Returnal Review - IGN

Returnal's runs are too long for their own good, but the moment-to-moment action is phenomenal in this surprisingly lengthy and deep third-person shooter roguelike

[Babadook7]

IGNorant always low balls every PS game.

[BenRC01]

Maybe its not that great?

[Babadook7]

Its great. 86 on Metacritic. https://www.metacritic.com/...

[Fishy Fingers]

Bragging about an 86, crying about an 8

:/

[Babadook7]

Didn't brag, didn't cry. I said lowballing.

[Neonridr]

so then 80 isn't too far off from that is it?

[Chevalier]

8 out of 10 seems pretty great

[CaptainHenry916]

If Gamespot gave it a 9 then you know it's great lol GameSpot are the typical 7 to 8 guys. https://opencritic.com/game...

[darthv72]

Karak seems to like it: https://youtu.be/bQVI0j9xrK...

[Drew345]

Ok, if ANYONE considers an 86 on Metacritic bad, then you should toss out Games like Spider-Man, Batman, Miles Morales, Street Fighter, Warhawk, Gears of War, Call of Duty, Halo and that list goes on.

The game is a hit and it's going to sale boat loads.

[darthv72]

An 8 is low???

[Babadook7]

Lowballing

[darthv72]

But dook... they arent the only ones who gave it an 8. Ive seen other 8 as well as 7.5 and even a 6. Why not go attack those reviews then?

[Babadook7]

I'm calling them out on doing it 'consistently'. Surely you caught that.

[Tacoboto]

By giving a 9 to Demon's Souls?
And a 9 to Spider-Man Miles Morales?
And a 9 to Ghost of Tsushima?
How about that perfect 10 for The Last of Us 1 and 1 Remastered and 2?
Spider-Man Remastered even got a higher rating than the base PS4 Spider-Man!

All on IGN

[alb1899]

When Gamespot and IGN gives the score you don't want then they are bad.....you must be 8 years old.

[Babadook7]

When IGN lowballs almost every big ps game score vs the industry, that's not just an opinion, its a demonstrable fact.

Gamespot gave it a 9.

[DOMination-]

a whole 1 point lower... serious stuff

[metalhead]

Gamespot is just picky. They gave Demons Souls GOTY and that was a PS exclusive

[RazzerRedux]

8 is a great score. Metacritic is 86. This not lowballing.

If you want to complain about lowballing, here is the article for you:

https://n4g.com/news/241464...

[Babadook7]

Actually low balling can refer to any consistent reduction. In this case its a 10% reduction.

[RazzerRedux]

"Actually low balling can refer to any consistent reduction. In this case its a 10% reduction."

Nonsense. This isn't a "reduction" at all. IGN released their score at the same time as everyone else so what are they "reducing" the score from? And 10% reduction? What is that? Reduced from what? You are not making any sense.

Edit: Here are the last three PS games with their metacritic and IGN's scores:

Ghost of Tsushima
Metacritic 83
IGN 90

Spider-Man: Miles Morales
Metacritic 84
IGN 90

The Last of Us Part 2
Metacritic 93
IGN 10

IGN scored higher on every one. So this claim you are making that IGN is "consistently lowballing" is just factually wrong.

[darthv72]

I guess some people just want to watch the world (and IGN) burn

[SpeedDemon]

Not this again... It's an 8 which is a good score. Not every Sony exclusive is deserving of a 10, get over it.

[Sayai jin]

I think you hit the nail on the head.

[King_Noctis]

So why did they give The Last of Us 2 a 10/10?

[SyntheticForm]

They scored it an "8" and that's lowballing?

[Edgelordsupreme]

This isn’t a monetary transaction you emotionally stunted goon. Just because Metacritics average is 86 it doesn’t mean that’s going to be true for each and every person. Anyone with half a developed brain should be able to realize this, honestly dude I think you need to maybe sit this whole video game commentary thing out. It’s not for you.

[UncertainCategory]

1st, this is verifiably untrue
2nd, you haven’t played the game yet. Maybe give it a shot and form your own opinion based on your hands on experience before blindly assuming an 8 is unreasonably low.

[CrimsonWing69]

I think it just goes to show how useless are.

[foker]

They have been on MS payola for years now,.. So how is this strange even.

[AngelicIceDiamond]

8 is a great score wtf you talkin about? It's been getting praise through previews all last week a sound 8 isn't low balling anything it's a great score. If you're expecting a 10 that's your personal fault.

[ravens52]

Does bring the average down.

[Rebel_Scum]

lol Babasook7

[dolfa]

8/10 low? Seems to me as above average is success. Anyway i would not trust early reviews as they are not always very acurate as seen in recent example of Outriders, that got very high score, but then the negative reviews came week later.

[Father__Merrin]

The reviewer is a fanboy bottom line is this a a fresh new style of game that we've not seen before including bullet hell tropes in an action game. But nope it's on the wrong system.....

[LiViNgLeGaCY]

Except, an 8 is a great score. Metacritic an 86. This is doing great critically.

[WiiBoxStation]

I think an 86 is especially impressive for a game like this. The game's primary gameplay mechanic just simply isn't as accessible and "for everyone" as a lot of blockbusters tend to be.

[phoenixwing]

merrin you have to remember that new things aren't universally praised. For instance when demon souls came out some reviewers complained about the difficulty. Not until later iterations came did it become industry standard to say "git gud" as a critique on the reviewer instead of saying it was too hard. Now people just go "oh that's a souls like difficulty" which it earned by being consistent and establishing itself.

Also a game like death stranding while new, was completely mixed when it came to reviewers. Being new doesn't equal automatic praise. In fact if you ever try to introduce something new to certain people their first instinct is to not like it and want their old way of doing things.

Edit: and like the people above said an 86 or even a 80 is not a bad score for a new unproven ip

[--Onilink--]

New style of game? Its a rogue like third person shooter.... and they gave it an 8, which is a good score, with perfectly understandable and well explained criticisms.
What exactly is the problem here?

[goldwyncq]

Get help

[Servbot41]

Nier has bullet hell sequences, its not a new thing.

[oldenjon]

I'm definitely buying this game. If I hear one more complaint about the average looking female protagonist I'm going to hurl. It's following the tradition of females in space, i.e. Samus, Ellen Ripley. Sigourney Weaver is not really that hot guys, it doesn't make Alien less awesome, actually the opposite is probably true.

[galmi]

am getting it strictly for gameplay, the loop looks awesome

[Highrevz]

Lost me when you got to Sigourney not being hot😌

[oldenjon]

haha

[Youngindy21]

She's not though. She's flat as a board w/ average looks.

[darthv72]

to me, this chick looks like that Soccer player with the pink hair.

[Flawlessmic]

Lol expect this to be the review with comments going one way or the other.

If u have a ps5 do urself a favour and buy it.

If ur a sony hater or wanted this game to fail because its $70, take ur salty ass outta here.

[oldenjon]

Yeah I don't get why people think games prices should not adjust for inflation, especially as development is becoming more expensive. It's like they want micro transactions and less content / more DLC or something.

[Thundercat77]

The game is getting a lot of positive reviews. I pre ordered the game but knowing the media, I wasn't expecting such a great reception.

[Flawlessmic]

Pre ordered mine as well, knew it wpuld be good but definitely didnt see this reviews coming, i thought due to the difficulty and type of game it would be a lot more divisive.

Speaks to how good the game is when u factor that in!

[Edgelordsupreme]

So I guess you don’t know the media you overly sensitive little lady.

[talocaca]

I was waiting for reviews.....just ordered it.

IGN loves to be salty....but most reviews are 85-95.

[RickRoland]

This game is a resounding success….. when an 8/10 is one of the worst scores to come out, you have yourself a banger.

[RickRoland]

Salty downvotes lmaoooo. Don’t worry guys, halo is coming in 7 months

[JEECE]

The only legitimately negative thing I've seen so far seems to be the lack of any sort of save system mid-run. Venturebeat knocked the controls, which I was concerned about, but since they are apparently customizable, that seems to be a moot point.

[Edgelordsupreme]

I’m glad we have you here to be the arbiter of what is valid and invalid. What a reassuring prospect to have you here, thank god.

[JEECE]

It's nice to finally get some credit. Let me know if you need me to help you make life decisions in other areas.

[Kurt Russell]

Someone got out of the wrong side of bed today.

[Tacoboto]

I'm glad to know that housemarquee was not the arbiter of how a game should control, by letting us customize them. Thanks for the heads up on that, Jeece!

[Edgelordsupreme]

Where did I say anything about decisions being made? Tribalism is a disease.

[JEECE]

You called me an arbiter. Maybe you should look up the definition of that word (hint, it has to do with making decisions). Not sure where the tribalism aspect comes into play, that feels unrelated to anything being discussed.

[Edgelordsupreme]

Context context context

Don’t you have a vaguely negative thing about Sony to get upset about somewhere?

[JEECE]

Uhh like how they let their direct competitor buy one of the biggest publishers of games, and they turned around and spent a billion on an anime service?

Or like how there are legitimate-seeming rumors that they are narrowing their focus to sequels of a few franchises rather than continuing to produce new IP?

Or like how they continue to gimp many of their next-gen titles by designing them around an 8-year-old console?

Or how they refuse to come up with a viable solution to play their old games, even while their primary competitor makes major strides on this front?

I can't even tell, am I an Xbot or a Sony pony? Because I get called the former when I bring up any of the above, but if I act slightly excited for a PS5 game I get called the latter.

[Sayai jin]

@JEECE, that is the way this sote has been the whole time I have been on it. You have radical fanboys for each console that will fanboy for their favprite piece of plastic; and put down anyone who says even legitimate criticism againsy said console. This gpes for Nintendo, PS, or Xbox. He only difference is that you will tend to get it a lot worst if you have a criticism against PS.

Gamers should call out any legitimate criticism regardless of console.

[Limitedtimestruggle]

Finally an actual PS5 game for my PS5! Been feeding it PS4 discs for months now.

[JEECE]

Seriously. Making this a true PS5 game rather than a cross-gen game was a huge decision. Had it been cross-gen no one would be talking about it, and I probably would have skipped it.

[Limitedtimestruggle]

It's getting pretty good reviews at least, so I'm definitely going to pick this up! I feel sorry for the PS5 Digital folks who need to shell out the "Full Sony MSRP" lol.

[JEECE]

@Limitedtimestruggle

Although I can easily see this game getting on some PSN sales in the late summer or fall. I think it will do some decent initial sales from the Sony hardcore, but I don't see this game having sales legs like the big tent pole games do these days.

[waverider]

Must be from the one that gave 6.5 to day gone and then demanded the sequel... And attacked Sony...

[Edgelordsupreme]

You know, I know you’re a special little guy. But I’m going to let you know a little secret, just because you score a game low doesn’t mean you can’t want a sequel. Sony & MS aren’t your friend, grow up for the love of god.

[goldwyncq]

These people are seriously mentally ill

[Flawlessmic]

Just been playing for the last hour, so far its awesome guys, Housemarque have a hit on there hands, really hope ps5 owners support this game.

And as the reviews have said, this game is tough. Wish it wasnt so late otherwise id keep playing but thats what i took tomorrow of for.

Ps. If u have pulse headsets, use it !! Sound is amazing

[bleedsoe9mm]

low 8s when its all said and done they'll never green light a sequel

[akaFullMetal]

I think they will get sequel.

[CaptainHenry916]

The only thing I don't like is that you can't save your game unless you put the PS5 in sleep mode🤔

[JEECE]

Yep, I'd love to see this get patched in, but it may be against the sanctity of a rogue like or something like that.

[StoneyYoshi]

I don't see that as a large issue considering even if you saved your current progress it would be irrelevant the next time you die since you still start from the beginning only with what abilities/items are allowed to come with you after each death which is the equivalent of what would happen when you shutdown your PS5 or quit the game.

I noticed people compare this to Hades a lot. As far as I know, Hades doesn't have a manual save option either. the only way the game saves is if you are moving to a new area after clearing the current area of enemies, and dying. This game saves in the same way as Hades based off of my observation.

[Neonridr]

So many sensitive people in here over a score. an 8/10 is a good game score. 6 points off of the metacritic score and some people are ready to cry murder.

[Gamer75]

It's like they turned into a bunch of Karen's and are complaining that the game got an 8/10 as though that's bad

[goldwyncq]

Since when was 8 a "bad" score?

Bunch of babies I swear

[Donjune]

Here go the babies at it again!