Returnal — A Story Defined by its Medium
An infinite cycle of death and rebirth might seem tedious in other media, but playing Returnal is anything but that.
[Spoilers for the first act of Returnal follow]
I have long championed the thought that video games are a powerful storytelling medium that can tell stories in a way no other media can. Stories in games are nothing new, they’ve been around since long before studios began hiring professional actors to play their starring roles, but they have certainly gotten more complex over time. The unique perspective and control that games offer allows writers to do things that other media could only dream of, a truly immersive journey that ties your experience with that of the characters within the story. Nowhere is this more prevalent, than in the genre of Rogue-Lites.
Rogue-likes have a long history in video games, existing originally in Ascii form, and becoming more complex as technology evolved. They are defined quite simply as games where the player travels through procedurally generated levels battling enemies, typically in turn based combat, until they are struck down and start again from the beginning. Unlike other genres where you collect upgrades, experience, or new mechanics, Rogue-likes are defined by an improvement in the player. The only thing that gets you further into the labyrinth, besides getting lucky with item drops and room layouts, is your own skill. The genre changed and developed over the decades from its origin point, and like any genre, it split into niche sub-genres, the most popular of which is the Rogue-Lite.
These kept the essence of Rogue-Likes, but contained some sort of progress outside of the player’s skill. You might have better starting gear, more health, bonuses you could equip before a new run, and this progression allowed Rogue-Lites to differentiate themselves from their predecessors. Alongside these changes, the combat became more action focused, Rogue-Lite protagonists control closer to action games than turn based strategy. This change in mechanics also saw a shift in storytelling. The further you travel into whatever dungeon the game contains, the more story you unlock. Some, like Supergiant’s 2018 title “Hades,” would even include NPCs that remembered each of your attempts and reacted accordingly. With Rogue-likes, your character was typically blissfully unaware of your myriad adventures into the depths, but now, they no longer have that luxury.
Returnal is a Rogue-lite: it begins with the protagonist Selene, a deep space explorer for Astra, following a signal she calls “White Shadow.” Despite Astra’s demands not to follow it, Selene discovers the source: Atropos, an unexplored planet that she knows frighteningly little about. As she descends onto the planet’s surface, her ship malfunctions and crash lands in a forest, leaving her with no option but to explore the alien ruins. The game seems normal at first, Selene abandons her ship Helios and ventures into the forest, noting along the way the signs of a previous civilisation, and the dangerous flora that attack her on sight. You may find a new weapon, start getting the hang of shooting and dodging enemy projectiles, but eventually you’ll get hit one too many times, and Selene drops. Then the game truly begins.
Gasping and reaching to the sky, Selene wakes up back at the crash site. For the player, who probably knew what to expect from previous knowledge and experience, it’s obvious what is occurring. The crash site is your hub world, every time you die you end up back there, but each time you leave you’re a little bit more prepared for what’s ahead. But for Selene, unaware of the tropes and the fact that she’s in a video game at all, it’s the beginning of a nightmare. The crux of Returnal’s narrative isn’t as it first seems: Selene isn’t in a traditional time loop. Every time she dies and is resurrected by whatever force is keeping her on Atropos, time has not reset, she is born again, yet she retains the knowledge of her previous attempts. But even that’s not entirely true.
As Selene attempts to make her way through the forest once again, she starts to find her own corpse scattered throughout the world, each one a monument to a previous failure. Some are accompanied by audio recordings containing a voice that is clearly Selene’s, yet driven mad by countless resets, recordings that she didn’t make, or maybe come from a far off future. She tries to wrestle with these alternate versions of herself, she speaks about them with disdain, never wanting to become “like her.” As the player, each of these resets gives you more story, more permanent upgrades, new items and weapons, and your experience develops alongside hers.
Watching a character go through a time loop is not ground-breaking in and of itself, it’s a common story across all media, yet the difference here is that you have control. You as the player face the same challenges Selene does, the only thing stopping Selene from getting further is your skill as a player. So each time you abandon Helios and edge closer towards White Shadow, you learn enemy attacks, you get better at dodging and shooting, and you eventually get to the stage where the gameplay loop flows so well that each attempt is getting faster, and easier, until you find yourself getting further into the planet than ever before.
All the while, Selene’s mental state is in a constant flux. Once she feels like she finally has a grasp on what’s happening, she comes across something that shatters her world view. It could be her childhood home, unbelievably appearing in the ruins of an alien civilisation like a mirage, or a song she knows all too well emanating from the trees in an ominous chorus. Eventually, Selene regains her determination and your skills as a player pays off when she reaches “White Shadow,” the signal that she so desperately wanted to reach. It’s a distress signal, her distress signal.
Selene escapes Atropos, comes home a hero, and lives the rest of her life in peace, until she eventually succumbs to old age and is buried. Then she wakes up again. This was the moment I knew Returnal was special, what felt like a triumphant ending for Selene was really only the halfway point through her nightmarish journey. Atropos has changed in the decades since she left, and now Selene is forced to find and confront whatever is truly keeping her here.
There is so much more to discover in the games later acts, and while the narrative twists and turns in on itself, the core of the game follows the same cycle of rebirth. Selene’s story and the Rogue-Lite gameplay loop are intertwined. This story could very well be told in a movie or a book, but what makes it so effective are the things that only a game can offer: that connection between Selene and your actions as a player make you an active participant, rather than just a passive observer. There are no montages or unseen attempts, you follow Selene through every death on Atropos, and that’s something that no other medium can portray in the same way.
