Selene Vassos, trapped in a loop on Atropos. Image: Housemarque / Sony Interactive Entertainment
Returnal is a third-person roguelike shooter from Housemarque, released on 30 April 2021 for PS5 and ported to PC on 15 February 2023. You play Selene, an astronaut caught in a time loop on the planet Atropos, restarting every time she dies. It is fast, punishing and genuinely excellent — and free updates have made it far more approachable than at launch.
Returnal at a glance
| Developer | Housemarque |
| Released | 30 April 2021 (PS5) · 15 February 2023 (PC) |
| Genre | Roguelike third-person shooter / bullet hell |
| Biomes | Six, each with a boss |
| Length | ~25–30 hours to finish · 40+ for the true ending |
What is Returnal about?
Selene Vassos crash-lands on Atropos while investigating a signal called the White Shadow. When she dies, she wakes at the crash site — and finds her own corpse nearby.
The planet rearranges itself each cycle. The story is told through audio logs, ruined houses that should not exist, and first-person sequences inside a suburban home that has no business being on an alien world.
It is deliberately ambiguous and rewards attention. Reaching the full ending requires work beyond simply beating the final boss.
How does the roguelike structure work?
Die and you lose your weapons, upgrades and progress through the current biome. You keep permanent unlocks — new weapon types entering the loot pool, traversal tools like the grapple hook and the ability to swim — which open shortcuts to later biomes.
Runs are built from:
- Weapon traits — each gun levels up permanently across runs, unlocking alternate fire modes and passive perks
- Parasites — creatures that grant a benefit and a drawback simultaneously
- Malignant items — risky pickups that may inflict a malfunction requiring a specific task to clear
- Adrenaline — consecutive kills without taking damage grant escalating bonuses, lost entirely on a single hit
That adrenaline system is the game's real engine. It pushes you toward aggression rather than caution, and it is why Returnal feels different from most roguelikes.
How hard is it, really?
Hard. There are no difficulty settings, and the bullet-hell patterns in later biomes are dense.
But two free updates changed the experience substantially:
- Suspend Cycle — you can now pause a run and resume later. At launch a run had to be completed in one sitting, which for a three-hour cycle was brutal.
- The Ascension update — added two-player online co-op and the Tower of Sisyphus, an endless vertical challenge mode with its own progression.
Both were free. If you dismissed Returnal because you could not commit to unbroken multi-hour runs, that objection no longer applies.
Bullet-hell density with a third-person camera — the combination is the whole appeal.
Is the PC version good?
Yes, and it is a strong port. Uncapped frame rate, ultrawide support, ray-traced reflections and shadows, and DLSS, FSR and XeSS.
Tuning advice: Returnal is demanding and benefits heavily from upscaling — enable DLSS or FSR on Quality before reducing anything else. Ray tracing is the most expensive setting. An SSD is effectively required, since the game streams procedurally generated rooms constantly. The recommended specs are higher than they look, so verify against your GPU before buying.
DualSense features carry over on PC if you connect a PS5 controller by USB — adaptive triggers give you alt-fire on a half-press, which is genuinely worth using.
Is Returnal worth playing in 2026?
Yes, if you accept what it is. This is a skill-based roguelike where losing three hours of progress is a normal outcome, not a bug.
Play it if you enjoy Hades, Dead Cells or bullet-hell shooters, and you want the genre executed at AAA production values with outstanding audio design.
Skip it if you need difficulty options or want a story you can progress through steadily.
It also goes on sale often now, on both PS5 and PC, and the free updates make the current version clearly better than the one reviewed at launch.
Where can you buy it?
- PC — Steam and the Epic Games Store
- PlayStation — PlayStation Store (PS5 only)
Buying advice
There is no paid DLC. Co-op, the Tower of Sisyphus and Suspend Cycle all arrived as free updates, so the standard edition is the complete game. Returnal has appeared in PlayStation Plus catalogues and discounts regularly on Steam. Note it is PS5 only on console — there is no PS4 version.
A note on cracked builds: they are illegal, a malware risk, cannot access online co-op, and are frozen at whichever version was cracked — likely without Suspend Cycle, the single change that makes Returnal manageable. IGGG Guides does not link to pirated software.
Returnal FAQ
How long is Returnal?
Roughly 25–30 hours to reach the credits, and 40+ for the true ending and Tower of Sisyphus.
Can you save mid-run?
Yes. The free Suspend Cycle feature lets you pause a run and resume later — it was not available at launch.
Does Returnal have co-op?
Yes, two-player online co-op, added free in the Ascension update.
Is there a difficulty setting?
No. Returnal has a single difficulty level.
Does it run on PS4?
No. It is PS5 and PC only.
Do you lose everything when you die?
You lose weapons, consumables and run progress, but keep permanent unlocks such as traversal tools and weapon trait levels.
The verdict
Returnal is one of the most confident games Sony has published — a genuine arcade shooter given AAA scale, with combat that stays exhilarating for dozens of hours and an atmosphere its sci-fi horror framing earns.
It is uncompromising and will not suit everyone. But with co-op and Suspend Cycle now included, it is far easier to recommend than it was in 2021.
Best for: roguelike fans who want precision shooting at AAA production values.
Skip if: you need adjustable difficulty or steady, non-repeating progress.
More from IGGG Guides:
- Hollow Knight: Silksong review — a beautiful, brutal adventure
- Borderlands 4 review — 150+ hours of gameplay insights
- Silent Hill f review — everything we know
Last updated: 6 September 2026