Housemarque's TPS roguelike, Returnal, arrived with a bang, winning over plenty of players. The sheer speed, satisfying impact, and atmospheric, terrifying sound design were all top-tier. However, the 'roguelite' genre’s notoriously steep difficulty and those hour-long runs meant it wasn't exactly everyone's cup of tea.

Now, about five years later, Housemarque is back with its 'spiritual successor', SAROS. I managed to get some hands-on time at the SIEK headquarters on the 31st, and let me tell you, it packs all the frantic action of Returnal while introducing new systems that actually make the barrier to entry feel a lot more reasonable. Three hours just vanished in the blink of an eye.

Like Returnal’s planet 'Atropos', SAROS is set on the bizarre, unsettling planet 'Carcosa'. You play as Arjun Debraj, an enforcer for the massive corporation Soltari, sent as part of a rescue team to track down previous scouts. Naturally, that’s just the official story; Arjun is actually obsessed with finding the woman he loves.

On Carcosa, you’re hunted by all sorts of mechanical monstrosities. Arjun has to lean on both Soltari gear and weird alien technology to survive. As you push forward, you’ll encounter the planet's strange ecology and uncover its twisted secrets. Even with a bizarre sun hanging high in the sky, the world feels less like a beacon of hope and more like a place where something horrific is about to go wrong.

Early in the game, our protagonist gains the ability to 'resurrect' after a bizarre event leads to his body being reconstructed. He soon discovers that days have actually passed. In that short window, his teammates died, and some even seemed possessed by a strange force, destroying their own ship. That sense of cosmic dread is woven into the lore and setting just as effectively as it was in Returnal.

Returnal’s ecosystem felt strange, but it was a rather lonely, personal experience. In SAROS, you’re joined by other Soltari members, which feels reassuring at first. But during my short session, seeing squad members’ dialogue and behaviour shift in unsettling ways reminded me that having company isn't always a comfort.

SAROS is a TPS roguelite structurally similar to Housemarque's previous work. You head into battle with a single gun, dancing between enemy fire and dishing out damage. You’ll need to dodge aggressively, and hitting the DualSense R2 button with perfect timing during an 'overload' (reload) keeps your ammo count steady.

Then there’s Arjun’s 'Soltari Shield'. You can deploy an energy shield to absorb enemy projectiles. The catch? At first, you can only soak up blue ones. Red and yellow projectiles will chew right through your shield, damaging you and temporarily disabling the ability.

Once your shield energy is topped off, you can unleash a 'Power Weapon'. It’s essentially a powerful special attack similar to Returnal’s 'Alt-fire'. As long as you have the energy, there’s no cooldown; you can fire explosive long-range rounds or launch infectious threads, with effects varying by the weapon equipped.

The shield makes combat chaotic and layered. It takes a brief moment to deploy, requiring split-second decisions based on projectile speed. Dealing with elite monsters or bosses that fire red and yellow projectiles simultaneously is a nightmare. Since standard gun damage is modest compared to Power Weapons, finding yourself unable to charge that shield is a quick ticket to a game over.

Beyond the shield, plenty has changed. In Returnal, picking up health kits at max capacity boosted your health bar; here, it nets you resources (Lucenite) instead. Killing enemies now makes it easier to boost your durability and energy, making in-game currency feel much more vital.

There’s also a new 'permanent upgrade' system. Unlike its predecessor, where shops or artifact crafting felt limited, you now lose only a portion of your Lucenite upon death. You spend this at 'Primary' stations to buff your character. You can upgrade your base stats, like weapon proficiency or durability, making future runs significantly smoother.

You can even unlock new capabilities. Using a special resource called 'Halcyon', you can purchase upgrades that completely change how the game plays—like a one-time resurrection upon death, unlocking the 'Adrenaline' system (familiar to Returnal fans), or gaining the ability to absorb yellow projectiles. It gives you a real incentive to keep diving back in.

They’ve also tightened the playtime. Once you clear a boss and open a new area, you can jump straight there from the hub. No need to slog through the first stage again, and if you die or quit, getting back into the action is snappy. It feels like a genuine effort to address the accessibility hurdles that plagued Returnal.

Don't let these quality-of-life tweaks fool you into thinking it’s easy. Just like riding a bike with training wheels, the game is still fundamentally designed to be punishing. The pace is even faster than before, and the platforming traps appear early on, demanding precision from the get-go.

The enemies have stepped up their game, too. If you can't master your Power Weapon, you'll struggle, especially early on. Unlike Returnal, where melee was a powerhouse, here it’s purely situational, meaning it takes a while to clear out mobs with starting gear. And thanks to the shield, enemy projectile counts have skyrocketed—you have to get good at using that shield, or you're toast.

Then there’s the 'Eclipse', a mechanic that shifts the world. To progress through certain zones, you have to trigger it. Once the Eclipse starts, 'Corruption' spreads. Artifacts become more powerful, but they come with nasty debuffs. Enemies get tougher and start firing yellow projectiles—if you're hit, you lose max health to permanent 'Corruption'. Even if you unlock the ability to absorb yellow projectiles later, that corruption risk remains a constant threat.

Boss fights are also a different beast compared to Returnal’s early game. The first boss, the 'Seer', spams projectiles relentlessly and demands you hit specific weak points. It took me two tries, but the phase three bullet-hell sequence was exhilarating. The second boss turned it up a notch with laser-like, multi-coloured projectile patterns, and I couldn't quite take it down. In my three hours of play, the tension never let up for a second—I cannot wait for the full release.

SAROS launches on PS5 on April 30th and will officially support Korean.