Discussing the difficulty of Saros when compared to Returnal, Louden noted that many players just outright weren’t able to finish the latter game. This meant that the studio would have to give players more tools to take on the challenges in Saros in their own way.

“We knew we created something special, and we knew that everyone loved Returnal, but people did tell us, ‘I wanted to love Returnal, but I just couldn’t get forward,’” said Louden. “So we wanted to allow players to confront the challenge in their own way. That was the idea of rewarding the progress. It was the idea of adding the modifiers. But something I’m really proud of, Matti and our amazing design team, is these modifiers don’t just make the game more approachable. It makes it way more brutal, which I think is super cool.”

He went on to discuss the major difficulty spike that pops up in Returnal when players reach its second biome – the Crimson Wastes. Bringing up the fact that players would praise Returnal after reaching its second biome, Louden made note of the fact that the same players would then likely get blocked by the difficulty spike.

“What we did find is once people got through the second biome, they loved the game,” Louden said. “They say it’s one of the best PlayStation 5 games for them. How can we share this experience, and how can we get even more people to love what we’re building? And then the dream for us is once they love Saros, they go back through 30 years of Housemarque history and jump into Returnal and Nex Machina and Matterfall and Resogun and Alienation and Dead Nation. We have a rich history, so it’s just about wanting to get even more people to understand the Housemarque experience.”

For Häkli, the reasoning behind making Saros more approachable than Returnal was simple – he wanted to make sure that more people could enjoy the title. He also reaffirmed that Saros isn’t quite that much easier than Returnal. Rather, it is simply more approachable since players have more room to experiment with weapon types and their own movesets.

“I wanted to enable more people to enjoy these games,” Häkli said. “I knew that Returnal was brutal, so that was the impetus to start building something that is more approachable, but not necessarily making it easier. Just figuring out ways of giving players more room and time to learn the ropes and understand the mechanics, because everything is really circling around the flow state. Internalizing the inputs, understanding what’s going on, having the confidence that I can do this.”

“When it clicks, it’s something unlike any other game,” Häkli continued. “And I just want to make sure that more people will experience that rather than leave it for a very small niche that only the hardcore players will understand.”

Saros is available on PS5. For more details, check out our review.

Dashing in Mid-Air While Shielding

When you’re not shielding, dashing or jumping over projectiles, you’ll often end up having to do all three. For instance, the enemies in the Ancient Depths, which disperse waves of blue projectiles that you need to jump over yellow bullets to absorb if you’re not willing to take on Corruption, though there are some benefits to it that we’ll go over in a bit.

Perk Effects and Their Duration

Not all weapon perks are simply about different kinds of damage. Some can have specific requirements, like weapon damage directly generating Power. Others are less obvious, and it can often be easy to miss their effects in combat. So pay attention to the upper left of your screen – a small icon will indicate their activation and how long it lasts, allowing you to take advantage of it at the best times.

Attribute Volatility

As you rapidly approach the endgame, you’ll start to notice something called Attribute Volatility on different Artifacts. These let you break the cap on different stats, thus allowing something like, say, Integrity to go much higher than intended. There are drawbacks, however. Breaking the cap on Integrity means that you can’t see enemy health, so when fighting a enemy, their HP bar is just grey (until it’s fully depleted and removed). Be especially careful of Drive Volatility, since that will cause all Lucenite to be lost if you die. No exceptions.

Parry Energy and Aiming

Parrying is more than just a defensive mechanism, meant to swat away Nova or red-colored projectiles. It’s also an offensive tool, as the energy from a parry travels in a straight line towards your target, obliterating them through red shields. However, it can be aimed with the reticle, so if a enemy launches red projectiles at you, simply aim directly at them to send the parry energy their way. It may not deal the most damage, but it’s excellent for building up stagger, even on Elites.

Overdrive

Your Ultimate, and what an Ultimate it is. Overdrive is built up over time and unleashes a powerful area of effects attack that can outright kill Elites and heavily damage enemies. You’re invincible while casting it, and best of all, any enemies slain by it will drop Aether, making for a good snap response when overwhelmed. But it can be even better with upgrades (many requiring Halcyon) that can increase its damage, blast radius and even build up from damage dealt.

Turning Corruption into Damage Resistance

Contrary to what Coldplay says, yellow isn’t the nicest color on Carcosa, especially when you’re taking on too much Corruption. The risk vs reward aspect is obvious, especially after taking the upgrade that lets you absorb yellow projectiles to feed your Power weapon. However, if you find an Artifact that increases damage resistance based on the amount of Corruption, then it can become a valuable tool for survival. Just don’t go overboard with it – you can’t die from Corruption, but no amount of damage resistance will save you at 1 HP.

Shield Upgrades

Whether you’re adamant on tanking damage through Corruption or not, scope out the Armor Matrix for upgrades to your Soltari shield, including those that reduce the damage taken from it. Parries reducing Corruption is also recommended, especially in later enemy fights when you’re facing a barrage of different colors.

Quick Shield Activation

The Soltari shield is tied to your melee button, and it won’t take long for you to realize that you can activate it at the last second to absorb projectiles. With such low activation time, it isn’t difficult to absorb waves of blue projectiles, unleash a Power shot at a enemy, and then immediately absorb the next wave. Such windows for absorption become even tighter in future enemy fights, so learn to juggle between activating your shield and then quickly transitioning to damage.

Staggers and Executions

At first glance, pistols and shotguns aren’t all they’re cracked up to be; the former is held back by low ammo and constant reloading, while the latter lacks range (even though incendiary rounds can be good). However, they are good at building stagger, especially with perks like Cover Fire. Once you obtain an upgrade to your melee attack, which allows for teleporting to enemies after they’ve been staggered, you can initiate gory kills, complete with health regen if you increase the chances of Aether dropping.

Weapon Stats Scale to Attributes

Attributes don’t just dictate your overall health, shield or Lucenite gain – they can also influence the scaling of weapon stats. This can be checked whenever you’re picking up a new weapon, so if you want to spec into a higher clip size or damage accumulation, it may help in build planning, especially when looking at which Artifacts to prioritize.

Weak Points and Turning Off Auto Hit

Auto Hit can be great if you want to focus on dodging projectiles while ensuring consistent damage. But there are benefits to turning it off, which vary on a weapon-to-weapon basis. All enemies have a blue weak spot, which takes more damage from direct hits, and there’s no better method than with weapons that turn off Auto Hit. Prioritize as per your preference, but if you want to up your damage potential, then it’s worth a shot.

When to Reduce Lucenite Gain

The Carcosan Modifiers allow for highly customizing the level of difficulty that you want out of Saros. Picking higher damage dealt and reduced damage taken is always ideal, but with how many points they cost, it can be difficult to balance the appropriate Trials. Well, if you’ve hit a wall with your current upgrades, which usually happens because you need to kill a enemy, go ahead and enable reduced Lucenite gained when returning to The Passage. This cuts back on the amount of Lucenite earned from a cycle, but it’s worth so much as a Trial that it offers enough wiggle room for protection modifiers.

Unlimited Protection Modifiers

If you don’t want to bother with the whole balancing act whatsoever, good news: You can enable all protection modifiers without any consequence. Just go to the settings under gameplay and enable Unlimited Protection Modifiers. Is it essentially Easy Mode? Yes, but for those who simply want to get on with the story and surpass a super difficult enemy, it’s always an option.

Choosing Your Favorite Weapon

Returning to The Passage – be it through death or teleportation – will result in Arjun keeping his current weapon. It won’t have all the unlocked perks for balancing reasons, but if you enable the Weapon Symmetry protection modifier, then the next found weapon is more likely to be similar to the current one. Wait for a better version to pop up with the desired perks and then resume slaughtering at a leisurely pace.

Optional Eclipse

The Eclipse is a game-changing effect, transforming Carcosa and resulting in more corrupting projectiles. And while it’s mandatory for the first few biomes, or depending on the story, you don’t always have to enable it. If you’re just looking for a stroll by the coast, feel free to ignore the outstretched hands, although you’ll miss out on Corrupted weapons and Artifacts (which are worth pursuing despite the latter’s negative effects).

This guide is a listing of the best weapons and all four power weapons to be found in SAROS.

Best Handcannon

Ricochet Handcannon

Shattered Rise

While all three Handcannons become available in the very first biome, the Ricochet Handcannon stands out for its penetration and, as the name implies, its ability to ricochet rounds off of the environment. Whether in primary or alternate fire mode, it will shred through clumped enemies quickly.

Best Rifle

Smart Rifle

Shattered Rise

One of three rifles in the game, the Smart Rifle’s alternate fire mode can home in on targets, which is a blessing when combined with its high rate of fire.

Best Shotgun

Annihilator Shotgun

Ancient Depths

The primary fire mode has a standard horizontal spread pattern. The real draw is the alternate fire launcher that fires a grenade which detonates on impact and has a significant area of effect.

Best Crossbow

Bifurcator Crossbow

Shattered Descent

This crossbow has a perfect combination of the fire modes from the other two crossbows. The primary fire mode can be charged to stack bolts over time, and then released as a spreading volley that can home by either letting go of R2 or dashing.

The alternate fire mode is a simple single shot that then splits up on impact with a weakpoint, into additional projectiles that can home in.

Best Chakram

Ripsaw Chakram

Acolyte’s Heaven

R2 fires projectiles that bury themselves in targets, which can then do increased tick damage through the use of alternate fire.

All Power Weapons

Prominence

Shattered Rise

Hold down L2 and press R2 to fire a staggering area-of-effect explosive round.

Dispiritor

Ancient Depths

This weapon does tick damage and can be continually redirected at several targets. Targets eliminated by this weapons then spawn a short-lived projectile spewing turret.

Nova Lance

Desecrated Fortress

Hold down both L2 and R2 for a charged penetrating shot that only fires on release.

Illumine

Cathedral

Fire a charged-up lock-on beam that does persistent damage based on Power availability.

Those are some of the best weapons as well as all four of the power weapons in SAROS.

This SAROS guide is all about where you can go about finding all the Halcyon you could possibly need.

Red Containers

Containers are the primary source of Halcyon on your runs, offered as one of the two choices when you open them. Even so, they are not a guaranteed choice, and you may need to grind for several Cycles to amass enough Halcyon. Whenever the opportunity does arise, Halcyon is the recommended choice, no matter what the other reward is, as it has more permanent utility.

Alphas/Enemies

Both mini-enemies and enemies have a Halcyon drop chance, but once again, this is not guaranteed. With sufficient firepower at your disposal, you can potentially attempt to farm Alphas quickly and painlessly for Halcyon.

Nightmare Gates/Strands

The seven Nightmare Strands present an additional challenge, which in turn offer you better rewards including Halcyon. The Strands primarily serve to recharge your Second Chance, one of the upgrades you will be spending Halcyon on, in the Armor Matrix. Second Chance lets you recover from a losing Cycle, and is one of the first upgrades you should aim for when the opportunity arises.

Bear in mind that the Halcyon available in a given biome has a predetermined maximum, which you can observe for yourself via the World Dial. Be sure to keep track of this, so as to avoid wasting time searching every nook and cranny of a biome where you have already exhausted the limited Halcyon supply. 

Collecting just 70 Halcyon will unlock the ‘Eclipse’s Gift’ trophy/achievement. The sum total of Halcyon across the biomes is over 160, so this is easily achievable.

When spending Halcyon, be sure to prioritize reducing penalties for dying, and Second Chance. These upgrades will greatly improve the gameplay experience during Cycles.

Those are all the ways to get Halcyon quickly and efficiently in SAROS.

This SAROS guide is all about how to quickly and efficiently farm for Lucenite.

World Pickups

Lucenite is plentiful right out in the open, and you will stumble upon it on both the main and side paths. However, there can be a lot more hidden out of sight, whether in elevated locations, obscured by other objects, or behind barriers. If you have the inclination, be sure to look in every nook and cranny where secrets might potentially lie.

Grinding the same biome is also an option, and in fact might be the only way to max out progression until the next biome is cleared.

Golden yellow Containers can potentially supply you with a significant infusion of Lucenite, but require Carcosan keys in order to crack them open. The keys themselves are a limited resource found in white Containers with a relatively low chance to spawn themselves, and you might want to save them for gates instead. The Armor Matrix has several Key Storage upgrades that allow you to start runs with keys in hand, up to a maximum of five.

Farming Enemies

Enemy drops are an obvious source of Lucenite, however, those drops can disappear in a matter of seconds. In order to avoid losing Lucenite like this, try to position yourself such that you can safely snap up the drops as soon as they appear, while avoiding taking damage from other enemies and hazards.

Aether Orb Conversion

Aether normally restores Armor Integrity, but will automatically convert to Lucenite if you happen to be at full Integrity already, which works as a nice bonus for avoiding damage.

Drive Attribute

The Drive Attribute increases Lucenite gain to allow faster Proficiency upgrading. While the permanent modifiers are applied through the Armor Matrix, you can also increase it temporarily during Cycles for the duration of a given run only.

Cycle Artefacts

Artefacts are a potential reward choice when cracking open Containers. While Halcyon should be top priority when making a decision there, any Artefacts that can boost Lucenite gains come in a very close second. Item attributes can affect gathering either indirectly through raising the Drive attribute, or directly increasing Lucenite gain itself.

Bear in mind that these Artefacts exist only for the duration of the Cycle, so make the most of it while you can.

Tangential Lucenite Upgrades

These Armor Matrix upgrades are a matter of return on investment of your Lucenite, wherein you spend resources in order to increase or improve your Lucenite collection bonuses going forward. You should prioritize these as early as possible for best effect, especially those related to enlarging drops from enemies and the lifetime of those drops before despawn.

The latter is especially critical as dropped Lucenite tends to despawn quite quickly without it, making some battles a matter of bearing the risk of chasing the Lucenite while tanking damage from any remaining enemies.

Lucenite Saver is an Armor Matrix upgrade that you may want to look into spending Halcyon on, especially if you tend to die a lot on Cycles. With an initial penalty of 50% to your Lucenite pool, any further amount you can preserve upon death will be of benefit to you in the long run.

Those are all the ways to farm for and save Lucenite in SAROS.

Check Your Minimap

As ridiculous as it sounds, the minimap can be invaluable. Certain sections can have enemies spawn out of nowhere, sometimes sneaking up on you. The music’s high tempo is enough to indicate ongoing combat, but the minimap can show their exact position, and those few seconds can be essential for repositioning and maybe avoiding a few projectiles. It’s even useful in areas with lots of elevation and cover, if for nothing else than knowing your relative distance from threats.

Grapple Frames

Shield broken, dash on cooldown, nowhere to run or hide – what is a lone Soltari enforcer to do? Grapple, naturally. Once you unlock it by the third biome, the grapple will become one of the more hilarious ways to cheat death. That’s because during the animation, you’re completely invulnerable, letting you pass through projectiles and suffer no damage. So, whether you’re repositioning or just trying to survive, try grappling.

DoT and Power Generator Perks

It may seem like choosing the highest Proficiency for a weapon is ideal, and that’s usually the case for weapons (which we’ll get to later on). However, some perks are clearly better than others, including those that deal damage over time. Razor Edge, which often appears on saw-based and crossbow weapons; incendiary rounds, which I’ve mostly seen on shotguns; and the Dispiritor Power weapon are the most notable examples. The best part about this is not having to constantly shoot an enemy, focusing instead on dodging or shielding while their health whittles away.

Of course, you’ll also want to pick up weapons with the Power Generator perk, which charges your Power meter by simply dealing damage, meaning more Power weapon usage. Couple that with the Soltari shield and rain destruction on your enemies.

How to Check Weapon Perks

But how would you know what certain perks can do? Equip a weapon, then press the touchpad to open up the map. Navigate over to the weapons tab, and you’ll find a loadout screen, which displays your Artifacts and weapons. Simply hover over each perk’s icon to learn what it can do. Not the most intuitive method, especially when comparing weapons, but it’s better than nothing.

Crossbows are King

Your mileage may vary, but the crossbows in Saros are simply top-tier. They come in three varieties – Repeater, which constantly fires bolts; Bifurcator, which fires multiple homing bolts (the number depending on how long it’s charged); and Impactor, which essentially fires a spread of bolts in a straight line after charging. Alongside dealing significant damage, even without a damage over time perk, they don’t need to reload like other weapons. As such, I would go with the Repeater Crossbow since it can just spam bolts constantly at a rapid clip.

More Artifact Slots and Rerolls

Early on in the Armor Matrix, you’re kind of just grabbing whatever you can. Increased Aether effectiveness (which means more HP from health pickups), Lucenite remaining on the ground longer, stats, etc. But as you progress further and the tree branches out some more, you’ll have the opportunity to pick up some extra Artifact Slots (some costing Halcyon, the others requiring Lucenite). Which is good because, aside from being able to stack more stats and passive benefits, you can’t remove Artifacts in your inventory without reroll currency. And while you can find more of the latter, or unlock upgrades that provide more at the start of a run, they’re also used for rerolling Artifacts, weapons or Power weapons. Of course, there is a somewhat economical way to approach rerolling for weapons…

When to Reroll

As your Proficiency increases, so too will your weapons, which means higher stats in certain categories, more perks, and, of course, Power (which affects your shield). But you may not always enjoy certain choices, even if they’re higher Proficiency, which is where the reroll items come in. If you want to be more conservative, try hanging on to your rerolls before the next enemy, since there are often a few weapons to choose from at that point. Just try not to spend all of them before that.

Armor Matrix

When the Armor Matrix begins to open up some more, you probably just want to grab whatever unlocks are available rather than strategizing. Instead of checking every potential node and whether you have enough of the required material, look for those that periodically twinkle. You can even zoom out and see them from afar, making it that much easier to navigate to a node.

Enter the Nightmare

Upon progressing further through the story, optional high-difficulty areas called Nightmare Strands will emerge. These carry a hefty amount of enemies, and also have a negative modifier separate from whatever you’ve enabled. So if you didn’t enable enemies to spawn projectiles on death and it’s present in a Nightmare Strand, then it will be enabled in that instance. With how difficult it can be, what are the benefits? Aside from how much Lucenite they can provide, they’re rife with other rewards, including perhaps the most notable – replenishing your Second Chance.

No Third Chance

Now that being said, if you haven’t used Second Chance, then completing a Nightmare Strand won’t give you another charge (or a Third Chance, if you will, or won’t, in this case). But more importantly, if you’ve turned off Second Chance in the Carcosan Modifiers, you won’t get one from completing a Strand. So make sure to weigh the pros and cons before diving in.

When to Quit a Run (and When Not To)

Being able to suspend a run by quitting is a very welcome addition in Saros, although there are some caveats. If you try quitting during a enemy fight, maybe to try and game the system, then you’ll be back at the starting area, and even worse, all non-permanent progression (read: Lucenite) is lost.

Running Man

When Housemarque spoke about how you can return to The Passage after slaying a enemy and completing the biome, I had the impression that this meant no longer being able to marathon them in a single run. Well, good news – you still can (except during major story moments when you must return). Be warned that there’s no way to double back to some teleporters past a certain point, so you really have to commit. The upside of this is that your weapon will retain its Proficiency and perks, making it that much easier to slaughter enemies and farm Lucenite. However, you’ll probably run out – or at least not have enough – rerolls, thus making it impossible to pick up every worthwhile Artifact. Plus, if you die without completing the biome and its enemy, and then return to The Passage, the death penalty, which undercuts your Lucenite, will be severe.

Effectively Parrying Nova Projectiles

You would think after playing Sekiro, or really any game with parrying, that simply waiting for the attack and parrying is best. But it can be a little trickier in Saros, especially when Nova projectiles (the red-colored bullets) have different speeds, elevations, and so on. One method that I found to result in successful parries more than not is to dash straight into the Nova projectile and mash the melee button at the same time. It still requires a bit of timing, but I’ve had far more success doing this than simply standing and waiting around.

What You Can’t Parry (or Shield Against)

However, despite having Nova properties, you can’t parry red beams. Obviously, because they’re not projectiles. In the same vein, you can’t shield against energy patterns like rings or swipes. They’ll break your shield, which resets the Power accumulated and requires a short cooldown to activate again, exposing you to more damage.

Revisit Previous Biomes With New Abilities

Whenever you unlock a new ability like grapple, try revisiting a previous biome to explore other paths. Besides granting more opportunities to farm Lucenite and Halcyon – which is all the more valuable if you hit a wall – you’ll discover audio, holo and text logs to provide more context on what’s happened

But what has made us so impressed with this bullet hell action title from Housemarque? How has it built upon what was so magical about Returnal? Join us and find out more about everything we’ve been seeing during our time with this upcoming title, and how it manages to make the most of the PS5 and PS5 Pro’s spec sheets.

An Evolution That Makes Sense

Before we get into how the game looks and performs, it’s important to look at how Saros has built on Returnal’s gameplay loop, and how those changes have impacted its approach to presentation. For starters, where Returnal was akin to an obstacle course in which you were aiming to avoid taking damage from enemy gunfire, Saros presents bullets as a resource that you can use to turn the tide in your favor. That’s thanks to the Soltari Shield, which you deploy tactically while facing off against enemies, collecting the energy from their gunfire and sending it back at them for extra damage.

That mechanic works very well with what Hosemarque is calling a “bullet ballet” style of combat, and a revamped approach to VFX that makes its battles feel denser and more stylized. There’s also the fact that Saros takes a more character-driven approach to its story that lays an emphasis on cinematic presentation, a factor that we’re going to dive into when we examine its cutscene quality. And finally, it’s important to remember that the game features procedurally generated side paths that vary every time you visit a biome, allowing for a more dynamic gameplay loop even as the main path through an area still feels authored.

From a graphics perspective, Returnal handled its characters with purpose more than depth, relying on Selene to anchor the emotional core while the broader experience drew its strength from Atropos, the oppressive atmosphere, stark darkness, and eerie enemy designs. In contrast, Saros seems to shift the spotlight firmly onto its characters, prioritizing expressive performances, a stronger ensemble dynamic, and more cinematic presentation. Housemarque is clearly leaning into this direction, emphasizing the realism of its cast and the meticulous process of translating each character from written concept into a fully realized on-screen presence.

A similar progression shows up in the game’s environments and effects. Returnal defined itself through a darker, more restrained aesthetic, bioluminescent lifeforms, writhing tentacle tech, and overwhelming bursts of projectiles that made Atropos feel both threatening and mesmerizing. Saros, on the other hand, looks to retain that signature Housemarque clarity and visual intensity while pushing things further. Its setting, Carcosa, appears more intricate and fluid, with greater environmental diversity, cleaner image fidelity, and more advanced rendering overall, especially evident in its PS5 Pro upgrades and the added focus on higher-end character detail, lighting, and post-processing during narrative sequences.

All of these are relevant to how the game performs, as they are all evolutions of what Returnal brought to the table in some form, especially in terms of design and rendering. How, you ask? That’s exactly where we’re going next.

The Image Quality

This is an easy one. Saros is a stunner, whether you’re playing it on a base PS5 or the PS5 Pro. It runs at a solid 60 fps on the PS5 while the image holds up even when you try to pinpoint any compromises. If you don’t have a Pro on your hands, you’re going to be fine.

But with the game coming with PS5 Pro Enhanced features at launch, it’s important to look at what the mid-gen beast brings to the table. Firstly, Saros supports PSSR 2, delivering a sharper image that’s quite close to native 4K. That gives the game a clean image source for its higher base render resolution prior to upscaling, which is important because it means that you’re getting an image that’s both sharper and cleaner while sustaining the base version’s consistent framerates.

Of course, there are differences in reflections and overall quality, making the PS5 Pro version more than just a resolution leap. The cinematic cutscenes run at 30 fps with the aim of a better quality that places an emphasis on characters, lighting, and post-processing, and the PS5 Pro does have an edge over its base variant. On both consoles, you get great texture readability, object stability in motion, sharp edges, and well-designed geometry, making the game quite pleasing to the eye.

The PS5 version of Saros has set a strong baseline with a focus on performance-led presentation, while the Pro builds on that core experience with cleaner reconstruction, sharper output from scene to scene, and a boost in quality of reflections and cinematics. There’s also reduced shimmering and breakup on the Pro, but they aren’t going to be too noticeable on the base PS5 unless you’re really looking out for them.

But how good an image can get is only one part of the equation. It’s time to dive into how those images translate to a solid experience.

The Graphics

Spoiler alert: it’s all good news for both the PS5 and the Pro. Beginning with the art style around Carcosa’s environments and their atmospheres, things are quite good. We’re going to stick to the two biomes you’ve probably already seen in the interest of letting you experience the other ones for yourself, but we were quite impressed with how Shattered Rise and the Ancient Depths felt distinctly varied from each other, the cliffs on the former allowing for more open, spacious areas that immediately turn into cramped spaces in the Ancient Depths, which felt downright claustrophobic in comparison.

The way environments are presented in Saros blends geometry and atmospheric factors like lighting and haze quite well. Color grading is applied in a way that makes each new area you explore feel authentic and immersive, while enabling the Eclipse to immediately transform the area in a way that makes the added danger feel palpable thanks to how it transforms the scene before it. That’s thanks to the effective use of overlays that extend to enemy projectiles as well.

It’s here that the new combat mechanics shine through, with the game supporting its ambitions with excellent projectile density and readability, energy absorption effects on your Shield, excellent discharge effects, and, of course, your own weapons and their bullets. It’s all a part of the game’s charm and spectacle, woven into the core gameplay loop in a way that keeps it all readable at 60 fps even in the busiest of battles on both the PS5 and the Pro.

The lighting is a major part of that allure, and it works very well to make everything you see quite believable during both gameplay and the cinematics, lending the game’s horror aesthetic a superb balance between darkness and visual stylization. Contrast and volumetrics are applied well enough to lend each scene a layer of authenticity, while shadow falloff adds to it. You see it in reflections, which are markedly better on the PS5 Pro. Wet surfaces and water throw reflections back at you, while metallic surfaces glow with the light of projectiles around them in battles.

Indoor scenes are similarly well implemented, the soft glow from screens or other sources of light in darker places making everything so immersive that it can get challenging to actually pay attention to what’s unfolding in front of you. That’s because Arjun’s character model, and those of the NPCs you meet along the way, are all well-detailed in both gameplay and cutscenes across the board. It also applies to enemy models and animations, with combat being very readable even in the most intense fights, of which there were plenty for us to test out.

Every dodge, parry, Shield blast (that’s what we’re calling the ability to disperse your stored Shield energy), and weapon transition was animated very well, and it’s all melded in so well with the Dualsense’s haptics and adaptive triggers, which we’re going to comment on shortly. Saros is a graphical treat on the PS5 and Pro, no doubt about it. But how do its atmospherics hold up under the spotlight?

The Core Of The Evolution

Of course, Saros is an experience that sets itself apart from Returnal thanks to an emphasis on setting a grim mood over the spectacle of Selene’s time on Atropos. Carcosa is a planet that isn’t just about what you see, but about what you hear and what you feel while you navigate its biomes. The easiest way to test out how the game handles its atmospherics was to engage with the Eclipse System, which makes everything more dangerous but also more rewarding to overcome.

That’s on the gameplay side of things, but on the visual front, it’s quite a shift with the world getting a sinister red hue while the soundscape also changes once it’s active. That immediately sells the idea that you might be in over your head, but with the gameplay being as technically balanced as it is, tackling those new dangers feels more like a challenge and less like a way to just squeeze out more rewards from a run.

Of course, it’s all supported very well by the effective use of the PlayStation 5’s unique features like Tempest 3D Audio (we recommend a good pair of headphones with this one) and the DualSense’s features. Your weapons and Shield are immediately noticeable areas where the adaptive triggers work with you, giving tactile differentiation to each tool in your arsenal, while the haptics are a definite step up from their implementation in Returnal, as they feature in a larger chunk of the experience in Saros.

Additionally, we definitely did appreciate the blazing-fast load times on both consoles, and getting back into the fight after you die feels almost instantaneous. Triggering an eclipse is similarly well-handled, and you’re not going to do any doom-scrolling on your phone while you wait for the game to get you into Carcosa.

With all that’s been said, you’ve probably guessed that our time with Saros has been quite impressive on the technical front. It’s a refinement of Housemarque’s penchant for sensory immersion and clarity, while it remains uncompromising on the urgency of its gameplay loop that made Returnal so memorable. It’s a game where all of its systems come together so seamlessly you can’t help but want to pause the action just to marvel at it all before you dive back in.

While the base PS5 does a solid job of presenting that core experience, the PS5 Pro does get an edge thanks to a better baseline image quality and an improved upscaled output, along with better reflections in gameplay and cutscenes. But irrespective of the console you’re going to play this one on, Saros is certainly a title that justifies investing in a PlayStation 5. As a showcase of what the console can do, it’s right up there with the best of what the past few years have had to offer, and it’s a lot of fun to play too!

If you’ve seen even the most basic smidge of Returnal gameplay, then Saros will be immediately familiar. The multitudes of bullet patterns, sometimes forming a rose-colored bath of death; the HR Giger-esque architecture in locations, be it mechanical or vaguely human-like; the profile of a protagonist who isn’t all that he seems; and, of course, the hunger to know more, long after the credits roll.

However, Saros doesn’t just emulate Returnal’s mechanics; it expands upon them. You could have told me that it’s just a bigger, more feature-packed version of that winning gameplay, and I would have never been more locked in. The best part is that Housemarque goes even further, leveraging its brand-new setting and characters in intriguing ways while exploring the various depths of madness humanity can sink into. And it does all of this while still delivering some of the best third-person shooter/bullet hell-like gameplay out there, if not the best, packaged within this entrancing narrative – at times flitting between a dream, and at others, a confusing nightmare.

"But Rahul Kohli is the clear star, and he’s able to turn in an understated, reserved performance, and gradually turn things up when the cracks begin to form. And that will happen, slowly, gently, as you speak with your companions between runs or indulge in cinematic cutscenes."

It all starts with Arjun Devraj waking up in an unknown location on Carcosa, as he dons a sun necklace and presses forward. Sadly, a painless death isn’t what awaits, as he quickly succumbs to the planet’s horrors before being sent back to The Passage. While empty at first, he meets a fellow crewmate, Tarn, seemingly driven mad by the Eclipse. Quick thinking on behalf of his commanding officer, Sheridan Bouchard (played by Jane Perry), ensures his survival, but things are far from peachy.

Other crew members emerge, shocked at Arjun’s return, and slowly, the whole sordid deal begins to unravel. The Soltari corporation sent expeditions, known as Echelons, to Carcosa to mine the valuable resource called Lucenite. But after no response from three of them, it’s on Echelon IV to investigate and find out what’s happening.

What it discovered was a world where the Eclipse rules, changing those under its spell, including the terrifying wildlife that roams the lands. Wanting to know what happened to the previous Echelons, Arjun sets forth into Carcosa, searching for answers. Of course, he has other motives for doing so – and even joining this expedition in the first place – which forms a major crux of the journey. But for now, he’s seemingly unaffected and driven to search for answers alongside potential survivors.

As you’d probably expect, the entire cast is excellent in their roles. Jane Perry is effortless as Bouchard, a commander who’s clearly out of her depth, yet trying her best to keep some semblance of command. Ben Prendergast adds some sense of stability in his role as Jerome, a fellow Soltari enforcer who’s surprisingly fatalistic. But Rahul Kohli is the clear star, and he’s able to turn in an understated, reserved performance, and gradually turn things up when the cracks begin to form.

And that will happen, slowly, gently, as you speak with your companions between runs or indulge in cinematic cutscenes. Saros has other ways to learn more about them and the rest of the world through logs, and hearing their pre-expedition selves explaining why they’d be best for the mission offers some much-needed context on their lives (and what they think of Arjun).

"It’s challenging enough to create so much variety in your average indie rogue-lite/like; that Housemarque is offering up these different sections with such immaculate architecture and presentation, while ensuring they’re distinguishable in at least one way from everything else, is incredible."

Of course, that’s only really the beginning, so it’s back to Carcosa, starting with the appropriately named Shattered Rise. Ruins of what was once a thriving civilization, intermixed with stunning vistas and ravines, offering only a taste of what the planet has in store (as above, not so below, and vice versa in many cases). Whether it’s the machinations of the Ancient Depths, their twisted tunnels packed with drilling equipment and sentient robots none too happy to see you, or the ever-mysterious city, Carcosa is simply brimming with gorgeous environments and architecture. The music is extremely well-tuned to it all, adding to the ominous tone when the action is more low-key but pumping out heavy, industrial, discordant beats during combat. It’s almost like you’re in a battle trance, and it’s awesome.

Then again, this is a rogue-lite, which means that the planet is constantly changing. Saros doesn’t take a fully procedurally generated approach to level design, but randomly arranges different hand-crafted sections for each run. One section could have two moving platforms, each towards a reward, and you need to pick one. The other could be a light puzzle that requires hitting some hidden switches to unlock a gate leading to a reward.

While having new sections to explore is always a good thing in a roguelite, sprinkling in parts that players have already experienced, especially in a game like this, requires a balance. You want players to feel like they’re mastering the biome without overwhelming them. Too many familiar-looking areas can dull any sense of wonder. Too much that’s new, and you start dulling the mastery aspect, making previous runs feel useless in the knowledge provided.

Saros strikes a seamless balance between the two – it’s almost like a feeling of déjà visité that scratches at your mind until you know what’s happening. It’s challenging enough to create so much variety in your average indie rogue-lite/like; that Housemarque is offering up these different sections with such immaculate architecture and presentation, while ensuring they’re distinguishable in at least one way from everything else, is incredible.

There are plenty of other ways that these biomes feel fresh, however. You’ll discover audio logs, holo logs and text documents from previous Echelons – and your own – talking about what’s happening. The Databank gradually fills up with messages regarding allies and enemies. And then there’s Carcosa’s environment itself, conveying the traces of past conflicts and other horrors beyond understanding between the odd mural or two.

"However, this is Housemarque, and it didn’t stop there because you also have the Corruption mechanic – another interesting twist. Usually, when the Eclipse is active, enemies will throw yellow projectiles at you, which reduce your max health on contact."

Things take a deeper turn when the Eclipse is activated, tinging the world in a reddish glow (to start with) as the walls sprout tentacles. These same tentacles will realistically bend around as you walk past them – another creepy detail, though it’s far from the last.

Plenty of other things undergo a transformation, which brings us to combat. You have a primary weapon and alternate firing mode to start with – certain weapons are autolock, with projectiles homing directly on enemies, while others require manual aiming. Like Returnal, the most basic means of survival is dashing and jumping over projectiles, and killing everything before it can kill you, which fuels your adrenaline and grants different buffs.

The biggest new addition is the Soltari shield. Ode to some of my favorite shmups, Ikaruga and Drainus, that included this mechanic, where you can absorb projectiles. Arjun won’t immediately unleash that power back at enemies here – instead, the projectiles fuel the new Power weapon. So right away, you’re looking at bullets as resources to harness. And while the starting Power weapon, Prominence, is ideal for some quick and dirty explosions, you’ll unlock other options, like the Dispiritor, which fires dozens of small homing projectiles that essentially infect an enemy. Kill them, and a small turret or tornado of the same cells forms, which can then infect other foes.

However, this is Housemarque, and it didn’t stop there because you also have the Corruption mechanic – another interesting twist. Usually, when the Eclipse is active, enemies will throw yellow projectiles at you, which reduce your max health on contact. This can be cleansed with Power weapon usage, even if you don’t get the health back (unless there’s an Artifact perk active). But then the ability to absorb corrupted projectiles becomes available, and it becomes a game of risk vs. reward, especially if you’ve already taken a few hits from the boss. Why not use that missing health to take on some Corruption, fueling your Power weapon in the process?

There is such a thing as being “too greedy,” however, and I don’t mean corrupting yourself so much that you only have a smidgen of health. Your shield has a duration, and any red projectiles or lasers – not to mention energy rings – will instantly break it, rendering you helpless for a period. But for me, it scratches that bullet hell itch, where pushing the limit is encouraged, and understanding the path to winning isn’t as exciting as consistently executing it. And if all this wasn’t enough, there’s also a parry mechanic, where you can deflect the energy from red projectiles back at enemies.

"If it wasn’t clear by now, Saros feels incredible to control, and thus accommodates a good many playstyles, whether you’re the type to hang back and pelt foes from a distance, using the environment as cover, or intimately understand what an enemy is going to do next before punching them in their face (or what appears to be their visage)."

If you can sense a shield turret is about to unleash a bloody rain, mark it as return to sender and blow them up from afar. So yes, on top of Drainus/Ikaruga, Housemarque added a bit of Sekiro into the mix, and it’s awesome, adding even more opportunities to harness bullets as resources. Absorb those corrupted projectiles for my Power weapon or punch the energy from red projectiles back at an enemy, potentially staggering them? Decisions, decisions.

If it wasn’t clear by now, Saros feels incredible to control, and thus accommodates a good many playstyles, whether you’re the type to hang back and pelt foes from a distance, using the environment as cover, or intimately understand what an enemy is going to do next before punching them in their face (or what appears to be their visage). Perhaps my only annoyances are when attempting to dash and accidentally riding a zipline or trying to pick something up, but the game slingshots me towards a grappling point instead, since they’re tied to the same button.

Its rogue-lite gameplay isn’t so much about crafting an entire build around a single primary or Power weapon – though some perk rolls are definitely better than others – as adapting to the circumstances. That also carries some risk vs reward, as you could take up a higher Proficiency weapon, even if it’s not your preferred type, for the sake of more damage and then try to reroll for something better. Maybe you’ll save those rerolls until the boss is next, and try for the best perk combo on a preferred weapon (which can also be done for Artifacts and Power weapons).

The only real drawback is that rogue-lite fans used to having extensive control over their loadouts may find it annoying that they can’t freely replace all of their Artifacts in favor of better ones during a run. You get one removal during a run – that too after several hours into the story – and that’s it, which lessens the desire to run through all the biomes rather than simply returning to The Passage. After all, why should one care about the slabs containing potential Artifacts when you can’t even pick them up, and your weapon of choice is more or less wreaking havoc?

Aside from returning to base and fast-traveling to and from any biome that you’d like, not to mention the ability to suspend a run and resume later, Housemarque accommodates players in many other ways. The Armor Matrix features a range of permanent unlocks, from increased health and shield duration to more Lucenite gain. Collecting Halcyon also nets other benefits, such as more Artifact slots, longer durations for Lucenite to remain on the ground, more health from Second Chance, and whatnot. It’s fairly easy to understand, but not super streamlined with branching paths for prioritizing the passives you want. It also remains fairly well-balanced, since you’re stopped by a node that requires defeating a boss to net further upgrades.

"A combination of several elements somewhat soured me on the ending, but it’s still a pretty strong story, one with some deeply overarching themes about human nature that kept me thinking hours after it was all said and done."

Then there are the Carcosan Modifiers, which essentially affect things like enemy damage received and dealt, whether Artifacts will carry negative effects, and so on. And while I appreciate this for essentially dictating the level of challenge that you want, you shouldn’t expect a Pact of Punishment-style progression system here. It’s simply for rogue-lite/bullet hell fiends like me who want to actually feel something when the base game isn’t doing it.

There are no extra rewards, extra lore bits (at least, none that I could uncover), nothing, which feels like a missed opportunity. On the bright side, it helps further mix up runs, like turning off the Armor Matrix and actually embarking on a more traditional, rogue-like loop, trying to decide which stat I want to lean into for my build, and really mulling over the different Artifacts.

Perhaps my biggest gripe with Saros is the ending. No spoilers whatsoever – no, not even a hint, but it simply left me wanting more. Sure, there will be plenty of logs to mop up, and I enjoyed going through everything to really assemble the full picture of what happened on Carcosa, but this style of storytelling is very much akin to Returnal.

It probably won’t be much of an issue for someone who takes their time, but being able to blast through the story in about 12 hours – entirely obsessed and driven by the plot the entire time, make no mistake – just made the inevitable credits feel like that much of a downer. However, this is coming from someone who finished Returnal in roughly the same amount of time, that too without any mid-run saves, and cleared the first biome of Saros on the first try. Your mileage may very well vary.

A combination of several elements somewhat soured me on the ending, but it’s still a pretty strong story, one with some deeply overarching themes about human nature that kept me thinking hours after it was all said and done. I still yearn for a dedicated post-game activity, maybe something akin to Returnal’s Tower of Sisyphus that could at least provide that near endless challenge of trying to beat other players’ high scores. Perhaps some time after launch, with the addition of co-op to boot.

"When you have a beautiful, stupendous creation, irresistible in its truth, like Saros, I’m more than content to serve."

When I first laid hands on Saros, it felt like everything I ever wanted, and then some, especially after waiting for so long. Having spent an extensive time with it, I don’t have that same sense that every single little desire of mine was met, but that’s perfectly fine when confronted with such a robust experience with some of the best third-person shooter gameplay, combined with a nuanced bullet hell system and progression that feels consistently rewarding. I lost count of the number of times my jaw was left agape, either due to the environmental wonders before me or from the many memorable encounters against its bosses.

The fact that I keep returning, even though the story is essentially wrapped, may be a curse in some ways. It probably means I’ve already begun the inevitable wait for the threequel, and to see what terrible new loop Housemarque has planned next. But when you have a beautiful, stupendous creation, irresistible in its truth, like Saros, I’m more than content to serve.

This game was reviewed on PS5.

That includes Ramnarayan Venkatesan or Ram V, an Eisner Award-winning comics writer and artist who’s worked on Detective Comics, Justice League Dark, Catwoman, and more. Louden reveals that he was involved “with our narrative team at Housemarque on the characters and world of Saros during our pre-production.” He praised Venkatesan’s “approach to cosmic horror and authenticity,” which helped shape Arjun and Nitya (who we haven’t really heard too much about leading up to release).

Of course, there are also new gameplay details, like how the Carcosan Modifiers can make things easier. Protection Modifiers, for example, will reduce incoming damage while Damage Enhancement buffs your damage output. Shield Power Enhancement ensures that you’re not consuming any Power with the Soltari Shield, and Overlord Restoration ensures that you’re always at full health when going up against Carcosa’s biggest threats.

On the other end are Trials like Weapon Decay, which sees your primary weapon decaying with use, while Growth Incapacitor I removes the Second Chance revive. Add another level to the latter, and you can turn off all Armor Matrix upgrades.

In terms of accessibility, Louden promises a deeper dive after launch, but color blindness support is confirmed alongside a dialogue focus mode, controller remapping, and more.

Available on April 30th for PS5, Saros will arrive 48 hours earlier for Deluxe Edition owners, who also get three unique armor sets based on other PlayStation IPs.

The story centers on Arjun Devraj (Rahul Kohli), a Soltari enforcer on Echelon IV who has arrived on the world to find out what happened to previous expeditions. It’s not long before his allies run smackdab into the Eclipse, which slowly but surely casts a pall on them. Not that Arjun is sitting around, waiting for things to resolve themselves, but instead setting out into the violent world to find someone important to him.

It’s going to be a difficult journey, though. Between all the enemies tossing projectiles, the giant towering bosses that throw even more projectiles, and a mysterious multi-armed entity sitting on a throne (who seemingly channels The King in Yellow), players have their work cut out. Thankfully, there’s an array of armaments, including new Power weapons, to help cut through the noise.

Should we be concerned when Arjun says, “The sun is forever, and so am I?” We’ll have to find out when Saros launches on April 30th, exclusively for PS5. Check out our feature for all the latest details and head here to learn how it differs from Returnal, Housemarque’s last major shooter.