Now, you likely already know that SAROS is coming from Housemarque, the studio behind Returnal. But, it’s worth pointing out again as SAROS is clearly aiming to be a spiritual homage to its predecessor – it’s Returnal 2 in all but name.

Peel back Returnal’s enigmatic layers, however, and its core is a compelling, thrilling, yet divisive third-person shooter. Indeed, my own experience of Returnal echoes many others. In short: I wanted to love it – its atmosphere, physics, weapons, and its mysterious, slowly unspooling narrative I did love – but I couldn’t get a handle on the mental fallout following an unsuccessful run. I was intoxicated, but lost.

Look – there are parts of Returnal’s progression design which I might have dismissed: biome shortcuts, permanently available skill upgrades, everlasting traversal abilities. But, flipping this around, the game deliberately obfuscated these elements too. Likewise, it didn’t provide widespread mechanical progression, instead demanding you learn gameplay at a fundamental level to advance. Now, this isn’t inherently bad game design at all, but it was a hard edge many players – including myself – bounced off.

What’s more, compounding this friction was the way Returnal handled momentum. A good run, to me, felt rhythmic, when finding a weapon that clicks began a flow state where dodges became instinctual and once-overwhelming arenas became readable. Then, to die; it felt like a part of me was being reset, not just my loadout. Rhythm was severed entirely, and starting again grew more mountainous with every trip back to Helios. Again, this isn’t because Returnal lacked progression. Indeed, if nothing else, knowledge gained honed skills and sharpened instincts, but the lack of accumulated upgrades, currencies, or stat boosts that are customary in other roguelikes meant progression didn’t feel tangible enough.

It’s this quiet erosion of momentum that SAROS, in response, seems intent on fixing. By softening these hard edges, but keeping the enigmatic atmosphere, dizzying bullet hell display, class-leading haptic feedback, and spatial audio, Housemarque is bringing a Returnal follow-up that’s more approachable yet just as compelling.

SAROS is still like the Returnal you remember, but to gain newfound approachability something intrinsic must be lost, right? Well, not quite. By not minimising the challenge, Housemarque, instead, appears to be redistributing difficulty to other systems. The need for mastery remains, but this time it’s player-driven.

The most immediate change comes in the form of meta progression, and it’s where SAROS gets its roguelite tag. This is an area where Returnal was notably restrained, but in SAROS growth exists on-screen, can be tracked, and therefore invested in. Core stats like health, shield, and power can be permanently upgraded through a skill tree, with each node feeding directly into your combat prowess. Crucially, these upgrades influence weapon proficiency too, meaning that your character progression grows in tandem with buildcrafting.

And it’s this connection that is key. While Returnal reset your sense of capability at the start of each run – save for your intricate knowledge of Atrophos and its roaming threat – SAROS instead seems intent on preserving it. For me, I won’t just be hoping for a good weapon to fall into my lap anymore as I’ll already be shaping my baseline performance between runs.

Runs themselves are being recontextualised too. Rather than forcing you to restart from the very beginning each time, SAROS allows you to begin from your furthest reached biome, immediately cutting down on repetition which dug in with every Returnal failure. The same caveat applies though: begin a run further down the line and you’re sacrificing the opportunity to increase max health, weapon proficiency, and currency gathering, just like in Returnal if you opted to hit the shortcuts. But, what this option does is cut down on the fatigue in repeatedly retracing familiar ground.

But perhaps the most interesting aspect in SAROS’ efforts toward approachability are found in modifiers which let you tailor each run’s difficulty. “Trials” increase the challenge, but these can be offset by “Protections”, with an easy-to-grasp rating that indicates the overall difficulty you’ll face once you loadout. The result is a game that doesn’t simply lower the barrier, but hands you the tools to define your own threshold. Difficulty in SAROS isn’t a static slider, but a suite of binary choices which support whatever experience you want.

It’s here that Housemarque has found a way to cater to a wider demographic of players. If you’re a glutton for punishment, you can still have it. If, like me, you want softer edges, well, that’s achievable too. And of course, as confidence grows these modifiers can be reshaped to match. If we’re talking about SAROS being one of the biggest games of the year – and we all know it needs to do well given Sony has stated outright that they want a larger audience for this follow-up – then modifying its difficulty in a way which balances the tension of its forbearer with approachability is how it’ll get there.

Now, if progression is where SAROS has broadened its appeal, the combat refinements are where it’s sharpening the overall experience. Going back to first impressions, the fundamentals of gunplay appear unchanged; it’s still fast, dodge-heavy, and with gunfeel channeled directly through the DualSense’s haptics. However, the introduction of the Soltari Shield subtly reframes the entire combat loop. See, when engaged, the shield can absorb incoming projectiles to fuel counterattacks, transforming defence into opportunity. In practice, it’ll alter your positioning, tempo, decision-making, and how you engage with the enemy, enforcing the idea that survival this time around isn’t just about pure avoidance.

Elsewhere, analysing narrative at this stage is SAROS’ grey area. Where Returnal thrived on ambiguity, SAROS appears to take a more direct approach to storytelling by outlining Arjun’s mission and his personal motivations early on. There’s still a mystery to unravel – the eclipse, the fate of earlier colonies – but the delivery has shifted from something interpretative to more spelled out, not least by the team of explorers who journey with Arjun, setting up camp to unfurl their thoughts and ideas between runs. And it’s in this story direction, reflective of SAROS’ wider design philosophy, where the follow-up risks losing some of its predecessor’s mystique; you know, a core element which made it so compelling.

That said, SAROS doesn’t appear poised to replace Returnal’s vision but refocus its more enigmatic elements into something measurable. By reframing progression in this way, Housemarque are undoubtedly opening the door to a wider pool of players but, crucially, without abandoning its bullet hell aesthetic. Whether something intrinsic is lost in the transition remains to be seen, but one thing is clear: SAROS isn’t an experience to be endured anymore. There are still complex systems and combat manoeuvres to master, only this time you can do it on your own terms.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization. Everything shared in this article is based on officially revealed information.

The first half showcases enemies that spare no expense in showering Arjun Devraj in projectiles – blue, red, yellow, you name it. Combat becomes more perilous during the Eclipse, when they gain corrupted projectiles that can reduce your max health. Dodging those will be essential to survival, but Saros offers several new options for other attacks.

The new Soltari Shield allows for absorbing blue projectiles and feeding your Power Weapon, thus unleashing a powerful shot. Arjun can also parry certain attacks, knocking enemies off balance for a time while peppering them with bullets. As with Returnal, navigating the world, discovering new weapons, collecting Artifacts, and so on will give you an edge.

And much like the 2021 shooter, you will die. Don’t worry, though – Arjun can return from death, and thanks to the Soltari Primary, he can purchase upgrades to permanently enhance his base stats and unlock new passives. Carcosan Modifiers can also make the game as easy or as challenging as the player desires.

Saros launches on April 30th for PS5. Check out our feature for everything you should know.

Housemarque promises in the title that “Endless Bullets of Corruption Shall Devour The Very Floor You Walk On,” and it isn’t joking. The yellow projectiles, which can reduce your max health if they hit, will lie on the floor like mines before slowly rising. Between all that, the enemy unleashes close-range red projectiles, but therein lies the key to a new mechanic: Parrying.

It’s a step up from the invulnerability that Returnal’s Xenoblade provides, properly knocking them back and dealing damage. Of course, grappling away from danger and absorbing blue projectiles is encouraged, if only to feed the Power Weapon and deal some serious damage. Don’t worry if the corrupted bullets become too overwhelming, as Arjun eventually unlocks an upgrade to absorb them.

Saros launches on April 30th for PS5, having recently gone gold. Thus far, we’ve been very impressed with its improvements and evolutions on Returnal. Check out a full run of the first biome, Shattered Rise, or our feature for everything there is to know about Arjun’s trials through Carcosa.

Principal development has wrapped, and the development team is likely still working hard on a day-one patch. What that will include remains to be seen, but thus far, Saros has looked incredibly impressive over the past several months. We learned more about the other characters accompanying Soltari enforcer Arjun Devraj to Carcosa and the slowly mounting dread they’ll face.

Then there’s the gameplay, which channels the essentials of Returnal while introducing a few twists. Arjun is armed with a Soltari Shield for absorbing energy from blue bullets, encouraging players to be more aggressive with their gameplay. Those feed into your Power Weapon to deal massive damage, but once the Eclipse strikes, you’ll have to deal with Corrupted projectiles that can reduce your max health.

It’s an addictive loop further aided by permanent progression (including an unlockable Second Chance perk). Saros launches on April 30th for PS5, and you can check out our feature for everything there is to know. Alternatively, check out a full run on the first biome, Shattered Rise, here.

For those who played Returnal, this is a pretty significant shift – instead of barrelling headlong into the next biome, you can take a breather. Prepare, both mentally and in terms of unlocking new upgrades.

“I want to get the player back into the action, but I think that even just speaking personally as a player of Returnal,” said lead game designer Abebe Tinari to GamesRadar. “There were times that after a multi-hour run, after dying, my hands were kind of shaking, you know? It was a bit difficult to kind of be like: OK, I’m gonna get right back into it.

“I appreciate having that beat to go back to The Passage, talk to some people, get a bit more of that story context, and that allows me just to get into the headspace of going back out there, right? That’s reinforced by the Armor Matrix to get a bit stronger, and then you feel like: Yeah, I’m ready for another run.”

Those shorter runs, which can take as long as 30 minutes, also enable these narrative beats, which aren’t unlike episodes of a TV show. Narrative designer Khalil Osaimi even affirmed to the publication that it was a major boon when laying out the narrative. “Yeah – pacing, and finding that line between gameplay and when do we want to introduce a story beat. There is the main [story]line to understand what’s going on, to evolve with Arjun as a character as his layers unravel. Then, right back to the high-octane action.”

It’s a solid balance, even if the hardcore Returnal fan in me will miss proceeding to the next biome and immediately becoming overwhelmed by new enemies. Still, with the heavier narrative focus that Saros promises and the all-star cast, it could deliver a rogue-lite experience akin to Hades 1 and 2.

Saros will become available on April 30th, exclusively for PS5. Check out some more extensive gameplay of the first biome, Shattered Rise, and the second, Ancient Depths. You can also learn more about how Housemarque made the Eclipse feel like an “escalation” in every possible way.

“I think the lesson we learned from Returnal was that people really loved what we created, and we were going on the right track,” said creative director Gregory Louden to IGN. “But I think the feedback we did get is that more players wanted to love Returnal; they wanted to get further. So for us, it was about providing that ability. So it means we don’t dilute the challenge; there’s still a very challenging game there, but there is also the ability to kind of modify the challenge.”

So, in addition to Second Chance, which lets you revive after a lethal blow, persistent upgrades between runs, and Carcosan Modifiers for tuning the difficulty to your liking, there’s also the option to suspend a run. Added after launch to Returnal, you can effectively pause your progress and come back later if real life interferes.

That same philosophy has also seemingly influenced the overall run duration, which is about 30 minutes. As associated design director, Mitja Roskaric explains, “It’s a challenging experience, but every time someone dies, we want them to bring something out of it, right? Even if it’s not the resource that they will use to level up, maybe it is a lesson from that run. And if it’s a short run, I think it’s easier to get more and more lessons in a frequent cadence, right? So I think the 30-minute session lengths that we have are kind of the sweet spot for this kind of experience.”

If that wasn’t enough, you can also have multiple save game files. “One thing I thought personally is having multiple save slots. So with Returnal, I always had to clear my saves to start over. Now we have a couple of them available from the get-go, so I can have multiple runs of the game at the same time. It was very, very critical for us. I know lives are busy, right? So being able to drop the controller and resume the game at any point, it’s very critical to this experience,” said Roskaric.

Considering the heavier story focus with Saros, it makes sense that Housemarque wants a larger number of people to experience it. And if options like Second Chance or permanent unlocks aren’t your thing, you can turn most of them off to further increase the challenge.

Saros is available on April 30th for PS5, and it’s looked incredible, running in 4K/60 FPS on the base console. We’re still waiting for details on the PS5 Pro enhancements, but at least it still leverages the DualSense’s haptic feedback and adaptive triggers for an immersive experience, just like Returnal.

“From a narrative perspective, I consider the Eclipse one of the most interesting characters of the game, because no matter if you’re on the surface or if you’re underground, that haunting presence is always looming. It’s not just to open up paths. It’s not just to change the visual direction. It’s the gameplay aspect of the corruption bullets [as well]. But, what is that corruption also doing to our character and the characters in the game?”

Triggered in a biome by interacting with a strange mass of hands, the Eclipse completely shifts a biome. Your surroundings become tinged in red; enemies lose control and unleash new attacks; and that feeling of unease is further elevated (with 3D audio really adding to the atmosphere).

However, its impact extends beyond just being cosmetic or narrative-based. Lead game designer Abebe Tinari talks about the challenge of making the Eclipse really feel like an “escalation,” which involved a lot of prototyping “With this kind of stuff, we try and make sure it has both a gameplay purpose and a narrative purpose. Our challenge as the enemy designers was, okay, it’s the Eclipse now, how do enemies change?

“For a long time, we were prototyping various ways of making enemies more difficult. You know, [increasing] health, more damage. But it didn’t really feel immediately like an escalation, which is what it had to be. The answer that we came to was the corrupted bullets. When you start the Eclipse, they’re shooting different bullets – that was the most immediately recognizable change we came to.”

These bullets will reduce your maximum health and cannot be absorbed, at least until you unlock an upgrade from the Soltari Primary. However, the Eclipse will manifest in other ways, like reactivating several enemies in the Ancient Depths’ factory, making for a tougher experience. There are more rewards, though, from increased Lucenite to Corrupted weapons and artifacts that can offer strong benefits (if you can build around the drawbacks).

Launching on April 30th, Saros has looked incredibly impressive thus far. Check out a full run on the first biome, Shattered Rise.

It’s here that we truly get to see the gameplay loop, which creative director Gregory Louden described to PlayStation Blog as more of a “playground” compared to Returnal’s “obstacle course.” “We wanted to make projectiles, opportunities.” Essentially, instead of simply dodging bullets from enemies, you’re actively seeking them out for Prominence, your Power Weapon.

Discovered by Arjun through a mysterious artifact, it ties directly into his Soltari Shield. By absorbing blue projectiles, you feed the Prominence, which launches an explosive projectile by holding down L2 fully (a partial hold activates your weapon’s alt-fire mode, as in Returnal). But your shield has a limited duration, which is directly affected by Power.

As a result, you’re having to quickly decide when to leap into the fray – because more absorption means more Prominence shots – and when to hang back, especially when an enemy fires other projectiles. Some enemies in Ancient Depths also have dome shields, so you need to get inside to deal damage. Then there’s Bastion, who fires an orange laser with blue bullets around it, if you want to risk absorbing them.

Saros launches on April 30th for PS5, and it seems to improve on Returnal in every single way. Head here to learn more about its permanent progression.

From the outset, Saros features many of the same tenets as Returnal. You can upgrade the starting weapon and find new options like the Tactical Rifle and Smart Rifle, each with unique perks. Different Artifacts also abound, like Fatal Drain 1, where kills restore Integrity (aka health). They also provide passive stat points to boost Lucenite Gain or max Integrity.

And as before, taking no hits while slaying foes will increase Adrenaline, which boosts melee damage and provides other benefits. The key difference is that Arjun has a barrier for absorbing blue bullets to fuel his Power Weapon, Prominence. When you trigger the Eclipse, Carcosa is warped, and enemies send out corrupted projectiles, which reduce max Integrity. Dealing damage with Prominence will clear that corruption, but won’t restore Integrity, so better hope your healing abilities can compensate.

Facing off against the first boss also offers a chance to showcase Second Chance. Arjun will come back to life after suffering a fatal blow. It’s not a full heal, but it provides enough to help finish off a boss.

Saros takes place on Carcosa, which is under the threat of a terrifying Eclipse that’s mutated the planet’s creatures when it’s not triggering a world-ending flare. Of course, like Returnal, death isn’t the end, and as players embark on multiple runs, they’ll find out more about the fate of its colonists. It’s available on April 30th for PS5.

This is where protagonist Arjun Devraj can unlock permanent upgrades, including Second Chance to revive on death, Attribute Growth to increase max armor integrity, shields and Lucenite gains, and more. However, associate design director Matti Häkli explains that it’s “definitely still challenging, and the whole goal with the permanent progression isn’t to trivialize the game. It’s just offering more agency. Games offer different kind of ways to adjust the challenge.

“The usual solution is to offer a normal difficulty, an easy difficulty, and a hard difficulty. But we wanted to take another route. We wanted to have this all grounded in the game world.” Hence, the Carcosan modifiers, with Protections offering an advantage or mitigating otherwise difficult conditions, while Trials increase the difficulty. There’s even an option to disable most permanent unlocks if you’re seeking a greater challenge. Everything must be in proper balance, though.

Another new feature is the ability to teleport to previously unlocked biomes, whether it’s to continue where you last left off, discover Halcyon materials for upgrading, or discover audio, holo and text logs. Like Returnal, new abilities can open up brand new areas, but if you want to run through and farm materials to become stronger, that’s also an option.

Saros launches on April 30th for PS5, and thus far, it’s shaping up to be so much more than its predecessor. Check out the PS5 features trailer here to learn more about how it leverages DualSense and more for increased immersion.