Returnal and Why Games Need More Badass Middle-Aged Women

I bought Returnal, a video game from developer Housemarque, without knowing a thing about it. I knew from the trailer that it had something to do with escaping a time loop and there was some futuristic-looking technology and monsters or something. None of that mattered, because I wasn't buying it for the gameplay, I was buying it because of its protagonist, Selene. Selene is a fairly ordinary video game character in most respects: agile, capable, smart, facing a seemingly insurmountable challenge. It's unusual for the playable character to be a woman, but that's not what makes Selene special.