Harry Krueger, the Creative Director at Housemarque, recently shared some information about Returnal combat, as the release for their PS5 exclusive third-person shooter horror title nears. To begin, the game will have a "unique mix of game styles" where responsive controls and bullet-hell gameplay will work to try and make a smooth third-person shooter experience. It remains to be seen if it will work out the way Housemarque and Sony want it to, but that's a question for another day.
The main character Selene will have many weapons and devices at her disposal in order to survive Atropos, an enemy planet that wants her dead. One weapon is the Spitmaw Blaster, which is the traditional shotgun. However, eventually, players can add Weapon Traits to the gun, which means that the Spitmaw can shoot exploding shells or generate pools of acid upon impact. The weapon traits also stack, so you can have explosive shells that generate pools of acid on impact if you are a proponent of #teamchaos like myself.
Weapons will have an alt-fire mode that is randomly assigned to them from a pool, so you can get electrical impulses or tentacles, which will probably make your enemies wonder if they are trapped in a hentai horror game when your shotgun spews those from the side. The alt-fire mode can be done without even taking a finger off of the trigger of the DualSense controller: just press L2 halfway to aim down the sights and then use the main fire of the weapon, squeezing the button all the way down to enter alt-fire mode.
There are 10 base weapons and more than 90 Weapon Traits that have 3 levels each and 10 alt-fires. Selene can only hold one weapon at a time, so players will have to experiment and try to find the perfect weapon for themselves.
If players die, Selene will return to the start of the time loop moments before crashing onto the planet. Most abilities and items collected will be lost, but not all of them. Players will still make progress every cycle, which is good. Some items aren't awesome though. Parasites have both positive and negative effects, such as one that regenerates you at low health but causes enemies to leave a pool of acid behind upon death. Better watch out for that acid trip.
Returnal will be available on the PS5 on March 19. Stay tuned to TechRaptor for more details in the coming weeks. If you would like to read the full reveal, be sure to go here.
