Returnal PS5 Review: 9 Ups & 3 Downs

DOWNS

3. Story Can Get Confusing Or Undermine Emotional Moments

While the story is mostly interesting, the presentation of it isn’t perfect.

With the structure of the genre, it can mean beats land differently depending on the player. For instance, if you find yourself on a big session, progressing from biome to biome in one life, it can feel like you’ve leapfrogged a bunch of narrative points.

Of course you’ll eventually die and get the blanks filled in, but proceeding too quickly can result in some big moments feeling more confusing than they should, or lacking emotion.

Still, meshing a story like this with the structure of a Roguelike isn’t easy, and Returnal mostly pulls it off.