experience and providing the best of what your HD TV can pump out.

Creatures on the planet pulse with bright blue neon edges, their tentacles waving in the atmosphere as they attack - the neon-soaked tinges see their menace stand out, and the screen pops with otherworldliness as you progress through.

The alien touches have also been built into the game's use of sound and it's here that Returnal starts to make use of the 3D audio and the controller to the fullest. Emerging from the crashed ship early on, rain drops almost imperceptibly from the controller's speakers; stepping into a transporter device later on in the game, the sound swirls around your ears like a localised tornado - pressing the triangle button to activate the transporter and the controller emits a low-level bass boom to signal you're off. And then there's the alien attacks which see all kinds of shrieks and screams emerge from within. It's stellar stuff - and it makes Returnal a more immersive experience.

Adaptive triggers and haptic feedback bristle when used, and the gunning element of the game feels like a shooter should. Push the L2 button down halfway and the gun sets itself; push it all the way down, and the triggers rumble ready to let go their deadly arsenal.

But - and there's a big but with Returnal - death may become Selene, yet it's likely to frustrate players repeatedly time and time again, thwarting their progress at every angle. Each death sees you reset, with any decent weapons you procured lost back somewhere in the new maze the planet has spewed forth, and hidden by the intricacies within. That would be fine if the game reset its creatures too, but if tougher ones have emanated, then basic weapons - and ergo, you - stand little to no chance of seeing them off.

It makes parts of Returnal downright difficult, and the lack of linear narrative may perhaps be a minor path to hindrance, rather than progression. But stick with overcoming this barrier and the rewards will be plentiful.

And yet, Returnal is showing the next gen console can do something different - it's a mission statement from Sony that this is a time to be experimental, and to embrace all that it can do - rather than setting the much-anticipated Ratchet and Clank as their first big debut exclusive title for the console, Returnal shows the company is willing to gamble on a new IP.

It's here PS Studios has signalled its intent - and in Returnal, it'll reap the rewards. It may not be everyone's cup of tea, even if it does show Housemarque has moved on from the truly wondrous Resogun.

Returnal does what good science fiction does well - it pushes boundaries for the console, plays with the tropes of the genre, builds on them, and creates a psychological horror-cum-shooter that shows the next cycle of PlayStation gaming will be riddled with originality, experimentation and clever use of all it can offer.

A review code for Returnal was provided by PlayStation NZ for the purposes of this review in progress.