Returnal wins Best Game at the BAFTA Games awards

Returnal has won the Best Game award at this year’s BAFTA Games Awards.

Housemarque‘s PS5 exclusive was nominated for the main award alongside Deathloop, Forza Horizon 5, Inscryption, It Takes Two, and Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart.

It also won the awards for Audio Achievement, Music and Performer In A Leading Role, which was awarded to Jane Perry for her role as Selene Vassos.

Other multiple winners included Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart (for Animation and Technical Achievement), It Takes Two (for Multiplayer and Original Property) and Unpacking (for Narrative and EE Game of the Year, the only award voted for by the public).

The full list of winners was as follows:

• Best Game – Returnal
• Animation – Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart
• Artistic Achievement – The Artful Escape
• Audio Achievement – Returnal
• British Game – Forza Horizon 5
• Debut Game – Toem
• Evolving Game – No Man’s Sky
• Family – Chicory: A Colorful Tale
• Game Beyond Entertainment – Before Your Eyes
• Game Design – Inscryption
• Multiplayer – It Takes Two
• Music – Returnal
• Narrative – Unpacking
• Original Property – It Takes Two
• Performer in a Leading Role – Jane Perry (Returnal)
• Performer in a Supporting Role – Kimberly Brooks (Psychonauts 2)
• Technical Achievement – Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart
• EE Game of the Year – Unpacking

Last year’s BAFTA Game Awards saw Hades sweep the event, taking home 5 prizes including Game of the Year.

With a record number of votes cast, The Last of Us Part II also picked up the EE Game of the Year award.

Further reading

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Returnal’s new survival mode shown off in 18-minute gameplay video

The game’s Ascension update launches next week

Returnal’s new survival mode, Tower of Sisyphus, was released last month and offers players an ‘endless’ mode during which they battle to the top of a tower. The free update also added co-op support for the main game.

In a PlayStation Blog post around the time of the update, Tower of Sisyphus was described as “true to [Housemarque’s] arcade roots”.

Krueger said: “Each Phase in the Tower will culminate with an encounter with Algos, which will also get increasingly harder as you advance through the mode.

“Unlike the campaign, in the Tower players will also have a score to chase. You can track your progress and highest score on a leaderboard, and compete against your friends and foes for the highest rank.

“Much like our previous arcade-inspired titles, you will also have a Score Multiplier – keeping this up and increasing it will be the key to racking up the highest possible scores.”