Returnal PC Appreciated by Reviewers; Faces Off Against Pharaoh on Steam
Reviewers agree - Returnal on PC is the prettiest and most polished version of the game. Critics say there are few bugs.
Yesterday saw the release of the PC version of Returnal. The game by Housemarque, which was available only on the PlayStation 5 console as of 2021, has officially gone live on Steam and Epic Game Store.
On PC - like on PS5 - the title received an exceptionally warm reception among critics. At the time of writing this post Returnal on PC is enjoying an average rating of 87/100 on Metacritc.
Returnal in the eyes of reviewers
In the reviews Returnal appears as an almost perfect rougelike and a very successful port. As for the game itself, almost everything is praised - from the phenomenal graphics through the "meaty" gameplay and satisfying gameplay loop to the intriguing story and atmosphere.
Let the high quality of Returnal be evidenced by the fact that the main critique of the game - appearing in several reviews - is the exorbitant difficulty level, which in places is supposed to irritate and test the patience of players.
The game is doing very well as a PC port. Housemarque's work is said to look downright "insane" on PC, offering an unprecedented level of detail. What's more, the PC version of Returnal is expected to not only look good, but also work decently and be almost bug-free.
It is worth noting that the developers have prepared a number of visual options that enable you to customize the appearance and operation of the game to your own needs and hardware capabilities.
The only major reservation in terms of performance on PC is the problem with occasional stuttering, i.e. a sudden and temporary drop in framerate.. This problem is raised by both journalists, as well as players themselves. However, it seems that in this case a simple patch should solve the issue
Returnal on Steam
Slightly worse Returnal fared in the eyes of gamers on Steam. Admittedly, the game received good ratings (79% positive votes out of 389 ratings), however, it fell a little short of perfection.
Returnal also recorded a rather average launch in terms of the number of active player numbers on Steam. At the hottest moment, there were 5700 of them (via steamdb.info). Interestingly, a similar result was achieved by Pharaoh: A New Era, a remake of the legendary city builder from 1999, which also debuted yesterday on Valve's platform.
You are still unconvinced and want to know how Returnal presents itself on PC compared to the PS5 version? We encourage you to watch the following footage shared on the ElAnalistaDeBits YT channel, in which all available versions of Returnal are compared.
Returnal - minimum requirements (low graphics settings, 720p, 60 fps)
- Processor: Intel Core i5-6400 2.7 GHz (quad-core) / AMD Ryzen 5 1500X 3.5 GHz (quad-core)
- Graphics card: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 6 GB / AMD Radeon RX 580 8 GB
- RAM: 16 GB
- Disk space: 60 GB (SSD recommended)
- Operating system: Windows 10 64-bit
Returnal - recommended requirements (high graphics settings, 1080p, 60 fps)
- Processor: Intel i7-8700 3.7 GHz (six-core) / AMD Ryzen 7 2700X 3.7 GHz (eight-core)
- Graphics card: Nvidia RTX 2070 Super 8 GB / AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT 12 GB.
- RAM: 16 GB
- Disk space: 60 GB (SSD recommended)
- Operating system: Windows 10 64-bit
