Chrono Odyssey lead actor streams in IGN 7/10 shirt, owns the meme

Rahul Kohli, the actor who plays protagonist Alge Devra in Returnal, showed up to a Twitch stream wearing a shirt emblazoned with "IGN 7/10"—a direct nod to the score IGN gave Sony's first-party title.

Self-deprecating marketing like this actually works. IGN's 7/10 review called Returnal "an attempt at an interesting and ambitious story, but poorly communicated"—diplomatic phrasing for "the narrative doesn't land." That said, IGN did acknowledge what Housemarque does best: the fusion of bullet-hell shooting and action gameplay remains top-tier.

Kohli's stunt functions as secondary promotion. A 7/10 sits in the "decent but unremarkable" tier of media scoring, which feels awkward for a Sony exclusive of this scale. But when the actor himself leans into the joke, it flips the narrative—community discussion shifts from "the game underdelivered" to "the actor's got a sense of humor."

Strategically, this tactic works better for indie or lower-budget projects. Returnal, as a AAA release, already had sufficient visibility—the self-mockery reads more as damage control for reputation. What actually drives purchases is Housemarque's Roguelike loop, proven in Returnal: high difficulty, high replayability, high satisfaction.

If you enjoyed Returnal's "die and retry, get stronger through failure" loop, Returnal deserves your time. Don't let the 7/10 scare you off—Housemarque's shooting mechanics never disappoint. As for the narrative issues, the core appeal of these games was never storytelling anyway. Surviving bullet hell matters more than parsing the plot.