Housemarque was teasing something last year and now the team has revealed exactly what those teases meant. The studio announced that it is adding co-op to Returnal as well as a survival mode. Both will be free in its 3.0 update coming on March 22.
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The announcement came with its own trailer and showed two Selenes fighting on Atropos. Two players can tackle the entire campaign together, granted they both have PlayStation Plus. However, according to Game Director Harry Krueger’s post on the PlayStation Blog, players can’t get too far apart, which was done to “ensure that the focus remains on cooperative gameplay and both players feel connected to the fates of each other.” But they can resurrect each other, granted they can do it in the midst of battle. Story progression is tied to the host, meaning the person joining has to make progress on their own save. Both players are able to carry over their collectibles, though.
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The Tower of Sisyphus is the game’s challenge mode, which is not playable in co-op and is accessible once players get the Icarian Grapnel at the end of the second biome. This sees Selene climb up an endless amount of floors that get increasingly dangerous and culminate every 20 waves with a boss fight. It’s meant to reflect the tragic story of Sisyphus and is yet another one of the game’s allegorical ties to Greek mythology. And since there isn’t an end, it is up to players to get as far as they can, rack up a high score (with a handy score multiplier that resets if the player takes damage), and climb the leaderboards. There will also be secrets, optional routes, new items, and more narrative content, most of which are hinted at in the trailer.
