Housemarque’s Returnal is one of the most anticipated PlayStation 5 exclusives, but terms “rogue-like” and “rogue-lite” tend to put many players off. However, the studio believes that Returnal‘s rogue-like elements make gameplay interesting and refreshing, and doesn’t think that they will intimidate players or throw them off despite a single difficulty setting.
During an interview with Push Square, the website asked Housemarque how it plans to address concerns about Returnal‘s rogue-like features, to which marketing director Mikael Haveri said:
In general, what happens when you play more and more, it opens more pathways for you to choose to take and build your strategy. So for example, after you’ve defeated the first boss [for the first time], the portal to the next biome opens and stays open for your next sessions. Doing that, you can always go back to the boss, gear up, get a lot of health upgrades, level up your character and proficiency and weapons. All these things add up to making the run ahead of you that bit easier.
It’s sort of catering to a lot of different tastes. The rogue-like name may be intimidating, but in the end, it’s a third person shooter with a lot of cool variety.
Game director Harry Krueger added that Returnal‘s difficulty will not be as “rigid” or “intimidating” as it might seem at first. The game is designed to offer replayability and variety, and cater to different play styles.
Following a recent delay, Returnal is now scheduled to launch on April 30th instead of March.
[Source: Push Square]