Recent reviews by Showdonn

If you think there's too much black and white for your preferences then just paint the floors more red.

You can also play fetch with the dog~

I cried by the end.

Do yourself a favor and play this game, especially going in as blind as possible to anything contained within.

Personally I turned off the Ship Log Rumors setting from the very start to be as unguided as possible, and I believe it's for the better; the game does a wonderful job laying things out and as long as you check your Ship Logs once in a while you shouldn't feel like you are stuck with what to do next.

I need you to understand, even at 15 this was ridiculous to play and I wondered what even went into making it.

It's World War I.
You get a kick and attack combo system.
You fight a wizard.
This is only a fraction of describing this game.

You can still romance non-player characters while playing multiplayer.

My dragonborn warlock absolutely obliterated that vampire twink's cheeks in front of the rest of my party.

Update: I became the party slut and slept around with several others by the end of the game.

Do you like having fun with the physics and the unique sort of jank you can get with Source Engine games?
Do you want to play a linear immersive sim, where direct combat with a weapon is instead part of a larger toolkit among other mechanics such as:
Casting ice patches to cause enemies to slip.
Setting enemies on fire to panic/stun them.
Breaking supports or ropes to cause physics objects to harm/kill enemies.
Telekinesis to lift objects to chuck.
Shooting rope arrows to provide alternative routes.
Kicking. Kicking enemies off ledges, into each other, into fire, into ice patches, into conveniently placed panels of spikes.

You should play this game.

Probably the first time I wish there was a "Maybe" rating rather than "Yes" and "No" for reviews. It seems like it should've spent longer cooking and a few more passes of polish because I can see what they were going for, and it just misses that mark of being good or great rather than languishing as a middling title (I'd suggest getting it on sale if interested).

It's a third-person shooter that puts a souls-like spin on gameplay: guns have statistics and handling that *will* punish spray-and-pray behavior that is further than breathing distance from enemies, there is armor penetration to account for depending on the enemies you face, elemental damage that can deal more/less against enemies, and a dodge mechanic with i-frames; you roll when not aiming and dash while aiming-down-sights (which is nice so it doesn't interrupt your aiming).
There are modifiers for your gear you can swap around to suit a playstyle (one being you earn a bullet back for every kill, which pairs great with sniping where you can one-shot many of the lesser enemies and thus not waste a bullet doing it).
You earn armor/capacity/kit upgrades by finding upgrade stations scattered in levels and you can upgrade weapons with resources you find from enemies and chests (the weapons are color-tier'd and have their own stat requirements, but upgrade materials aren't hard to come by as mentioned).
Weapons have a secondary fire, and melee is suitable to stun or finish off enemies. Most weapons have very aggressive recoil, making guns like assault rifles require adopting burst-fire habits at distance and aiming much lower than you think you need to if you intend to spray for longer (think Counter-Strike and how shots will land further up from the crosshair and bloom more the longer you hold the trigger). Lower-caliber weapons trade off damage for recoil that can be controlled more easily.

I have conflicting feelings about this game. It was one of the first games I recall trying to do a spin on a souls-like but with guns and for that it does try its best; it released about a year before Remnant: From the Ashes (which did this sort of gameplay far better) so it had missteps and issues that it tried to resolve as best as it could after launch (one of which I believe was ditching the idea that shooting also drains stamina). I tried playing a couple years earlier and only got through the second area of act 1 before stopping. Picking it up again, I paid more attention to how recoil works and weapon effectiveness versus different enemies... and wound up having a better time regardless of the myriad of flaws that stem from needing a bit more development time.

The lows are pretty low (there is a boss that would only use shoulder-launched grenades that I could easily avoid till I shot it in the back enough times to kill it), but there are also points where I can enjoyably take on a group of enemies with proper aim and recoil control while weaving through cover. This is a recommendation based on what your tolerance is for jank and some wonky design, and my tolerance sure is high enough to be giving this a fair go a second time around.

Pretty particle effects and sound design on top of great movement and weaving through glowy things that can hurt you, my ADHD is very pleased~
I waited for this to eventually port to PC (hope, even), and it's absolutely the kind of game I've been wanting to play.

It's a bullet-hell, in third-person. If you like bullet-hells then this is up your alley. The audio design is great considering the camera perspective so it pays off to be able to hear cues behind you as you try and keep track of everything in a room visually.

What it isn't, I'd argue, is a roguelite... at least not on the scale of what Dead Cells or similar does. There isn't exactly a build you can gear up for as you progress, you just take what comes at you without much concern for how your gear interacts with one another. The upside to this is it's easy to just hop in and play, and even rotate through the weapons regularly as they all are fun enough to use where tying yourself to one weapon isn't a big deal.

As for replayability, that is entirely if the gameplay hooks you or not (the plot is sort of on the sidelines, but it is interesting enough trying to figure out as you do more runs). The third or fourth run I was already noticing that the variety of room layouts are rather limited and leaves me desiring more, but it's a minor complaint. I do wish the game was just a bit more challenging (even with aim assist off), but that may be down to how this was designed with the PS5 in mind first as well as my experience with other bullet-hell type games.

EDIT: There *is* a plot, but it's the type that is pieced together slowly. Taken at face-value it could seem standard, but personally I wound up opening a text file to piece it all together with my interpretation of it all and what is seems to be conveying beyond what is described. The more I theory crafted and organized it all the more I considered how the game and gameplay itself strengthens the story. I'm keeping my thoughts on this vague because I believe part of the entertainment that can be derived from Returnal is trying to make sense of the plot and trying to read between the lines and I think one of my favorite stories just through the execution of it all.

I've put 134 hours in since it launched so I think it's safe to say I'm absolutely enjoying this and look forward to Housemarque's next game.

Getting my butt kicked till I can consistently stomp on a one-armed ninja's leg as they try and kick me is a satisfaction I rarely get from games.

Crank that FOV to 180 for the true 360-view experience as you straddle the threshold of being induced into an epileptic seizure while squeezing dopamine out for yourself by killing things faster and getting a better score on the leaderboards.

If you're like me and wish games like Amnesia had at least some sort of combat implemented, but wasn't nearly as empowering as it is in more traditional survival-horror games, this is for you.
Absolutely DO NOT go into this expecting survival-horror. A comparison I recall hearing is that it is more Myst-like and that is a more apt comparison.

While the main focus are puzzles (or levels that you work your way through as a larger type of puzzle), the combat takes a backseat for most of the game and, in and of itself, functions more puzzle-like later on. Considering how limited ammo is and how you gain nothing from killing things aside from getting them out of the way, it's finally a viable option to just run or avoid certain fights regardless if you are spot-on with your aim all the time.

That being said, the heart of this game lies in the atmosphere it builds and attention to detail in the environment and animations, and it stays true to its inspirations of Giger and Beksiński (especially Giger with how it lays out its plot that is shown rather than told). It took me about 5-ish hours to finish, and personally that is fine with me considering it never repeated puzzle mechanics to try and pad out the playtime; it stayed as much as it needed to and one I feel doesn't need to milk a "dollar-per-hour" sort of deal out of itself for its price-point.