Returnal is a game defined by cycles. Death is never the end in Returnal, and each run allows you to gain a better understanding of Housemarque’s snappy gameplay, unlock more overarching elements like items and gear, and dive deeper into its fascinating and complex story.
But to fully understand the incredible depths to which Housemarque integrates cycles into every facet of Returnal, look no further than The Derelict Citadel, a level that offers a commentary on the very idea of cycles in surprising and enthralling ways. To find out how it all came together, and how it beautifully illustrates the mechanical and narrative cycles at work, IGN spoke with members of the Housemarque team to explore how The Derelict Citadel offers an important capsulation of how Returnal keeps you coming back run after run.
This is Art of the Level.
Spoiler Warning - If you haven’t played through Returnal, you may want to turn back now, and repeat your cycle of viewing once you have. Story spoilers will follow for The Derelict Citadel and some of what takes place after.
Let’s return to the concept of cycles. Your first time playing through The Derelict Citadel, you might assume this is the final chapter. Selene’s journey has led her to the Citadel and the White Shadow Signal in the hopes of escaping Atropos
And she does indeed find the White Shadow Signal and leave! But as we learn in a haunting scene that follows - The Citadel is hardly the end, and Selene is more tethered to Atropos than she realizes. The level is, in fact, just the finale to Returnal’s first of three acts, and is only the midway point of Returnal. . It’s a devious and impressive trick, but one that Housemarque pulls off with style. That’s no easy feat, but thankfully, the developers planned for that pretty early in Returnal’s production.
“I think we actually settled on the beginning, middle and end of Returnal fairly early during the concepting phase," Game Director Harry Krueger told IGN. "I had the story in mind and I would often get asked, 'Hey, this is a pretty bleak kind of game. Is it going to have a happy ending?' And my answer would always be, 'Yes, but we're going to put it in the middle of the game.' And that was kind of the idea, that we do build up the first act of the game, the first three biomes to tell the story of Selene.”
“We knew that we have The Derelict Citadel that we needed to develop this sense of epicness, and in the big picture of the game, make sure that it felt like it was escalating to something," Narrative Director Gregory Louden explained. "So for us as developers, we were thinking for players, they want to see what this was really like. They want to see the epic scale. They want to see what this alien civilization actually was living in. And that was the idea of this payoff of delivering The Derelict Citadel."
The Citadel certainly delivers that payoff. It’s teeming with examples of how Housemarque evolved its best-in-class arcade shooting mechanics and married it with the deepest worldbuilding and story the studio has developed yet.
Central to that is Selene’s discovery of what happened to the alien race that once thrived, a story told through diegetic clues like holographic projections that read like scattered pages of a history textbook, or various scrawlings that Selene learns to decipher the more she finds. All players have learned in the first half of the game informs the Derelict Citadel - you’re in the heart of the beast, even if that heart is essentially dead.
“The beginning of the game is in the Overgrown Ruins. And then the next step is in the Crimson Wastes. And those two have largely been, hence the name Overgrown Ruins. They've been ruins of a civilization. So for us as developers, we were thinking for players, they want to see what this was really like. They want to see the epic scale. They want to see what this was really like," Louden said.
“We knew the midpoint sort of twist and we knew that we wanted to build up to something. So a twist without buildup isn't a very good payoff. So for us, we knew that we have The Derelict Citadel that we needed to develop this sense of epicness, and in the big picture of the game, make sure that it felt like it was escalating to something.”
It is a thrilling and daunting sight to witness. The last vestiges of this alien civilization you’ve been uncovering seem to be at some unfathomable height, and yet the structures all around you are massive and sprawling.
“A lot of the ideas that went into the creation of the Citadel was just creating this like nightmarish, almost like biblical city, where everything would feel so massive compared to the human scale, so this could not have been populated by humans at any stage of its presence, and everything feels alien," Art Director Ville Kinnunen said. "Like there's nothing relatable in there. There's no fountains. There are very few staircases as well. It all has this almost a monolithic feel to it.”
"Every bit of art, the city tells the stories. So the city has burnt holes, scorch marks, tears and looks like there's been a fight. The sound design, so with the 3D audio, we always made sure that you had this sense of it crumbling around you. We actually had sounds that sort of triggered and rocks that would fall down," Louden added.
Housemarque imbues the entire level with an unsettling atmosphere, from those crumbling structures, to the sheer scale of its buildings, to an omnipresent sense of desolation. Stepping into the Citadel almost feels like an intrusion, but a necessary one to achieve Selene’s goal. And in witnessing the scale of the place, it’s not just about what you can see, but also what you can’t. Because of the Citadel’s scope, there’s also a lot of negative space within the level, depicted by a layer of clouds masking the world below. You have no idea of the depths to which you may drop, ensuring that every move the player makes needs to be precise.
Because you can't see the floor of the city, you can't see the streets. There's no cars or anything in there. That's like further making it just feel inhospitable, and like you're above the crowds. You are in this different, you're clearly not on earth anymore, and it's clearly like massive beyond anything reasonable, you know?”
One aspect that plays a significant role in making the level feel oppressive? There’s only really one natural light source.
“So the architecture of Citadel was basically based on the gameplay metrics that we had about very clean traversal area and everything had to be kept like really readable and support fast paced action. And then making that kind of open space, there was the unique challenge of making it look interesting, and especially under one light source," Kinnunen said. "It was only the main body of light in the sky, and that created like a kind of unique, this effect of being this almost like a dead city and everything was like under one big light source, like a dying sun or something."
The Citadel’s bleak, unsettling tone and artistic flourishes create a level that at once builds upon what you’ve learn of Atropos so far but also feels like the summation of all that’s come before. It is a massive, fearsome place to be, but one that Selene must venture through as the promise of returning home lingers ahead. And, just like with the world design, Housemarque foundcreative ways to add new depth to its gameplay as well.
Hookshots and Hiveminds
By the time you reach The Derelict Citadel, players probably have a good handle on Returnal’s precise, intense bullet-hell action, particualrly the marriage between action often seen in 2D within 3D spaces that accentuate good spots for cover and breaking line of sight. That itself is an accomplishment, but Selene’s newly claimed hookshot only makes this new venture for Housemarque more complicated. Thankfully, it creates an even more rewarding combat loop.
“The hookshot, it does open up a lot more possibilities when it comes to traversal. It gives you more options to escape from combat, to have that extra escape route. When you are overwhelmed, you just grapple over to another platform. And that allowed us also to be a little bit more aggressive with some of the enemies and some of the bullet patterns as well. So there's more layering of these small slow-moving projectiles that, as we called it, pollute the gameplay space. So they create this slow-moving, constant avoidance gameplay. So even when you run, you can't ever really hide. The gameplay always finds you,” Krueger said.
The Citadel’s unique enemy design and level layout didn’t just impact the level itself though - the Housemarque team learned lessons from designing the Citadel that impacted the rest of Selene’s journey.