The thing about Housemarque is it makes some of the gamiest games in the AAA space, and that’s a gift among big budget titles that play it so safe they start to feel a bit homogenous.
With Returnal, the Finnish studio released the biggest game it had ever made. However, despite a substantial backing from Sony and a stronger focus on narrative, it still felt like a video game you just play because it feels damn good to do so.
Saros is the same. Well, it’s the same in some ways. In others, it’s very much trying out its own stuff, but the main takeaway is that, if you like Housemarque’s gameplay-first sensibilities, this is absolutely a no-brainer.
This is a third-person shooter that, in broad strokes, bears a lot of similarities to the team’s previous game. Saros is the result of building on what worked in Returnal, and diverting in a few smart ways to deliver a more streamlined, but just as exciting, experience.
It’s a run-based shooter, in which you explore the alien world of Carcosa — a strange, shape-shifting planet that’s strongly affected by the Eclipse, a regular occurrence that changes the landscape and lifeforms that inhabit it.
As with any Housemarque game, the action itself is the main draw, and it’s fantastic. Movement is smooth and responsive, and combat is deeply intense but, despite the chaos onscreen, it’s somehow all readable and intuitive.
Enemies will spawn in groups and fire projectiles of various colours at you, and once you’re comfortable with what it all means, you fall into a rhythm of jumping, dashing, parrying, using your shield, and fighting back while you’re at it.
Speaking of the shield, it’s a great addition that, while it takes a bit of getting used to, complements the rest of your abilities perfectly. Absorbing blue bullets converts them to power, which you can then spend to use a range of power weapons that can really cut through enemies.
The aforementioned Eclipse isn’t just an aesthetic thing — it has a big impact on the game itself. With the Eclipse active, your foes become tougher, environments are more hazardous, and certain attacks inflict Corruption.
Corruption eats away at your max health, leaving you with a shrinking life meter. However, you can cleanse Corruption by using your power weapon, so it’s not the end of the world.
Anyway, when it all clicks and you’re melting health bars while threading a needle through the madness, it feels superb.
Boss fights are a highlight, as you might expect. We don’t want to spoil anything, but there are some excellent battles, especially in the latter half, that really force you to embrace every part of Saros’ combat.
Whether to bosses or otherwise, you will die many times, and that’s baked into the game’s design.
When you inevitably perish, you return to the Passage, a hub where you can chat to other characters and, crucially, unlock a wide range of permanent upgrades.
Using the Lucenite you collect while gunning down aliens en masse, you can purchase all kinds of stat buffs and incremental boosts that mean you’ll always go back into the fray that little bit stronger.
It’s a compelling loop, and you definitely feel yourself becoming more powerful over time. Returning to earlier biomes that gave you trouble before, only to blitz through with barely a scratch, is always satisfying.
The default balance throughout the game is pretty spot on for our tastes, but a new feature, Carcosan Modifiers, allows you to adjust things in various ways to make things easier or harder.
It’s a really clever system; the modifiers you select can make certain aspects more forgiving, but they have to be counterbalanced with negative effects so the level of challenge is maintained. The results can be quite impactful.
For the true masochists out there, you can actually enable as many difficulty-increasing mods as you want. The game can be unbelievably tough if you want it to be — or, you can take the edge off a bit. It’s down to you.
Saros is technically a rogue-lite, and while it definitely has some hallmarks of that structure, other elements feel muted.
For example, the layout of each biome is different every time, weapons and other items are randomised, and you’re sent back to base on death. However, don’t expect to be working towards crazy synergies and overpowered builds.
The shape of each run is largely dictated by the weapon you carry and the Artefacts you collect. Artefacts do imbue various beneficial effects, like making enemies drop more Lucenite, or making healing items more effective, but they’re designed in such a way that they’ll work with whichever weapon you’re using.
This isn’t really a criticism; we actually quite like how straightforward Saros is in this regard. By and large, it’s concerned with simple forward momentum, and that actually reflects the central character quite nicely.
You play as Arjun Devraj, a determined, driven enforcer sent to Carcosa, a planet the Soltari corporation you work for has been attempting to colonise and mine for its resources.
Previous expeditions to the alien world have gone quiet, so Arjun is sent as part of an emergency squad to discover what’s going on.
It means your character isn’t the only one present; your colleagues usually have something to say to you in the Passage, and it’s worth listening to get their perspectives on the wider sci-fi storyline Saros is telling.
While Rahul Kohli steals the show as Arjun, voice work in the wider cast is generally good, and the mystery surrounding Carcosa, and other layers on top, make for an engaging plot.
The visuals are a step above Returnal in many ways, with really strong art direction and environment design doing a lot of work. Character faces outside of cutscenes can look a little subpar, but this is a great-looking game overall.
On a standard PS5, Saros is running at 60 frames-per-second 99 per cent of the time, with only the most minor of hiccups across more than 50 hours of time playing. PS5 Pro, meanwhile, eliminates these rare instances to deliver a perfectly smooth experience.
And if you’re wondering whether your DualSense controller will get a workout, worry not — Housemarque gives other first-party teams a run for their money in this department.
