Return Review: Turn Around Towards Adventure

Everything went wrong; the treatment of our planet, the plans for our future, and even our mission to save humanity. Knowing it’s impossible to move forward and work towards a new dawn for mankind, your only option is to Return to Earth.

Horrors of Our Own Doing

In Return, you scrap a mission to find a new home for not just you, but for the human race. You plant yourself down with two feet and set off to find parts to fix your spacecraft so you can hopefully complete said mission this time. Waiting for you however is the dark truth of how humanity left the planet, and how bad we let it get. Cosmic horrors, along with monsters of our own design both organic and mechanical await you on your journey across this wasteland. Return sets up the world so that it’s not just unsafe out there, it’s unsafe everywhere in this future that humanity crafted for ourselves.

From familiar locations to another, you walk the earth in search of these mechanical parts, but along the way see what's left of humanity and how they've adapted to the new environment. Small tribal communes following different laws, both self imposed and that of the land, are found during your time back on Earth. Bartering for what few supplies are left, as well as trying to find hope for others in the smallest forms becomes second nature. You’ll come across both rich environmental storytelling, as well as short but very telling journals left by those long passed, painting this decrepit and grim reality you find yourself living in.

Discovering Vs. Telling

This is where Return absolutely shines. In an absolute stark contrast, the foreground which is all characters and interactable items are depicted in pure black with white pixel accents for animation. Everything in the background is filled with parallax scrolling muted colors. Return creates an amazing motif that’s unlike most games out there. Every area has its own color palette, dictating that you’ve entered a different space without the use of text or transition. 

While sound effects are rather simple, the true audio sensations come from the ambiance score as well as the music that kicks in during boss fights. Moody and retro, the game’s audio transports you straight into its dystopian post-apocalyptic wasteland.

Honing in Those Skills

Outside of the optional tutorial at the beginning of the game, Return refuses to hold your hand. Only giving you the information on how to move and attack, it’s up to you the player to figure everything else out. You’re not told where to go, only given the directive that you need to find parts to fix your spacecraft. With this directive you set out either left or right into the far flung destroyed future.

Return plays like a 2D Souls-like, with less emphasis on exploration other than open every door and talk to every NPC. There are no secrets to be found, but there are gems of lore to be read and gleamed throughout your playtime, either through found journals or through dialog with NPCs. While most of the game time you’re moving in a single direction, hacking enemies and leveling your gear up to beat the next boss, there are a few side quests to be discovered as well.

These quests are started either by finding an item and then connecting it with its owner, or vice versa. There aren’t too many of these in the game but they do add some more context into the world you’re occupying and fleshes out your experience.

Combat in the game is done by both melee and long-range attacks via a firearm. You’ll start out the game with one melee weapon and two different firearms, but there are many to be found and purchased during your journey. Obtaining these and switching up your loadout allows you to experience and decide on your preferred style of attack. These weapons can be upgraded to have quicker attack rates, shorter reloads and more, but the game doesn’t tell you how to accomplish this. Finding this mechanic myself after defeating just over half of the game’s bosses, had me feeling a bit silly. But even without the upgraded weapons the game never felt unfair. Learning patterns and timing is all it takes to survive, but the added benefit of better weapons will cut the time it takes to defeat these monsters down considerably.

The game also features a leveling mechanic, that rather than upgrading base stats you'll unlock a new perk to equip or not in your single perk slot. Ranging from added health, to a vampire-like ability to steal HP upon successful attacks, and a regen perk. You’ll find a few shops as well throughout the wasteland, some selling restorative items and others selling new weapons.

Breakdown

Game: Return

Developer: Dead Unicorn

Availability: PC (Steam)

Reviewed on PC

Pros:

+ Fantastic visual presentation

+ Tight, engaging combat

+ Surprisingly deep lore

Cons:

- Lacks key tutorials (upgrading weapons)

Final Thoughts

Return is single-developer Jesse Eisenbart’s first fully priced release. After only one other title they’ve charged for, as well as dozens of Itch.io projects and game jams, they’ve finally put their stamp out into the world with Return. What a stamp it is. 

Even though the game’s runtime is on the shorter side, it does not detract from experiencing a breathtaking and engrossing dystopia. After running through the game’s various locations and digging into the lore, I wanted more. What was crafted for the game’s mythos could be considered derivative, but it never came across like that for me. This was mainly in part to how little it actually spoon fed you this information, and instead is left for you to find or deduce on your own.

I can confidently say as someone who bought this game that it is worth your money and time. There’s nothing wrong with a honed vision and a tight game length as opposed to the literal hundreds of bloated experiences we see today. Return deserves your attention, and Jesse has earned nothing but applause from this reviewer.

Reviewed by Matthew Wright