If you’ve been having trouble beating Returnal’s challenging enemies, or simply wish to play the game with a friend, you’re in luck. During tonight’s PlayStation State of Play presentation, the team behind the popular, but super difficult, game promised that and more.
As part of its free Ascension update, Returnal will, in fact, add co-op later this month. It will be online based, and will allow one other player to enter the fracas. Additionally, Ascension will also introduce a ‘Tower of Sisyphus’ mode.
Read on for more about this new survival/challenge scenario:
True to our arcade roots, the Tower of Sisyphus is effectively our Endless mode. Players will strive to ascend the Tower as high as possible – however, much like the tragic story of Sisyphus, there is no end to the climb and players are tragically destined to meet their demise as the mode gets increasingly harder. The only question is: how far can you get before succumbing?
One great motivator for pushing forward is a sense of accomplishment. Each Phase in the Tower will culminate with an encounter with Algos, which will also get increasingly harder as you advance through the mode. Unlike the campaign, in the Tower players will also have a score to chase. You can track your progress and highest score on a leaderboard, and compete against your friends and foes for the highest rank. Much like our previous arcade-inspired titles, you will also have a Score Multiplier – keeping this up and increasing it will be the key to racking up the highest possible scores. Your Multiplier will deplete if you get hit or if you don’t deal damage for a while, so you’ll need to be constantly dancing on the knife’s edge to ensure you maintain strong forward momentum. While there are secrets and optional routes to take, the Tower is intended to be Returnal distilled into an arcade action experience, where the emphasis is on survival, skill, and focused progression.