Ben Lindbergh

So I was going around punching people.

You can integrate the environment in a really satisfying way, which I think is nice.

It's not just all about jumping and running, but also hiding behind stuff and kind of using hills and other barriers and obstructions to your advantage.

And there's just enough variation in each run.

You sort of have the same basic rooms and then there's a little variation around them that it keeps things fresh enough.

So all of that works fantastically well for me.

I love when you come across a power-up when you're at full health and you can convert it into something else.

So if you come across health and you're at full health, you can just convert it into Lucinite because it's not wasted.

I hate a wasted power-up.

So all of those things, I think, work well and, if anything, have perfected that formula, which was already near perfect.

So that's the good news, is that on a moment-to-moment basis...

Yeah, there isn't really anything like it except Returnal, which it's very much like.

But Returnal was five years ago.

I mean, there are lots of roguelikes out there, but I don't know that there are any that really nail just the synthesis of genres that Housemarque has perfected here.

So...

I kind of wanted more, I guess, given that this was building on the foundation of Returnal and it is very much like Returnal with some changes here and there, some of which are good, some of which are maybe a step back, but it very much delivers that same satisfaction and that feeling of flow.

And it's absolutely worth playing if you liked Returnal at all.

And if you didn't play Returnal, then you're in for a real treat because this will all be new and fresh to you.

I do wish that, I guess, build crafting mattered a bit more on the runs as it does in Hades, for instance, or other roguelikes where it just adds an element of strategy and varies the runs more because here, the pickups and the power-ups... You can't really feel them.

You can't really feel the effects.