Saros alleviates some of Returnal’s brutal challenge, but it’s somehow even more compelling.

Last week I couldn’t stop thinking about Saros. Housemarque’s intense third-person roguelite shooter is a wonderful refinement of its previous work, Back (a game that I consider one of the best of this console generation). Yet its poignant, cosmic horror-influenced tale elevates it to something particularly memorable.

If you know Back, It’s probably no surprise that Housemarque has deployed the Torment Nexus again for Saros doomed astronauts, and the concept of its protagonist forced into a seemingly eternal cyclical hell is very present here. That said, Saros is decidedly more manageable than its predecessor, with gameplay and progression systems that make for a more forgiving overall experience.

Make no mistake, though; Saros is still a difficult PS5 game. Remove all of its new systems, and I’d say it’s about on par with Back in terms of difficulty. Enemies hit hard and bosses require great concentration when it comes to learning and dodging their bullet patterns. You will die often Saros, but considering I reached the true ending in 20 hours, it’s a bit friendlier to the average gamer.

A skill tree full of permanent upgrades – as well as a very clever modifier system unlocked from the start – ensures that protagonist Arjun gets tougher with every run. Additionally, checkpoints placed at the start of each biome mean that, unlike Back, you don’t have to play everything in one go without fail. This alone condenses the sequences of The return A much more manageable 2-3 hours to 30 minutes, depending on what you’re looking to achieve on each run.

And like its predecessor, Saros is polished to a mirror shine. Arjun’s movements are quick and responsive. Color-coded bullet patterns instantly communicate the approach you need for each enemy. Weapons are varied and often creative in their design and secondary weapon functionality. And those haptic and adaptive triggers? Quite simply the best I’ve ever experienced and which reminded me that, despite all its flaws, the DualSense is still capable of wowing me after all these years.

In all, Saros is another slam dunk from a studio that has mastered the art of blending arcade-like trappings with AAA production values. It’s not quite perfect; I would have liked there to be more post-match activities (and no daily challenge system yet, a la Back), and there are many (and I mean very) occasional performance drops on base PS5 hardware. But nothing seriously detracts from what I’m sure will be the game of the year favorite for many who are looking for Saros yellow shores.

Hail to the king

Saros puts you in the role of Arjun Devraj, played by actor Rahul Kohli. Arjun is a member of Echelon IV, a team sent by the megacorporation Soltari to the planet Carcosa. Their goal is twofold: to continue the extraction of a valuable resource called Lucenite, as well as to discover what happened to the three previous Echelon teams who have made no contact with Soltari since the planet’s fall months ago.

It won’t be long before Carcosa’s truths are laid bare. A phenomenon unique to the planet, it undergoes regular eclipse phases which advance rapidly in time. Oh, and people who look directly at the eclipse are going crazy. This is all explained quite early on in the collectable audio and text logs left by previous Echelon expedition teams. From there, the madness only grows at knots.

If you know Back, then you will know that there was more to its protagonist, Selene, than meets the eye. It’s a similar case with Arjun in Saros. I won’t spoil the details here, but there is still an element of his trauma that seems to manifest itself in the form of the horrors of Carcosa.

That said, I find Carcosa to be an extremely compelling executive. Housemarque certainly doesn’t shy away from horror inspiration here. Namely, the astonishing HR Giger-esque architecture left behind by the planet’s ancient inhabitants, and The King in Yellow, a collection of short stories that revolve around a play of the same name, which drives all of its readers inexplicably crazy. It’s pretty on the nose with the latter, actually, but it all serves here to create an aggressive brand of horror that pairs wonderfully with Saros rapid third-person shooting.

I am blue

Saros, at its heart is a third-person shooter with roguelite elements. However, there’s no punishing movement speed or running away from cover here. Arjun’s default running speed would be enough to set off a highway radar, and he can dodge, jump, and dash through the air at the drop of a hat to quickly reposition or blink through incoming projectiles.

It’s a game with a myriad of arcade sensibilities. The main method of attacking enemies is complex bullet shots reminiscent of danmaku shoot-em-ups like Resurrection of DoDonpachi Or Ikaruga. All right, Saros never fills the screen as intimidatingly as this, but I think it takes a bit of inspiration, especially from the latter title.

A new addition to Saros is Arjun’s Soltari shield. Bound to R1 by default, holding the button produces a protective globe around Arjun that absorbs projectiles, converting them into ammo for his currently equipped powerful weapon. Therefore, Saros directly encourages you to get stuck in the line of fire. You’ll need to be careful here though; only blue projectiles can be absorbed without penalty. You can absorb yellow projectiles, but they will cause corruption, eating away at your maximum health until they are cleared with the use of powerful weapons. Red projectiles, on the other hand, cannot be absorbed or even dodged.

There is a wide variety of weapons in Saros. From powerful revolvers and short-range shotguns to energy crossbows and auto-targeting smart rifles. You’ll need to use powerful weapons in tandem with these to deal devastating damage and effectively turn dire situations in your favor. Some are great for dealing immediate damage to a single target, while others excel at crowd control, spreading damage over time with projectiles around the room.

One thing I love Saros weapons is that they are all equipped with an alternative fire module. Holding L2 halfway changes the behavior of your weapon. These generally use more energy, but can do things like turn your shotgun into a grenade launcher or your energy crossbow beams into a single concentrated blast. My favorite weapon, however, comes a little later in the game; a chakram thrower that inserts blades into enemies, spinning inside to deal damage when you activate its alt fire. It’s so awesome.

Helping Hand

As I said above, Saros has a difficulty curve similar to Back, but it’s much less nasty. At the start, you’ll unlock the “Armor Matrix”, a huge skill tree that boosts stats and provides various benefits (like a “second chance”, allowing you to get back up once when you die) when you feed collectible Lucenite currency into it. A secondary resource, Halcyon, can also be collected to unlock particularly powerful upgrades.

You will usually be faced with a boss at the end of a biome. Levels can take around 20-30 minutes per playthrough, depending on how much optional exploration you undertake, and beating a boss will unlock a checkpoint you can return to after you die. These checkpoints can be teleported from your original Passage base, allowing you to start a run from your most recent one, or to return to older areas for secondary collectibles like Audio Logs and Halcyon.

This is probably the main thing that Saros a much more maneuverable beast compared to its predecessor. Back (apart from its mid-run separation) required a full run at ch every time. Dying to a boss late in the game often meant 2-3 hours of lost progress. Saros is much more forgiving in this regard, making it a much more accessible game for those who were put off by The return difficulty and the time it required.

Fear not if you are looking for a greater challenge in Saros, However. After a few first biomes, you will unlock Carcosan modifiers in your base. This system presents you with a range of modifiers to make your life on Carcosa both easier and more difficult. You can equip yourself with stronger firepower and better defenses, but you’ll need to balance that with detrimental modifiers, like losing your second chance or more aggressive enemies.

Easy modifiers decrease the number on the scale, while difficult modifiers increase it. There is no upper limit to this either; you’re free to add as many modifiers as you want, as long as the scale doesn’t dip too far in the easier direction. In short, if you want to bring in all the modifiers that make your life easier, you need to stack the ones that increase the challenge of the game. It’s a very smart way to increase the difficulty and adds a lot of flavor to the races once you get the hang of the game.

Bathed in yellow

I’ve found Saros be a deeply enjoyable game, and I didn’t find its extra protections and progression systems made it any worse than that of Back. But there is one area in which I think Saros surpasses its prequel is in presentation.

It’s one of the most visually stunning games to come from a PlayStation Studios team to date. The biomes are vast and varied, ranging from chalk canyons and underground mines to dilapidated docks and swampy swamps. The drawing distance is also remarkable, and you can often see entire levels expanding when you look at a view. You can even spot landmarks from more distant areas in the game in the distance. It’s an impressive trick.

I would also strongly like, strongly I recommend beefing up your experience with a pair of headphones. Sound design in Saros seems tailor-made for the PS5’s Tempest 3D audio. Roaring winds and distant alien screams fill the soundstage, while gunshots and explosions all sound satisfying. The soundtrack is also a highlight for me, mixing chaotic synths with screaming electric guitars.

Once again, Housemarque has really put the DualSense wireless controller to the test. The novelty of its haptic feedback and adaptive triggers has long worn off for me, but Saros really surprised me with its use. Elements like the patter of rain and feedback from powerful weapons resonate through the controller’s vibrations in a precise and immersive way. And using these adaptive triggers to open up secondary fire options is a brilliant touch, as it was in Back, Also.

In conclusion, I really have very few complaints about my experience with Saros. The game largely held an impressive 60fps (frames per second) on the base PS5, but there was a very occasional slight hiss in busier, enemy-filled rooms. However, this is never anything revolutionary.

Beyond that, I’d really like to see more post-game activities take place. Saros. Returning to older areas for collectibles is fun, but it’s currently missing something like leaderboards or The return daily challenge races. This game finally received a big free expansion with new story elements, so I’d love to see the same thing happen again in Saros. Right now I just want more, which isn’t a bad thing.

Should we play Saros?

Play it if…

Don’t play it if…

Accessibility Features

Like most contemporary PlayStation Studios titles, Saros offers plenty of accommodating options for gamers of all stripes. Right off the bat, you can turn off the Carcosan modifier limiter if you want an easier experience, and there are no penalties or rewards for doing so. Full button remapping is also supported.

There are also plenty of options for colorblind people, to the point where you can even change the default color of different projectile types. Meanwhile, the subtitle options are robust. You can change their size, color and background opacity.

The audio options are particularly wide. A dialogue priority slider ensures that spoken lines aren’t drowned out by other audio sources, and you can fine-tune bass, treble, and the lower and upper ends of the dynamic range. There’s even a medium volume setting if you’re hard of hearing or don’t have access to speakers or a surround sound system.

How I rated Saros

I reached Saros true ending with 20 hours of gameplay. In addition to the main campaign, I spent a lot of time gathering optional collectibles and collecting currency to build the Armor Matrix skill tree.

I played with a DualSense wireless controller on a base PS5, often combining my playtime with the RIG R5 Spear Pro HS gaming headset for more immersive audio. My screen of choice is the LG CX OLED TV.

I started this review with a long playthrough of Housemarque’s previous games, including Back. This was one of my favorite games the year it came out, so I was excited and ready to face the horrors of Saros using Back as one of my frames of reference.

First revision between April and May 2026

Rhys is TRG’s Hardware Editor and has been part of the TechRadar team for over four years. Particularly passionate about high-quality third-party controllers and headsets, Rhys strives to provide informative, easy-to-read coverage on gaming hardware of all kinds. When it comes to the games themselves, Rhys is particularly interested in fighting and racing games, as well as soulslikes and RPGs.

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