Saros: PS5 Review

Developed by Housemarque
Published by Sony Interactive
Platform: PS5

Developer Housemarque is responsible for one of the best shooters on the PlayStation platform - Resogun.

A simple arcade game that combined twin stick shooting with Defender-style sensibilities, it was a launch title for the PS4 and remained one of the greatest games ever created.

However, since then, the studio's taken itself in ever-more challenging directions and with the launch of Returnal, a diabolically difficult shooter on a rogue-like world, it lost a lot of supporters with large swathes of players unable to get remotely close to ever penetrating the game.

So to that end, the studio's taken on board the lessons learned from the title and reapplied them to Saros, a bullet ballet shooter that maintains some of Returnal's DNA and also sadly, some of the challenges of the gameplay which, at times, border on extreme frustration.

READ A PREVIEW OF SAROS AND ITS GAMEPLAY HERE.

In this latest, which borrows from many sci-fi genre cliches, you play as Soltari enforcer Arjun Devraj (Rahul Kohli) who awakes on a planet known as Carcosa with only a sun token pendant, a gun and a voice in his head. As he chases the voice through a winding, devastated civilisation, he has no idea what he's doing, why he's doing it and where he's going.

Seconds later (and moments, depending on your skill proficiency, overwhelmed by enemies and bullets, he dies, awaking inside a pit of goo and inside a craft with colleagues who want to know how he's alive.

It's here the mystery of Saros begins - and it's also here that your patience for being continually killed and having to repeat cycles of exploration and combat will be sorely tested. 

Amid the towering crumbling structures, metallic creatures with tentacles attack without warning, sending swathes of beautifully realised missiles heading your way. These can be soaked up by your shield and repurposed back into bullets against enemies during more difficult combat encounters - prior to your death.

Death's a huge factor of Saros, part of the game's ethos of "Come back stronger." Each death will take you back to your hub and allow you to deposit the planet's lucenite resources, power up and then head back out to do it all again. Albeit with a downgraded weapon and a need to dispatch every single creature once again - whatever they may be in the roguelike setup the second time around.

There's an overarching narrative at play here too - with the background of a solar eclipse, a missing crew and colony, plus a hero whose link to it all is a bit mysterious. Yet it's fair to say that most of this won't matter for fans of shooter games. But it is fair to say that despite the superlative graphics and deeply impressive soundscape, even players of shooters may find their patience tested by some of the mechanics within. Though admittedly, there will be speed-runs of the game which will leave casual players weeping.

Housemarque's accounted for some of this with a setting that allows you to downplay some of the harder elements of the game, and artefacts throughout that both enhance and detract from the core gameplay. 

But it's also delivered some baffling decisions too. 

Its Come Back Stronger message may be fine to attract those burned by Returnal, but at certain points in the upgrade tree, you hit a barrier that can't be overcome until you manage to clear an end level boss (again, no easy feat given they come with three health bars). It's a bit of a slap in the face for anyone struggling with the game's general difficultly no matter what setting it's on.

And the story's more baffling if your progress is stunted. Audio logs scattered about deliver mythology about the planet's eclipse (which makes creatures more rabid and their weapons corrupted) but the time you'd have to stand still to listen to them is limited, given most of them are collected during battle sequences.

Yet, for its foibles and faults, Saros offers a superlative-looking game that will challenge and dazzle at every turn.

Crisp, clear visuals which stand out, frame rates which don't drop no matter how many bright-coloured bullets litter the screen; the game's all about beauty as it unwinds its biome-led narrative. Combat is chunky, effective and presents a learning curve which takes some time to overcome. Some weapons help - a smart rifle lets you shoot from a distance and know the bullets will land; environmental cover offers protection from the range of projectiles heading your way - and the shield is a great tool which will see you calling on its services repeatedly. 

In many ways, this review is still a work in progress in terms of the story, because due to the harsh nature of the game, progression has been stunted by repeated deaths and blocked pathways to conclusion. So whether the game sticks the story landing and subsequent revelations is yet to be seen.

But what is clear from Saros is that some of the lessons of Returnal have been learned and even standing alone on its own two feet, Housemarque's latest takes a major commitment of patience and test, and the rewards do come with patience. Whether that will be enough for every player remains to be seen.

Ultimately, Saros wears its mix of mystery and mayhem well. It's a solid investment of time (of which there will be plenty) and shows the studio continues to develop challenging products. What they do next though may need to be a little more mainstream to welcome all players - not just those who are willing to put aside their frustrations and plough on.