Housemarque’s 2021 hit,Returnal, is a third-person shooter roguelike video game for the PlayStation 5, and it is getting another major update. This is the first major update thatReturnalis getting after the cooperative multiplayer mode and the new area called the Tower of Sisyphus were added in March of this year.Housemarque points out that the update balances the difficulty in theTower of Sisyphusand it seems that there are some bug fixes related to both the Tower of Sisyphus as well as the co-op mode. The full details of the balance changes are not fleshed out, though, and the update does raise some questions about what exactly is being changed in the new area of the game.RELATED:Returnal Showcases Over 18 Minutes of Tower of Sisyphus GameplayThough it may not be clear exactly what is being changed, Housemarque does say that the leaderboards will be reset, which suggests that the fixes and balance changes are quite substantial. The 20 floors in the Tower of Sisyphus progress with increasing challenge and so the players will find increasingly powerful weapon and equipment upgrades. Also, players with an active Playstation Plus subscription canplay co-op multiplayerusing the Chronosis station.
In both of these game modes,Returnal’s roguelike, bullet-hell gameplay, environmental storytelling, beautiful soundtrack, effective use of theDualSense Wireless Controller’sadaptive triggers and haptic feedback functions, and many other qualities shine through to provide an enjoyable experience for the player. The update will fix some bugs and work to balance the Tower of Sisyphus to augment this as well.
Although many players find thedifficulty spikes inReturnalto sometimes be insurmountable, the fresh set of challenges in the Tower of Sisyphus as well as the added enjoyment of playing cooperatively with another player add to the overall enjoyment of a playthrough. Housemarque continues to work hard to update the game for the fans to make sure that players are able to have the most seamless and enjoyable experience on Atropos.
