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So about the difficulty…


UlvenFenrir

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I personally only found it difficult while I was learning the controls and enemy patterns at the beginning. After that the game was like 4/10 for me. Not everyone can react quickly in situations so I think its a skill based thing. If you are an experienced player then it shouldn't be hard, but if its your first "hardcore" video game you might have some trouble. 

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Looking at the platinum rarity (I know this isn't always the best indicator of difficulty), Returnal has the highest plat rate of any Housemarque game.

 

Obviously the fact that a number of previous games were Plus titles will skew rarity, but still given the overall trend towards games being easier and more accessible, this doesn't seem like an 8/10 game.

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I would assume most reviews that came out were after little gameplay so they didn't have many unlocks or any weapon buffs unlocked.  Once you get like 5-10 hours in the game because much easier.  I think the first boss is the only boss I died to and even him I beat later on with just the basic starting pistol and no relics once I knew what I was doing.

 

But then I check Reddit and some people had 100+ attempts in the first Biome before beating the first boss. I guess it just varies from player to player.

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When I first saw the trophy guides popping up stating it was difficult and that it was a 8/10 or around there, I got a little concerned, as I am not a hardcore gamer who is particularly good at difficult games. But I thought, what the heck, let me give it a try and and see how far I can get. The only other Housemarque game I've ever Platinumed was Resogun, and I am considering doing the Platinum for Stardust Ultra and Nex Machina sometime soon as well.

 

I can't remember struggling that much in the first biome, as I was playing it pretty safe. I can't even remember if I died or not. I do remember that I beat the boss on the first try, but that was because I had an astronaut figure with me, which I got from my first visit to the house. Then I remember in biome 2, I struggled a little bit and I definitely died a few times trying to beat the second boss, but I think I managed to get past him on my forth or fifth attempt. In biome 3, I did not struggle that much, until I accidently entered the challenge room and died on the first attempt and then avoided that room for the next few runs. I think I died at least twice on the biome 3 boss, and beat it on my third try. Then after Act 1 (biome 3), I seemed to fly right through the rest of the game. Completed biome 4, and 5, and most of 6 on my first try without much effort, and that was because I found a Hollowseeker with a Portal Beam in those biomes, which helped immensely in my runs. I died for the first time in biome 6 when you need to get the key and you face that major enemy that rushes you and swipes at you. But afterwards, also beat the boss on the first try.

 

The way I played during at the beginning definitely changed after biome 4 and I just felt more comfortable with the gameplay, and was definitely more managable in terms of difficulty. Right now, I do not believe it is an 8/10 difficulty, and I would personally rate it a 4/10 or at max a 5/10. I believe as you play the game more and more, you start to recognise patterns and then adjust your gameplay, and everything seems to become a bit easier. And now I am flying through the stages with ease, even clearing the challenge rooms and redoing bosses again just for fun (and ether), and mostly just looking for ciphers and scout logs for the Platinum. I really enjoyed the gameplay loop of this, and in a couple of years time, I will definitely be going for the Platinum again on one of my alternate accounts, just for fun.

 

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I think that is due to last couple patches that balanced the game and increased drop rates. I just finished my first run today and I got all the scout logs that are in topics on this forum as being the hardest to found. All of them are mentioned on the lastest patch as having increased appearence.

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  • 3 weeks later...

The game got toned down some in the 1.4 patch for one.. At first I couldn't figure out what changed as I ran through Biome 4 to test it but I made a fresh start and I then I started to notice more about the difference in what/where enemy spawned and some their aggression changed. I ended up with less surprises and some rooms no longer seemed to spawned malformed versions of enemies(or atleast I didn't run into them as often anymore). The small rooms just started producing empty rooms with ether in their place. You combine that with the collectibles spawn rate changes and now you have an easier game.

 

EDIT: And the game in a way's difficultly was always at least a little exaggerated. People were just freaking out more so at the thought of dying and losing their equipment while having to start over from Biome 1 or 4. The game plays on that fear and consequences but in reality things like those are more so mute/a thing of the past once you truly understand the system.

Edited by AlphaExGAT
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8/10 is definitely a correct rating for how hard it is to stomach replaying through the same biome 20 times and still not getting any of the ciphers that you need. I literally only need 3 in area 2 and I'm done with this god forsaken grind. I was genuinely positive on the game until this absolute nightmare of an experience. I don't know if its a gift or a curse knowing that you really only need to check room generation, and not every room for ciphers, but knowing that 85% of the time playing is wasted is killing me inside, I just want it to end.

 

Exophase says I have 50 hours logged in this game, but it feels closer to 500. At least its not items in the Binding of Isaac I suppose. 

Spoiler

Hi Mutt

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

All I read is easy easy easy and I can't even beat the first boss after 150 cleaned rooms ??? so fucking annoying that relics get lost after dying. 

 

/edit

 

Finally got him, so luck based... A run with astronaut life recover, a parasite which blocks a fatal strike...and a + 15% dmg buff. 

 

Yes I know there are ppl killing him with lvl 0 weapons and no relics but I, can't ;)

 

And the game gets even more annoying, if u die u have to do all the shit again and search the portal to map 2 ?‍♂️ IL drop that game. No way I'm doing all that crap till map 4 or 5 and go through every map again and again. 

 

I like dark souls ect, but this is just a shitty system. 

Edited by M-3llo-W
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I found that it took a few attempts to beat the first boss.  I struggled a lot on the second boss.  Third boss I beat on the second try and then beat 4th/5th/6th on the first try.  I managed to get a few really OP electropylon drivers which just melted everything.  Great game though!  I'm just missing 1 scout log and 2 cyphers in biome 6 then I'll have my plat :)

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I was able to do it, so that must instantly lower the difficulty of a game for anyone xD.

 

would say its about a 6/10, though extra points on if you dont have alot of time to game, as that can make it more difficult too. found it quite tough at first, but the more weapons you level up and the more you play and learn the rooms & enemies, the easier it becomes. the hardest parts are getting from Bio 1 to Boss 3 first time, and Bio 4 to end boss. even though you do it all again for the collectables lol, theres alot less pressure on a run when you know you can fail before getting to a boss.

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On 19.7.2021 at 9:58 PM, PMDStrandbeest said:

At least its not items in the Binding of Isaac I suppose. 

 

 

well Binding of Isaac is a roguelike(lite) with an extremely high replayability where every run is different. Returnal is ALWAYS the same boring shit. It took the absolute worst aspects of a roguelike(lite) and not a single one of the good ones.

 

I saw the ending after ~10-15h and thought to myself "that's it, well it was ok I guess"... 35 hours later I obtained the plat. It's just not good enough as a game to justify this kind of grind

 

glad I'm done and yeah, the only difficult thing about it is surviving absolute boredom

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The game isn't that hard, it's mostly punishing. Losing basically everything once you die doesn't make you feel you are progressing much at first. But once you learn how to make your decisions (risk/reward evaluation) and get used to enemy attack patterns, it starts to click and it's not that hard anymore. if you started a new game with all your knowledge obtained in your first playthrough, you would breeze through it without any issues.

 

Luck also plays a smaller role because how hard a playthrough is depends on your item rolls. Once you have good build with emergency items (e.g. astronaut) you can breeze through the rest of the game rather easily.

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On 8/2/2021 at 0:43 PM, Alaquia said:

 

well Binding of Isaac is a roguelike(lite) with an extremely high replayability where every run is different. Returnal is ALWAYS the same boring shit. It took the absolute worst aspects of a roguelike(lite) and not a single one of the good ones.

 

I saw the ending after ~10-15h and thought to myself "that's it, well it was ok I guess"... 35 hours later I obtained the plat. It's just not good enough as a game to justify this kind of grind

 

glad I'm done and yeah, the only difficult thing about it is surviving absolute boredom

Yup, I mean who likes to hunt random generated collectibles that spawn like once in 10 runs? 

Game was good until the end of the story, afterwards going for the plat is pure boredom. 

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I found the game to be a perfectly balanced challenge without ever being frustratingly difficult. I hated looking for the final Xeno Glyph in Biome 2, though. I can't believe some of you only needed 10-20 runs for it to appear. I was way above 50 (maybe even closer to 100. I spent HOURS one day, just doing that). I only needed the "orb" room Xeno Glyph, and it took me so many runs before it finally appeared. And it's not like I died before reaching the room in runs where it might've spawned, because I always checked every room, and it was never there.

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On 8/2/2021 at 6:43 AM, Alaquia said:

 

well Binding of Isaac is a roguelike(lite) with an extremely high replayability where every run is different. Returnal is ALWAYS the same boring shit. It took the absolute worst aspects of a roguelike(lite) and not a single one of the good ones.

This is it right here. The amount this game promised with just the genre of Roguelike and a big Sony platform release was far too much for it to deliver on. The complexity and depth of BoI or even Enter the Gungeon dwarfs this games shallow as hell mechanics. Every room that is even remotely interesting is usually high risk and no reward. The possible synergies you could make in Returnal don't hold a candle to any single lame synergy from Isaac. I guess I shouldn't have expected that from this, but it would have made replaying every area 30 times to get the glyphs and logs more tolerable, but instead i ended up unlocking all the traits 5 hours in and was stuck with nothing to do for 10 more.

 

Knowing Sony this will get a DLC list to beat a NG+ and then challenge mode dlcs. 

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All this talk about the collectibles being the difficult part and I can't even fucking beat the second boss. I absolutely give up.

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Hey guys a quick question about the status quo of Returnal now a few month after release. I heard that this game was patched since release quite some time and I'm having a specific question about the collectibles ( I absolutely don't mind about the difficutly in general or the lack of checkpoints ). I always heard that it is an absolute chore to get all these random collectibles in the game. Have they been patched in a good way like fix spawns or more frequently?

 

Thanks in advance :-) 

Edited by DavySuicide
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5 minutes ago, DavySuicide said:

Hey guys a quick question about the status quo of Returnal now a few month after release. I heard that this game was patched since release quite some time and I'm having a specific question about the collectibles ( I absolutely don't mind about the difficutly in general or the lack of checkpoints ). I always heard that it is an absolute chore to get all these random collectibles in the game. Have they patched this in a good way like fix spawns or more frequently? 

 

Thanks in advance :-) 

 

I can't confirm if they've patched it, but I'm playing now, and so far I have found the spawn rates to be okay - certainly I have one of 6 biomes done already, and that's just picking up stuff as I find it, without concentrating on doing any 'collectible specific' runs - and most other biomes are in the 70-80% range already.

 

Obviously I might change my tune if I end up with one left that I just can't find, but certainly the ones that I've seem people posting questions about - (specific scout logs) - I have found without issue, so that might well be an indication that it has been patched in a positive way...

 

...or I could just be extremely lucky. With RNG, it's difficult to know...

Edited by DrBloodmoney
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