Returnal Was in Development for Over Four Years
Fans of Returnal may be surprised to learn that the title was in development for four years before launch. Housemarque's latest game pushes players to the limit as they fight through swathes of dangerous aliens and crossfire. Despite Returnal's scope, it turns out that the team was working on it for many years leading up to release.
With a release this past April 30, the game is one of the first official PlayStation 5 titles. As a new property, some were skeptical if the game would be worthy of the next gen price increase for PS5. However, multiple accolades and extensive usage of the console's main features saw Returnal establish itself as a definitive exclusive.
The marketing director from Housemarque, Mikael Haveri, gives some insight to the game's background. According to Haveri, not only did four years of solid development go into Returnal, but there was even some earlier concepting before that point. Players may remember that the team didn't show off Returnal until last year with the PS5's reveal. Even so, Haveri explains how the title was always planned to be platform-agnostic from the beginning of development.
From the interview, it sounds like the team was able to gain access to next generation changes and possibilities early. Because of this, Haveri describes how the build from early on was a much different game than the launch version. Over time, Housemarque got more familiar with the technology behind PS5 and focused on improving the game accordingly. By not committing to a specific platform, the developers could tweak Returnal to be an experience of a greater scale.
As a roguelike game, there can be expectations of cyclical gameplay to extend a typically shorter length. Though the game still embraces these tropes to a degree, Housemarque clearly put an extensive amount of time into crafting the game. With the immersive usage of PS5's DualSense haptic feedback and 3D audio, it seems like the developers made the right decision to launch on the newest generation.
Of course, this news may leave some players scratching their heads as to the release state of Returnal. Even with the positive reception, the game launched with a series of bugs and glitches that Housemarque has been resolving afterwards. On top of that, one of these updates had the chance of corrupting saves rending them unsalvageable. For a game that was in development for over four years, it seems strange that damaging glitches like this made it through. Even so, the title has become a solid addition to the PlayStation 5 lineup and should continue improving post-launch.
Fans of roguelike games got a brand new one to try and conquer this year in Returnal. While most games of this genre are generally considered pretty tough, the newest edition is considered among the hardest of the group. Part of the reason for that is that there are fewer carryover items, and also the fact that Returnal doesn't have a game save feature. At least, not one that is up to par with what players were expecting. Nevertheless, it's not an impossible game to beat, and for those that did beat the game and realized they were interested in finding even more roguelikes to play, the good news is that there's plenty out there.
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