SAROS (PS5) Review

With SAROS, Housemarque has cemented itself as one of the pillars of PlayStation, delivering a spiritual successor to Returnal that’s better in every way. Housemarque has always been a favourite studio of mine, ever since their first PlayStation release back during the infancy of the PlayStation Network with games like Super Stardust HD, Outland, and eventually, Resogun.

2021 saw the release of Returnal, which would arguably be their most ambitious title to date, delivering a game that expanded on the studio’s penchant for delivering excellent bullet hell experiences, but this time, wrapped up in a deep and multilayered narrative that brought players to the hostile alien planet of Atropos.

SAROS carries that torch and expands on the formula to new heights, introducing an entire ensemble cast of characters that push the narrative further as players unravel the mystery on a new alien planet, Carcosa.

While Returnal featured a haunting, often lonely narrative where players braved it alone as Selene, SAROS cribs from the best, featuring a story with a full cast of characters on an alien planet, slowly going mad from the intoxicating Siren-like pull of an alien sun.

As players explore Carcosa, the deep dive into madness becomes evident, bringing to mind classics like Event Horizon and games like Dead Space, while acting as a solid backbone to an intriguing mystery. It works well with the roguelike formula that encourages trial and error, rewarding the player with more and more story bits between runs, in the form of recordings, text logs, and, for the first time in series history, actual interactions with other NPCs.

Like Returnal before it, SAROS is a game full of metaphor and deeper meanings, something that I won’t dive into. Still, Rahul Kohli’s portrayal of Arjun Devraj is nuanced, featuring moments of badass stoicism laced with heart-wrenching and visceral scenes that punctuate the narrative while also adding weight to the gameplay-first design of SAROS.

Like Returnal, SAROS is all about surviving a gauntlet of increasingly hostile environments with an emphasis on projectile-based gameplay. In other words, SAROS is a third-person bullet-hell shooter with an even greater focus on the bullet hell elements that made Housemarque’s predecessor so addictive.

“SAROS is a game full of metaphor and deeper meanings…”

Enemies and environmental hazards will shower you with bullets to an almost ridiculous degree, eclipsing anything found in Returnal, but graciously, as Arjun, players have at their disposal a versatile bubble shield that balances things out, while adding to the already stellar gameplay loop established by the previous game. The shield in SAROS works somewhat similarly to something like Ikaruga, where it can absorb specific types of incoming projectiles, which are then converted into energy.

Using the DualSense controller, certain weapons have different firing modes that utilize both the half-press and full depression of the L2 trigger. Depending on the ability, this will consume energy accrued from your shield. The back and forth of using your shield to absorb damage and then using it against your enemies adds a ton of complexity to the base experience of SAROS, evolving it beyond what was possible with Returnal. Haptics, too, are generally great and fully utilize the DualSense controller, making for a game that truly feels tailor-made for PlayStation 5.

“SAROS is bullet-hell redefined on an epic scale.”

Another incredibly fun addition to SAROS that changes up the formula from its last iteration is the inclusion of a parry system that players acquire around the halfway mark of the game. Red projectiles and beams can be effectively parried by carefully timing the R1 bumper, often resulting in a satisfying stun of the enemy, making it one of my favourite new mechanics in the game. If anything, I do wish SAROS would utilize this mechanic further, particularly during its many boss encounters, as I found myself sometimes going out of my way just to see what I could deflect.

On the topic of bosses, SAROS increases its number of big bads from five to eight unique boss encounters, each of which ramps up the amount of projectiles players must learn to contend with, making them one of the major highlights of the experience. Weapon variety in SAROS rivals that of Returnal. While I do wish the game featured a few more types to play with, the game makes up for it by including a plethora of unique alternative fire modes, including my favourite, a volley of miniature black holes that do sustained damage over time to your target(s).

A major quality of life change in SAROS is its inclusion of the Carcosan modifiers system, which lets players augment the overall difficulty of the game, based on a scale that needs to maintain its balance. For example, players can change the amount of damage dealt and received, but every tick forward will come at a cost, requiring a negative modifier to be activated in tandem, such as losing the ability of a second respawn, or facing increased corruption in eclised areas.

Speaking of eclipsed areas, SAROS features nine total biomes, but dotted throughout each biome, usually around the halfway mark of each location, players can stumble upon an eclipse constructs, which act as a key to progress further into the level.

Of course, triggering an eclipse not only clears the way forward but also transforms the level itself into a much more hostile environment, full of corruption that can cripple your health bar, while upgrades also become a monkey’s paw of good and bad traits, making the trade-off a gamble in already tense situations that much more exhilarating.

Finally, SAROS on PlayStation 5 Pro offers a rock-solid 60fps experience at 4k with particle effects that rival Chinese drone-powered fireworks, making it one of the most technically impressive games on the platform. If it isn’t already made evident, SAROS is bullet-hell redefined on an epic scale.

If you’re a fan of Housemarque and Returnal, you owe yourself the opportunity to check out SAROS. This is a spiritual successor that hits all the right buttons while bobbing and weaving its way out of the onslaught of safe and overly familiar games that often litter the AAA landscape.