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.

Samson: A Tyndalston Story

Growing up is never easy, yet there’s a bittersweet feeling in returning to your childhood town, older and wiser. Not for Samson, though. His goal in Tyndalston is to pay off a debt that increases each day. Time is money, literally – you have limited hours to choose different jobs, whether it’s a getaway driver for a bank job or tuning up some local thugs. With a combat system that’s more about fighting dirty and vehicular mayhem that would make Mad Max proud, Samson promises a lot for its $25 price when it launches on April 8th.

DarkSwitch

Think Against the Storm, but expanding vertically – that somewhat explains Cyber Temple’s DarkSwitch. With a giant tree as your base and a malevolent fog slowly creeping in, you need to build, construct defenses and sometimes venture into the unknown to survive. It probably isn’t a coincidence that Akira Yamaoka is composing the soundtrack, probably hearing the word “fog” and asking nothing more. But with a full-fledged story mode that promises over 20 hours of thrills, DarkSwitch could end up a dark horse when it launches on April 9th.

Replaced

AI trapped in a human’s body, an alternative United States under the thrall of megacorporations, post-nuclear panic – all of this and more await in Replaced, Sad Cat Studios’ long-in-development cinematic platformer, which launches on April 14th. It also features stunning 2.5D graphics and a Free Flow combat system akin to Rocksteady’s Batman: Arkham franchise. Over its eight-hour runtime (11 to 12 if you stay and smell what’s left of the roses), there’s a harrowing, unpredictable experience with more than its fair share of bleak commentary on the world as we know it.

Starfield (PS5) and Terran Armada

Bethesda’s new – and not at all controversial – IP is finally coming to PS5 on April 7th alongside the latest story DLC, Terran Armada. At $49.99 for the base game ($10 for the new DLC), it’s the best time for PlayStation players to explore the Settled Systems, especially with the Free Lanes update. Besides expanding on space travel, it introduces new companions, outpost improvements, new points of interest, more upgrade systems, and more. Meanwhile, Terran Armada promises a more interesting story, its own exclusive Incursions, new ships, and even an HK-47-style companion in Delta.

Regions of Ruin: Runegate

As intriguing as the pixel art style and sheer number of systems could be, I never expected 2018’s Regions of Ruin to get a sequel. Runegate is out on April 14th and follows pretty much the same premise – venturing out into a ruined world, helping your Dwarven brethren, obtaining resources, and ultimately, establishing a place to call home. With more varied locations, sleeker visuals and much more to do, it promises to be the definitive Regions of Ruin experience.

Road to Vostok (Early Access)

If you can’t wait for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2’s first story DLC to hit this Summer, Road to Vostok may tide you over. Entering early access on April 7th, it tasks players with exploring the post-apocalyptic areas between Finland and Russia, ultimately culminating in Vostok. You’ll need to loot supplies and build a formidable arsenal, dealing with changing seasons, rough weather, bandits, and even the military, with death in Vostok causing you to lose everything. It’s a ways off from full release, but those looking for another challenging survival FPS may find it worthwhile.

Diablo 4: Lord of Hatred

Vessel of Hatred was a steaming hot pile of whatever, but Lord of Hatred, Diablo 4’s next expansion, looks more promising. Available on April 28th, it sees the world in peril once more because Mephisto. You’ll likely be the one to lay the smackdown on him after venturing to Skovos, a scintillating new region full of new points of interest and plenty of demons to scour. Two new classes, the Paladin and Warlock, bring even more unique playstyles and build variety than before, while Blizzard is reworking the Skill Tree, bringing back the Horadric Cube, and more. Maybe this will be the release that finally elevates Diablo 4 to the next level. We can only hope.

MOUSE: P.I. For Hire

What if you combine the rubber-hose animation of Cuphead with boomer-shooter-like gameplay? You get MOUSE: P.I. For Hire, a hard-boiled noir adventure focused on Jack Prepper, as he investigates a missing persons case and ends up discovering more than he bargained for. The slick hand-drawn animation is undoubtedly the appeal, as it brings Mouseburg to life in astonishing detail. Of course, this is a shooter as well, with weapons ranging from the grounded – pistols, shotguns, machine guns – to the wacky like freeze rays, corrosive turpentine and more. It’s out on April 16th and promises 12 to 20 hours of gameplay for $30.

Pragmata

Moon’s haunted, but instead of ghosts, there are homicidal robots out to get you. Launching on April 17th, Pragmata isn’t a Resident Evil-style survival horror – it’s the journey of Hugh, investigating a lunar base after lost contact and becoming swept up in the robot uprising. Together with the android Diana, he seeks a way out, providing the firepower while she hacks through an enemy’s defenses. The twist is that you have to do both simultaneously, creating a mix of puzzle-solving and tense shooting. It’s unlike anything we’ve seen before, and after the demo, we only want more.

Saros

Death is only the first step in Housemarque’s latest, and protagonist Arjun Devraj has miles to go before he can sleep. Investigating Carcosa for any sign of previous Soltari expeditions, he and his crew are caught up in the Eclipse, which twists the planet’s surface, culminating in the sun’s death. And yet, death won’t let them escape. Cue close encounters with tentacled monstrosities, discovering new weapons and clues that could help. And while Saros leans much further into rogue-lite progression than Returnal, it’s also expanded on the bullet dodging with a new shield that lets you absorb some damage and send it back with a vengeance. Saros arrives on April 30th, and even if you haven’t played its predecessor, it’s looking like another killer PS5 exclusive.

Invincible VS

Seemingly addressing the lack of 3v3 fighters, Quarter Up’s take on the brutal superhero epic packs 18 playable characters – including favorites such as Invincible, Omni-Man, BattleBeast, and of course, Conquest. And if the prospect of different classes, active and counter tags, and rollback netcode for online play doesn’t interest you, there’s a story mode to experience every bloody skirmish. It’s available on April 30th for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC.

Spark in the Dark (Early Access)

As typical of a dungeon crawler as Stellar Fish’s latest title appears, there’s an inherent charm and grittiness to Spark in the Dark. Maybe it’s the isometric perspective or more methodical pacing, coupled with how inherently dark the endless Dungeon appears (which makes it all the more scary when monsters show up). It’s available on April 7th via early access and only includes the initial tiers of the Dungeon, but we’re keen on plundering its depths.

MotoGP 26

Credit where it’s due to Milestone, as this will be its third consecutive racing game in three months. MotoGP 26 is all about the thrill of competitive bike racing at the highest level, although you can opt between Arcade and Pro Experiences to determine the difficulty. With an in-depth career mode, cross-play between all platforms (Nintendo not included, sadly), and new disciplines like Minibikes, Flat Tracks, Production Bikes, and more, this could be the series’ most feature-packed entry yet.

WILL: Follow the Light

Cropping up more than once during Steam Next Fest and impressing with its visuals, WILL: Follow the Light is a hard-hitting adventure focused on a seemingly simple goal: Returning home. It’s far from easy, however, as Will must brave islands, mountains and even the sea to reach his hometown and save his son. Puzzles and environmental storytelling abound, but it’s all about the atmosphere and how deep you’ll go to learn the truth. WILL: Follow the Light launches on April 28th for PC.

Kiln

Listen, I’m not saying this is exactly what I expected from Double Fine, which has delivered some of the finest platforms to date. But Kiln is…curious in a way that fits the developer’s profile. After all, what other multiplayer title invites you to become a pot, finely sculpted by your hands and scuttling off into an arena for some ceramic destruction? The fact that a pot’s design influences its playstyle is even more intriguing. Whether it figuratively blows up or not, Kiln is out on April 23rd for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC.

Story

Touted as Housemarque’s “most story-focused game” yet, Saros is about Soltari enforcer Arjun Devraj (played by Rahul Kohli) and the crew of Echelon IV. They’ve been sent to Carcosa because of the resource Lucenite. Things take a turn for the worse, however, and the entire crew is now stranded on the planet, as it constantly reshapes, with seemingly no way to escape.

Carcosa

So what’s going on? The Eclipse, or rather, a solar eclipse where the sun “dies” and everything on Carcosa is twisted beyond repair. While Arjun is looking for a way out – and what happened to the previous Echelon crews – he also needs to deal with the demands of Soltari, his employer, and the mysterious civilization that seemingly existed way before. There are also hints that his own sanity is being affected with each run, as he stumbles further into the mystery of the Eclipse.

Characters

He won’t be alone throughout this journey, though. His commander, Sheridan Bouchard, rescues him from a crazed crew member, even if she’s unsure whether he can be trusted. Others have yet to be detailed, but don’t think for a second they’re always going to remain calm. As narrative designer William Shaughnessy explains, “The more the characters learn, the more the sense of dread grows. The friction within the crew increases, and each handles that in different ways.” To that end, you can expect way more cinematic cutscenes, although it’s possible to skip many of the interactions back at The Passage for the sake of diving back into Carcosa.

Spiritual Successor to Returnal

A cycle of death and rebirth, a mysterious shapeshifting planet where players must rush through biomes to discover answers – this may all sound a bit familiar to some players. That’s because Saros is a spiritual successor to Returnal, Housemarque’s last major title. How exactly their stories may connect (if at all) remains to be seen, but it even features Jane Perry, who played Selene, as Bouchard. Surely that’s not a coincidence.

Unreal Engine 5 and “Tentacle Tech”

Saros is developed on Unreal Engine 5, which shouldn’t come across as too surprising – Returnal was developed on Unreal Engine 4, after all. Stick with what you know and all that, but Housemarque is making some pretty notable improvements, including rigid-body particle simulation for bullets, enhanced environmental destruction and so on. It’s signature (and creepily named) “tentacle technology,” allowing for more “realism and unpredictability” courtesy of “hand-made animation with procedural systems.”

Rogue-Lite Gameplay and Returnal’s Influence

While it’s a “spiritual successor” to Returnal, Saros includes all of the essentials. Holding down L2 partially to activate alt-fire mode? Check. Accumulating Adrenaline by not taking damage and accumulating buffs like increased melee damage? Also check. Red shields that can only be destroyed with melee strikes? You know it. The story, characters, and setting are completely different, but it carries the same delightfully difficult gameplay loop.

Permanent Progression

So what sets it apart? It’s much more like a rogue-lite now. By accumulating Lucenite and interacting with the Soltari’s Primary in The Passage, you can now unlock permanent upgrades to improve Arjun’s stats, including Resilience (aka health), Command (or shields) and Drive (which affects Lucenite Gains). These go a long way to not only ensuring that Arjun survives through multiple excursions but that he’s becoming stronger with each run.

Carcosan Modifiers

Far be it from Primary to just let you walk into the world of Carcosa without any gimmicks, however. Before embarking on a run, you can select modifiers to change things up. Protections provide advantages, like easier perfect reloads, increased damage to hostiles, and so on, while Trials go the other way. Balance is the key here, but don’t worry – there are plenty of ways to up the difficulty, such as…

Second Chance

The other biggest change to the core gameplay is the new Second Chance perk. It’s unlocked fairly early on through Primary and gives Arjun the chance to return from death. No, not at the beginning of the cycle but immediately after taking a lethal hit, healing up most of his health in the process and clearing out any Corruption (which we’ll get into). It’s a game-changer in many ways, but if you’re seeking a greater challenge, there’s a Trial to turn it off.

The Eclipse

Far from a cycle that will annihilate Arjun at any chance it gets, the Eclipse is also risk/reward incarnate. By triggering it during a run, the world is completely changed. Think much more red hues, twisted audio, and just the overall impression that Carcosa is on the brink. Enemies become crazed, gaining new attacks, but you’ll also gain more Lucenite to invest in further upgrades. Also, tentacles. Many, many more tentacles.

Corrupted Weapons and Artifacts

Then there are the Corrupted weapons and artifacts. These offer unique benefits but with certain trade-offs – like a Corrupted Power Spike artifact that increases Command and adds to Power while reducing Drive. You also gain Pressure, which decreases damage if you’re low on health. Another option is increased Resilience for increased max health, but you’ll lose Lucenite whenever taking a hit.

Soltari Shield and Power Weapons

If you’ve played Returnal, you’re probably wondering what “shields” are. Arjun is equipped with a Soltari Shield, and it’s more than just defensive – it can absorb blue projectiles and fuel his Power Weapon. We’ve seen one thus far, Prominence, which deals explosive damage in a radius and scales on Power. So instead of constantly dodging projectiles, there are several that you would absorb instead for the sake of sending that energy back to an enemy. Be careful, though – it doesn’t last forever.

Corrupted Projectiles

Of course, this is a shoot ’em up, and such benefits don’t always come easy. During an Eclipse, enemies will shoot yellow projectiles that inflict Corruption. You can’t absorb these, and Corruption will reduce your max health. What you can do, however, is clear it by using a Power Weapon. So while that health won’t be immediately regained, at least you can heal it back up.

Runs in 4K/60 FPS on PS5

While a more detailed analysis is necessary, Saros runs at 4K/60 FPS on a base PS5. The footage thus far showed a satisfyingly consistent frame rate, even with dozens of effects and projectiles on screen at once. Housemarque has yet to detail PS5 Pro enhancements, but it wouldn’t be surprising to see it up the ante even further.

DualSense Features

The responsiveness of the adaptive triggers returns, providing a satisfying sound when alternate-fire mode is ready. You’ll feel it when Arjun dashes in a particular direction or when absorbing projectiles with the Soltari Shield, and much like with Returnal, loading times are near-instant thanks to the SSD. And then there’s the 3D Audio support, which is apparently recommended for experiencing the true dread of the Eclipse.

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.