Saros

Housemarque is back with yet another fantastic fast-paced third person shooter. Saros builds on Returnal, delivering deeper and more enjoyable gameplay, as well as a new permanent progression system and modifiers which allow you to tweak the difficulty to your preferences. All in all, it's Housemarque's best game yet.

Saros on PS5 isn't just a worthy spiritual successor to Returnal, but one of the best PlayStation exclusives in a good while. Read our review.

As a follow up to Returnal, Saros is excellent. It builds on the foundations of Selene’s adventure and is a sensational slice of bullet-hell shooter goodness.

SAROS is head and shoulders above Returnal, which was already a stellar reinvention of the bullet-hell genre, thanks to a richer story, tougher enemies and gameplay systems that tailor the game to the player.

Moving, shooting, improving (both in stats and skill), winning, and even losing is an unequivocal joy, and I only wish I could write this final sentence faster so I can hurry up and get back to planet Carcosa and attempt another run.

Rahul breaker

Saros is a relentless, exciting and demanding rogue-lite shooter that combines cinematic spectacle with tight bullet-hell combat. It’s a marvellous follow-up to Returnal, that retains the best bits of its predecessor while sanding down its (minor) rough edges. It pulls very few punches, but will have you saying “one more run” on a loop.

Housemarque follows up Returnal with PS5 exclusive Saros, another wildly entertaining and action-packed third-person shooter.

Saros might be following in the footsteps of Returnal in many ways, but this is very much a standalone experience, telling a new story within another original sci-fi setting, building out its third person bullet hell action with its own particular twists, and a compelling new roguelite narrative to unfurl.

Housemarque has brought us to a new unforgiven alien world filled with time-looping shenanigans and madness of the yellow king in Saros.

Returnal was a bold statement from a humble Finnish team in 2021. After decades of smaller, arcade-oriented projects, it showed just what Housemarque was capable of when reaching for the stars. Now, in following it up, the devs have proven it was far from a fluke. While rough around the edges at launch, SAROS shows that when afforded the opportunity, they can shine brighter than even Carcosa’s blazing sun.

Saros’ levels are beautifully eerie, with the best and weirdest vistas saved for its second half. Character and enemy design are generally excellent as well, though NPC conversations can appear disjointed, with underwhelming mocap outside its gorgeous proper cutscenes. That doesn’t distract from the game’s many superb voice performances, but it can get noticeably awkward at times. Returnal’s Jane Perry was transcendent, but her voice had to carry that entire game, so it's gratifying that Saros' ensemble cast, led by Rahul Kohli as Arjun is exceptional across the board, well beyond the quality ...