“Returnal was our chance to bring Housemarque’s action to a third-person perspective,” the development team tells me after picking up the top honor at this year’s BAFTA Game Awards in London. The studio a giddy mixture of shock, smiles, and positivity as several very heavy trophies are strewn across them.
“There were a lot of new learnings, and we needed to redefine certain elements to make something unique, something that we can be proud of, but also something that’s true to our arcade heritage. Those were the main goals we wanted to preserve.”
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The PS5 exclusive was the big winner at this year’s ceremony, having picked up the wins for Audio Achievement, Music, Performer In A Leading Role, and Best Game. Nobody, not even Housemarque, expected its humble little arcade narrative horror to sweep the night so extensively, and to see them revel in such an achievement is rather infectious.
“I remember being interviewed for my position on the game and being really excited because Housemarque has never been known for this kind of storytelling before,” narrative designer Eevi Korhonen tells me. “We got the go ahead from Sony to do this dark, weird thing and I was convinced at some point they were going to turn around and go, this is not gonna play, this is too weird. We wanted to be ambiguous, we wanted there to be no single canonical interpretation. There was a worry about going too artsy or unintelligible, but it’s been so great to see fans really resonate with it. They’re coming up with theories about what it all means and that’s exactly what we wanted to do with it.”
The studio also took home the award for Audio Achievement and Music, two worthy accolades given how effortlessly it is able to pull players into a false sense of security as they explore its twisted alien planet. While it isn’t a survival horror game, it sure is terrifying.
“In terms of the musical score it was a long process of going through and iterating,” Housemarque tells me. “Working with the team and making sure that the music really sat in the world and brought it to life. The first part of that process was working out what the actual sound was going to be and embedding that into the world while also being part of it. You’re lonely in Returnal and the feeling of isolation, loneliness, and despair was something we really tried to put into the music.”
Alongside Hades and similar games in the genre, Returnal feels like an ambitious way to combine narrative and gameplay into a single cohesive whole, and with these awards it is finally earning a level of recognition that I’m not sure its launch initially afforded.
For Housemarque, it wants to keep building upon these foundations: “We definitely want to keep doing more, I think we defined something really unique and exciting with Returnal, and there’s still so much more to explore with it. I’m excited to see what we make and what others could make with this type of storytelling that isn’t so linear or hand-holding. We’re really excited to hopefully inspire other game makers too.”
Returnal is coming to PlayStation Plus Premium this June, so those who couldn’t stomach its launch price tag and finally get it downloaded and see what all the fuss is about.