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Returnal for PC | Review Thread

I think I'm starting to experience the trouble mentioned all the time. When you die in the second biome, you go back to first one. It will be like this until you beat the third biome boss. Even Dark Souls doesn't do that, there should have been a separate starting point for each biome. I'm already getting tired after 5 hours but I won't give up soon.

Keep at it. Seriously. I felt the same as you but you improve every time.
 

Agent_4Seven

Tears of Nintendo
Of course it will,and will play at much higher settings than a PS5
I've meant native 4K 60 with max RT and without DLSS. Returnal is a 60 FPS game.

3070 can barely handle native 4K 30 without RT and VRAM limited amongst everything else - 12-16 GBs needed for native 4K with RT.
 

Stuart360

Member
Yeah, but still annoying.

I hope so.

Btw I got my second crash("fatal error"). Is there anyone who gets it in here? It happens when there are multiple enemies/bullets around.
I got a 'fatal error' crash right at the end of the benchmark for some reason lol (right when the benchmark finished), but not in gameplay yet, after about 2 hours of play.
 

Sanepar

Member
I've meant native 4K 60 with max RT and without DLSS. Returnal is a 60 FPS game.

3070 can barely handle native 4K 30 without RT and VRAM limited amongst everything else - 12-16 GBs needed for native 4K with RT.
Game run on 1080p upscalled on ps5 and more like medium settings.
 

GametimeUK

Member
If they eliminate the stutter I'm all in for this PC release. I've been anticipating it for a while now. I finished the game on PS5 already, but a beefy gaming rig has the potential to make this game really shine.

Unfortunately the stutter makes this unplayable for me in its current form.
 

Agent_4Seven

Tears of Nintendo
Game run on 1080p upscalled on ps5 and more like medium settings.
Just checked PC "Demo" with everything cranked up except RT reflections (turned off) and RT shadows (on High) @4K DLSS Quality (67% off 4K) and it's... fine, not 100% 60 FPS experience, plus constant traversal and camera stutters ruining the whole experience. Still, even though the game looks much better, I can't see myself selling my PS5 copy at all. Will wait for a deep deep sale and dozens of patches.
 

Shtef

Member
Everything on high settings, DLSS quality, no RT and 1440p resolution I am getting more than 100 fps and I haven't noticed any stutter, everything is very smooth.
My specs are Ryzen 5600x, rtx 3060ti, 16Gb, sata ssd.

Its really weird reading that some of you with much higher specs are having issues.
 
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Guilty_AI

Member
Everything on high settings, DLSS quality, no RT and 1440p resolution I am getting more than 100 fps and I haven't noticed any stutter, everything is very smooth.
My specs are Ryzen 5600x, rtx 3060ti, 16Gb, sata ssd.

Its really weird reading that some of you with much higher specs are having issues.
Probably cause there are issues with some ultra settings and/or RT, and people with ultra high specs tend to be alergic to pulling the sliders to the left.
 
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Stuart360

Member
Probably cause there are issues with some ultra settings and/or RT, and people with ultra high specs tend to be alergic to pulling the sliders to the left.
I think its mostly RT related, and unlocked framerate related.
Like i said in my earlier post, i'm playing at vsynced 60fps at Epic settings (minus RT) on my 1080ti, and i'm just getting the odd single stutter to 59fps every so often, its barely noticable, in fact i probably wouldnt notice it if i didnt have Rivatuner OSD on my screen.
 

Gaiff

Gold Member
I've meant native 4K 60 with max RT and without DLSS. Returnal is a 60 FPS game.

3070 can barely handle native 4K 30 without RT and VRAM limited amongst everything else - 12-16 GBs needed for native 4K with RT.
The PS5 runs the game at an internal resolution of 1080p without ray tracing. Why would you expect a GPU that is 30-50% faster than what's inside the PS5 to do native 4K+RT and maintain 60fps?

This game is also fairly light on VRAM requirements even at 4K with RT. According to the in-game benchmarks, it takes a little more than 6GB.
 
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Stuart360

Member
This game is also fairly light on VRAM requirements even at 4K with RT. According to the in-game benchmarks, it takes a little more than 6GB.
I think the benchmark is a littl;e off there then. My vram usage was around 6gb at 1080p and no RT (epic settings otherwise).
 

Kataploom

Gold Member
I'm impressed by how this game runs on a 6700xt, it's basically native 1440p above 60 or 70 all the time, and we could even go RT Medium at above 70 or 80 fps with FSR enabled... Yeah, this game basically puts PS5 like on 2060 realm instead of 3070 some here were claiming lol.

Rogue-likes are not my taste of flavor but the combat seems pretty much my thing (save for shooting instead of melee), gotta see some reviews to see if I can convince myself to pull the trigger, I really hate to repeat large chunks of a map just because I died every time...
 

RickSanchez

Member
Just got it, played about an hour. Absolutely phenomenal optimisation, i must say!

My 1080Ti paired with a i7-7700K is running it at 4K, medium settings (textures and particles on high) at a steady 60 fps with FSR set to 'Quality'. No stutters so far, but that's probably because of no raytracing. This is as much a compliment to the game's optimisation as it is to the longevity of the 1080Ti. So far, the complaints about stuttering and poor optimisation seem to be coming from the RTX gang; but my experience without the choice of RT is smooth so far.

The benchmarking tool is also excellent. It is broken into parts which test different aspects of the visuals and give you a detailed breakdown of the performance at the end. On my rig it is heavily GPU loaded, CPU (as checked from MSI afterburner) usage is not crossing 60%.

The visuals, environments and sounds itself are fucking great. Fully recommend getting it if you have a decent rig.
 
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GHG

Gold Member
You are right, I should have looked into it further but it was more of a looking at other people's posts, believing it was a sign in required and I just thought of GHG GHG as a sort of wink, wink, nudge nudge look at this shit dude. As yes, I had mentioned what would you do when your favourite Sony games start requiring sign ins to other accounts but it seems this one is different than I had pictured it from other people's posts in disgust.

I have no problem in admitting when I'm wrong and take the L. GHG GHG genuine apology, man.

No hard feelings man.

If and when the time comes I'm more than happy to have a discussion about it, I'm very consistent in my beliefs when it comes to 3rd party DRM with PC games, but this isn't it. As long as it doesn't find it's way into high profile games then that's a good thing for all of us.
 
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RoadHazard

Gold Member
Jesus, now this is a fun gameplay, I can't stand rogue-likes, really don't like them, but this game, don't know, seems different. The fast paced moving and shooting, tight and responsive controls, the simple and yet interesting art style, I like it a lot.
Don't know why this isn't viewed better by the PS fans, better yet by the critics, because it deserves to be there at the top, but to each his own.

A lot of PS5 owners love it. It just isn't a type of game that appeals to the majority.
 

Gaiff

Gold Member
I think the benchmark is a littl;e off there then. My vram usage was around 6gb at 1080p and no RT (epic settings otherwise).
20230215184947-1.jpg


This port is almost flawless. It would be were it not for the stutters. So close to nailing it.
 

Mahnmut

Member
If they eliminate the stutter I'm all in for this PC release. I've been anticipating it for a while now. I finished the game on PS5 already, but a beefy gaming rig has the potential to make this game really shine.

Unfortunately the stutter makes this unplayable for me in its current form.
Apparently there is a bug that might happen during the shader compilation on first boot. My game was a stutter fest. You have to force shader compilation again by deleting the following file : "AppData\Local\Returnal\Steam\Saved\D3DDriverByteCodeBlob". I did this and now I can enjoy the game stutter free.
 
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Mahnmut

Member
20230215184947-1.jpg


This port is almost flawless. It would be were it not for the stutters. So close to nailing it.
Try this : You have to force shader compilation again by deleting the following file : "AppData\Local\Returnal\Steam\Saved\D3DDriverByteCodeBlob". I did this and now I can enjoy the game stutter free.
 
I missed this on my PS5 but picked up for my PC yesterday knowing it would likely run better than the console version on my new machine. I always liked Housemarque's previous games so I thought I'd give it a go finally. So I bought a key from CDKeys for £33 (versus £50 on Steam) and downloaded it...

Game seems to run okay, apart from some minoring stuttering (which I am led to believe is caused by the RT features), and I am getting around 100 fps on 1440p maxed out settings with both RT setting enabled and set to Ultra. The problem is that the game itself is not grabbing me as much as I'd hoped. It feels very much like a Dark Souls clone with guns mixed with an arcade twin-stick shooter. The narrative is threadbare and the environments all feel small and claustrophobic, reminding me very much of the level design of Metroid Prime, which I am also replaying in remastered form on my OLED Switch. Graphically the game looks fine but it is so dark and the areas so small that it doesn't impress with its environments or detail in the same way as, say, Elden Ring or Hogwarts Legacy.

I am very, very, very slowly warming to it - I was actually almost starting to enjoy it last night - as I explored and got some permanent upgrades such as this gadget for the back of the suit but being sent back to the start every time I die is kind of dampening my enthusiasm to play it to be honest. That and the high difficulty level. The difficulty I do not mind too much but dying and losing the better gun I had just picked up a few minutes before was starting to annoy me. I feel this game would have benefitted from a proper level design and progression system akin to Metroid Prime but it seems it is really just a rogue-like arcade shooter with not much in the way of depth beyond the heavily skill-based gameplay.

The weapon trait progression is persistent i believe. There are some awesome traits that completely change the characteristics of a weapon and when you upgrade that specific trait, it is unlocked for all future runs, assuming you happen to pickup that exact same weapon with the same trait.
 
Rogue-likes are not my taste of flavor but the combat seems pretty much my thing (save for shooting instead of melee), gotta see some reviews to see if I can convince myself to pull the trigger, I really hate to repeat large chunks of a map just because I died every time...

you unlock a melee weapon and there are shortcuts to skip biomes.
 
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Zimmy68

Member
Wow, I forgot how much I loved this game. After a couple of runs and one death by the first boss, I was cruising, right before the boss door I picked up the holy of holies.
A God level roll, a gold level 6 (I think my prof was around 3) Pylon Driver. I ran to Phrike.
I was shredding his health like it was nothing.
Unfortunately for me, I misread his moves as dying animation and stopped shooting. He killed me with a sliver of health.
Back to topic, it runs amazing on my RTX3080.
 

Needlecrash

Member
Returnal on PC is SOOO good! I have the PS5 version as well and so far, I am not disappointed with the PC version. I occasionally hit a few stutters but it's nothing game breaking. If you have a Dual Sense controller, use it for this. It's so good.

Knocked out the first biome boss and made it to the Crimson Wastes for about 2 hours before dying for the first time.
 

Zimmy68

Member
If you thought the "Astronaut Ellen" outrage from PS5 on here was bad, check out the Steam forums. Man, they do not hold back.
 

ChoosableOne

ChoosableAll
Only 10% of those who played this game have finished it: source
For those who wondering, Sekiro's 100% finish rate (platinum trophy) is 27.5%: source

You have to be a real masochist to finish this game. Yesterday I got to the second biome and died. After that, I tried to quickly got to the second biome, but I realized that the game becomes very difficult when you skip the first biome quickly. You have to increase your health bar, buy an astronaut(yeah, that's a thing-revives Selene) etc. So I decided to play it slowly and I played it for 2-3 hours today and got to the second boss(pylon weapon is great). Result: I accidentally jumped into the abyss and died, even though he had a tiny bit of life left. Now how do I start over again? How do I get motivated again?

Angry Inside Out GIF by Disney Pixar


I don't care what happens to Selene on that planet, at least for a few days. I probably go back to it because I paid the full price lol(plus, it's an awesome game that held back by shitty rogue-lite elements).

Edited some hours later: killed that btch. Some portal opened in front of the tower, after the second boss encounter, so I didn't have to play all those tower sections again. I love this game:messenger_ok:
 
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RoadHazard

Gold Member
Only 10% of those who played this game have finished it: source
For those who wondering, Sekiro's 100% finish rate (platinum trophy) is 27.5%: source

You have to be a real masochist to finish this game. Yesterday I got to the second biome and died. After that, I tried to quickly got to the second biome, but I realized that the game becomes very difficult when you skip the first biome quickly. You have to increase your health bar, buy an astronaut(yeah, that's a thing-revives Selene) etc. So I decided to play it slowly and I played it for 2-3 hours today and got to the second boss(pylon weapon is great). Result: I accidentally jumped into the abyss and died, even though he had a tiny bit of life left. Now how do I start over again? How do I get motivated again?

Angry Inside Out GIF by Disney Pixar


I don't care what happens to Selene on that planet, at least for a few days. I probably go back to it because I paid the full price lol(plus, it's an awesome game that held back by shitty rogue-lite elements).

Edited some hours later: killed that btch. Some portal opened in front of the tower, after the second boss encounter, so I didn't have to play all those tower sections again. I love this game:messenger_ok:

Yep, this game does have that "I hate this - wait, actually I love this" thing that Souls etc also does. It can feel defeating to lose a lot of progress, but at least in my experience that happens less and less the further you get. I felt like you at the start, but by the end it had become my favorite PS5 game.

Also, I don't know if the PC release includes the tower DLC or if that's separate? Was free on PS5 I believe, so I guess it should be on PC too. Either way, it's very much worth playing, it's like a more condensed version of the main game with much faster progression. Should be played after finishing the main story though, to get the most out of it.
 

TintoConCasera

I bought a sex doll, but I keep it inflated 100% of the time and use it like a regular wife
Is the game really that hard? I get the feel that people might be exaggerating a bit, specially since modern games are kinda easy.
 

TintoConCasera

I bought a sex doll, but I keep it inflated 100% of the time and use it like a regular wife
BTW, everyone needs to enable the "Always run" option. You never want to not be running in this game, it's all about moving around.
Does it compare to DOOM Eternal in that sense? I loved the feeling of persecution the enemies gave me in that game, you stop moving 2 seconds and bam, surrounded.
 

Alex11

Member
Yep, this game does have that "I hate this - wait, actually I love this" thing that Souls etc also does. It can feel defeating to lose a lot of progress, but at least in my experience that happens less and less the further you get. I felt like you at the start, but by the end it had become my favorite PS5 game.

Also, I don't know if the PC release includes the tower DLC or if that's separate? Was free on PS5 I believe, so I guess it should be on PC too. Either way, it's very much worth playing, it's like a more condensed version of the main game with much faster progression. Should be played after finishing the main story though, to get the most out of it.
Yeah, it feels like this, and it seems to me that it has a little bit of luck, if I can call it that, in the sense that a right weapon and/or an artifact, etc. at the first few rooms can make all the difference.
I had 3-4 rounds in a row where I would die at the second or third room, sometimes like a moron, sometimes feeling that the equipment is not right. Took a time out, then I managed to beat the game in one sitting, was not easy at all, but all the right stuff was happening.

Gameplay is phenomenal and for me is the most important thing in a game, I don't know, I think out of all the PS exclusives that came out on PC it's the best one.
 

RoadHazard

Gold Member
Does it compare to DOOM Eternal in that sense? I loved the feeling of persecution the enemies gave me in that game, you stop moving 2 seconds and bam, surrounded.

Haven't played that one (only 2016), but yeah, you can definitely get swarmed by both enemies and bullets. It is kind of a 3D bullet hell game.

Yeah, it feels like this, and it seems to me that it has a little bit of luck, if I can call it that, in the sense that a right weapon and/or an artifact, etc. at the first few rooms can make all the difference.
I had 3-4 rounds in a row where I would die at the second or third room, sometimes like a moron, sometimes feeling that the equipment is not right. Took a time out, then I managed to beat the game in one sitting, was not easy at all, but all the right stuff was happening.

Gameplay is phenomenal and for me is the most important thing in a game, I don't know, I think out of all the PS exclusives that came out on PC it's the best one.

Yeah, for sure, you will have some dud runs and some magic ones where you just get all the right stuff.
 

Alex11

Member
BTW, everyone needs to enable the "Always run" option. You never want to not be running in this game, it's all about moving around.
This is either the greatest tip or I'm a massive moron for not thinking or looking for that option. Thanks, this really changed the pace so much better.

You know, I'm more a fan of an adventure-action/rpg games, so I like to space out in games or stare at something for God knows what reason, but yeah in this game, you always have to move, and I'm actually fine with that.

The scenery is just gorgeous, I really like for some reason Biome 3, so alien, also mysterious and terrifying with those vistas.
 
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ChoosableOne

ChoosableAll

Shtef

Member
I've uninstalled it. I died at the first boss and was put back to start with just the pistol and all warp points were gone (I thought that if you unlock warp gates they will remain unlocked if you die?), plus all the eneimes were much harder.
The game is gorgeous and i love the atmosphere, i just wish it was regular single player, metroid type game.
 

TrebleShot

Member
I've uninstalled it. I died at the first boss and was put back to start with just the pistol and all warp points were gone (I thought that if you unlock warp gates they will remain unlocked if you die?), plus all the eneimes were much harder.
The game is gorgeous and i love the atmosphere, i just wish it was regular single player, metroid type game.
Exactly why I bounced off it on PS5 it actively disrespects your time. They should have a progression mode or something for people who want to play it like a standard game without the start from scratch gimmick or do it per level like souls games or something.
 

ChoosableOne

ChoosableAll
I've uninstalled it. I died at the first boss and was put back to start with just the pistol and all warp points were gone (I thought that if you unlock warp gates they will remain unlocked if you die?), plus all the eneimes were much harder.
The game is gorgeous and i love the atmosphere, i just wish it was regular single player, metroid type game.

Exactly why I bounced off it on PS5 it actively disrespects your time. They should have a progression mode or something for people who want to play it like a standard game without the start from scratch gimmick or do it per level like souls games or something.
Haha, those were my first reactions too. Completing first three biomes takes roughly 2-3 hours if you take out some of the bosses(you can skip boss fights if you beat them, and you can directly go to 3 biome through biome 1 if you want, after you defeat second boss). You should take your time and enter every door(and every biome) possible for much better artifacts/items(to add them to rng pool), health upgrades, better guns/upgrade gun traits etc. Spend ether in the begining of your run, save some for reconstructor if you want(it needs 6). When you do 3-4 runs like this, you become invulnerable. My health bar didn't go below %80 in third boss fight, thanks to my life leeching weapon. Before that fight, my suit integrity was at %230? or something, I had an astronaut artefact which revives you once when you die, and activated a reconstructor in last biome which saves everthing if you die, in case everything goes sideways.

I don't have super human reflexes, I'm just an average gamer. You can do it if you want. One last tip, you can watch boss fights on YouTube before you encounter them if you don't want to be surprised.
 
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Zimmy68

Member
The RNG is what is great about this game. You go into the first room and be swarmed and die a horrible death with your pea shooter.
Then you can plow through it like a hot knife in butter, getting every great pickup and gun only drop to a random room with a glowy mini boss that depletes your health and astronaut perk and you go limping into the boss fight.
 

winjer

Gold Member
I've uninstalled it. I died at the first boss and was put back to start with just the pistol and all warp points were gone (I thought that if you unlock warp gates they will remain unlocked if you die?), plus all the eneimes were much harder.
The game is gorgeous and i love the atmosphere, i just wish it was regular single player, metroid type game.

This is the main problem with roguelites.
They just pad game time by forcing the player to repeat the same stuff, over and over again.
 

ChoosableOne

ChoosableAll
This is the main problem with roguelites.
They just pad game time by forcing the player to repeat the same stuff, over and over again.
I agree with what you said about roguelites in general(Hades, Spelunky, Dead Cells, Risk of Rain 2 etc), I was bored quickly while playing them. I've been playing this game for 22 hours now. Sometimes I got angry, sure, but I wasn't bored for a moment, whether because of it's atmosphere/story or mechanics . Biomes are based on similar areas, but the order of those areas changes everytime you play (even some enemies change as well). And lots of interesting and fun weapons and traits available. For these reasons, no two adventures are exactly the same. I know, that's the claim of this genre:messenger_grinning:, but I've only been able to enjoy it in this game(Void Bastards was good too). I bought most of the Dead Cells DLC's but I keep playing same three levels in every run and I die. I know it's my bad but still...
 
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