Returnal devs talk weapons, randomization, and inspiration in extended gameplay walkthrough

Returnal is finally here, and if you're not already busy making runs into Housemarque's hotly anticipated PS5 exclusive, you can check out some extended gameplay from the devs featuring some insightful commentary.

Housemarque shared just under 30 minutes of the developers playing the game and explaining some of the environments, enemies, and systems you'll encounter in the early stages of Returnal. That includes some of the weapons you'll find as well as the gameplay-reshaping upgrades and their accompanying Malfunctions - roll the dice for loot too many times and you might start accumulating some very unusual wrinkles for your playstyle. The video only explores Overgrown Ruins and Crimson Waste biomes, so don't worry about seeing too many spoilers - this is just a primer for your own journeys into Atropos.

It also features some explanations from the developers themselves of just what they were thinking when they made this strange but fascinating game: "I think dark sci-fi of course has been one of our biggest inspirations, and cosmic horror or Lovecraftian horror, I guess, has informed a lot of our aesthetic decisions and also some of the more philosophical themes we explore in our narrative as well," game director Harry Krueger explains in the video.

If you want to learn more before jumping in, make sure you check out our Returnal review, in which GR's Ben Tyrer praises it as "one of Sony's most beguilingly weird blockbusters in a long time."

Or if you're already playing, make the most of every run with our handy list of Returnal tips.