Sony Returnal - Information Thread, update: Digital Foundry PC Port Review - "It's Good, But Could Be Great"

[SaysWho?]

30 minutes ago, Joe said:

How do you guys deal with the flying machine things? They’re OP.

 

They are strong fuckers. 

 

Go behind a pillar and try to pick them off. Keep moving, as well, as those homing missiles are really good.

 

And if they spawn in a room and I'm by the door, I leave the door and try to cheese them from the other room. Be careful as they'll still try to send homing missiles your way.

[skillzdadirecta]

57 minutes ago, Joe said:

How do you guys deal with the flying machine things? They’re OP.

 

27 minutes ago, SaysWho? said:

 

They are strong fuckers. 

 

Go behind a pillar and try to pick them off. Keep moving, as well, as those homing missiles are really good.

 

And if they spawn in a room and I'm by the door, I leave the door and try to cheese them from the other room. Be careful as they'll still try to send homing missiles your way.

 

 

Pretty much this... they are some of the toughest enemies in the game. Always make sure you're near some kind of cover because if you damage them enough without killing them, they will kamikaze you. They STILL guve me trouble when I'm in biome 3.

[Bloodporne]

Well, coincidentally I just got destroyed by Biome 3 drones in Act 3. I think I got a bit too cocky trying my acrobatics and snazzy moves on them. Ended up in a room with one of those aluminum sphere looking things unleashing bullet hell central and six fucking drones. I picked off a few with melee strikes after luring them behind a pillar but got crushed afterwards.

 

Moral is you'll always be worse than a pack of drones.

[Joe]

2 hours ago, SaysWho? said:

 

They are strong fuckers. 

 

Go behind a pillar and try to pick them off. Keep moving, as well, as those homing missiles are really good.

 

And if they spawn in a room and I'm by the door, I leave the door and try to cheese them from the other room. Be careful as they'll still try to send homing missiles your way.

Ah ok. Now I feel better for doing stuff like this regularly haha. The dirtiest thing I do is in Biome 1 when I know that the room is going to be a lockdown room and I just wait for the orange enemy to spawn from the portal and it never actually locks down the room.

[Joe]

The rotgland lobber is soooooooooo fucking good.

[nublood]

I haven’t played this in almost a month. I thought I was ready for the challenge but I was not. And I really have no desire to return to it. I got the first boss down to a sliver of health and he just kept spamming that rush melee move and killed me. I had all kinds of buffs too.  And with Ratchet and Clank, and I’m restarting Spiderman Remastered (the Raytracing and lighting on this game ) l won’t be playing it again any time soon. It’s a good game though just apparently not for me. And I’ve beat every souls and soulslike game ever made. I don’t know man. Maybe I’ll revisit it again one day. 

[skillzdadirecta]

1 hour ago, Joe said:

Ah ok. Now I feel better for doing stuff like this regularly haha. The dirtiest thing I do is in Biome 1 when I know that the room is going to be a lockdown room and I just wait for the orange enemy to spawn from the portal and it never actually locks down the room.

 

[skillzdadirecta]

1 minute ago, nublood said:

I haven’t played this in almost a month. I thought I was ready for the challenge but I was not. And I really have no desire to return to it. I got the first boss down to a sliver of health and he just kept spamming that rush melee move and killed me. I had all kinds of buffs too.  And with Ratchet and Clank, and I’m restarting Spiderman Remastered l won’t be playing it again any time soon. It’s a good game though just apparently not for me. And I’ve beat every souls and soulslike game ever made. I don’t know man. 

That rush move is so easy to dodge though. He telegraphs it a mile away. Phrike is so wasy it's comical. For me the toughest boss is the third one because of the nature of the fight and even he's not that tough. If you can beat the Souls games, this one is pretty easy comparatively.

[nublood]

5 minutes ago, skillzdadirecta said:

That rush move is so easy to dodge though. He telegraphs it a mile away. Phrike is so wasy it's comical. For me the toughest boss is the third one because of the nature of the fight and even he's not that tough. If you can beat the Souls games, this one is pretty easy comparatively.

The first and second phase, yes. But the third phase dude just went nuclear with it and from short distances unlike the first two phases. I think it’s the rogue-like mechanic that’s so off putting. Like I’ll spend hours on the game with nothing to show for it and no progression. Had I known it was rogue-like I wouldn’t have bought it. But I bought it digitally so I’m stuck with it. lol 

[skillzdadirecta]

2 minutes ago, nublood said:

The first and second phase, yes. But the third phase dude just went nuclear with it and from short distances unlike the first two phases. I think it’s the rogue-like mechanic that’s so off putting. Like I’ll spend hours on the game with nothing to show for it and no progression. Had I known it was rogue-like I wouldn’t have bought it. But I bought it digitally so I’m stuck with it. lol 

In the third phase he'll ususally rush you twice back to back. Just be prepared to dodge both. Phrike has very predictable patterns and is the easiest boss in the game. I now just fight him for fun half the time 

[Joe]

27 minutes ago, skillzdadirecta said:

 

I hate losing my adrenaline very much.

 

Fuck I was having such a good run and decided to go deeper into the citadel instead of just taking the bridge. I promptly got owned by the machines. Such a dummy.

[skillzdadirecta]

3 hours ago, Joe said:

I hate losing my adrenaline very much.

 

Fuck I was having such a good run and decided to go deeper into the citadel instead of just taking the bridge. I promptly got owned by the machines. Such a dummy.

Keep playing... you'll be owning those fuckers in no time. They are ALWAYS dangerous, but less so once you get their timing down. Biome 3 is definitell the most challenging one by far. Followed by Biome 6. Also don't stress losing adrenaline. You'll get it back more often than not very quickly.

[Bloodporne]

12 hours ago, Joe said:

I hate losing my adrenaline very much.

 

Fuck I was having such a good run and decided to go deeper into the citadel instead of just taking the bridge. I promptly got owned by the machines. Such a dummy.

Wait till tomorrow actually. The patch goes live on Monday and the way I read those balancing notes is that they'll iron out the difficulty curve somewhat, aka probably nerfing the drones in B3 a bit since those are single-handedly responsible for a quite major difficulty spike in my opinion.

[Joe]

3 minutes ago, Bloodporne said:

Wait till tomorrow actually. The patch goes live on Monday and the way I read those balancing notes is that they'll iron out the difficulty curve somewhat, aka probably nerfing the drones in B3 a bit since those are single-handedly responsible for a quite major difficulty spike in my opinion.

Awesome, thanks. I was going to start another run in a bit, but I’ll wait until Monday and finish Control instead.

 

This thread has renewed my love for this game. Glad I accidentally hit the follow button on the bottom one day lol.

[Bloodporne]

35 minutes ago, Joe said:

Awesome, thanks. I was going to start another run in a bit, but I’ll wait until Monday and finish Control instead.

 

This thread has renewed my love for this game. Glad I accidentally hit the follow button on the bottom one day lol.

Control is fucking great too so there you go haha. Actually check out the Patch 1.4.0 notes, lots of really good changes/updates seemingly.

[Bloodporne]

Some videos now that I figured out how to do it! Doing Act 3 now.

 

Here's some basic (as in it doesn't even have the Web upgrade) Pylon Driver action. The fact you can literally spin webs across an arena that link enemies in damage is so cool.

 

 

 

And here's the last phase of my latest Nemesis run. What a difference compared to my pic earlier in the thread.

 

 

[skillzdadirecta]

3 hours ago, Bloodporne said:

Some videos now that I figured out how to do it! Doing Act 3 now.

 

Here's some basic (as in it doesn't even have the Web upgrade) Pylon Driver action. The fact you can literally spin webs across an arena that link enemies in damage is so cool.

 

 

 

And here's the last phase of my latest Nemesis run. What a difference compared to my pic earlier in the thread.

 

 

Which gun us that you're using on the Nemesis battle? Nice job by the way.

[Bloodporne]

28 minutes ago, skillzdadirecta said:

Which gun us that you're using on the Nemesis battle? Nice job by the way.

It's also a base Pylon Driver without the 'Pylon Web' trait upgrade like in the first video. I was determined to teach myself how to use it properly and once it clicked, it rules. The pylon thingies stick in the enemy and if you shoot them with several, they connect to each causing these damage webs. You can do stuff like preemptively shoot a triangle of pylons between geometry while a mini-boss spawns and it'll spawn right into stagger damage, connect several enemies with pylon webs if they come near each other and so on

 

The Alt-Fire is Trackerswarm, I'm pretty sure

[skillzdadirecta]

10 minutes ago, Bloodporne said:

It's also a base Pylon Driver without the 'Pylon Web' trait upgrade like in the first video. I was determined to teach myself how to use it properly and once it clicked, it rules. The pylon thingies stick in the enemy and if you shoot them with several, they connect to each causing these damage webs. You can do stuff like preemptively shoot a triangle of pylons between geometry while a mini-boss spawns and it'll spawn right into stagger damage, connect several enemies with pylon webs if they come near each other and so on

 

The Alt-Fire is Trackerswarm, I'm pretty sure

Yeah the Pylon Driver and the Rot Glob gun are borderline o.p. You can basically fire and forget and hide behind something while the gun melts the enemy to death. Those guns are really effective against some of the bosses because they are staionary and don't move. I'm gonna be without my consoles (Except my Switch and Occulus) for a couple of weeks so I won't be playing that much but I'm looking forward to getting back into it. I also started playing Nex Machina too btw. Great recommendation. That's a fun but frenetic experience  Reminds me of the old games I played in the 80's when I was a wee lad 

[Bloodporne]

Apparently the new patch is really good and extensive. Reading some notes by people playing on Reddit and it seems like quite a lot of good changes. 

 

Among others @Joe, according to users on there the drones in B3 were nerfed. Less HP and rockets aren't as aggressive and fast. Apparently people are also seeing a way higher room variety, including a user saying they put in 80 hours and are seeing rooms they never saw before already.

[Joe]

12 minutes ago, Bloodporne said:

Apparently the new patch is really good and extensive. Reading some notes by people playing on Reddit and it seems like quite a lot of good changes. 

 

Among others @Joe, according to users on there the drones in B3 were nerfed. Less HP and rockets aren't as aggressive and fast. Apparently people are also seeing a way higher room variety, including a user saying they put in 80 hours and are seeing rooms they never saw before already.

So pumped already! When I picked up the game again on Friday, I felt like there were new rooms in the first biome as well. If they keep adding stuff as they go that will be so cool.

[JPDunks4]

There were rumors that some rooms only showed up prior to finishing each set of Biomes.  So if you were lucky enough to finish all 3 Biomes of either section on your first or second tries, then it basically locked you out of ever finding those rooms to get the Platinum for the things you find.

 

I think that might have happened to me, as I completed like 7 full runs of each Biome and still am missing a lot of the glyphs and character log things.  After doing full runs and not finding anything at all, and being extremely thorough, I just quit playing.

 

If they fixed that then I may need to revisit it.

[Bloodporne]

20 minutes ago, Joe said:

So pumped already! When I picked up the game again on Friday, I felt like there were new rooms in the first biome as well. If they keep adding stuff as they go that will be so cool.

Just reading that about the patch, I think the RNG was just off/not working as intended on some things. There were some rooms I've literally only seen once in Biome 1...and I've got like 50+ hours so that can't be right. It'll be awesome to see the rooms I haven't seen at all, or barely, come into rotation regularly now. I can only imagine the amount of potential mistakes they can run into, the math has to be absurd.  

 

Also the scout log spawning rate etc. has most definitely been fixed. People are already finding the dread log #9 that wouldn't spawn. 

 

@JPDunks4 they definitely addressed that it seems, like with log #9 above. Users saying they speed-ran Biome 1 literally for days to get log #9 and never found it now found it in Act 3 B1 within like two runs. 

[skillzdadirecta]

I know there's a weapon you guys have that I don't and I have about 80 hours in the game too. Nice to see there's more content to be seen... I DID think the rooms were getting repetitive and predictable.  Alas I won't be able to play for a couple of weeks get access to my consoles again.

[SaysWho?]

3 hours ago, Bloodporne said:

Apparently the new patch is really good and extensive. Reading some notes by people playing on Reddit and it seems like quite a lot of good changes. 

 

Among others @Joe, according to users on there the drones in B3 were nerfed. Less HP and rockets aren't as aggressive and fast. Apparently people are also seeing a way higher room variety, including a user saying they put in 80 hours and are seeing rooms they never saw before already.

 

Wow, that's actually really cool. In Ratchet right now, but might pick up Returnal and go through some biomes to check that out. And those fucking tie-fighters finally met their match via patch!

[SaysWho?]

 

[Bloodporne]

I played from B1 through B3 tonight and I saw new rooms in every biome, right off the bat in B1. Also, I got Scout Log 9 within like ten rooms max in B1. They must've felt sorry for players and just put the RNG of that stupid thing to like 95% probability.

 

The drones in B3 are most certainly nerfed. However, they're Housemarque nerfed so to me it seemed like one or two more per encounter spawned than usual. Their HP is noticeably less and I actually was able to properly engage in a real fight against them, dodging rockets and swinging around, not just hiding behind cover and running away. They'll still destroy you fast if you don't play intelligently so I still shuddered every time I heard that disgusting sound they make. In short, they're still scary but not as bad.

 

All of my missing trophies retroactively popped I think? Just checked and I'm at only 7 left now and this'll be the first game I'll ever try to Platinum.

[Joe]

 

[SaysWho?]

9 hours ago, Bloodporne said:

I played from B1 through B3 tonight and I saw new rooms in every biome, right off the bat in B1. Also, I got Scout Log 9 within like ten rooms max in B1. They must've felt sorry for players and just put the RNG of that stupid thing to like 95% probability.

 

The drones in B3 are most certainly nerfed. However, they're Housemarque nerfed so to me it seemed like one or two more per encounter spawned than usual. Their HP is noticeably less and I actually was able to properly engage in a real fight against them, dodging rockets and swinging around, not just hiding behind cover and running away. They'll still destroy you fast if you don't play intelligently so I still shuddered every time I heard that disgusting sound they make. In short, they're still scary but not as bad.

 

All of my missing trophies retroactively popped I think? Just checked and I'm at only 7 left now and this'll be the first game I'll ever try to Platinum.

 

Deep into Ratchet right now, but... dayum, I am excited to go back into this world now!

[JPDunks4]

I was hoping a patch would add a harder mode, not nerf things.  Hopefully in the future.

 

The challenge modes are pretty damn hard though.   I only tried a couple of them and made it to the end of of one. 

 

Have they laid out plans for future content at all?  Like a new biome eventually?

[Bloodporne]

40 minutes ago, JPDunks4 said:

I was hoping a patch would add a harder mode, not nerf things.  Hopefully in the future.

 

The challenge modes are pretty damn hard though.   I only tried a couple of them and made it to the end of of one. 

 

Have they laid out plans for future content at all?  Like a new biome eventually?

Actually, at least in my run yesterday, the difficulty curve balancing they did made Act 3 versions of the biomes harder. I think they basically made it more of a steady incline from Act 1 through Act 3 instead of random spikes and then a drop-off in difficulty like originally. The game in general, at least in Act 3, feels busier unless that was just this run. I've been playing nonstop and it definitely wasn't as dense before. More enemies, more rooms packed with enemies but also more items and a wider variety of items for me.

 

Biome 3, despite the nerfed drones, was actually busier and more challenging to me as well. I wouldn't worry. Also, they already mentioned more content in an interview as far as I recall, they're definitely supporting this game and it seems like a perfect candidate for quite a bit of added content. I'd be playing this shit for years if that happens.

[Bloodporne]

6 hours ago, Joe said:

 

[SaysWho?]

57 minutes ago, JPDunks4 said:

I was hoping a patch would add a harder mode, not nerf things.  Hopefully in the future.

 

The challenge modes are pretty damn hard though.   I only tried a couple of them and made it to the end of of one. 

 

Have they laid out plans for future content at all?  Like a new biome eventually?

 

Not yet, though I'd love it. Hell, I'd love Returnal 2 or another roguelike from Housemarque.

[Joe]

I went into rest mode at Nemesis with full health, an astronaut figure, and a small silphium vial. Will I emerge victorious later today? Probably not.

[Bloodporne]

8 minutes ago, Joe said:

I went into rest mode at Nemesis with full health, an astronaut figure, and a small silphium vial. Will I emerge victorious later today? Probably not.

I've never dared putting the game into Rest Mode. Seems like unstable shit.