I've been playing Returnal since launch, well over 5 hours, maybe even approaching 10. I haven't gotten out of the first biome yet. I love the gameplay, but....I'm getting nowhere. How long do I continue to bang my head against this wall? What am I doing wrong? I generally love hard games - I just plat'd Demon's Souls for the second time. But....apparently I suck at this. The IGN reviewer said he beat the first Biome on his FIRST RUN. I'm over 50 runs in and I can't beat it. 

So do I just suck? Should I give up? It's fun to play but I can only play the same "level" so many times....

Yes....


Could you repeat the question?

Wow, this is almost word for word the thread I was planning on making. Glad I’m not the only one! I just beat Bloodborne, and while it was certainly difficult, it wasn’t as hard as I was expecting. I’ve beaten numerous Housemarque games, Cuphead, Super Meat Boy, Celeste, TLoU on Grounded mode, etc., and I can’t recall ever feeling this hopeless and defeated in a game. Just when I’ve worked up to a great build and when I feel like I’m getting good, it seems like the difficulty suddenly goes through the roof in a particular room, and I get killed and have to start all over.

I really don’t know if I’ll have the resolve to finish this game, and I’m super disappointed to feel that way. I’ve loved Housemarque for years, and there is so much good in this game, but it’s just too damn punishing.

Exactly! I love the moment to moment gameplay, but there's a lack of healing items, and you have no chance against the level ending boss if not at full health, with great weapons, etc. 

And agree on other games - huge fan of all the SoulsBourne games, finish and plat'd most of them. But....I can't beat this. Not even the first level. I don't know what to do....in fact, some runs, I'll defeat every room you can get to before the boss to try and level up everything as much as possible, but I usually don't have full health then. Or I do, but there just wasn't enough rooms to adequately level up your weapons to face the boss. 

Only thing I can think of is I'm not using my alt-fire's enough. Or if you can get the grappling hook in the first level, I don't have that, but i've cleared all rooms multiple times and never found it.

So frustrating...a $70 game that I can't get passed the first level.....

Something odd I found is that I got all the way to Phrike on my second play through, and I nearly beat him (got him down to about half health in his final of 3 stages), but I’ve spent about 5 hours+ since then and haven’t felt I’ve gotten good enough or powered up enough to face him again.

Yeah, I feel like there are many runs where there just isn't enough to do to get "leveled-up" high enough. It's also super frustrating to feel powerful enough, but you've exhausted all rooms and pick-ups and there's nothing you can do to get any more health. You're just dead to rights to face the boss. I wish rooms could re-spawn or something with the chance of having drops of health. 

We’re totally on the same page. I actually was struggling with the lacking health for a while, but that seems to have improved. Not sure if I’m getting better and thus losing less health? Idk. BUT...I’ve been running into the weapon issue a ton right now. I’ve been on my current run for I feel at least an hour. My integrity/health bar is built up, and my weapon proficiency is really high, yet I can’t find a weapon past level 2; so, I feel like facing Phrike is just a waste of time right now. But in my continued pursuit of a better weapon, I just can’t help but have this foreboding feeling that I’m gonna walk in one wrong room that locks me in and throws 30 enemies at me simultaneously that will maul my life. 

The only trick I know of about increasing health is going back to the ship and sleeping in your bed. But...this used to give you almost full health, and you could do it more than once, and now they just released a patch that significantly nerfed this.

So after all the complaints on difficulty, Housemarque releases a patch that makes the game even harder. Wteff? Haha

Oh man, I didn't know you could do that. Ugh, could've helped me. 

The Souls games were just patterns too. Its just it was easier to get to them and you didn't have to try and level up everything first.

At the same time, like I said, maybe I just suck at this one.