It's a lavish production, dense in atmosphere and as much a showcase for the PlayStation 5 as anything we've seen to date (4K60 aside, this does wonders with some of those next-gen gimmicks too, the DualSense and 3D Audio combining for an out there experience that would do William Castle proud). Returnal is unlike anything Housemarque has made before, a third-person shooter that plays out with the cinematic scope you'd typically find in the output of compatriots Remedy. Chain three enemies together and you'll gain an adrenaline level that'll grant you a status effect chain another three and you'll stack another effect again until you max out and can make the screen explode with the press of a button - take a hit, though, and you'll go back down to zero. The loop's as snappy as others of its ilk, the underlying risk/reward making everything agreeably intense.

How does Returnal work, then? It's a roguelike at heart, built around a moody sci-fi time-loop premise that sits neatly with the genre staples - die, die and then die again, all while an unknowable alien world rearranges itself each time out. Is it any good? After half a dozen hours scrambling through a game dense with systems and mystery it's hard to say.

This is one of the most daring, dazzling and straight-up different big ticket games to come from Sony since Death Stranding.

There's been understandable concern recently about Sony's reported obsession with blockbusters that are too big to fail - the God of Wars, the Horizon: Zero Dawns and the god-forbid-it's-real The Last of Us remake - so it's quite remarkable how Returnal has arrived within mere weeks of the story like some kind of rebuttal.

Returnal digital download