'I try to play as a completionist and leave no stone unturned and no enemy unkilled': Returnal director Harry Krueger talks Deus Ex, Resident Evil, and the arcade classic that inspired Housemarque's best games

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Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Sign Up By submitting your information, you confirm you are aged 16 or over, have read our Privacy Policy and agree to the Terms & Conditions. Geographical rules apply. (Image credit: Sam Jamesen/Eidos Interactive) Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Subscribe to our newsletter Disk Cleanup (Image credit: Future)Welcome to Disk Cleanup, our regular weekend feature delving into the PCs of PC gaming luminaries.

Come back every weekend to read a new interview, digging into the important questions, like "How tidy is your desktop?" and "What game will you never uninstall?"Harry Krueger didn't get into PC gaming until early adulthood, but that all changed when he encountered the deathmatch thrills of Quake 3: Arena.

"I went from zero to hero, basically. I went from never having a PC ever in my life to setting up a LAN and getting Quake 3: Arena and Tiberian Sun and Red Alert," he says. "We'd gather with friends over in Greece, and we'd play in my house with two teams, and had a friendly—and sometimes not so friendly—competition."

Krueger entered the games industry as a programmer for Finnish developer Housemarque, where he worked on the studio's early titles like Outland and Resogun. He assumed the role of Game Director for 2017's Nex Machina, serving in the same role for 2021's bullet-hell roguelike Returnal, which won four BAFTAs in 2022, including the award for best game.Leaving Housemarque that same year, Krueger has now established his own studio—Cosmic Division, which is working on its first title.

"We want to be a lean and mean studio that makes evocative gameplay-first experiences," he says. Krueger says CD's debut game will inherit the arcade action DNA of Housemarque's finest works. "I think players will also be pleasantly surprised," he adds.

Latest Videos FromWatch full video here: Krueger hit pause on his latest game development run to show me around the bullet-riddled tower of his PC, a journey that took us from PC gaming's heartland to the lofty heights of the arcade shooter.What game are you currently playing? (Image credit: Capcom)I do carve out time for games that are really important to me, and recently I managed to play Resident Evil: Requiem.

I'm a huge Resident Evil fan, and I honestly had pretty high expectations for Requiem and it definitely delivered on all of them. I think it's a phenomenal mixture of action and horror, the power fantasy and the vulnerability. I think it's up there with the very best of the series.

The gunplay and the action, all the set pieces are incredibly satisfying, and I always love the exploration in Resident Evil games, the keys and secrets. I'm a bit of a completionist, so I do enjoy going through all the nooks and crannies, and the horror elements were masterfully designed and executed as well.I've already finished the game once, but it's one of the few games that, once the credits rolled, I felt like I wanted to play this again.

I haven't had time to jump back in yet—I started a little bit, and I predict that once I catch a breather