izigame.me

Fantastic game. Reminded me strongly of Hades meeting Risk of Rain 2.
First of all, to address some common things I saw in reviews:
- Returnal advertises a strong recommendation to use a controller, specifically DS5. I didn't personally use a controller, and I think the game would be MUCH harder with a controller. Using a keyboard & mouse I still found it very difficult, but I'm pretty certain my enjoyment would be much less had I used a controller.
- I only had some issues with lag, mainly during particularly intense moments with a lot of moving particles and monsters. But otherwise it ran pretty well for me on max settings. 3440 x 1440 @ 120hz, 3080Ti.
When first playing through the game and exploring areas for the first few times, I was extremely immersed in the absolutely beautiful environment; you'd feel almost scared exploring new areas unsure of what's ahead, the variation of monsters/bosses, or unexpected environments since the map layout is randomised(not auto generated, just order differences). Even though you feel this way, you really want to explore every part of the map because at every stage of the game, exploration is rewarded and always feels good. Whether that's by getting stronger, finding secrets, or unlocking different parts of the story.
Returnal has a really cool take on Roguelike, whatever that means. In each half of the game, you restart from the respective half, and while you don't persist how strong you get, you have a permanent currency you can trade for an item that might give you a tiny edge at the start, and all other progressions are guns or items you can find in the game. It doesn't make you "stronger" between deaths, but does give you more options and playstyles. I found the story very engaging, fairly interesting and had that Hades style where each run unlocks new parts of the story, even past the credits.
Overall for me, it's a high recommendation if you're into these types of games. At it's core price, it's a pretty steep investment and while for me it was worth it at full price, in this economy it's probably better to wishlist and wait for a sale. I'm mostly done with the core part of the game after my ~37 hours at the time of writing, really all that's left is some story collectibles and the alternative game mode which I'll likely play around with, but otherwise I feel like I've taken what I wanted out of Returnal.