Returnal review – epic dance of death with beautiful, brutal aliens

PlayStation 5; Housemarque/Sony
Exceptionally hostile creatures are round every corner on a glorious, punishing quest through the perilous landscapes of another planet

This is not the best year for a game about being stuck in an eternal time loop, where nothing much changes but things are always extremely difficult. Many people will find it hard to find the motivation to face down a punishingly challenging game about the unreliability of memory and the elasticity of time. But, despite that, I didn't find it hard to become totally absorbed in Returnal - it's unforgiving, sometimes dispiriting but also intriguing, mysterious, and just glorious to play.

As Selene, a deep-space scout, we crash on a planet called Atropos, full of eerily beautiful and exceptionally hostile creatures that look like the Borg on a nature trip and sound like something out of an Alex Garland movie. Leonine creatures with fronds of glowing LED tentacles leap towards you, emitting glowing orbs of death; looming robots shoot walls of orange bullets from the sky; skinny aliens screech and lob sticky acid.