Just cannot get into Returnal.... and 20 deaths later, I have yet to come across the Boss, and cannot even discern if I have made any progress in the game.
Only thing I have understood properly is that the Triangle doorway leads to area where I can get an augment of some nature and the Rectangle doorway leads to the next room..... The farthest I have reached is a room which went into lockdown after I entered it but for some reason I could not do any damage to any enemy in that room.
Probably stick with till the weekend and see if I make any noticeable progress else move on to Death Stranding or GoT.
Progress isn't a thing in returnal really, not in a traditional sense. If your desperate to find out how much progress you've made go back to the ship and look at the computer. The more of the databank you have filled out the further in you are but really its not something you should seek or pay any attention to at this point.
It feels very old school in ways, reminds me of a commodore 64 game like turrican or something, you play it to shoot stuff for an hour and see how far you get, its very much about trying to enjoy the minute to minute gameplay.
For the enemies you couldn't hurt - if they have a red shield you need to use a melee attack to break the shield, some alt fire skills break them too.
If you get really stuck on the first level you could delete your save and start fresh, you'll get a few runs that are relatively easy before the difficulty ramps back up. By 20 deaths i'd say the game has probably topped out in difficulty and if your still hanging around the first area with nothing but pistols and shotguns and no access to items from the grappling hook and whatnot i think its basically as hard as the game is capable of being.