Saros: Housemarque Reveals New Details on Gameplay Trailer

We return to talk about Saros, the third-person shooter developed by the Finnish studio Housemarque, which will be released exclusively on PlayStation 5 on March 20, 2026. Last September, we saw the first gameplay trailer, which gave us a brief preview of what the game experience will be like, with its similarities (and differences) to another title from the studio, Returnal. Now the developers have returned to discuss that trailer, to provide us with further details about it.

The Architecture of Saros

Simone Silvestri, art director at Housemarque, commented on the architecture of Saros' structures. From a stylistic point of view, Saros' goal is to convey the feeling of truly being in the presence of alien constructions: to achieve this, Silvestri was inspired by two opposing currents, neo-classicism and Italian futurism. This juxtaposition works, as Silvestri says he is very happy with the result obtained in the trailer.

The Gameplay of Saros

Abebe Tinari, lead game designer, then moves on to gameplay and focuses on an aspect that Housemarque was keen to show players: bullet patterns. As in Returnal, bullet dynamics are important, but in Saros, this aspect has been further deepened. Sharman Jagadeesan, graphics programmer, mentions environmental destruction, particularly that of enemies, which, when they explode, project particles onto the protagonist and the surrounding environment.

Tinari explains one of the main differences with Returnal: the shield. In Returnal, the bullet rain must essentially be dodged, while in Saros, you can instead interact with it, absorbing it through the shield. Then Martin Contel, tech director, focuses on the animations of the tentacles, a visual gem that was conceived in-house by Housemarque. Finally, Jagadeesan reveals a behind-the-scenes detail about the evocative scene of the boss emerging from the gate with skulls: an impressive effect, curiously born out of the necessity to avoid clipping issues.