Returnal's Difficulty Is Part Of Its Story, Says Developer Housemarque

Returnal, the triple-A PS5 exclusive that was recently named the best game during the recent BAFTAs, is still making people debate whether a game can be too hard. But according to developer Housemarque, their game's difficulty is an "inseparable" part of its story.

(Photo : YouTube - PlayStation)
returnal screenshot

When asked about the same topic, this was the statement from Housemarque's Harry Krueger. According to him, there are times that the challenge a game offers is at times connected to its narrative. In such a situation, he argues that it can be "difficult to separate the two," as reported by PlayStationLifestyle.net.

In episode 115 of the PS I Love You XOXO podcast, Krueger made his claims. Here is an entire YouTube video of it if you want to check it out:

In the game, protagonist Selene struggles are actually intended to be the players' struggles, Krueger explained. Her story involves her talking about dying every single time, about the insurmountable odds she has to face in order to survive being stranded on an alien planet.

According to the Housemarque dev, allowing players to just power through the boss without any challenge would create "a bit of dissonance" within the game, ultimately making players miss the entire point of Returnal's experience.

To cap things off, he said that the development team is working on more accessibility options, but made it clear that these aren't going to change Returnal's difficulty level.

Too Difficult?

After it was released on April 30, 2021, the sci-fi romp has basically been making mincemeat of players trying it out. According to a report by PushSquare, only 58 percent of players were able to defeat the game's first boss as of December 18th. The data comes from HowLongToBeat.com, though there's no more current and immediately available information.

The game's reviews also make heavy mention of its difficulty. One example is a review by Gene Park of The Washington Post, who said that he "struggled" with Returnal as a player who plays Dark Souls (another notoriously hard game) to relax.

Part of the game's toughness, according to Park, is its genre. As previously mentioned, it is classified as a rogue-lite. This kind of game will ask players to start over if they die, equipped with modest (or barely any) improvements to their abilities which will last until they die again. In his review, Park found it too hard to even advance past the game's second area, which led to him not giving Returnal a final review score.

Another part of this game's rogue-lite (or, in general, roguelike) classification is the lack of save points. According to Forbes, Returnal's difficulty doesn't rely on how tough the combat is or today's easy. It's about long gameplay segments where players can't save in the middle. These segments can even last as long as two straight hours.

Two straight hours (or more) of grinding only to die and start at the beginning due to the lack of saving checkpoints. Perhaps it makes Returnal too difficult for even seasoned gamers, but it does make it stand out among everything else. And that's perhaps where Housemarque wins. So don't expect an "easy mode" to come because it likely won't. Ever.