OWhile it’s relatively common to see AAA studios tackling new genres typically associated with indie releases, the roguelite genre has somehow largely managed to escape this fate. Other than some games that have optional game modes on the side that feature roguelite elements, we didn’t really see a major studio get into the genre until one of the first PS5 exclusives, Feedback. After spending a few years stuck on the console, Feedback is now finally available on PC. But as always, the question is whether the game made the jump between platforms in one piece, and how well it still holds up when it comes to its gameplay and story.
Feedback, for those not in the know, is a roguelite third-person shooter with a heavy emphasis on speed, mobility, and bullet hell elements. It puts players in the shoes of Selene, who finds herself crash landed on an alien planet under mysterious circumstances. After finding a gun on a corpse that looks exactly like her, Selene decides the best course of action would be to figure out what exactly is going on on this planet, and to do that she has her first (vague) mission: locate the source of the mysterious White Shadow emission.
The main story of Feedback is one of the most interesting releases of the genre. The closest comparison I can think of is Hades – both games make their protagonists constantly dying in failures a major part of their story. However, where Hades has its protagonist, Zagreus, constantly making progress with the characters around him, Selene, in her isolation, progresses within instead. Without giving too much away – and there’s a lot to accidentally spoil if you’re not careful – Returnal’s story is more regarding Selene herself than her situation or the alien planet.
“The story of Returnal is more regarding Selene herself than her situation or the alien planet. »
It is to highlight that Feedback makes extensive use of its weirder aspects in its marketing. From the moment you fail your first run, you’ll notice recurring nightmares involving, among other things, a mysterious astronaut and strange tentacles. There’s a house as a recurring motif, as well as Selene’s entire ship, Helios. Add the fate of a seemingly long-dead alien race and a mysterious alien language that can be deciphered through multiple races – races that Selene herself seems to have gone through if the logs you find everywhere are any indication – and it should be obvious that Feedback has a lot to unpack when it comes to its story, themes, characters, and what the game is trying to say.
Before we get into the core gameplay, let’s talk regarding the most important aspect of this release: PC performance. Having spent a few hours with Feedback, and testing gameplay and performance in at least two of the game’s biomes, it’s safe to say that Sony’s frenzy to have great performance in its PC ports is unbroken. Despite the relatively heavy requirements (especially if you plan to play around with ray tracing), Returnal offers several adjustment options, leading to the right amount of performance.
I was able to get frame rates between 60 and 100fps on a PC with a Ryzen 5 3600, Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, and 32GB of RAM, and with the game running at its “High” preset. PC optimizations aren’t just limited to hardware performance and high frame rates either; one of the small but much appreciated tweaks is that every time you run Feedback following an update it will pre-compile its shader caches. This means there will be less stutter in minute-to-minute gameplay, which is great because even a few dropped frames might be fatal to an otherwise promising run.
“The back offers several adjustment options, leading to the right amount of performance”
Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the way Feedback runs on the Steam Deck. After tinkering around as much as possible, going so far as to lower just regarding every parameter I might lower, and even trying a few command line launch arguments, I just mightn’t figure it out Feedback to maintain a steady frame rate of even 30fps in the game’s starting area. This means that even with no enemies or projectiles around you, Returnal simply can’t perform as well as it needs to. be a pleasant experience. In the current state of affairs, Feedback on the Steam Deck is a bad idea. Future updates may fix some of these issues, however.
Of course, none of this would really matter if the gameplay mightn’t hold your attention, and Feedback is certainly no slouch in that department either. Feedback has all the typical roguelite shooter aspects you’d expect – fancy weapons that get upgraded over the course of individual runs, small upgrades throughout a run, meta progression that revolves around unlocking new weapons and upgrades, and even a Metroid-inspired aspect of meta-progression where you start getting new gear to help you explore older areas.
There’s definitely a constant sense of progression in one form or another, whether it’s in individual runs as you pick up health and weapon upgrades, or maybe a new parasite that buffs some of your abilities, or at a meta level, with more important unlocks, such as the blade, or the grappling hook.
“There is definitely a constant sense of progression in one form or another”
The minute-by-minute gameplay of Feedback, however, where things get much more interesting. Speed is one of the most important aspects of the game. You’re expected to be constantly on the move, and while the game has a dedicated button to help you aim accurately, you’re going to be shooting more fire from the hip as you try to sprint, dodge, and melee your way through hordes of enemies. Indeed, almost all enemies use attack patterns directly inspired by classic shooters and bullet hell games, like Ikaruga.
Enemy attacks are often giant colored orbs, usually fired in some pattern. To help you deal with this, Selene comes equipped with an incredibly versatile dodge. Not only does the length of the dodge itself depend on how long you hold down its button, but it’s also an incredibly important part of regular crawling, since you can use it to jump over bigger gaps and fight. Thanks to its short cooldown of around a second, you’re expected to use dodge all the time, especially since it allows you to pass through enemy bullets and lasers without getting hit.
And not getting hit while dealing with hordes of enemies is where another interesting aspect of FeedbackGameplay starts to kick in. The more kills you can while avoiding damage, the more your adrenaline level increases. Overcharging is a way to reward good gameplay by giving the player small but significant buffs the longer they are able to play well. The moment they are hit, the adrenaline meter is reset to 0 and the player must start getting those buffs once more. Adrenaline buffs, dubbed overloads, range from simple – like being able to track enemies through walls – to interesting – like a longer window to trigger active reload – to quite powerful – like an improved melee attack or boost 50% of your Weapon Mastery gains.
“Thanks to its short cooldown of around one second, you’re expected to constantly use dodge”
One of the first hurdles that most players, including yours truly, have always faced. Feedback is the first boss of the biome: the Phrike. And this boss fight is one of the best examples of what makes Feedback so funny. Although I spent several days trying to kill Phrike when I started playing Feedback in 2021, I was only able to beat him following a week. Despite this, however, the Phrike never quite felt cheap. I always felt like there was a player skill issue in-game, and there was always a constant drive within me to improve in-game. After replaying the opening sections on PC , I can safely say that it wasn’t just the nostalgia talking. When it comes to third-person action gameplay, Feedback is up there with some of the best.
I have long maintained that Feedback is, in and of itself, reason enough to justify owning a PS5 since I first played it when the console launched. And now that it’s no longer stuck on the console, the reason to buy the console has been greatly reduced, at least for someone like me who doesn’t find Sony’s other first-party outing particularly interesting. Feedback is a gorgeous game that sounds great, plays amazingly well and, especially for the purposes of this review, has made the leap from PS5 to PC with a grace that few other titles seem capable of yet. Although two years have passed since the initial release of Feedbackour thoughts on the game haven’t really changed. Feedback is still an incredibly fun and beautiful game that runs great on PC.
This game has been reviewed on PC.
