Returnal takes its time the game wants you to indulge in its mysteries, but it’s just as eager to send you back to the start. Progression is slow due to the game’s crushing difficulty. It’s well done, though the abstract storytelling will no doubt frustrate some people. Occasionally, the game switches to a first-person perspective and pulls obvious inspiration from the now infamous P.T. And with every death, you lose everything, aside from a few key items that carry over in perpetuity, like suit and weapon upgrades. Weapon pickups, geography, enemies, and loot are also constantly shifting, so every “return” has the potential to play out much differently than the last.

At the start of every randomly generated run, Selene starts with nothing but her pistol. Glimpses of a hidden evil, both on earth and on Atropos, haunt Selene as she's pulled back to life screaming, drowning, but always returning. The full picture is never revealed, the culprit is never really caught, and it’s that drive for closure that keeps Selene-and hopefully, you as the player-engaged in Returnal's cosmic horror. Actress Jane Perry delivers a mesmerizing performance that's full of breathy, poetic bravado, and it never overstays its welcome (unlike Forspoken). A sci-fi Sisyphean tale, Returnal tasks you with discovering recordings left behind by Selene, detailing her discoveries, struggles, and bouts with madness. She quickly discovers that someone-or something-is keeping her on the planet and forcing her to relive immediate dangers and a traumatic past. Returning to life after every death, Selene must battle extraterrestrial threats as she attempts to escape the ever-changing planet.

You control Selene Vassos, an astronaut who ventures off course in pursuit of a signal called “White Shadow.” This leaves her marooned on a mysterious planet called Atropos, and trapped in a time loop. Just be prepared to get humbled by the game’s challenge and system requirements. Overall, Returnal is a great game that's made even better with this PC port, earning it our Editors' Choice award. Now, almost two years later, Returnal jumps to PCs with the console DLC and numerous new features. In fact, the third-person shooter was the developer’s first AAA effort, and an incredibly polarizing one with its extremely difficult, 3D roguelike gameplay. Debuting just six months after the PlayStation 5's launch, it was the brainchild of Finnish developer Housemarque, a studio best known for small-scale shooters such as Matterfall and Resogun.

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