Saros review: Housemarque sands the edges off Returnal without blunting it

Housemarque has spent three decades making screens fill with light, and Saros is the Finnish studio doing exactly that again. It is a third-person shooter with bullet hell patterns, roguelite structure, a story told in fragments and a thick layer of science fiction dread. Anyone who played Returnal, released on PlayStation 5 in April 2021, will recognize every one of those ingredients.

What has changed is the balance. Returnal was brilliant and divisive in equal measure, adored for its intensity and resented for how much it took away after every death. Saros adjusts the recipe: friendlier in how it handles progress, more ambitious in nearly everything else. It is a PlayStation 5 exclusive.

Welcome to Carcosa

The story follows Arjun Devraj, an explorer for the Soltari corporation sent to the planet Carcosa as part of the Echelon IV expedition. His job is to find out what happened to three earlier mining colonies that came looking for Lucenite, a rare and powerful mineral that is abundant on that world.

Things go wrong immediately. Arjun wakes with no memory, his ship has been sabotaged, and the planet turns out to be littered with the ruins of an alien civilization that is not quite as extinct as it looks. An eclipse hangs over Carcosa and makes the surface even more dangerous than it already was.

Each time Arjun dies, he inexplicably wakes again at his base, and each loop turns up more evidence that the earlier expeditions did not merely fail but were corrupted by the ancient forces that govern the planet. The stakes become personal when he starts finding traces of his wife, Nitya, a member of the Echelon I crew, while distortions in time scramble his sense of what is real and when it happened.

The planet's name is the giveaway. Saros draws loosely on The King in Yellow, Robert W. Chambers' 1895 collection of weird fiction, and it handles its cosmic horror in typical Housemarque fashion. Audio logs, artifacts and the architecture itself carry the plot, which is indirect, fragmented and dependent on how much you explore. It is a story that raises more questions than it answers, and it asks you to do some interpreting.

One gun, endless ammo, no standing still

Saros inherits much of what worked in Returnal and then tightens it. The pace is fast, movement is nimble, and enemies flood each arena with glowing, lethal projectiles that demand quick reflexes.

Arjun is quick on his feet. He jumps high, has a dash that can pass through certain projectiles without taking damage, and carries an energy shield that absorbs some kinds of enemy fire. All that mobility matters, because standing still is never a viable plan. Like any good bullet hell, the game throws hundreds of shots at you in elaborate patterns, and you will be weaving through them while returning fire.

On offense you carry a single primary weapon at a time, drawn from familiar families like pistols, rifles and shotguns, plus a special energy attack and a melee strike. One gun sounds restrictive, but the game is balanced around it. Ammunition is unlimited, there is an active reload system in the style of Gears of War, and a steady flow of upgrades boosts your stats along the way. The higher your proficiency climbs, the better the weapons that drop during a run.

Each weapon has a distinct personality, and even guns within the same class differ: an assault rifle against a smart rifle, a precision pistol against one whose shots ricochet. Enemy variety holds up as well. The most basic foes repeat, but each biome has its own wildlife, and all of it demands that you read patterns and adapt.

Most of the time Saros is chaos. It is the kind of chaos that clicks once you understand its rhythm, though, and then it flows beautifully. The roguelite loop makes it dangerously moreish: when you feel yourself improving, or a boss dies with a sliver of health left on your last attempt, "one more run" can quietly become three more hours.

Is Saros easier than Returnal?

Somewhat, though nobody should expect a gentle ride. Saros is friendlier in how it handles progression, smoothing out some of the punishment and friction that drove players away from its predecessor so that advancement feels steadier. The challenge is still there; it just costs less to keep chipping at it.

The bigger shift is the Carcosan modifiers. Beat the boss of the second area and the game opens a submenu of what are effectively cheats. You can raise your damage output and your protection, for example, or restore your full health before every boss. There are also modifiers that make the game harder, and you cannot simply switch on all the helpful ones. A meter has to stay balanced, so every advantage you take has to be paid for with a drawback somewhere else.

So yes, Saros is easier than Returnal, but not from the start and not cheaply. You will still take a beating, and you have to earn the modifiers before they appear. Much of the difference comes from structure rather than settings: the rough edges in Returnal's progression and balance have been filed down, and that alone makes Saros feel more welcoming.

Eclipse light and fine-grained haptics

Saros keeps Housemarque's high technical bar. Environments are detailed, lighting is sophisticated, and combat fills the screen with luminous particles, every one of which can kill you. The one weakness is the palette: the orange and yellow wash of the post-eclipse look becomes tiring over long sessions.

The world design compensates. Structures mix advanced technology with ancient ruins and warped statues, and enemies are bizarre fusions of machine and flesh. Together they build a dense, unsettling atmosphere.

The humans are less striking. Arjun has the recognizable face of actor Rahul Kohli, but seen from behind during play he could be a soldier from almost any space shooter. Neither his silhouette nor his suit is memorable, which matters in a third-person game where you stare at his back for hours.

Where Housemarque still leads is the DualSense. As in Returnal, the haptics carry several distinct sensations at once and the adaptive triggers are used with real care. Few studios get as much out of the PS5 controller.

Audio is solid. The score blends electronic and orchestral elements to suit the grand science fiction mood, sound effects give clear feedback in the middle of a fight, and the weapons sound satisfying to fire.

The verdict

Saros is Housemarque playing at home and refining a formula it invented itself with Returnal. It is undeniably derivative, and there would be no Saros without its predecessor, but that is not a fault here. The new game raises the technical quality of the whole package and manages to be more approachable without trivializing anything.

The two games trade strengths. Returnal is the bolder and less predictable story; Saros is the more polished and fluid game to play. Saros is likely to divide players less because it minimizes friction: even when a boss has you stuck, a clearer line of progression means you feel like you are getting somewhere.

It is an easy recommendation for anyone who loved Returnal, and it may also win over people who found that game too punishing to finish. It may not fully surpass its predecessor, but it is a confident step forward for a studio that combines third-person shooting, bullet hell and roguelite design like nobody else.

Platforms: PlayStation