Housemarque’s PS5-exclusive roguelike shooter Returnal released in April 2021 to high critical and player acclaim, launching near the top of sales charts in different countries and receiving predominantly positive review scores from various media outlets. Returnal seems primed for some Game of the Year nominations and, given the title’s rewarding combat and intriguing storyline, it’s not surprising that even other game developers were impressed by Housemarque’s venture into psychological horror.
Returnal follows the unsettling story of Selene, a space pilot who finds herself crash landed on the planet Atropos, where she is inexplicably caught in a time loop. The planet is filled with strange and hostile alien life, and Selene quickly succumbs to their attacks. Yet after every death, Selene somehow resurrects, encountering the corpses of her former selves as she ventures into the ever-changing, i.e. procedurally generated, environment.
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In an interview with online magazine ComingSoon, the creative director of the action roguelike Hades shared his appreciation for Housemarque’s creation. Greg Kasavin of Supergiant Games revealed that the title is one of his favorite games of the year, even though he has yet to clear a run. Having played Returnal for several dozen hours, Kasavin explained that he has been following Housemarque’s games for years.
“It just goes to show how much breadth there is in this genre.” Both Hades and Returnal are categorized as roguelikes, but are extremely different in everything from art style to story to gameplay. In the interview, Kasavin stated that he “loved how Housemarque took…the arcade-style bullet hell combat” from their previous releases and successfully molded it into a roguelike. The Supergiant developer compared it to how his company had taken the hack-and-slash combat of their narrative-driven RPG Bastion and incorporated it into Hades.
Like Returnal, Supergiant’s Hades has also earned its share of praise. The dungeon crawler launched on multiple platforms in September 2020 and recently joined the lineup of must-play games offered to Xbox Game Pass subscribers. Unlike Returnal’s Selene, who finds herself in a personal hell, Hades is actually set in hell, or at least a form of it. Players take on the role of the immortal Prince of the Underworld who, replete with mythical powers and weapons, struggles to break free from Hades, the Greek God of the Dead.
Throughout 2020 and 2021, Hades was nominated for and won a number of industry awards, including Best Indie Game and Critic’s Choice at the Golden Joystick Awards, Best Indie and Best Action at The Game Awards 2020, and the prestigious Nebula Award for Best Game Writing. Perhaps another mark of the game’s widespread success is the Hades-themed Nintendo Switch controller by PowerA that will be launching on September 17.
Returnal is available exclusively on PS5.
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Source: ComingSoon
