Returnal 2021

Is it still worth playing?

Selene Vassos, an astronaut, crash lands on the alien planet Atropos, and is caught in a time loop, in this 2021 third person shooter for the PlayStation 5. Each death sends her back to the crash site, the terrain changes, and most of what she found is lost. Enemies fire patterns of energy, lasers and spiralling fireballs that you have to read and dodge. The six biomes are split into two halves, and dying in the second half starts you at its beginning. Weapons range from a basic pistol to stranger ones with random traits, and a few permanent upgrades stay after death, such as a blade that cuts through red vines. The story comes in audio logs, alien glyphs to translate and an American house that appears on the planet and is explored in first person. Each run is still worth starting: the layout and the weapons change every time, and the fights ask you to keep reading and dodging.