Returnal PS5 Review: 9 Ups & 3 Downs

7. A Proper Next-Gen Game

Returnal is an audio-visual treat as well.

While it feels good to run, jump, slice and shoot your way through enemies at a base level, it’s the attention to detail that makes it so captivating for so long. Enemies explode into balls of light, the scale of this alien world and its beasties is massive, and when everything is popping off at once and you’re flitting by on muscle memory and instinct, you get into the kind of zone where it’s just you and the game and nothing else matters.

It might sound cliche, but once you’re in Returnal’s rhythm, it’s spellbinding. I can’t tell you how much sleep I’ve lost this week because I’ve been on a good run and couldn’t put the controller down.

Returnal is a real looker, too.

The lighting especially is magnificent, whether it’s the gloomy interplay of light and shadows in the forest or the onslaught of colourful projectiles in boss fights. The particle effects are glorious, as is the spectacle of fighting against enemies made from hundreds of independent tentacles.