Returnal is ramping up their promotions machine, first with their Housemarque Housecast Episode 3 detailing their combat systems taking advantage of the Dualsense controller. Now, a new trailer on the PlayStation Blog has been released, showcasing some rather impressive gameplay that highlights various weapons and equipment that will help you on your journey.

From what we can see in the trailer, it details what we can expect from the status HUD that aids us in this roguelike bullet hell experience. First highlights the weapons loadout, and just like Hades and other roguelike games, we could only take one primary weapon in our runs.

Also from the trailer, it shows the Tachymatic Carbine, which works like common assault rifle with an Shockstream alt-fire that fires a charged energy blast. As seen from the Housemarque episode, you could activate that in the Dualsense by squeezing the L2 button and half-pressing said button to aim. Other weapons include a burst fire submachine gun (Electropylon Driver), a fully automatic alien rifle (Hollowseeker), and an alien-looking bio-rifle (Spitmaw).

Returnal will also feature suit bonuses that you could obtain from ominous monolithic devices called Cthnos and Fabricators. From the trailer, you could obtain shield bonuses and explosive counters that emits an explosion upon contact. Also there are parasites that grant a double-edged bonus to your suit but also a matching detriment. An example in the trailer says that “kills grant bonus health, but hostiles leave a pool of acid after death” thus turning your creepy crawlies into xenomorphs. Fun.

Finally there are Tools to round off the gadgets that you can gain apart from your weapons and suit bonuses. There are grenades called dismantlers that clear the area of hostiles. Ground surges, mines that impale nearby hostiles. Finally a melee weapon, the Atropian Blade that damage enemy shields that block energy projectiles.

Another thing I noticed in the trailer is that per kill, you obtain obolites, which is most possibly the currency used to upgrade your tools. Because as every trailer keeps reiterating, that you will die, and you will die a lot. However, your weapons will get powered up and as seen in Hades, which is what will make you permanently stronger.

I feel that the suit bonuses from devices will be temporal bonuses that you lose upon death, or maybe fabricants could be permanent additions when you fix them. We could only see how these features come together when the game releases, and with every trailer, I’m becoming more and more excited for this game.

Returnal launches exclusively on the PS5 on March 19, 2021.