Returnal

Returnal

Developers
	Housemarque
Windows	Climax Studios
Publishers
	PlayStation PC
Engines
	Unreal Engine 4
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.

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. Additionally, it also included support for DLSS 2.4, FSR 1.0, XeSS and NIS.

This title features a shader precompilation option which should help mitigate some shader stutter. This title currently features some asset streaming stutter when travelling between biomes.

General information

Steam Community Discussions

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
Go to <path-to-game>\Returnal\Content\Movies. Delete, rename or move Logos_PC.mp4, Logos_PC_UW21.mp4, Logos_PC_UW32.mp4, Logos_Short_PC.mp4, Logos_Short_PC_UW21.mp4 and Logos_Short_PC_UW32.mp4.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Steam	%LOCALAPPDATA%\Returnal\Steam\Saved\Config
Epic Games Launcher	%LOCALAPPDATA%\Returnal\Epic\Saved\Config
Steam Play (Linux)	<Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/1649240/pfx/

Save game data location

System	Location
Steam	%LOCALAPPDATA%\Returnal\Steam\Saved\SaveGames
Epic Games Launcher	%LOCALAPPDATA%\Returnal\Epic\Saved\SaveGames
Steam Play (Linux)	<Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/1649240/pfx/

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
Epic Games Launcher
Steam Cloud

Video

Display settings

Graphics feature	State	Notes
Widescreen resolution		16:10 resolutions are officially supported.
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen		21:9 and 32:9 resolutions are officially supported.
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.
Field of view (FOV)		-10 to +15 degrees FOV bias slider. See Field of view (FOV) for more.
Windowed
Borderless fullscreen windowed		Named as Windowed Fullscreen. Exclusive Fullscreen also available.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		Scales with the Textures setting; Low (0x), Medium (2x), High (4x) and Epic (8x) No option in-game to increase or disable it individually.
Anti-aliasing (AA)		TAA forced on with Low, Medium, High and Epic presets.
High-fidelity upscaling		DLSS 2.4, DLSS 3.1, FSR 2.1, NIS, XeSS 1.0 DLSS Frame Generation is supported.
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)		HDR must be enabled in Windows.
Ray tracing (RT)		Ray-Traced Moon shadows and Reflections.
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.

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  Graphics settings

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  Colourblind settings

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  Performance UI settings

Field of view (FOV)

Use Flawless Widescreen
Install Flawless Widescreen. Open the program at least once, and exit. Download the FWS plugin made by K4sh. Unzip the archive in FWS install directory. Launch FWS and adjust FOV slider as desired. Run the game.

Disable TGGI

Significantly alters the global illumination on the main character, environment and more. Only recommended for low-end users or those wanting to reach higher FPS.

Disabling TGGI can potentially increase performance up to 27% in more GPU-bound situations.

Apply TGGI disabling tweak to configuration file
Go to the configuration file(s) location. Open Engine.ini. Create the section [SystemSettings] at the bottom of the file, if it does not already exist. Add the following line to the section: TGGI.Enable=0 Save and close the file.

Input

Gameplay settings

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

XInput-compatible controllers
Xbox button prompts
Impulse Trigger vibration

DualShock 4 controllers		DualSense controller is fully supported. Haptic feedback and adaptive triggers support requires wiring the DualSense controller to the PC.
DualShock button prompts
Light bar support
Connection modes	USB

Generic/other controllers		Nintendo Switch and DirectInput controllers do not work.

Additional information
Button prompts		Automatic detection of controller type based on last input, no option to lock prompt type.
Controller hotplugging
Haptic feedback
Simultaneous controller+KB/M		Glyphs flicker while mixing any mouse movements, mouse buttons, or keyboard presses with controller inputs, and an audio cue for indicating consumable status plays frequently. Selecting Controller Preset: Adaptive or Custom Bindings - Base Preset: Adapative will confuse the game about whether pulling the left trigger should activate sights or alt fire mode while recent keyboard or mouse inputs were registered.

Steam Input
Steam Input API support
Hook input (legacy mode)
Official controller preset(s)
Steam Controller button prompts
Cursor detection		Cursor always registers as detected even when not shown.

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  HUD settings

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  Keyboard rebind settings

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  Mouse settings

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  Controller settings

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  Controller setup settings

Audio

Audio settings

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) audio options available.
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

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  Subtitle settings

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  Advanced audio settings

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

Traversal/loading related stutters

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.

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 suspected this was due to geometry mesh creation and subsequently reduced stuttering when ray tracing is enabled through a patch on March 9, 2023. It still remains unknown though if all cases of this problem occuring have been fully fixed.^{[citation needed]}

Issues fixed

Black screen on boot after the initial loading screen, or during in-game cutscenes

The game seemingly softlocks to a blackscreen on boot when it is supposed to be playing a cutscene video whenever the VP9 Video Extension isn't installed. The same problem also affects in-game cutscenes such as after lying down on the bed in the crashed ship.

Install the VP9 Video Extensions package from the Microsoft Store

Install VP9 video codecs manually

These manual steps are for versions of Windows that do not include the Microsoft Store, e.g. Windows 10 LTSC. Download a copy of the latest VP9 Video Extensions file, e.g. Microsoft.VP9VideoExtensions_1.0.52781.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe.Appx. This can be done by using a Microsoft Store link generator. Paste the link to the VP9 codec package: https://apps.microsoft.com/store/detail/vp9-video-extensions/9N4D0MSMP0PT. Download the appropriate .appx file for your computer, e.g. for 64-bit computers choose the .appx file containing x64. Save the file to a location of choice. Open PowerShell as administrator from the Windows Start menu. In PowerShell, run the following command: Add-AppxPackage -path [path_of_choice]\Microsoft.VP9VideoExtensions_1.0.52781.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe.Appx. [path_of_choice] should be replaced with the location chosen in step one, for example C:\Users\%username%\Downloads.

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
Cutscenes	On2 VP9
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.

AVX support required.

Minimum system requirements are for 720p, 60 FPS at low settings. Recommended system requirements are for 1080p, 60 FPS at epic settings. Medium (1080p, 60 FPS at medium settings), Epic (4K, 60 FPS at epic settings) and Ray Tracing (4K, 60 FPS at Epic settings with Ray Tracing) system requirements are also available.