Frustrated Returnal fans will have a reason to come back to the game soon, as Housemarque continues releasing updates to address player concerns. Some major problems, however, will still be left unsolved, at least for now.
Returnal is a PlayStation 5 exclusive roguelike that fuses bullet hell-inspired enemies with third-person shooter gameplay, and has suffered from a myriad of player complaints since launch despite being one of the best reasons to own a PS5. Update 1.4.0 hopes to address some of these issues and add quality of life improvements, specifically focusing on Trophies.
The 1.40 patch releasing on June 14 hopes to make the game more accessible, fix important issues and be a general improvement to the experience. following the infamous bugs that caused some players to miss their earned Trophies. Some Trophies in Returnal could not be replayed after progressing past a certain point in the game, and the upcoming update will hopefully address this issue by retroactively awarding players the Trophies they could not obtain. The update will also add a method of replaying Trophies from Act 1 and Act 2, so any Trophies that were not obtained can be found through replaying their corresponding Acts.
With the changes to Trophies, quality of life improvements will also be added to make the game's story easier to track down. Several Scout logs will be changed so they appear in the game more often, increasing players' chances of locating them. Several audio improvements have also been made, adding more detail to the DualSense haptic feedback to make better use of the PS5-exclusive controller. Despite these clear improvements, players may want to finish their current runs before updating, as Returnal's lack of a mid-game save feature means installing an update will reset a run.
Returnal's changes to balancing are likely in response to player feedback about the game's difficulty. This update still does not address the long-awaited save feature. Despite these shortcomings, Returnal is still a success for Housemarque, and remains one of the strongest titles on the PS5.
With all of Housemarque's previous Returnal updates improving the game noticeably, the lack of a save feature, PlayStation 5 exclusivity and intimidating difficulty may still steer many players away from picking up the game. Returnal is not meant for short play sessions, and takes a major dedication of time and effort to attempt a run. Especially considering Returnal's previous infamous update that wiped player save data, players may want to wait and find out secondhand what this update brings before taking the risk of installing it.
Returnal is available now on PlayStation 5.
Source: Housemarque