REVIEW: SAROS

After the success of Returnal back in 2021, Housemarque earned themselves a dedicated fanbase willing to follow the Finnish studio just about anywhere. SAROS is where they’ve chosen to go next, and after spending 30+ hours to finish the game, it looks like a confident next step rather than a dramatic reinvention.

If you loved Returnal, a lot of what SAROS is doing will feel immediately familiar. Whether that’s a good thing or not depends entirely on what you’re hoping for.

Story

SAROS puts you in the boots of Arjun Devraj, a Soltari Enforcer sent to investigate a lost off-world colony on the alien planet Carcosa. The setup carries that same sense of cosmic dread that made Returnal so compelling, and Housemarque clearly hasn’t lost their taste for layered, mysterious worldbuilding.

You play as Arjun as he tries to find someone he’s looking for at all costs, and the story unfolds across a haunting narrative described by Housemarque as their most ambitious yet. What lifts this beyond a simple sci-fi action premise is the casting.

Rahul Kohli, best known for his work in Midnight Mass, takes on the role of Devraj and brings, what Housemarque calls, a grounded quality to the character. That’s a deliberate contrast to Returnal’s more ethereal, fragmented storytelling, and it’s clear the studio is aiming for something with a bit more emotional grounding this time around.

Arjun is not alone on Carcosa. An ensemble cast of NPCs populates the game’s hub area, known as the Passage, and can also be encountered out in the world, each carrying their own perspectives and backstories for players to uncover through conversations, hologram logs, and audio logs. For fans of Returnal’s approach to narrative delivery, this is more of the same in the best sense, though the added cast does promise a richer world to pick apart between runs.

Gameplay

This is where SAROS lives or dies, and from our time reviewing the game, Housemarque knows it. The game blends bullet hell, third-person shooting, and roguelite elements, with persistent progression systems that let you permanently upgrade Devraj’s loadout with new weapons and suit enhancements between runs. If you’ve played Returnal, that structure will feel second nature almost immediately.

The more interesting additions come in the form of new tools layered on top of that familiar foundation. Devraj carries the Soltari Shield, which allows him to block incoming attacks and absorb their energy.

That absorbed energy can then be discharged through a transformed right arm, turning defence into offence in a single movement. On top of that, a new parry mechanic lets players reflect certain projectiles back at enemies with precise timing, adding another layer of skill expression to the combat.

At the start of every run you select your loadout from a mix of Soltari human weaponry and Carcosan alien weaponry, and the planet itself changes shape after each death, offering a different arrangement of environments and enemies each time through.

The eclipse that dominates the sky of Carcosa isn’t just set dressing either. It directly affects weapons, enemies, and certain biomes, and can cause corrupted yellow projectiles to reduce your maximum armour integrity, forcing you to actively cleanse the damage using your power weapon. That’s a nice touch, adding a layer of consequence to the environment beyond simple level design.

For those who found Returnal’s difficulty curve too steep, SAROS introduces Protection and Trial Modifiers that let players adjust the challenge to suit their tolerance, with options to reduce incoming damage or to lean into harsher conditions for those who want a rougher ride. That’s a sensible concession that should help the game reach a wider audience without compromising what makes it tick for genre veterans.

Visuals

Housemarque has a strong track record here, and SAROS looks set to continue it. The game runs on Unreal Engine 5 and was captured at 60fps on standard PS5 hardware during gameplay reveals, with PS5 Pro enhancements, including the recent PSSR update implemented from launch, the game looks stunning.

Housemarque has also increased the base render resolution on the more powerful Pro model, before upscaling kicks in, meaning players get a sharper image at 60fps even during the busiest combat sequences. The studio has also pushed reflections and overall image quality further, with the intent that every extra pixel is matched by content that holds up under closer scrutiny.

On the audio side, SAROS builds on Returnal’s 3D audio work, with evolved precision through the PS5’s Tempest 3D AudioTech delivering a much more immersive experience for players using headphones or a compatible sound setup. The DualSense haptic feedback has also received more detailed attention this time, with some cool, specific surprises which I won’t spell out so as not to ruin it for you.

Conclusion

SAROS is not trying to reinvent what Housemarque does well. It’s refining it, adding tools, broadening accessibility slightly, and wrapping it in a stronger narrative framework with a more grounded central performance.

Whether that’s enough to satisfy players who wanted something more dramatically different is a fair question, but for anyone who enjoyed Returnal and wanted more of it done better, this is exactly that. The planet Carcosa, the eclipse mechanic, the parry system, the expanded cast of characters and the persistent progression all suggest a studio that knows what it’s building and is confident doing so.

SAROS Pricing & Availability

SAROS is available April 30th 2026, exclusively for PS5. You can pick it up for €74.99 from Smyths or for €79.99 directly from the PlayStation Store. A Digital Deluxe Edition is also available from the PlayStation Store, which includes 48-hour early access and several bonus armour sets.