RETURNAL: DIE, WAKE UP, SHOOT BETTER

9.0 of 10 bananas. A bullet hell shooter stuck in a time loop. Brutal, gorgeous, and hard to put down.

By the Alpha. PS5 standard edition disc listing. Updated Oct 2026.

Platforms: The PS5 standard edition disc is the Amazon button. PC on Steam exists too. This page sells the PS5 disc only. At my check it was sold by a third-party seller and shipped by Amazon, so check the seller before you buy.

Sit with me a moment. Second biome, one sliver of health, a boss filling the screen with orange orbs. I dashed through a wall of bullets, held my adrenaline, and took her down with nothing left. Then I died to a small enemy in the next room. I laughed, I swore, and I started a new cycle right away. That is Returnal.

What It Wants To Be

Housemarque's third-person roguelike shooter, a PS5 launch-window exclusive in April 2021 that came to PC in February 2023. Selene Vassos, an astronaut, crash lands on the alien planet Atropos. Every time she dies, she wakes up beside her ship and the world reshapes itself. You fight through six biomes, finding weapons, upgrades, and permanent tools while a strange story about Selene's past seeps in, often through eerie first-person scenes in a house that should not be there.

What Works

The combat is elite. Housemarque comes from arcade shooters, and it shows: dodging through bullet patterns with a dash and a jump feels amazing. Weapons have traits that grow as you use them. Adrenaline rewards you for not getting hit, so every fight feels like a test. The bosses are some of the best on PS5. On console the DualSense haptics are excellent, like feeling the rain on your hands. The free Ascension update added online co-op and the endless Tower of Sisyphus mode.

What Breaks

Listen well. It is hard, and runs are long. Losing an hour of progress to one mistake will make some players quit. At launch you could not save mid-run. A later patch added a suspend option, which helps, but it is still a big time ask. The story is cryptic and will frustrate players who want clear answers. Malfunctions and parasites add risk that can feel unfair.

Who Should Play

Play if you love tough shooters, roguelikes, or arcade challenge. Skip if you hate losing progress or want a relaxed run. For another roguelike with a kinder curve, read my Hades verdict.

Related: Hades, Hades II, DOOM Eternal.

Affiliate note: this Amazon link supports the troop at no extra cost to you. One CTA per review. Platforms listed honestly above.