Last week, bullet hell roguelite Returnal got a patch that gave it the Suspend Cycle feature. This allows players to pause their run without losing progress for when an emergency comes up during gameplay. And while it’s not intended to be a save state that you can load to when you die and have to restart your run, it appears that you can actually do just that with it.
Freelance games writer Joseph Yaden shared on Twitter the way you can use this on Twitter. You start by suspending your run in-game, then upload your Returnal save file to the cloud. Then when you die, just download the save before a new one overwriting your suspended save state gets uploaded.
I’ve gotta say — this method is singlehandedly getting me through Returnal. I know people are mad that I’m not playing it “the right” way, but I don’t have time to continuously die and restart over and over. I’m now enjoying it because of this and I think that’s a positive thing. https://t.co/VnKumA7dIh
— Joseph Yaden (@JosephYaden) October 31, 2021
Obviously, this is a workaround that involves the abuse of a feature that keeps you from burning away progress when you have to step away from your PS5. It’s not a feature that many roguelikes or roguelites have, so props to Returnal for including it. But as with all things, people find a way to make use of things that’s outside of their intended use.
On that note, it’s unlikely that the developers at Housemarque will patch this out. After all, why should they? If someone has already paid for Returnal, then they should have the choice of either experiencing the game as the devs intended or ruining it for themselves. Just like people should be allowed to surrender their gamer card and slow down a boss in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.
(Source: @JosephYaden / Twitter via VGC, PlayStation, PC Gamer)
