Saros Review (PS5)

Saros isn’t just a random name for the spiritual successor to Returnal. It means roughly 18 years before the next lunar and solar eclipses. And the same science is applied in the story and alien world of Carcosa. That’s another term with significance, referring to the fictional world in Robert W. Chambers’ short stories. An ancient world of mystical and horrific happenings, adapted into Dead Space, Alien series, and more. So, as much as you’ll be diving into a frantic bullet hellhole in space, you’ll still just as much unravel a mystery-ridden, tantalizing tale you’ll want to sink your bare teeth and fingers into. 

Returnal fans, as well, will be happy running into many of the good stuff of the world setting and gameplay in Saros. Perhaps too many similarities in the third-person roguelike system Sony’s Housemarque has perfected. Yet, still, refreshingly deeper. Forget the repetitiveness that you might run into in a roguelike. Here, you just can’t help but keep going, even if it’s your umpteenth time taking on a frustrating boss. The redos barely latch too deep in the soul to destabilize things. Quite the opposite, when you return stronger and more optimistic even to see what new random surprise is in store for your upgraded gear.

Here’s why Housemarque’s newest bullet hell/bullet ballet is worth your time in our thorough Saros review.

Two Parts of the Whole

Saros offers the player two main courses: story and gameplay. And each is so foundationally and exceptionally strong, it makes for an absolute thrill by the credits roll. You unravel a damning story for the crew sent to mine the precious Lucenite mineral for the greedy Soltari company. Your employer couldn’t care less about your safety, with three crews already sent to planet Carcosa, and without as much as any communication of their survival sent back to Soltari. Their solution is to keep sending more crews regardless of whether they never come back. 

It’s unclear on the outset just what is so damning about Carcosa. Yet, you can feel it from the eerie atmosphere and haunting remnants of what once was. This isn’t a hospitable place. You don’t come across anyone alive to inform you of what dangers are in Carcosa. Instead, you rely on random distress texts and audio logs from those who came before you. Turns out, their disappearance isn’t the worst thing. It’s what happens before the inevitable. How you begin to lose track of time. How your mind begins to disintegrate, alongside your crewmates. And soon, Carcosa swallows you whole without any obvious reason beyond the solar eclipse above you.

Something A-Miss

It’s the one standout feature that’s frightening about Carcosa. How every so often, the solar eclipse strikes, and the world is enshrouded in suffocating blackness. Mind you, Saros isn’t at all a horror game, despite the horrific monsters you’ll run into. It’s more the kind of game that feels uneasy exploring its world. Where chill and dread course through your veins with every step further into the unknown. And being a roguelike, every run is different, including the environment itself shape shifting. Such creativity and care taken into environmental storytelling that makes it okay that the premise starts with more questions than answers. And onward, you begin to put the pieces of the puzzle together to a satisfying close.

Carcosa’s mystical world isn’t the only nerve-wreck Saros puts you through. The protagonist also has a mystical background. Arjun Devraj seems ordinarily normal until he begins to unravel in mind and spirit. It seems, also, his motivations don’t solely serve his employer’s interest. He has a personal stake in being in Carcosa, and that adds a welcome flair of drama and intrigue to what’s already a compelling story. Unfortunately, Arjun Devraj’s is the only character arc worth its salt. Returnal focused primarily on one playable character’s story. And this time, we’re privileged to follow along on Arjun Devraj’s crewmates’ stories as well. But they barely go deeper than the surface, sticking to their psychological torment without any personal stakes or distinct arcs about each character. 

A special mention to the audio-visual design. Housemarque has outdone itself with immersion. The voice acting and the music are eargasms, as are the visuals, striking all-around. 

A Bullet Ballet

On the action front, you’d better prepare yourself for intensity. Quick reflexes and speed with reactivity are an absolute necessity to get past the barrage of bullets coming at you. They’re varied as well. So, you’ll be promptly dancing about, leaping to avoid whirlwinds of projectiles, launching close to strike a punch, and drawing away to recuperate. Some enemies are best dealt with at range, others require switching up weapons, which can be damning when you can only wield one weapon. It’s either pistols at the start, or assault rifles, shotguns, crossbows, and more. A decent enough variety, but could surely have used more options.

Saros makes up for it with alterations of each weapon’s ammo and fire mode. You might pick up vertical spread, explosive, or ricochet bullets. You also have Power weapons, fueled by the Lucenite resource. These deal more damage, with specialized ones for melee or ranged. Your offense is then well sorted, in addition to sucker punches that you can draw close to land. And can be powerful enough to break enemy shields. Just keep in mind that melee fights do put you at a higher risk of taking damage. But here’s where defense gets interesting. Enemies will be firing a whirlwind of bullets at you, marked by blue, yellow, or red. 

On High Alert

You can block blue-colored bullets with your shield. And in turn, absorb their power to charge your power weapons. Or you can dash through them. Yellow-colored bullets are a definite dodge through dashing or jumping over them. If they do hit you, they inflict the Corruption status effect, draining your health. Red-colored ones, meanwhile, require parrying. The timing for this is super strict, and it will need you on high alert. Or rather, the entire combat system in Saros is fast-paced, requiring fast, precise inputs to navigate the barrage of bullets coming at you. But it also requires lots of movement in the 3D combat spaces, having you dash, jump, and hop through enemy fights.

Bosses are trickier, testing all you’ve learned and mastered thus far. Some will definitely need retries to deal with. Some are simply astounding in their majestic design and spectacle fights. Taking down bosses does take a lot more resources, which Saros does provide through perks and modifiers you pick up in tucked-away chests and as permanent upgrades on a generous meta progression path. Protection modifiers, in particular, make your next run more accessible by reducing enemy damage, prolonging your shield time, and more. Trial modifiers, however, raise the stakes, making enemies more aggressive. Careful, also, as some modifiers come with downsides, factoring into more conscious choices and customization.

Tough Nut to Crack?

I’d say, yes. On some level, Saros adamantly tests your skill and patience. But it’s also incredibly fair. You’d often feel motivated to try again, even if you end up dying. It’s how fun the combat itself feels. But Saros has also taken massive steps to make it accessible. You can choose where to begin your next run, for instance, as long as you’ve unlocked the biomes. Or you might stick to going back to the start to stockpile temporary upgrades in preparation for the boss fight giving you trouble. 

Or you might tweak the difficulty settings through the Protection and Trial modifiers. You’ll find the perks pretty extensive. By boosting your attack and health or modifying enemies’ aggression, whether damage or health, you’ll effectively create your own version of easy/moderate/hard mode.

Verdict

Every one of Saros’ individual parts has been so well-crafted and designed that I’m finding it tasking to pinpoint areas of improvement. Perhaps the one thing that felt surface-level was the side characters’ stories. More focus is on Arjun Devraj to the extent that it can overshadow the plot itself. But by the very fact that his story remains intriguing still culminates in a compelling story campaign.

Combat, meanwhile, holds up its end of the deal. Not only delivers on expectations from Returnal’s own satisfying runs, but exceeds the depth and strategy in meta progression. There are so many ways to skin the Carcosa cat in Saros, and the temporary and permanent upgrades make it incredibly accessible. So, even though that one tough boss might be giving you a hard time, you still can’t help wanting to return to give them a piece of your mind. But first, you’ll spend some time upgrading and polishing your game, and gladly so. 

Every run is different, not just in the resources you’ll find but also in the world itself shape shifting its environments and enemies. The world is a mystical place full of dread and suspenseful exploration, and the entire Saros package just more than pleases the eye and heart.