SAROS

The narrative may not be as convincing as that of Returnal but Saros one-ups its predecessor in almost every facet. It’s a seat-of-the-pants thrill ride that escalates the spectacle with every chapter and will haunt your dreams with walls of coloured missiles.

Saros is Housemarque at its best. It nails the roguelike formula, with each run feeling completely different than what came before thanks to changing areas and a variety of weapons. The story grips you and doesn’t let go, with Rahul Kohli’s fantastic performance at the heart of it.

As expected, SAROS stands out as a worthy spiritual successor to Returnal, and even more so. Far from resting on its laurels, Housemarque has successfully built upon the solid foundation of its previous title to deliver an epic adventure, enhanced by new features that make it accessible to a wider audience. While more accessible, SAROS remains a challenging yet exhilarating experience that delivers incredible thrills. This makes it a new must-have in the PS5 catalog, which once again boasts one of its best exclusives thanks to the Finnish studio.

Saros is a brilliant third-person shooter that takes what worked in Returnal and streamlines it for an even smoother game without diluting the fun. The core gameplay is the star attraction; complex yet intuitive, and a perfectly judged challenge that's so satisfying to overcome. With compelling permanent progression, flexible ways to modify your experience, and an intriguing story to follow, this is another step towards Housemarque's planetary takeover.

Although Saros struggles with an ambiguous narrative and limited enemy variety, Housemarque's signature refined action and stunning cosmic horror visuals easily steal the show. By toning down the punishing difficulty of their previous title, the developers have crafted an excellent gateway for players who were previously intimidated by hardcore roguelikes and bullet-hell shooters.

Saros multiplies the Returnal formula with a brutal shooter and mechanics refined to perfection. Unfortunately, this excellence comes up against an uninspired and disjointed narrative that interrupts the rhythm. Even so, there is an addictive mechanical heart that keeps you coming back.

Saros is still a good game. I will never dislike a game that looks this good and plays this well. But the lessons that Housemarque learned from Returnal resulted in a game that is less than the sum of its parts.

Amazing game. Super fun. Must play. I loved Returnal and, admittedly, I was concerned after the first few hours if Saros would be as good/enjoyable. Well, I was wrong. The game is as good or better. It has the same intuitive controls (with some minor changes/ enhancements) and goes harder than before. The progression was great and had super challenging bosses. The final boss was a grind but totally a respectable challenge. The biomes were all creative and stunning. It was worth every penny and am happy to give Housemarque my money.

No sé si voy por el último o penúltimo bioma de Saros, y aunque al principio estaba bien y era un juego muy disfrutable, estoy empezando a saturarme de ver y repetir siempre lo mismo una y otra vez. Aunque con cada ciclo te vas haciendo cada vez más fuerte, se fuerza al jugador a repetir todo el recorrido desde el principio, recogiendo objetos que vayan mejorando tu equipo y llegar preparado al final. Si te transportas directamente al final, no tendrás suficiente poder o muy justoEntiendo que esta la mecánica real de Saros, pero a su vez es su propio enemigo. Me sé tan de memoria los biomas que estoy empezando a perder la motivación de seguir. Voy ya en modo tan automático que ni los disfruto. Incluso me sé de memoria dónde están los enemigos, cuántos son y qué van a hacer. empieza a ser monótono. El hecho de poder alcanzar salas antes inaccesibles a medida que vas aprendiendo nuevos movimientos no es suficiente para evita la sensación de repetitividad.

As a hardcore fan of Returnal, Saros was disappointing. The added mechanics of shield and alt-fire were excellent additions, but they drop on difficulty level was too much. I understand Returnal had a very steep learning curve (especially in the first two biomes), but they went too far on easing the journey. The game is so unbalanced that, around midgame, I was able to beat 3 biomes (including bosses) in the first try within a single cycle (and that was without exploiting modifiers). To make things worse, Sony once tried to make us swallow woke storytelling. It's there, subtly. Always the same boring/recurring script that empowers the females while demonizing the male characters. That narrative works once or a couple of times, but this has now become an annoying pattern of Sony games.

This game is trying hard to be something, but it doesnt really hit the mark in any meaningful way. They story is pretty meh. Graphics are nice. VA is decent. Gameplay is unmemorable. Skip it until it goes on sale.

Six years after Returnal, Housemarque has delivered a game that strips away everything that made their first effort special. As a fan of Returnal, I went in with high hopes and came out genuinely disappointed. To start with the good: the fast twitch 3rd person combat is still fun, at least for a while. The graphics are sharp, the sound design and gunfeel are excellent, and the orb-based enemy attacks have a cool Nier-esque quality to them. That's about where the positives end. Unlike Returnal, the run-to-run variety here is almost nonexistent. The world generation feels like a formality and you'll start recognizing the same exact locations within a few hours. The gun selection has been gutted to four archetypes (assault rifle, pistol, shotgun, crossbow) with minor variations like burst fire or auto-aim, but nothing that meaningfully changes your approach. Perks are described so vaguely you'll need to look them up, and if you die with a weapon, the game just hands it back to you on the next run rather than pushing you toward different builds. The artifact system has the same problem. There's no incentive to be selective, so you just grab everything. The skill tree compounds it all: an enormous grid of minuscule stat buffs that never change how the game actually feels. The bosses are easy but frustrating for the opposite reason you'd want. Most have three bloated health bars and a moveset they'll cycle through on repeat until you finally outlast them. The second boss, for example literally spams the same three attacks the entire fight. The story doesn't help either. Protagonist Arjun spends most of his time shouting his wife's name and calling out to characters you've never been properly introduced to. When those characters turn up dead, there's no emotional weight because the game never gave you a reason to care about them in the first place. The facial animations and lip sync issues make it even harder to invest, and it's clear that combat was the studio's priority above all else. What Saros feels like, ultimately, is a game that traded complexity for accessibility. Skip the day one price, play Returnal if you haven't, and if you loved that game and still want this one, wait for a deep sale.