Saros review - How does PS5 exclusive measure up to Returnal?

Housemarque's 2021 shooter Returnal is undoubtedly one of the more interesting and unique PS5 console exclusives. A third-person shooter with bullet-hell sensibilities, procedural generation and a captivating sci-fi story, it's a magnificent mash-up of genres that arguably doesn't get talked about enough.

Five years later and Finnish developer Housemarque is back with another third-person/bullet-hell/procedurally-generated/sci-fi shooter, this time called Saros. How does Saros measure up against its predecessor and should you make a return visit? Keep reading to find out.

At a glance, Returnal and Saros are very similar to each other, right down to the high-speed dashing and dodging, the shifting alien planets and mesmerising particle effects that accompany each explosive encounter.

Players gun their way through a series of procedurally-generated arenas across multiple biomes, seeking out upgrades to help your character progress that little bit further.

When you die you wake up back at base, ready to venture forth and do it all again, albeit on a slightly altered battlefield.

There are, however, a few significant differences that make the action feel even more exciting, and progression more achievable.

For starters, players have a shield that can be activated to absorb certain bullets in order to avoid damage and to regenerate your all-important power weapon.

You'll eventually unlock the ability to absorb different coloured bullets at the expense of your maximum health (temporarily), introducing a risk-vs-reward element that has implications for your offensive and defensive capabilities. There's even a parry system with its own set of defensive risks and offensive rewards.

While you can play it ultra-defensively and try to dodge everything like in Returnal, the new shield and parry system encourages players to act more aggressively, similar to how Bloodborne felt compared to Dark Souls.

Overall, there's a touch more variety compared to Returnal, a tad more depth and even more excitement to be had from the relentless combat encounters.

While there's something enormously satisfying about feeling like an indestructible badass, it does come at the expense of Returnal's crushing difficulty.

However, even though Saros is easier and more accessible than its predecessor, Housemarque has been quite clever in how it manages difficulty.

Players can spend currency to improve stats between each run, although there's a limit to how many skills and boosts you can unlock at any given time. You'll need to defeat the game's bosses to break through to the next set of unlocks, which means you'll never get strong enough to completely negate the challenge.

There's also a modification system that can be used to make each run easier or harder. Once again, however, this only works to a point. For every damage upgrade and shield boost you select, you'll need to balance it out with a negative modifier. It means you can get help with some of the elements that you really struggle with, but not at the expense of the game feeling like a complete cakewalk.

There are no such balance restrictions if you want to make the game harder, effectively giving seasoned Returnal players the hard mode they may be craving.

I think it's a really clever way of helping casual players reach the end credits without alienating or angering the kind of gamer that enjoys a challenge.

While I'm in favour of the changes to how Saros plays compared to Returnal, the story and characters feel like a slight downgrade.

Without wishing to delve too deeply into spoiler territory, you've been sent to the shape-shifting planet of Carcosa by the Soltari corporation.

The Soltari corporation is after a valuable mineral called Lucenite, and has sent three previous expeditions to the planet in order to establish a colony, extract the compound and deliver it to Earth.

After losing contact with the three previous expeditions, the Soltari corporation sends a fourth team to the planet, which is where you come in. As an enforcer named Arjun Devraj, your primary objective is to find out what happened to the previous teams, establish communications and resume operations. Needless to say, things don't exactly go to plan.

It's a perfectly fine premise, but one that feels like it's been done before. It doesn't quite have the same level of intrigue as Returnal, despite giving off some Event Horizon vibes.

The archetypal characters also feel a bit run of the mill, despite some decent performances, particularly from Arjun Devraj actor Rahul Kohli.

It's not that I didn't care about the plight of the characters and what happened on Carcosa, I just think Returnal did a better job of capturing my imagination while drip-feeding compelling narrative twists.

On a more positive note, Saros is one of the best looking and performing games on the PS5, featuring all kinds of visual flourishes while running at a silky smooth 60 frames-per-second.

It's also the best showcase for the PS5 DualSense controller since Astro Bot, making excellent use of haptics, as well as adaptive triggers for alt-fire/power weapons.

If you haven't played Returnal, or you quit because it was too tough, then I would actually recommend playing Saros first, despite its weaker story.

With an addictive gameplay loop that largely improves on the Returnal formula, Saros is the perfect game to train your trigger fingers and see what developer Housemarque is all about. Once you've conquered Carcosa and discovered its secrets, I would then suggest you pick up a copy of Returnal and see if you can rise to the challenge.

VERDICT: 4.5/5