In the new PS5 exclusive Returnal, players are put in the shoes of ASTRA Scout Selena Vassos, who crash lands on planet Atropos while following a familiar White Shadow signal. Selene quickly learns that each time she dies she'll be transported back to her ship in a seemingly never-ending loop. The game isn't easy, and it can take players a while to get Selene off the planet, let alone reach the secret ending. However, if players can manage it, they can get a deeper insight into the basis of Selene's character and the events at the center of Returnal.
The first two endings of the game are achieved normally, just by progressing far enough through the game. The secret ending is only achievable if the player retrieves a pair of car keys from when Selene is hallucinating, or was transported, back into her old home. Even reaching this point takes defeating a few bosses and, thanks to Returnal's limited save functions, can take a long time of retrying over and over again. When players do get there, they'll find that the endings of the game leave some interpretation up to them.
Soft Ending
This ending occurs when Selene finds the source of the White Shadow signal and gets her distress out to ASTRA, thus completing the mission that brought her to the planet Atropos in the first place. After confirming her distress signal has been received, she collapses in relief and waits for the ship. A cutscene plays, showing Selene living out the rest of her life through a variety of phases. She's then lowered into her grave before she is pulled back to the ship crash again. This "ending" shows that there is something worse happening on Atropos than Selene being stranded. From here, players unlock an Act 3 water level.
Main Ending
The main ending occurs at the end of an underwater abyss when players encounter a car that looks like it has been submerged for a long time. If Selene doesn't collect the car keys from the house, she will dive into a deeper pit where she encounters a large tentacle monster she suspects brought her to the planet to begin with. The monster shows her a final flashback of Theia, Selene's mother, swerving to avoid an astronaut, but ultimately hitting him, before the car goes plummeting into the nearby river. As they both drown, and Theia tries to escape, Selene is pulled back to the beginning for the start of another loop.
Secret Ending
If players collect the keys inside of Selene's house, they have an option to interact with the driver's side door of the old car, which starts a hidden ending. In it, Selene sees an old and decrepit version of her mother who attacks Selene before being thrown off. Then, the camera enters the back of Selene's helmet and shows the accident from the astronaut's perspective. This seems to imply that Selene is either literally the astronaut on the bridge, or it shows her guilt from distracting her mom before the car crash. Either way, the scene ends with someone swimming towards the surface before the credits roll. After that, another loop.
These endings do far less than give a definitive answer to the reason that Selene keeps returning after she dies, and that seems to be intended. If anything, the last two endings provide more questions than answers about what happened to Selene as a child, how she escaped the car, and whether or not she was the one in the vintage space suit. Whether the game is being heavily literal, or these visions have metaphorical implications, developer Housemarque does well at shifting time and perspective to tell its uniquely mystifying story.
Returnal is available now on PS5.
