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 of a different kind of ways to adjust the challenge of the game.

“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.

Adaptive trigger support means that each weapon offers a different response, which becomes even more nuanced thanks to Arjun’s barrier. Charging it up may be a simple trigger hold, but unleashing it feels more rhythmic. Of course, it remains to be seen if alternate fire still requires holding L2 down all the way.

Haptic feedback ensures that you’re feeling the response of projectiles raining down on Arjun, not to mention the direction of his dashes. And thanks to the console’s SSD, reloading from death is near-instant. Various new bosses are seen while a mysterious voice claims the sun is “forever.” Probably not the best news for Arjun and his allies as they seek to escape Carcosa’s cycle of death.

Saros is available on April 30th for PS5. Check out this behind-the-scenes video delving deeper into the characters, or learn more about the overall gameplay loop here.

Discussing the pre-order trailer from back in December, Louden talks about how the studio wanted to show off the ensemble cast of characters that players will get to meet during their time with Saros. Shaughnessy noted that the actors that the studio worked with for Saros, including Rahul Kohli as protagonist Arjun Devraj and Jane Perry as Sheridan Bouchard, were a pleasure to work with.

“One of the best parts about this project is the cast of actors we have, playing our NPCs that capture the balance between hope and dread, and the human element in an alien world,” he said. “The more the characters learn, the more the sense of dread and despair grows, and the friction between the crew increases. We can see they all handle that in different ways.”

“I mean Rahul [Kohli] man, he is so cool,” continued Silvestri. “I like working with him. The way that he’s acting for Arjun is just fantastic.”

More recently, Housemarque had released a pair of gameplay clips giving us a better look at the fast-paced bullet-dodging gameplay of Saros in action. The trailers showcased how Arjun can use his arsenal to pull off impressive feats of gunslinging, like ricocheting his shots off walls. Another video revolved around showing off Arjun’s agility, which players will have to make thorough use of to avoid the massive amounts of enemy projectiles that they will have to face.

A gameplay overview trailer, released last month, offered more details about the third-person gunslinging and projectile-dodging action of Saros. Among other things, the trailer showcased how the progression system worked, giving us a glimpse at upgradeable attributes and unlockable special perks that can benefit future runs in the roguelite shooter. Players will also have thorough control over the game’s difficulty, including options for tuning enemy damage.

The story of Saros revolves around a Soltari Enforcer Arjun Devraj who finds himself on the strange, shapeshifting planet of Carcosa. The studio has described the planet as featuring “mysterious biomes” and “dreamlike landscapes” that are marked with ancient ruins and strange alien technology.

The title was unveiled back in February 2025. Just a month later, studio CEO Ilari Kuittinen had spoken about the title’s development, and how it only became possible after Housemarque got acquired by Sony. He noted that Sony helped raise the budget for the third-person roguelite shooter.

Saros is being developed for PS5, and will be out on April 30th. For more details, take a look at recent reports indicating that, unlike Housemarque’s previous title Returnal, Saros will seemingly remain exclusive to Sony’s console.

What makes this interesting is its ability to ricochet. You could thus fire at terrain, and the bullets will bounce off to nail other targets. Is it better than straight-up shooting them? Probably not, but when you’re low on health (and barrier), it’s not the worst survival tactic. Plus, there may be a passive or weapon perk where ricocheted shots deal more damage.

The other clip from last week highlights what seems to be a boss. Similar to Returnal (and Housemarque’s older bullet hell titles), you’ll need to avoid intricate patterns of shots, either by dodging or jumping over them. A flurry of tracking shots can be absorbed by the barrier, powering your super weapon for a retaliatory shot. Of course, this is a simple example, and I wouldn’t be surprised if things get more difficult to deal with in later fights.

Saros launches on April 30th for PS5. For a deeper breakdown of its gameplay, from the new progression tree to how the Eclipse affects your runs, head here.