A new update for Returnal has been released by Housemarque, finally letting players save their game mid-run. This means that you can now quit the game or turn your console off, and pick up right where you left off (with some limitations). The update also adds a Photo Mode to the game.
Housemarque calls the new save functionality ‘Suspend Cycle’, which doesn’t work like other games. As with other roguelike games that offer this ability, the game is creating a temporary suspended game state. This preserves the randomly generated version of the world, all of your gear, upgrades, health and more, but then deletes the suspended game state when you resume the game.
Housemarque says there are some limitations to the Suspend Cycle functionality. You cannot create a suspend point during boss battles, cinematics, first-person sequences or during combat scenarios.
Returnal Patch v2.0.1 Release Notes:
- Suspend Cycle – Pause the cycle and resume your run later!
- Photo Mode – Capture the bullet-hell action or the dark beauty of Atropos; compose your shot, apply your favorite filters, and share with the world!
- This update also includes numerous bug fixes and quality-of-life improvements.
It’s good to see Housemarque finally addressing one of the game’s biggest criticisms. It also means you can now re-enable auto updates, in case you followed Housemarque’s own advice about disabling them.