‘Returnal’ gameplay trailer reveals the endless Tower of Sisyphus

Housemarque has shown off an extended look at the upcoming Ascension expansion for Returnal.

The free Returnal update was revealed earlier this month at the most recent PlayStation State of Play. Now, PlayStation has released a 19-minute long gameplay trailer game with director Harry Krueger and narrative director Gregory Louden showing off the free update. While the update also introduces the ability to play the game through online co-op, the gameplay trailer focuses on the endless mode, Tower of Sisyphus.

According to Louden, the story you experience in Tower of Sisyphus depends on how far along you are in the main campaign of Returnal. “If you play this and you’ve finished Returnal, Selene will react and bit differently in subtle ways,” says Louden.

Judging from what Krueger describes, this new mode in Returnal should be closer to the more arcade-like titles Housemarque has developed in the past.

The tower tracks players’ progress from room to room, and phase to phase. There is also a score that will measure players’ success, and to get a good score there is a multiplier that players will need to keep up to get higher points.

“This will be a very familiar element to players who have been accustomed to our previous games,” said Krueger. “And we felt this is a great way to and some depth and replayability to Returnal through a familiar package but with an entirely new twist.”

The full gameplay trailer goes into plenty more detail about what players can look forward to from the update, which you can check out above.

A blogpost last week also went into some detail about what players can expect from the free Returnal update. “In co-op, the game works in a similar fashion to single-player Returnal,” wrote Krueger. “However, if players get too far apart, they will be tethered back together. This is to ensure that the focus remains on cooperative gameplay and both players feel connected to the fates of each other.”

In other news, co-founder of Devolver Digital Mike Wilson has launched a new company that will specialise in “medically therapeutic” titles.