Ultimately, though, the reveal of Returnal ended up being a positive thing for the Bonsai Collective team.

“You know that what you’re building, people want to play that throw in of experience.”

However, Fawkes themselves never actually does the exploring in person.

A spindly warrior approaches a metal creature with lots and lots of eyes in Luna Abyss

Hill admits, “I just wanted to be able to shoot doors!”

But the rest of the abyss is nothing like the surface of Talon IV.

“We just really wanted to nail that atmosphere,” he says.

Cover image for YouTube video

That’s especially true when you start encountering other residents of this enigmatic abyss.

We can also thank Returnal here for convincing the team to re-evaluate their enemy bullet patterns.

“Our bullet patterns were really nice,” Hill explains.

A series of platforms suspended by meaty cables in Luna Abyss

‘," he says.

I don’t think it will, but we’ll have to wait and see.

All in all, I came away impressed from Luna Abyss.

A large doll like creature hangs from the ceiling in Luna Abyss

It’s a fantastic shotgun, and you know how much I love a good shotgun.

A turret with lots of eyes looks at the player in Luna Abyss

The player aims a gun down a corridor of red light in Luna Abyss

A spiky creature shoots several bullets at the player in Luna Abyss

Two monsters with no eyes and skull-like jaws from Luna Abyss