About two weeks ago, a State of Play presentation by PlayStation gave us a glimpse of more content coming to Housemarque‘s excellent roguelike Returnal. The Returnal: Ascension expansion promised to deliver even more enjoyable adventures on the planet of Helios, and now, you can give it a try yourself as the DLC is now available.
As part of the festivities, Lead Game Designer Trent Polack took to the PlayStation Blog to illustrate just how the co-op play in Returnal: Ascension was brought to life.
Players with a PlayStation Plus subscription can interact with a Chronosis and, suddenly, another ASTRA Scout enters their cycle, staring down and analysing Selene as she emerges. Seeing basically a clone of yourself in action is definitely surreal, and fitting of the game’s overall tone.
For Housemarque, the idea of multiplayer was to give players an avenue to bring in some help in progressing the game. The host keeps their progress, whereas the joining player increases their Scout Rank, Weapon Traits, and Databank. Instead of having a Chronosis found all over, the team decided on only having it found at the beginning of each biome. Now, you can have a partner to brave the dangers together, and squabble over how to distribute your resources as well.
It is not just about having one more weapon on your side, it matters more when you find yourself down. Experimenting with different ways to keep the challenge alive, the co-op play in Returnal: Ascension relies on another important resource, time. Reviving your fellow Scout will take up time, and in a game where milliseconds can make the difference, it is set to still be a challenging time on Helios. Of course, the overall game has undergone some balancing as well to accommodate one more player.
On the UI/UX front, your ally will be shrouded in a subtle outline so you will always know where they are in a crowded battlefield. There is also an addition to the HUD indicating how far they are from you, as well as the important Scout Rank, with every rank up rewarding players with Ether.
There is also the Endless challenge mode that is the Tower of Sisyphus. Each Phase in the Tower will culminate with an encounter with Algos, which will also get increasingly harder as you advance through the mode. Throw in a Score Multiplier and a leaderboard, and you know fans are going to be chasing the high of being top of the pile.
It is certainly exciting to be able to jump back into the game with Returnal: Ascension, and if you are a fan of the music as well, the acclaimed score from Bobby Krlic is also now available on vinyl with custom art.
Jake is a full-time trophy hunter and achievement gatherer on consoles, and part-time Steam Sale victim. He has a thing for Batman and awesome statues, and running out of space for both. Send help.
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