Saros Review

Danny Boyle was right with Sunshine...

We loved the first 10-minutes with Saros. It was quick to the point; moody, gorgeous and fast. It felt natural to play and therefore rewarding with every kill, strafe or world-found buff. But then we got back to our base and, while the drama of confusion was thick and… well, it’s a bit on the nose as a figure of speech, fast, we were let down. Returnal was at least an isolated experience -- you against an alien world messing with your head, showing you corpse after corpse of your own self, trophy-like in persistent failure. It was a psychological game in as much as it was a bullet-hell roguelite, but Saros presents itself somewhat differently.

The Housemarque trademarks are there -- an alien planet messing with your head and ever-changing each time you set foot on it. But here, you’re not alone, and while we love each NPC in every game, there’s a woodenness to them as they populate your home-base. You also move as fast in your base, weapon poised, as you do in the world, which feels entirely at odds with the point of the base at all. It’s a good game, don’t get us wrong, and on art-direction alone it’s easily one of the year’s best, but we continually felt short-changed with how the story doled itself out to us, much of which is owed to the static and lifeless nature of where you kick off each and every one for your runs upon the marble and crimson surface of Carcosa.

When out in the field, things are different. It’s arcade-heavy in its representation of combat and the game-world drops -- all random -- always offer something of value. You’ll find your faves, and hope for certain passives, but despite the game’s actual difficulty, you more often than not feel entirely capable. Doom and other fast-paced boomer-shooters feel like they were a stepping off point for movement in the game, but this is bolstered by the select bullet-hell spreads and patterns of each of Carcosa’s hostile ‘baddies’. Interestingly, and we’ll go deeper on this in our first box out, Housemarque has turned enemy offense into a bankable and eventually spendable economy, adding another layer to proceedings that helps complicate combat in a good way. It’s also entirely ignorable, but do so at your own peril.

There’s a fair bit to love about the game, but as with Returnal, there will come a moment of push or abandon which we genuinely feel the studio is still learning how to master. It’s not bad, but rinse-repeat isn’t always the loop we’re looking for and Saros’ early game is, for lack of a better way to put it, a repetitive grind.

Saros

Genre: Roguelite Bullet-Hell Shooter
Developer: Housemarque
Publisher: Sony
Release Date: April 30, 2026
Classification: M 15+
Author: Stephen Farrelly
Date: May 28, 2026

Planet Trope: Sci Fi 101

We play as Arjun Devraj, who is also portrayed brilliantly by actor Rahul Kohli (Arjun features his likeness, too) -- an employee of the Soltari company whose position in the cosmos appears to be one of resource gathering and surveyance of distant planets. An initial discovery party was sent to Carcosa to see what the planet offers, but when they went dark, a second team was sent with a similar outcome. A third was also sent, with things going equally awry which is why Arjun and another crew has been dispatched, only Arjun and co. are not colonisers or miners, but rather Enforcers. Naturally, Arjun and his team will find remnants and bits and pieces of the missing or lost teams before his, which helps to slowly unravel the story.

"Arjun can die on repeat, but consistently finds himself resurrected in a pool inside a base of operations..."

The unnerving bit, however, is that no one seems to have a clear picture of events, nor a decent memory of things. Arjun can die on repeat, but consistently finds himself resurrected in a pool inside a base of operations. His team are all also gathered here and don’t seem to mind the fact he keeps coming back through said pool. Meanwhile, another Enforcer (an Aussie, mind), is also out doing his own runs in parallel and the two exchange banter here and there, but initially it seems he doesn’t die and so things are, as you’d expect, a bit weird.

Add to the above that the planet itself appears to have once harboured an alien race, no longer populating it, but whose art and structures remain in constant reminder of something terribly wrong with it all. Marble-like statues appear to reach and twist this way and that in forms of agony, akin to a Francis Bacon piece, all of which help amplify the game’s overall dread, but also its embedded mystery. Most of the Saros’ story delivery is a bit lite-on, but when it peaks it does so with a bang, we just found most of it to be a bit hit and miss. Which is a shame because story needed to be the pull early given the number of times you’ll die and simply isn’t.  

Would you like to know more?
As mentioned in our body copy, you can return serve with the baddies in the game. Initially this is done through absorption of blue projectiles, but soon enough a colour code comes into affect, as does the way in which you store and use them. The economy itself is great and asks you to think on your toes as activation of ways in which to embody this energy isn't immediate. There's a nuance around the setup and it will help you define how you choose to play, but it will eventually become a part of how you approach each run, room-to-room, eclipse-to-eclipse...

Helluva Time

Combat, however, saves the day here. The world around is a series of ‘rooms’ that mix and match and change with each run. It’s not procedural, but rather modular which is what we experienced in Returnal. This means you can eventually familiarise yourself with things regardless of their shifting, which does help.

"Arjun is armed with a weapon and a dash move that allows you to play a game of agility or aggression based on your preferred playstyle..."

No smart aliens are around, either, only their remnants, but we do get a number of aggro beasties that love nothing more than to fire shots at you, or charge you physically. Arjun is armed with a weapon and a dash move that allows you to play a game of agility or aggression based on your preferred playstyle, or a combination of both (though this is often predicated by whatever weapon pickups and passives you’ve found within each run). All of those fired shots come in various patterns and thus a bullet-helluva time ensues. As per our box out though, you can absorb blue energy shots to build up your own power shot which has an equal AoE (weapon pending), all of which is handled by your shield. 

To this end, Housemarque has cleverly armed the player with a simple toolset and set of rules, as well as well-designed spaces to utilise them in, but the frantic nature of enemies and their position on the field, as well as their aggro, can truly set it all against you. Thinkfully the DualSense’s incredible haptic setup actually helps with all of this and you’ll find yourself relying on its feedback to help manage pretty much every engagement, from weapon use to feedback cues during skirmishes and the more difficult boss battles. It truly is a stunning display of tight combat design with all the player-agency anyone could want -- how far you get really depends more largely on your skill than on drops, loadouts or even luck.

It's Always Sunny in Carcosa

It’s not all always the same though. When you get far enough into a run, you’ll trigger an eclipse that changes the world for your worse. Enemies change and become harder and even more aggressive. Your shield and power-shot economy becomes harder to manage and the game’s overall challenge bolsters in favour of itself, and not you. There’s a significant visual and tonal change too, and everything suddenly feels more desperate, as if the stakes at this point are higher -- and that’s because they are.

"With each kill and within each ‘room’ you’ll gather resources, all of which can be spent on permanent upgrades..."

Making it this far becomes a boon and a North Star which inadvertently has you spending more time understanding the fairly basic skilltree the game offers you. With each kill and within each ‘room’ you’ll gather resources, all of which can be spent on permanent upgrades to Arjun. Some help you get better weapons early while others help you gather resources more significantly or even start runs with certain items helpful to successful gains in real-estate. You can’t ever escape the eclipse happening though, and so eventually you’ll start to gear more towards that part of each run rather than your baby steps out of your base, which is where the mismarriage in cadence and the repetitive nature of play become a bit overbearing, or plain tedious.

Still, for those willing to push on, Saros presents a psychological spin on things that attempt to be more poignant than what we experienced in Returnal, but we’d argue it doesn’t quite hit that mark -- though both games simply took too long for players to start to feel or even see revelatory moments in both exposition and genuine narrative progress.

Returnal of Fortunes

All of the above leaves us pondering where this sits. Housemarque is a master studio at gunplay and tight mechanics that aren't convoluted or overly complicated, but the worlds and enemies the studio throws at you does make everything that more challenging. On its bullet-hell-action setup alone, it’s great. It might have just tried to be more than it needed at the detriment of genuinely-felt progress. We pushed on for review purposes, natch, but at the end of the day we could also see many folks plonking down the controller and just moving on elsewhere, only to pick this up later and treat it more as an arcade challenge than an unfurling narrative that tests your understanding of… things.

"We just also felt it was too repetitive early, and lacked a deliberate sense of separation between your home-base, its expansion and the game proper outside..."

Still, hats off to Housemarque for wanting to punch higher in the world-building and story stakes and we genuinely enjoyed most revelations, we just also felt it was too repetitive early, and lacked a deliberate sense of separation between your home-base, its expansion (and therefore the overall story) and the game proper outside. And with such a stunning palette and such lofty goals from a storytelling perspective, we just felt let down by the base and its static self -- we experienced the same thing in Metroid Prime 4: Beyond and it also irked us so.

From a skirmish perspective, we reckon Saros outdoes Returnal, as well as from a character progression perspective, but in terms of tone and overall psychological horror, Returnal is where you ought to return to.

What’s Boss?

  • A stunning world, if a little static
  • Gunplay nearly unmatched - this is fast and furious all the way through
  • An interesting story that takes a little too long to reach a point of 'hook', but if you stay the course you won't be disappointed
  • A skilltree that keeps you seeking the resources heavy in the world
  • The PS5's haptic feedback in the DualSense is a gebnuine boon to gameplay

Not Boss Enough?

  • The modular, shifting world can get a bit boring after awhile
  • So too can the story drag its feet to the point of no care, aligned much with the boredom or tedium above
  • That Arjun runs, gun-up and ready in the home-base as he would in the world breaks the immersion

A bullet-hell action-adventure title with a horror twist. Saros is a unique title lacking in some cadence as well as a failed consistency in story delivery to keep us wanting more, interesting as it may be.

Learn about our reviews

About the Author

Written By Stephen Farrelly
Stephen Farrelly is a veteran journalist and editor with more than two decades experience in the worlds of gaming, entertainment, lifestyle and sport. He is a proud pug dad, loves art in all forms (particularly street and tattoo culture), and is the director of Swear Jar Editorial and Media Pty Ltd, this site's owner and publisher. When not dispensing words, he's also dispensing boutique beers as a taproom fixture at Bracket Brewing in Marrickville, NSW...
More from this Author
  • + The Sharp Query Around Insomniac’s Wolverine
  • + Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 Announced, Watch the Reveal Trailer!
  • + Aussie Humour Reigns Supreme in My Arms Are Longer Now's Cinematic Trailer
  • + Subnautica 2 - After 30+ Hours of Submerged Bliss Here's 5 things we want in 1.0

    • Explore More in Gaming

    After Insomniac's brutal unveiling of Wolverine Snikting this way and that, we were left with one really genuine question around both the fantasy of being Logan and then... being Wolverine. Click through to understand just what we mean...

    Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 has been revealed alongside a spectacular trailer and a handful of in-game assets. This entry comes directly from series creator, Infinity Ward and is set to offer up a number of firsts for the franchise - head inside for more!

    Housemarque's newest spin on the roguelite genre is high-budget and big in scope. So, what has the studio learnt since Returnal, and does this new joint one-up that venture, or is it altogether its own thing? Our full review inside!

    Ever just wanted Mr Fantastic arms you could stretch to no ends and use them to, as Bart would say, "annoy!"? Yeah, us too! So that's why My Arms Are Longer Now has grabbed us from afar and drawn us right in!

    Subnautica 2's Early Access self is an impressive display of polish and scale, and it's just the beginning of what the team has planned. Still, we couldn't help but come up with a list of things we'd love to see in the final 1.0 release down the track, above and beyond the planned stuff already - take a look!

    As it races towards its Early Access fin(n)ish line, Bugbear Entertainment's Wreckfest 2 has received a major update ensuring that when it sees its checker flag, it hasn't got their limping. New trailer, screens and details inside!

    Check out a host of new information around The Sinking City 2, as well as an all-new gameplay trailer showcasing the game's stellar art and Eldritch setting!

    Has a game's intro hit you so hard you just couldn't shake it? Did it give you everything you needed to know about the journey ahead with ease and seemingly no force? We've ranked the 10 best to do the above, and more, in our definitive list -- click on through to learn who made the cut!

    Not quite the original and new Star Fox many of us have been wanting, but we'll take it! Star Fox is coming to Nintendo Switch 2 in a heavily updated reimagining of the N64 classic. New features and an incredible visual overhaul should be enough for any Fox McCloud fan -- jump in and take a squiz at what to expect!

    Diablo IV's second expansion is here, and Lord of Hatred not only wraps up the story that began in the main campaign but overhauls just about every system in the game while also introducing two new playable classes. Check out our full review to hear our thoughts on Diablo IV's big 2026 update.

    Comment

    Please note, comments need to be approved before they are published.