Even though I’ve only gone hands-on with Saros for three hours so far, blasting and shielding my way through the Returnal spiritual successor’s first two levels, it’s already shaping up to be one of the best PS5 games of the year. While Returnal was an impressive release, Saros is shaping up to really reflect how much better Housemarque have gotten at getting the most out of the console. I liked Returnal a lot, but I felt like I didn’t love it as much as everyone else. But, that makes it even more exciting that I love Saros so much, and it’s well worth making sure this roguelike shooter is on your new releases radar.
Saros really feels like a refinement, both of the foundations Housemareque laid with the mysterious, arcadey, “gameplay first” Returnal, but also with the roguelike genre in general. With action dubbed by the developer as “bullet ballet”, it’s all about weaving through challenging waves of enemies through a beautiful but dangerous alien planet, Carcosa, as it transforms and reshapes across each run. There’s a lot to love, but these seven Saros features are the ones that I’m digging the most so far, and really help it stand out as having the potential to be one of the best roguelike games I’ll keep coming back to long after its April 30 launch.
7. Absorbing bullets
Big Preview
Dive into the eclipse with our Saros Big Preview, where we reveal exclusive dev access and extensive hands-on impressions for this PS5 must-play.
While Returnal was all about running away from and weaving through massive patterns of bullets, Saros adds a new option – why not run into them? Not quite counter-intuitive, but instead a sort of new third thing, using your shield to negate damage costs energy, but absorbing bullets rewards you with greater energy than you expend. That means once you start sucking in bullets you can keep going as long as you’re not keeping it active for too long between shots. It also means you can spend the overcharged energy on brutal power shots. These special attacks come in several weapon varieties – but they all have explosive results. Sometimes, with absorbing corrupted shots, that means temporarily risking lowering your maximum armor health as well, meaning how you choose to dodge, jump, or plow into each wave of enemy fire has a real tactical edge.
6. Enter the matrix
Saros is far from the first roguelike game to feature a permanent progression mechanic that helps you get stronger with each successive run, but I really love the way Housemarque has carefully balanced maintaining challenge while also allowing players to make the action a little easier. The Armor Matrix is a skilltree that raises hero Arjun’s base powers, and also unlocks new abilities to give him an edge in tough encounters. After defeating a couple of bosses, Carcosan Modifiers can be activated, allowing you to balance buffs and debuffs, exchanging a higher difficulty in areas you may feel more confident for benefits elsewhere – like increasing enemy damage to balance taking on a wider pick-up radius (which, in turn, can help you upgrade faster). Saros still feels tough, but less off-puttingly punishing when you fail – instead it really encourages me to dive back in for another run.
5. Shorter sprints
Shorter bursts of play encourage me to dive back in for one more run.
Returnal’s roguelike runs could be lengthy, sometimes lasting well over an hour (and it didn’t have an autosave at launch). Saros still allows you to tackle environments sequentially once unlocked, but also gives you the option to return to base with a teleporter function that also means you can start off at later areas as well. Housemarque has told me it’s specifically aiming for runs to average about 30-minutes of playtime, which feels perfect considering the shield-based combat can feel a lot more intense than Returnal. Rather than having me play for less time, I’ve so far found the shorter bursts of play actually encouraging me to dive back in for one more run, rather than leaving me too exhausted to continue.
4. Arjun’s journey
Sure, I loved the quiet mystery of Selene’s more isolated adventure in Returnal, but so far I’m enjoying that Saros sets itself apart from its predecessor with an easier-to-follow narrative. Played by Rahul Kohli, there’s star power here – but only as much as you want it. Audio logs, crew conversations, and investigating Carcosa’s ruins aren’t mandatory, but how can I say no? I’m already loving the cinematic flair to the handful of cutscenes I’ve seen so far, and it just makes it a lot easier to get hooked into Saros’ narrative. Replaying levels across my three hours with the game, I’ve already found new bits of lore and information that’s rewarded my return visits, and I’m looking forward to unpicking it all in due time.
3. Graphite is beautiful
Saros is a gorgeous-looking game, and Housemarque has taken the time to highlight to me that’s partially due to Graphite. This proprietary VFX and Graphics framework leverages the Finnish studio’s rich 30-year legacy, and in an introduction to the technology by VFX architect Sharman Jagadeesan, I get the sense we’ll be hearing more about it in the future. Not a game engine in and of itself, Graphite is more part of the visual identity of Saros, and is responsible for how the game handles things like particle effects – vital with all the bullets on screen at once. Yes, it has its own global illumination system. No, they’re not going to detail how they did it. Take it in, though – because Saros is a stunner. Housemarque has emphasized that while both Saros and Returnal are PS5 games, this new title leverages five more years of experience developing specifically for Sony’s powerhouse console.
2. Going the distance
Saros’ firefights can get chaotic with loads of orb-shaped bullets flying across the screen at once. So could Returnal, but there, you often had the binary challenge to simply put distance between yourself and the oncoming danger. I really like how Saros encourages me to take risks and to toe the line, often surrounding unblockable lasers with bullets that can be absorbed, daring me to get close to a deadly strike in order to charge up my own powerful counterattacks. Almost like a near miss in something like Crazy Taxi or Burnout, the temptation to stunt on foes really encourages player expression in a neat way, and as I’ve grown more comfortable with enemy attack patterns, I can already feel myself getting better at assessing when I should take the risk.
1. Watching the Eclipse
Partway through each area I’ve explored in Saros so far, Arjun has found his progression blocked unless he interfaces with a Carcosan device to activate the planet’s strange Eclipse. This lunar energy courses down onto the world, changing the environment around him. So far, this has been the most striking in the Ancient Depths, an abandoned and silent factory that’s brought into motion once again, pistons creating new paths forward while also forcing me to avoid re-activated laser cutters and greater numbers of machine enemies. It might be more dangerous, but the Eclipse also brings greater rewards, from upping dropped resources to bigger stat boosts – but they can also come at the cost of accepting debuffs, whether that’s adding fall damage or straight up removing an auto lock-on feature of a gun in exchange for much higher damage.
Saros is all about deciding in the heat of the moment just how risky you want to play. It’s almost irresistible to not jump straight into the fray, meeting danger head-on – and it’s a big reason I’m eager to keep coming back for one more run.
Check out our upcoming PS5 games calendar for what to play next!
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