Housemarque has become known for their intense gameplay with their titles, and the latest trailer for their upcoming sci-fi shooter Returnal is no exception. The developer’s creative director, Harry Krueger, sat down with PlayStation Blog to talk about the trailer, as well as dive into the details.

“With Returnal we’ve aimed to blend a unique mix of game styles,” said Krueger. “It combines our trademark explosive arcade action, responsive controls and bullet hell gameplay, and this time it’s all presented in third-person. There will be fast and frenetic combat and intense gunplay, and also some rich exploration and traversal as you explore the procedurally generated environments of Atropos. We’ve created Returnal to be a challenging and rewarding experience, with enough variety and depth to keep you always coming back for ‘one more go.’”

Part of what Housemarque hopes will make Returnal special are the multiple modes of fire available with the weapons, which can be augmented as you play. For example, the Spitmaw Blaster weapon starts out as your shotgun equivalent, but can eventually gain traits such as exploding shells or generate acid pools upon impact.

The interesting thing about these traits is that they will also stack, creating new playstyles for players. “Each weapon will also have an alt-fire mode randomly assigned to it from our diverse pool, ranging from the electrical impulses of the Shockstream to the tentacles of the Tendrilpod, and everything in between.”

These alt fire modes also take advantage of the PS5’s DualSense controller, according to Krueger. “[They] can be used without ever taking your finger off the trigger using the default control scheme: with the adaptive trigger on the DualSense controller, just press L2 halfway to aim down the sights and use the main fire of your weapon, and squeeze it all the way down to enter your alt-fire mode.”

Returnal releases on March 19, 2021 exclusively on the PlayStation 5.