Plot

Roguelike about an astronaut trying to reach the source of a strange signal on a surreal forbidden planet where each time she gets killed by the hostile aliens she's sent back to the moment she arrived on the alien world.

A tragic psychological horror story in the form of a highly challenging sci-fi roguelike game. Disobeying orders to stay out of it, ASTRA Corporation space explorer Selene Vassos arrives on a forbidden alien world in an attempt to discover the source of the mysterious "White Shadow" signal. However, her ship crashes and she gets killed by one of the inhabitants shortly afterward. However, she then wakes up again just after the crash as if time had reset itself. Furthermore, she notices that the land seems to be different each time she wakes up after getting killed, even though she always wakes up in her ship. Having no other choice, she continues her quest fighting Lovecraftian aliens. The extremely deadly aliens in Returnal come in multiple forms, but mainly feature leathery wings, bones, and tentacles. Vassos soon starts having inexplicable surreal moments such as being transported to a grassy landscape with an abandoned house in it that looks exactly like her childhood home. The game has no save game option.—BonaFideBOSS