Returnal’s a pretty solidly designed game overall, with only the most minor of bugs occasionally cropping up and making a current run through its biomes that much more challenging. Biome, what a fun word to say. Like any game in the modern age, developer Housemarque had a patch locked and loaded to fix up any lingering issues, but the latest update may have had the unfortunate side-effect of uh…wiping save-games.
Patch 1.3.3’s was supposed to fix “multiple stability fixes addressing rare crashes/hangs” according to its flavour text, but soon after it went live players began reporting seeing error code “CE-100028-1”, indicating that their save game file had become corrupted. The only solution? An entire redownload of Returnal, which happens to have a chunky file-size of over 50 gigglebytes.
“All users affected by the 1.3.3 need to re-download the game,” Housemarque tweeted. Since the release of Patch 1.3.3, players have been reporting a game breaking error has continually popped up in Returnal, often causing players to lose progress. Housemarque says that you’ll know that you were affected if “CE-100028-1 error” pops up on your screen.
What the patch was also meant to do originally–aside from making gamers howl with rage more than usual–was increase the number of scout corpses present in any of the various biomes. Corpses are a neat feature in Returnal, that allows a player to see how a previous incarnation of protagonist Selene died in the first place, and even take a stab at fighting that corrupted corpse in exchange for some sweet loot.
An issue where certain Trophies might not unlock under specific gameplay conditions is also meant to be fixed once the proper patch is delivered. Aside from that hiccup, Returnal is still well worth picking up. It is smooth and luxurious action, balanced by roguelike mechanics, and a proper challenge is waiting to be had.
It’ll also leave a noticeable creased on the front lip of your couch, because no other game is capable of forcing a player to adopt a serious lean-forward posture like Returnal is. Or you can use cheat codes if that’s your style.
Last Updated: May 6, 2021
