After years of development, Housemarque and Sony have finally released Returnal, a psychological sci-fi title that is as much survival horror as it is roguelike. Players take on the role of Selene, a spacefaring explorer who crashes on the planet Atropos, despite warnings from her ship computer. It quickly becomes apparent that Selene is trapped in a time-loop as soon as she enters the atmosphere, repeatedly perishing as she attempts to make her way to the White Shadow broadcast. Returnal has been met with rave reviews for it's frenetic bullet-hell style gunplay and compelling story, but players have also noted the game's punishing difficulty.
Housemarque has made it clear that they want Returnal to be hard. First time players will encounter a warning at the very beginning of the game promising players a challenging experience. In case that was too ambiguous, in an interview with Push Square, Housemarque's marketing director Mikael Haveri stated that difficulty control is factored into the game in other ways. Specifically, as players explore Atropos, they will gradually accrue new permanent upgrades that open up new paths through the environment. Haveri also stated that players can tip the scales of survival in their favor by approaching certain levels more or less aggressively.
But what about players who find themselves struggling, even after unlocking a given biome's permanent upgrades? The answer, given Selene's terse self-recriminations of "I need to do better," and Housemarque's stated artistic intent, is something to the effect of "get good." That is a relatively valid stance to take. Games don't necessarily owe their players guaranteed completion. Difficulty is necessary to create the atmosphere and narrative Housemarque produces so brilliantly. However, there is a case to be made for adding in ways that could allow less-skilled players, or potentially those with accessibility issues, to see Selene's story through to its puzzling end.
Returnal: Keeping Up With the Competition
The greatest argument in favor of relaxing difficulty for the sake of new players is that another roguelike already did it, and did it well enough to preserve the game's integrity. Hades' "God Mode" is something of a model that other roguelikes should follow, providing players with bonus damage reduction that scales with their effort and investment in the game. While Returnal has plenty of it's own lessons to teach roguelike developers, Housemarque should take note of Supergiant Games' artful solution.
The lack of a mid-cycle save option in Returnal compounds the content accessibility problem. Players often want to or need to take breaks throughout long playthroughs. Fortunately, the PS5 offers respite in the form of its rest mode, but that feature comes at a cost. Until the player resumes and finishes their Returnal cycle, they cannot play any other games on their console. This may not constitute a deal breaker for every one, but many players like a variety of titles, or play certain titles socially and others by themselves. Demanding that kind of commitment from players can be considered unfair.
Pushing the Boundaries of Roguelikes
Housemarque's desire to set an oppressive tone on Atropos is again admirable. However, there are ways to preserve that relentlessly tense atmosphere while allowing less-skilled players to advance through the story. Hades actually presents two potential examples, albeit in a strange way.
If increasing damage resistance in proportion to number of deaths (or other scaling stat bonuses) is deemed too generous, Housemarque could provide players with options to customize their challenge. While it is normally used to make the game much harder, Hades' Pact of Punishment mechanic could be reversed or repurposed to provide players with specific handicaps, or a mix of handicaps and additional challenges that must meet at a happy medium.
Pleasing Fans of Returnal
The greatest argument for adding an easy mode, however, is allowing dedicated but frustrated fans to experience the end of the game. While some may take umbrage with the idea that every game should be beatable with enough effort, it is generally a crowd-pleasing stance. Only time will tell if Housemarque sticks to its guns. For now, frustrated players who are desperate to learn the conclusion of Selene's story can always turn to Twitch or YouTube.