The sci-fi roguelike Returnal will be getting an update entitled Returnal: Ascension, receiving two new modes that deeply expand and extend the life of the game. Fans (including us) have wanted Returnal co-op for the campaign or an iterative survival mode since the game’s release, so they should be surprised and pleased to find that they will be getting both for free later this month on March 23.
How Returnal’s co-op and tower-based survival mode will work
In the blurb of the trailer reveal for Returnal revealed during Playstation’s latest State of Play showcase, the co-op mode for Returnal: Ascension will allow “you to share your entire journey through the shifting labyrinth of Atropos with another player.” A special note has been added to clarify that this co-op feature only counts for the campaign and not for the Tower of Sisyphus, House sequences, or Challenge Mode.
Meanwhile, the new tower-based survival mode – Tower of Sisyphus – will be accessible to players who have unlocked the Icarian Grapnel. As the name suggests, the mode will feature “an ascending gauntlet of increasingly dangerous phases, with each containing twenty floors.” Each floor will require you to defeat every foe within it before you can proceed to the next floor.
Harry Krueger, game director for Housemarque, shares more details in an official PlayStation blog post. The co-op campaign will be accessible through the Chronosis portal throughout the game, adding that your partner will fittingly be a Selene from another timeline. Either player will be able to revive the other, and client players will still receive logs and xenoglyphs, as well as increasing their Scout Rank as they participate in co-op.
The Tower of Sisyphus, on the other hand, is an endless mode that will get more and more difficult with each passing floor. Coming with new narrative content, this “arcade action experience” will track your score on leaderboards for bragging rights.
In other news, the license for the WWE franchise might go from EA to 2K and the PS5 console exclusive Forspoken has been delayed to October of this year.
