Returnal
Developers | |
---|---|
Housemarque | |
Windows | Climax Studios[1] |
Publishers | |
PlayStation PC | |
Engines | |
Unreal Engine 4[Note 1] | |
Release dates | |
Windows | February 15, 2023 |
Reception | |
Metacritic | 86 |
OpenCritic | 86 |
IGDB | 90 |
Taxonomy | |
Monetization | One-time game purchase |
Modes | Singleplayer, Multiplayer |
Pacing | Real-time |
Perspectives | Third-person |
Controls | Direct control |
Genres | Action, Roguelike, Shooter |
Vehicles | Space flight |
Art styles | Realistic |
Themes | Sci-fi, Space |
Returnal is a singleplayer and multiplayer third-person action, roguelike and shooter game. The game makes use of a modified version of Unreal Engine 4.[2]
The game was originally developed by Housemarque and Climax Studios and published on April 30, 2021 by Sony Interactive Entertainment for the PlayStation 5. The PC version was developed by Climax Studios and published by PlayStation PC. The PC version was released on February 15, 2023, almost two years after its initial release. Notable additions to the PC version compared to the original PlayStation 5 version are ray traced reflections, ray traced shadows, adjustable FOV, unlocked FPS, ultrawidescreen support, keyboard & mouse support, improved texture quality, increased particle density, added depth of field (especially in cutscenes), higher resolution volumetric effects (lightshafts and fog), improved ambient occlusion, improved specular lighting, improved Level of Detail (LoD) of grass/particles and improved rasterized shadows.[3][4][5] Additionally, it added support for DLSS 2.4, FSR 1.0, XeSS and NIS.
General information
Availability
Source | DRM | Notes | Keys | OS |
---|---|---|---|---|
Epic Games Store | ||||
GamersGate | ||||
Green Man Gaming | ||||
Humble Store | ||||
Steam |
Monetization
Type | Notes |
---|---|
One-time game purchase | The game requires an upfront purchase to access. |
Microtransactions
Type | Notes |
---|---|
No microtransactions | None |
Essential improvements
Skip intro videos
Delete, rename or move intro video files[6] |
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|
Game data
Configuration file(s) location
System | Location |
---|---|
Steam | %LOCALAPPDATA%\Returnal\Steam\Saved\Config |
Steam Play (Linux) | <SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/1649240/pfx/[Note 2] |
Save game data location
System | Location |
---|---|
Steam | %LOCALAPPDATA%\Returnal\Steam\Saved\SaveGames |
Steam Play (Linux) | <SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/1649240/pfx/[Note 2] |
Save game cloud syncing
System | Native | Notes |
---|---|---|
Epic Games Launcher | ||
Steam Cloud |
Video
Graphics feature | State | Notes | |
---|---|---|---|
Widescreen resolution | 16:10 resolutions are officially supported.[7] | ||
Multi-monitor | |||
Ultra-widescreen | 21:9 and 32:9 resolutions are officially supported.[7] | ||
4K Ultra HD | Dynamic Resolution Scaling option available, which uses a spatial upscaler. Cannot be activated while any upscaling option or VRS is enabled. It automatically defaults to lowest dynamic resolution bound when Vsync is on.[3] | ||
Field of view (FOV) | -10 to +15 degrees FOV bias slider.[8] | ||
Windowed | |||
Borderless fullscreen windowed | Named as Windowed Fullscreen. Exclusive Fullscreen also available. | ||
Anisotropic filtering (AF) | Scales with the Texture Quality setting. | ||
Anti-aliasing (AA) | TAA forced on with Low, Medium, High and Epic presets. | ||
High-fidelity upscaling | DLSS 2.4, FSR 1.0, NIS, XeSS DLSS 3 and FSR 2 will be coming in a future update.[3][9][10] |
||
Vertical sync (Vsync) | On/Off toggle. | ||
60 FPS and 120+ FPS | Fully adjustable frame rate cap slider available with increments of one and lowest value of ten. Uncapped framerate possible by maxing out the frame rate slider. | ||
High dynamic range display (HDR) | |||
Ray tracing (RT) | Ray-Traced Moon shadows and Reflections.[3][9] | ||
Color blind mode | Support for Deuteranopia, Protanopia and Tritanopia with adjustable Filter Strength, UI Tone and Collectible Colors. |
- The game engine may allow for manual configuration of the game via its variables. See the Unreal Engine 4 page for more details.
- Gameplay is visible in the background while at the graphics menu, allowing to see the effects of settings adjustments in real-time.
- Features option to display an in-game performance UI.
- Features option to run an in-game benchmark with detailed results overview after about any possible performance bottlenecks.
- Features optional variable rate shading (VRS) option under Screen optimizations with several presets available. Cannot be activated while using any of the available upscaling techniques.
Input
Keyboard and mouse | State | Notes |
---|---|---|
Remapping | Left-Handed and Right-Handed presets also available. | |
Mouse acceleration | ||
Mouse sensitivity | Separate Aim Sensitivity and Look Sensitivity sliders available. | |
Mouse input in menus | ||
Mouse Y-axis inversion | X-axis can also be inverted. | |
Controller | ||
Controller support | ||
Full controller support | ||
Controller remapping | Adaptive, Classic and Custom presets available. | |
Controller sensitivity | Separate Look Speed and Aim Speed sliders available separately for each axis. | |
Controller Y-axis inversion | X-axis can also be inverted. |
Controller types |
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XInput-compatible controllers | ||
---|---|---|
Xbox button prompts | ||
Impulse Trigger vibration |
PlayStation controllers | DualSense controller is fully supported. Haptic feedback and adaptive triggers support requires wiring the DualSense controller to the PC.[9] | |
---|---|---|
PlayStation button prompts | ||
Light bar support | ||
Adaptive trigger support | ||
DualSense haptic feedback support | ||
Connection modes |
Generic/other controllers |
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Additional information | ||
---|---|---|
Controller hotplugging | ||
Haptic feedback | ||
Digital movement supported | ||
Simultaneous controller+KB/M |
Audio
Audio feature | State | Notes |
---|---|---|
Separate volume controls | Separate Master, Music, SFX and Dialogue volume sliders available. | |
Surround sound | Stereo, 5.1, 7.1, Dolby Atmos, Auro 3D (3D audio), Resonance Audio (3D audio) and Ray-Traced (GPU-accelerated[3]) audio options available.[9] | |
Subtitles | On/Off toggle. Adjustable Size, Color, Speaker Name, Speaker Color and Background Opacity available. | |
Closed captions | ||
Mute on focus lost | On/Off toggle. When on, it pauses the game on focus loss. | |
Royalty free audio |
Localizations
Language | UI | Audio | Sub | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
English | ||||
Arabic | ||||
Simplified Chinese | ||||
Traditional Chinese | ||||
Danish | ||||
Dutch | ||||
Finnish | ||||
French | ||||
German | ||||
Indonesian | ||||
Italian | ||||
Japanese | ||||
Korean | ||||
Norwegian | ||||
Polish | ||||
Portuguese | ||||
Brazilian Portuguese | ||||
Russian | ||||
Spanish | ||||
Latin American Spanish | ||||
Swedish | ||||
Thai | ||||
Vietnamese |
Network
Multiplayer types
Type | Native | Players | Notes | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Local play | ||||
LAN play | ||||
Online play | 2 | Co-op |
- Cross-play with PlayStation 5 is not supported.
Issues unresolved
- During traversal around places that trigger loading, small stutters/hitching can occur. There is a similar issue with the console version. The stutters become more heavy the weaker the CPU is. It is not related to shader compilation.[3]
Ray-traced effects on: more stuttering occurs
- When turning ray-traced effects on, more stuttering can occur during gameplay than the usual traversal/loading related stutters. Developers suspect this is due to geometry mesh creation and will address this issue in a future patch.[3]
Issues fixed
Black screen instead of cutscene videos
Install VP9 video codecs via Microsoft Store |
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Install VP9 video codecs manually |
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If you are running a version of Windows which does not include the Microsoft Store (e.g. Windows 10 LTSC) use the following steps to install the VP9 extensions:
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Other information
API
Technical specs | Supported | Notes |
---|---|---|
Direct3D | 12 |
Executable | 32-bit | 64-bit | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
Windows |
Middleware
Middleware | Notes | |
---|---|---|
Physics | PhysX, APEX | PhysX v3.4.0.0, APEX v1.4.0.0 |
Audio | XAudio, Wwise | XAudio v2.9 |
Input | LibScePad | V1.0.4.1, support for DualSense controller |
Multiplayer | Epic Online Services |
System requirements
Windows | ||
---|---|---|
Minimum | Recommended | |
Operating system (OS) | 10 (build 1903) | |
Processor (CPU) | Intel Core i5-6400 AMD Ryzen 5 1500X |
Intel Core i7-8700 AMD Ryzen 7 2700X |
System memory (RAM) | 16 GB | |
Hard disk drive (HDD) | 60 GB (HDD) | 60 GB (SSD) |
Video card (GPU) | Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 AMD Radeon RX 580 6 GB (Nvidia), 8 GB (AMD) of VRAM | Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 Super AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT 8 GB (Nvidia), 12 GB (AMD) of VRAM |
- A 64-bit operating system is required.
Notes
- ↑ Unreal Engine 4 engine build: 4.25.1.0
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Notes regarding Steam Play (Linux) data:
- File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data.
- Games with Steam Cloud support may also store data in
~/.steam/steam/userdata/<user-id>/1649240/
. - Use Wine's registry editor to access any Windows registry paths.
- The app ID (1649240) may differ in some cases.
- Treat backslashes as forward slashes.
- See the glossary page for details on Windows data paths.
References
- ↑ Returnal is coming to PC – PlayStation.Blog - last accessed on 2022-12-09
- "Returnal PC has been created with help and delicate care from our friends at Climax Studios."
- ↑ Can We Do It with Particles?: VFX Learnings from 'Returnal' - GDC - YouTube - last accessed on 2023-02-15
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 Returnal PC - DF Tech Review - Optimised Settings, PS5 vs PC Comparisons + More - Digital Foundry - Youtube - last accessed on 2023-02-17
- ↑ Returnal | PC - PS5 - Steam Deck | Graphics Comparison | A great upgrade on PC - ElAnalistaDeBits - YouTube - last accessed on 2023-02-16
- ↑ Returnal [PC] vs Returnal [PS5] - last accessed on 2023-02-18
- ↑ Verified by User:Mrtnptrs on 2023-02-15
- Checked by removing the files myself
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Steam - Returnal - last accessed on 2023-01-18
- "16:10, Ultrawide (21:9) and Super Ultrawide (32:9) aspect ratios offer an expanded field of view throughout Atropos..."
- ↑ Returnal - Features Trailer | PC Games - PlayStation- YouTube - last accessed on 2023-01-18
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 Returnal launches on PC February 15 - PlayStation.Blog - last accessed on 2023-01-18
- ↑ SteamDB Unknown Depot 1649241 - Displaying change M:2048765008969678509 - Returnal - SteamDB - last accessed on 2023-02-10