How co-op actually works in Returnal

[Rastlaff]

Unfortunately, same as with many games nowadays, Steam page description is misleading and the game is not a true cooperative experience. We were buying the game together specifically because it’s advertised as a co-op one and right now for us it became just a waste of €120.

Don’t get it wrong - the game is good, we do like it a lot, we don’t mind the difficulty, and we perfectly understand the base mechanics. All of that has nothing to do with co-op being misadvertised.

How it actually works:

1. After a short tutorial you gain access to a Chronosis device - a white sphere through which you can create a private session for a friend to join.

2. You can do it only once in that cycle! After you have used the sphere, it becomes locked until you die and start a new cycle!

3. If any of you has an urgent matter to deal with in real life and needs to quit the game - you won’t be able to rejoin, the sphere will still be red and saying ALREADY USED!

4. If any of you disconnects due to network trouble - you won’t be able to rejoin, the sphere will still be red!

5. If any of you crashes - you won’t be able to rejoin, the sphere will still be red! And right now the game crashes a lot: unexpectedly, unreliably, sometimes after 5 mins in and sometimes after an hour when you’re fully geared up and ready to go for a bossfight.

6. The joining player comes with nothing, but default items no matter the progress on his/her own cycle - could have been ok, if not for points 1-5 above.

7. The cycle progress is for the host only - could have been ok, if not for points 1-5 above.

8. It is possible for the client to progress his/her weapon unlocks, but the devs expect you to somehow guess that you need to reroll to make sure the weapon is generated for you - otherwise the progress bar won’t grow and you will have no idea why.


All of this is never explained clearly before you buy the game. And after you buy it, you can easily spend more than two hours before realizing you won’t be able to play it in a proper cooperative way, so you won’t be able to refund it.

Yes, we do know that the game is not new and that it was initially a single-player only experience with co-op added afterwards. Problem is, the game is still sold today and was just ported to PC and is being advertised as a co-op one right here and right now, so the devs must either make the limitations crystal clear or provide a proper co-op experience.

Locking the Chronosis device to one use only is quite an overconfident move. For it to work you need a set of conditions to be true, such as:

1. Your game needs to be perfect from a technical standpoint - 100% stable, no crashes, brilliant network code, no issues.

2. Your players should have perfect network access - 100% stable, no disconnections whatsoever.

3. Your player base should be ideal - no trolls connecting to immediately disconnect, denying the host that help he/she might have been seeking for the rest of the cycle.
If you can’t guarantee all those to be true, you can’t have such a restriction in your multiplayer.

The proper description for the online part of the game would be: it’s a multiplayer game where you can summon another player to help you once per session, it’s primarily a post-game addition aimed at experienced players who finished the game helping the new players to overcome difficulties.

If we knew that from the start, we would not have bought the game seeking a co-op experience. Yet again - it’s still a nice one, but it’s not what we were expecting and to none of our fault as the description is missing critical information.

Help keep this topic on top both as an important information for the other potential players and as a way to raise awareness for the devs to change their restrictions and deal with technical issues NOW and not in two more years.

[Yig]

For how coop works the problem is you used the advertisement aka promotional material as a way to get informed when all the information is available online at your fingertips.

Game has issues at launch, I agree with you but that's pretty much on par with every new game from the past 2 years. Nothing new.

[wasteland_ghost]

Originally posted by Yig:

For how coop works the problem is you used the advertisement aka promotional material as a way to get informed when all the information is available online at your fingertips.

First off - it's a wrong stance on the matter. Descriptions need to be clear. Second - try googling how Returnal multiplayer works and you won't find a definitive answer anywhere. There are people claiming you can reconnect, which is wrong. Finding reliable information on forums at our day and age is a problem as people post their guesses without actually checking them - your very phrase about information available at fingertips proves that because if you tried you'd see the issue. Most of the posters complain about base game mechanics, not about the actual core problem - one summon per cycle.

[DonutSteel]

Originally posted by Yig:

Game has issues at launch, I agree with you but that's pretty much on par with every new game from the past 2 years. Nothing new.

Is this a joke? It's not a new game.
It has been on PS5 with same problems for 2 years now, it's not gonna get a full multiplayer rework because it released on PC now.

[Quaiv]

Okay so no fully fledged co-op, bummer.

[Connatic]

So it's more like a Dark Souls/Elden Ring style co-op? Just a temporary helper?

[kripcision]

Originally posted by Connatic:

So it's more like a Dark Souls/Elden Ring style co-op? Just a temporary helper?

pretty much.

[Delryn]

The progress isn't synced, but you can still experience the entire campaign (afaik) in co-op. The store page does say that co-op is tied to the progress of the host. But the store page is vague because it's not meant to be a technical documentation of how the game works.

Next time check here:
https://www.co-optimus.com/game/13042/pc/returnal.html

[Vehementi]

Originally posted by Yig:

For how coop works the problem is you used the advertisement aka promotional material as a way to get informed when all the information is available online at your fingertips.

Game has issues at launch, I agree with you but that's pretty much on par with every new game from the past 2 years. Nothing new.

LOL get out of here

[shamalamadingdong]

Originally posted by Delryn:

The progress isn't synced, but you can still experience the entire campaign (afaik) in co-op. The store page does say that co-op is tied to the progress of the host. But the store page is vague because it's not meant to be a technical documentation of how the game works.

Next time check here:
https://www.co-optimus.com/game/13042/pc/returnal.html

Sometimes you can't tell if people are really this dumb or if they are trolling. It's such a strange way to troll, to make yourself sound so dumb, if it's not trying to be funny... I guess I don't get it...

[wasteland_ghost]

Originally posted by Delryn:

The progress isn't synced, but you can still experience the entire campaign (afaik) in co-op. The store page does say that co-op is tied to the progress of the host. But the store page is vague because it's not meant to be a technical documentation of how the game works.

Next time check here:
https://www.co-optimus.com/game/13042/pc/returnal.html

Did you check the link before posting? It doesn't say anything about being unable to rejoin if you get disconnected. Furthermore, it tags the game as "Drop In/Drop Out", which is wrong, because it's exactly the opposite - you can't drop in or out at any moment, it's one connection per cycle, point. And finally, it contradicts with the Steam description page which says "The Tower of Sisyphus, House sequences and Challenge Mode are not available in Co-op Mode." House sequences are a part of the story and you have to be alone to trigger them, so your friend will need to "drop out", but he won't be able to "drop in" after until you die and start from the beginning. So in fact your link gives even less information than the store page and does not explain any of the points stated by the OP.

You're barking up the wrong tree here - progression tied to the host is not a problem, game mechanics are not a problem, game difficulty is not a problem. Completing a level and crashing in front of the boss room with host retaining the progress, but being locked from re-summoning his friend, and with client returning to his own cycle with nothing is what makes this game a non-co-op one. And it's created mainly by locking the sphere after you use it once - which is never explained anywhere.

Originally posted by Connatic:

So it's more like a Dark Souls/Elden Ring style co-op? Just a temporary helper?

Yes. If they fix the issue with crashes and remove one summon per cycle lock, it will be ok. Right now it's in a weird place as you can't summon help just before the boss - the client comes with just a starting pistol and no upgrades no matter his own progress in his own world, and if you start together your chances of crashing are increasing with each minute, so the client will inevitably drop at some point and the host will have to go further alone as he won't be able to summon anyone until he dies and resets the cycle. And if you're one of the lucky ones and won't crash - you will still have to stop at some point and quit, which will disconnect the client and lock your cycle from summoning until you die.

[Garin]

i like co-op but the weird limitations are definitely kind of a bother. at the very least as a co-op helper i can learn traits if it will let me reroll a weapon, -and- the host doesn't immediately snatch up the weapon lol

[Vahnkiljoy]

Actually there is some WRONG information about coop, it's NOT ONCE PER CYCLE, you CAN reinvite in the same cycle, the host just has to reach the next biome, that is a fresh orb, regardless though, the fact the devs thought this was a fun thing to do makes them complete idiots. The fact that coop can only happen ONCE in a biome is pure idiocy and kills the whole coop aspect with crashes being so prevalent.

[Gluesticky]

Dang, I was going to get this game for the coop, guess I won't now :-\

[Moon Rabbit]

I hate it when developers try to reinvent the wheel with co-op. Just make the game co-op and be done with it. So dumb.

[Sharkinbear]

Originally posted by Moon Rabbit:

I hate it when developers try to reinvent the wheel with co-op. Just make the game co-op and be done with it. So dumb.

They didn't try to reinvent the wheel though. When returnal came out housemarque had no intention of ever including multi-player. The game had bigger problems at launch to figure out. Originally you had to beat the game in single sitting because there was no suspend feature, for example. The game is fantastic but I imagine they were heavily restricted when they finally decided maybe they could add multi.