With the PS5, I also managed to get some games to play with it, of course, but most of them were PS4 ports or adaptations, not exclusive PS5 titles that really used its potential.
That's why recently I got Returnal, which is a game developed only for PS5. I got it second-hand, because I was wary of the game. I did some research and I've heard it was really difficult and frustrating. At the same time it's crazy expensive if you get it as new. After completing it now, I have to say it may be worth it, the game is THAT good, but with some disclaimers.
The game is hard, really hard. One of the reasons why is that the game has sections, or biomes as they're called, and after one of these sections (and their boss fight) you get some permanent upgrades sometimes, but before that anything that you manage to get gets lost after death. After death, you start from the beginning, again, with nothing. This is rough, since you can have a great number of items and stats that you managed to scavenge from around, and then you have a misstep and you lose everything. There's also the fact that every time, minimum, you need to go through the first section to get to the second or third one. And the same applies with the last 3, you need to go through the 4th section always.
There's also the fact that it's a rogue-like, which means that after dying the next map will be automatically generated and randomised. In this game that means that each biome has an X number of rooms, with Y number of places that can have items in each room, from a Z selection of items, and with V types of enemies available for that biome and room, and every time you die the game randomizes this selection of combinations. Each run is a bit different. You can find the same rooms, yes, but now the items are different in them, or now there's this type of enemy when before there was that another type or no enemy whatsoever, or now there's this trap, etc.
The gameplay itself is a strange one, a third-person bullet hell: You control your character from a third-person view, use a weapon to shoot enemies and the enemies launch thousands of glowing bullets, circles and other stuff that can damage you and tends to fill the screen with colours that you need to avoid. In order to not get damaged you should not cover but run around, strafe, jump and use dash to avoid most attacks, although you can occasionally cover too, yes.
The graphics are incredible, the game looks beautiful and alien, and the different biomes look different and cool. Boss fights need to have a special mention, they're incredible, with so many colourful attacks and strange designs, they feel quite epic and are just beautiful to see. The sounds effects/music is great also in putting you in a tense position, you keep hearing the monsters sounds around you and lots of little actions have their sound clue. And here we need to talk about the controller. The PS5 controller promised some type of "haptic" feeling: That is, that it makes you feel things that are happening in the game through special vibrations. It sounds a bit strange, because haptic feelings need usually some strong electric engine and a fixed base, but what they've achieved without all that is quite amazing. There's a lot of actions that make the controller vibrate and sound, and then you feel what's happening. Like the rain, you feel tiny drops falling on you through the controller, and it's really really cool and immersive. It´s hard to describe, you need to experience it a bit, but it´s really impressive.
The story is...very weird. This game is quite the mind-fuck. I'm not sure I have a good explanation about what happens and why, even after unlocking the second ending. However, it is quite an interesting experience, and open to interpretation. I don't wanna spoil anything in this case, but I´m not entirely sure what to believe or take as true after the experience.
I finished the game recently, and while it's hard, I had a lot of fun with it. I was immersed quite fast to the pace of this game, and I got better and better at it, with some moments thinking there was no way I could pass a certain element, and then after some training seeing I could, or even making it easy thanks to a special combination of luck, practice, the right weapon and the right consumable item.
The game is a challenge, and like all challenges, if you do succeed, it feels amazing. Not only that, you discover yourself doing very hard stuff that you thought you'd never be able to do. This is a great feeling, but requires patience and time, and also some predisposition to it. I was lucky to be able to master the game more or less, but it's true it was time consuming and could be quite frustrating sometimes, when you think you have a great weapon and items and some random encounter that is not even a boss or side-boss destroys you and you need to restart from scratch. But I have to say, I enjoyed it immensely nevertheless.
It's a beautiful, exasperating game, and it's totally worth it.
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