SAROS - We got our hands on the new PlayStation exclusive

When it comes to unconventional productions, the name Housemarque is now a guarantee. The Finnish studio, which officially joined the PlayStation Studios family after years of collaboration, has built a solid reputation thanks to titles that combine pure action, arcade style, and an almost obsessive attention to gameplay feel.

After spending years working on more “contained” but always extremely refined experiences, the leap in quality came with Returnal, which represented their true debut in the world of AAA productions. A title that divided opinions on difficulty but united everyone on one thing: Housemarque knows how to create engaging, intense, and technically impressive gameplay.

And it is from that foundation that SAROS, the new project that aims to definitively consolidate the studio among the big names in the PlayStation landscape, is born. 

SAROS immediately presents itself as a spiritual evolution of what was seen in Returnal, but with a more defined and ambitious identity. The atmosphere remains mysterious, alien, and slightly disturbing, but the tone seems to be even more narrative and less cryptic than in the past. We find ourselves once again on a hostile planet, but this time the focus seems to shift more towards the context, the story, and the meaning of what is happening. Not just surviving, then, but also understanding. After trying the game for 3 uninterrupted hours, it is spontaneous and easy to say that SAROS aims to create a more coherent and “readable” world, while maintaining that sense of isolation and continuous discovery that had made Returnal so magnetic.

SAROS: a more ensemble story compared to Returnal

In Returnal, everything was much more “closed” and personal: there was only Selene, with her desperate struggle to survive on Atropos and understand what was happening, in a journey that mixed mystery and past in a truly intimate way. With Saros, however, the pace changes completely. The story doesn't just focus on the main character, Arjun Devraj, but expands much more, leaving room for other characters to interact with while exploring the planet Carcosa. This is especially felt in the “Passage”, a kind of temple that serves as a reference point during the game, where you meet members of the Echelon IV crew, chat, and discover secrets. All of this also significantly changes the overall tone of the experience, with the title seeming to aim for something more cinematic and “group-oriented”, compared to Returnal's more solitary and introspective atmosphere. Whether this is good or not, however, will depend heavily on what you are looking for in SAROS: those who loved feeling completely alone against the unknown might turn up their noses, while those who want a broader story full of characters will probably appreciate this new direction.

SAROS's roguelike system: more flexible, less punishing

While Returnal presented itself as a tough and uncompromising roguelike, where every time you died you practically started from scratch, losing weapons, power-ups, and items, making death quite punishing, in SAROS, however, the approach changes a bit: the roguelike elements remain, but they are managed in a more “human” and less rigid way. Yes, dying still has consequences and you will still lose part of what you have collected, but this time you won't start from absolute zero: thanks to the Armor Matrix, a progression system that allows you to permanently improve Arjun's armor using resources accumulated during runs. You can increase resistance, collect resources faster, or enhance your shield, so even when you fail, you still feel like you've made progress.

The game flow has also been made much smoother: some weapons, both primary and secondary, remain even after death, making everything less punishing and more continuous. In short, SAROS takes the foundation of Returnal and makes it more accessible and flexible, without losing that sense of challenge that characterizes it. 

Every run in SAROS revolves around what you manage to scavenge along the way and making it work, always and in every situation. Fortunately, however, several interesting solutions come into play, such as the shield, which immediately becomes a key element. It's not just a defense, but a tool to be used in combo with the dash to dodge, move better, and survive even in platforming sections, which have a certain weight here. By absorbing hits, the shield accumulates energy that you can then send back as an attack, effectively transforming into an offensive weapon, and as you progress, it can also be upgraded to become even more devastating.

The Eclipse mechanic: risk, reward, and corrupted projectiles

As already mentioned, SAROS's gameplay evolves the formula already seen in Returnal, making it more varied and dynamic, without losing that fast and precise action component that requires quick reflexes and great attention to positioning. The clashes remain frantic and spectacular, but this time they are inserted into a broader context, with greater freedom of approach thanks to Arjun's abilities and armor upgrades that allow you to adapt your playstyle to the situation. Making everything even more interesting is the ECLIPSE system, a mechanic that changes the rules during runs.

When the eclipse falls, the game world becomes more hostile, enemies become more aggressive and dangerous, and the atmosphere becomes charged with tension. At the same time, however, facing these more difficult phases can lead to better rewards, pushing you to take more risks to gain significant advantages. This balance between risk and reward adds an additional strategic layer to the gameplay, making each run less predictable and always keeping the sense of challenge and discovery high.

Another truly interesting idea in SAROS's gameplay is the corruption of projectiles during the eclipse, a mechanic that completely changes how you approach combat. When the world enters this darker and more unstable phase, not only do enemies become more aggressive, but their attacks also undergo a kind of mutation, and projectiles become more unpredictable, taking strange trajectories, multiplying, or becoming “tainted” with effects that make them much harder to read and dodge. This forces the player to stay super focused and re-evaluate their approach, because classic strategies might no longer work as before. At the same time, however, this corruption is not just an obstacle, but can also open up new opportunities, pushing you to exploit the chaos to your advantage and making each encounter more dynamic and less predictable. It's one of those ideas that increases tension and gives the gameplay that extra bit of unpredictability, especially in already high-pressure moments like those during the eclipse.

Graphics and performance on PS5: SAROS aims for definitive quality

On a technical level, we can easily say that SAROS is undoubtedly one of the most “clean” and refined productions ever made by Housemarque on Playstation 5. The visual impact is immediate, with denser and more readable particle effects compared to Returnal, more stable dynamic lighting, and above all, an even more integrated use of the DualSense, with haptic feedback and adaptive triggers that precisely convey every variation of weapons and combat situations. During our test, everything ran extremely smoothly, with solid performance even in the most chaotic on-screen phases, a sign of already very advanced optimization. The work on visual clarity is also striking; despite the classic Housemarque “bullet hell”, the action is more readable thanks to improved contrast between projectiles, enemies, and environments, avoiding that sense of total chaos that sometimes characterized Returnal. From an artistic point of view, the graphics engine manages to enhance more varied and layered alien environments, with more detailed surfaces and light management that strongly contributes to the atmosphere. In general, SAROS seems to push more for a balance between spectacle and readability, maintaining the studio's typical visual power but with a decidedly higher level of technical maturity.

SAROS Soundtrack: adaptive audio that blends with gameplay

One of the aspects that immediately strikes you about SAROS is its soundtrack, capable of perfectly synchronizing with the gameplay and amplifying every single moment of the experience. The tracks accompany the frantic action without ever overpowering it, transitioning naturally from more ambient and mysterious sounds during exploration to more intense and pulsating rhythms when combat becomes fierce. The result is total immersion, where music and gameplay merge completely and perfectly: every dodge, every clash, and every more agitated phase is enhanced by a sound accompaniment that increases tension and keeps adrenaline high. In the most critical moments, such as during the most difficult phases or under the effect of the eclipse, the soundtrack manages to further enhance the atmosphere, making everything more epic and immersive. It is precisely this ability to constantly adapt to what is happening on screen that makes the audio sector one of the most successful elements of the game, transforming it into a fundamental part of the experience and not just a simple background.

After about three hours, controller in hand, SAROS left us with very positive feelings. Housemarque's work is enormous and evident in every single detail, conveying the feeling of a studio in full creative and technical maturity: the leap forward compared to Returnal is not only perceptible but practically blatant from the very first minutes of gameplay. It is not a “simplified” game, but an experience made more accessible and better calibrated, capable of accommodating more types of players without sacrificing its punishing and frantic identity. The new progression system between deaths is one of the most convincing elements, where every run, even the most unsuccessful, always leaves something for the player, constantly encouraging them to get back into the game without the frustration that sometimes hindered the experience in the past. The result is a more fluid, more motivating, and surprisingly satisfying loop. If these are the premises, it's hard not to be optimistic.

SAROS impressed us, and now the desire to get our hands on the final version is truly immense.