Saros: PS5 Preview

On an alien planet, a man in a spacesuit awakes alone. 

As he stumbles into consciousness, around him stretches the ruins of architecture, their glistening white remains crumbling before him as they lift into the sky. The ground is grey, with flashes of red. He grasps at a necklace with a sun pendant on it, throws it on, decries that he did what he had to do and lifts up his gun before going off into a destination unknown, guided by a mysterious female voice.

It's the opening moments of Saros, the new bullet ballet shooter from Returnal and Resogun developer Housemarque. The upcoming dark sci-if game has a lot to live up to ahead of its April 30 release date.

Not only does it have to impress an audience of gamers, but it's also got to pull back those who found Returnal's incredibly difficult shooter too much of a frustration to play with.

Yet it appears Housemarque's ready to, as the game's tagline goes, "Come back stronger." Not only has it built on the same kind of visuals and dynamics which made Returnal's sci-fi gameplay so immersive, but it appears the developers have listened to the feedback of those who threw down Returnal in anger (this reviewer included) because its roguelike properties and continual deaths became a self-flagellating game for sadomasochists.

Get ready for plenty of bullets and a need to dodge.

Set on the ever-changing world of Carcosa (much of Returnal's DNA is coursing through this game), you play Arjun Devraj, an enforcer who's looking for a way to get off the planet and save his crewmates, while uncovering the reality of what happened to some of those who went missing during a solar eclipse. As if that wasn't enough to contend with, everything changes on Carcosa when an eclipse hits the planet, causing the world to become darker in more ways than one.

Based on the three hours that was made available for preview, with two distinct biomes on offer (the second of which wasn't able to be seen due to the fact the game is still difficult, but not punishing), Saros is a real contender for the sci-fi event of the year, a game that infuses HR Giger's horrors with straight out shooter mechanics. 

Clear, crisp graphics never once drop their frame rate during frenetic action.

Even though Housemarque doesn't feel like it's devolved too far away from Returnal's DNA (what is with the studio's obsessions with flailing tentacles?), the game itself feels rich in its world-building, deep in its suspicion and paranoia and infused through with mysteries that will need to be solved. Perhaps the three hours didn't reveal too much of the narrative due to the continual dying, but given the demo was playable from the start of the game and had a learning curve, the jury is still out on whether it will stick the landing or if players will engage that far with its tantalising hints, despite developer Gregory Louden promising there's a rich narrative and a great ensemble cast to see unfurl.

Death is an important part of Saros - and not just in ways that will make you want to hurl your controller at the screen. Each time Arjun dies (and he will, no matter what your proficiency level is), he gets to use the resources he's extracted from the runs to power up at base before heading back out. Housemarque contends that gamers can do 30-minute stints within Saros and its marauding forces without feeling like progress has been cheated from them when they die. It's a clever touch that sees the studio deliver on its "come back stronger" mantra and one that actually ensures replayability, thanks to combat that feels easier once you know what you're doing.

Get used to see this view a lot - it's where you go early on when you die.

That's not to say it's not frustrating - and certainly, there's nothing worse than making headway into the level before being taken out by the myriad of bullets heading your way. However, Arjun has some tricks up his sleeve for fighting back. From a shield which can be deployed to protect and absorb alien fire before using it back against them, to a crafty use of the adaptive triggers to toggle stronger weapons, Housemarque really feel like they've thought about what you need from an experience like this before deploying it.

In terms of the alien life-forms on Carcosa, they're floating, tentacle-waving creatures - or metallic egg-shaped machines firing on you. After a while, it becomes more evolved - from suicidal flying squids to crab-like scuttling monsters, the threat is very mobile and very nasty. But just when you think you've got a handle on what Carcosa can send your way, the game decides to shift. 

Getting to what would clearly be a mid-level point and dispatching a boss, the game introduces a richly crafted cutscene that shows an eclipse in progress, which completely changes the game, corrupting the environs, leaving grass turned into waving tentacles and upgrading the marauding creatures that live within.

The preview provides a brief insight into the relationship between the protagonist and his crew - and it's tetchy to say the least.

It's no wonder death is to be embraced and evolved in Saros - there's certainly plenty of it.

It's also a smooth and steady visual experience, with no sign of freezing during a screenful of bullets, a lead character needing to race across the screen and rich sci-fi imagery needing to be deployed. This is a perfectly executed kinetic experience, one that rewards its growing difficulty, but is confident enough to accept that alienation isn't the best idea for its audience.

Whether the full narrative lands remains to be seen, and the trope of a crew on an alien world struggling to survive while working out what happened isn't a new one - but based on Saros' gameplay, it's one title that will become a real talking point over the coming months - and one that will cement Housemarque as a studio that adapts and changes as much as the worlds it in its own output do.

Saros releases exclusively on PlayStation on April 30.

To pre-order Saros on Playstation, go to the PlayStation store here.