REVIEW: ‘Saros’ Is Housemarque At The Top Of Their Game

Saros, the latest roguelike action shooter from Housemarque and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment, is a candy store food fight. Walk through the door and immediately get pelted by any combination of color, shape, and sound.

Some you’ll want, others you’ll duck, but you don’t want to stop. It’s an all-out assault you keep going back in for, even if you got a jawbreaker to the face the last time around. It’s Housemarque’s best game yet and a fantastic addition to the PS5 exclusive catalog.

Saros brings you to the distant planet of Carcosa, seeing it through the eyes of Arjun Devraj, played by Rahul Kohli. Lucenite, a new, potentially incredibly important resource, has been discovered, and corporations are sending people to study and recover it. Arjun is part of an operation to find and rescue the last group of Soltari employees that came to the eclipsed planet, multiple expeditions now missing.

Arjun isn’t alone on Carcosa, either. The supporting cast is largely fine, not too memorable but they all have their moments. The greatest bit of intrigue comes from the logs you find from past expeditions, learning more about Carcosa in the process. It’s nowhere near as solitary as Returnal was, with plenty of communication with the rest of the Soltari employees, but the focus stays on Arjun. A bigger focus on some of the supporting cast would’ve been welcome, but they work well enough.

Rahul Kohli delivers an incredible performance in Saros. 

The problem is that Carcosa is anything but hospitable. The desolate planet is full of threats, none more so than an eclipse that rolls in and warps the planet. Everything turns shades of an angry orange and red, tentacles sprouting, and it may be messing with Arjun and company.

The story that follows continues Housemarque’s approach to narrative, where the story rolls in through new runs, finding audio logs and text from past expeditions. It’s a mind-bending journey that’s effective and sits with you, especially backed by Kohli’s performance.

Rahul Kohli is incredible as Arjun, a rash and almost unlikable angry force, but one needed on Carcosa. He’s got his own reasons for being on the expedition outside of the corporate interests that brought him there.

His story is rife with bad decisions, regrets, and generational trauma, Carcosa being a manifestation of his own mental hell as much as it is a physical threat. Kohli brings a gravitas and rage that brings you in and doesn’t let go, his gravely voice locking you in on uncovering the next bit of his mental hellscape. 

This time, though, Arjun has a shield he can call up to absorb some of the enemy death balls. Doing so refills Arjun’s power weapons, a powerful resource that can decimate foes. The shield makes you run towards danger, where Returnal only ever needed you to get away from it. A crucial reload can make or break the tide of a fight, but using it at the wrong time is a death sentence.

The addition of a shield doesn’t make things any easier, as Saros is all too comfortable beating your every hope of a good run down into the dirt. The shield just gives you an opportunity to fight back, by no means a guarantee of anything remotely close to success. It also gives you new build potential; mixing it in with the right weapons and upgrades can make all the difference.

Saros hits the ground running and never looks back. The minute-to-minute gameplay is electric and white-knuckled, where every step is as important as the next one, each shot being a lifeline. World design across the board is fantastic, with some genuinely great platforming along the way. Arjun moves at a breakneck pace that keeps you moving from combat encounter to the next, never getting tired of blasting through enemies. 

This extends to the bosses, each one a totally different juggernaut than the one before it. The first boss changes through the phases, starting as an open arena, before ending in a claustrophobic hallway that restricts movement. Each one that follows is a blast, with every encounter being a highlight. 

Saros is difficult, and doesn’t lose that challenge even with the addition of a shield. 

Saros also feels much more level-based than Returnal. Once you tear through an area, you can always go back to finish up grabbing collectibles, but the focus is always on what’s next. Every time you go back to the hub, your gear resets, meaning going back for upgrades or a heal is a critical choice. You can choose to start the next run at the next level, moving on to the next challenge that awaits. This means that every run ends up being around 30 minutes, a much more manageable length. 

The game also has the depth to build craft that genuinely makes each run a different force to reckon with. Picking up a shotgun that quickly shreds through stagger, leaving an enemy open to a melee whallop, goes hand in hand with a power-up that boosts melee damage while also refilling power weapon ammo.

A smart assault rifle that homes in on enemies, letting you keep your distance and better read the battlefield, gets boosted by power-ups that make your Lucenite collection radius larger. There’s a ton of player expression in the combat sandbox here, with virtually every weapon and power-up meaningfully contributing to Arjun’s build of the moment.

The Eclipse is the great equalizer, where everything changes. Enemies hit harder, bullets you once were able to absorb become corrupted, and the world itself becomes more of a menace. At the same time, resources become more lucrative, corrupted upgrades offer better boosts with higher costs – the Eclipse pushes back right when you start feeling comfortable in Saros’ flow. The Eclipse is at the heart of both the narrative and gameplay loop, used to fantastic effect across both.

Saros also introduces permanent player upgrades, a change from Returnal’s greater focus on weapon upgrades. Each run benefits the player with resources that make Arjun stronger in some way, with a massive upgrade tree that’s essential in seeing Saros through.

Whether it’s upgrading Arjun’s base stats like health, shields, and lucenite collection, or adding higher tiers of proficiency to weapons found in a run, there are plenty of ways to make the creatures of Carcosa easier to deal with.

And that’s not it, either – Saros actually includes difficulty modifiers to make the game easier or more punishing, depending on how you want to play the game. You don’t get the modifiers right away; you’ll still need to prove your mettle in a handful of areas first.

Once you do unlock them, you can tweak the experience in a number of ways. Struggling in an area? Give yourself a damage buff or reduce the Eclipse’s corruption. On the other hand, you can also make things even tougher by deactivating second chance revivals or making enemies more aggressive. 

You can’t just make it a walk in the park, though. Instead, you need to balance your choices. Each modifier adds or takes away from a balance meter, and while you can mess with it all you like, it still needs to fall within a specific threshold. It allows players to make the experience more personal, adjusting to their own strengths and weaknesses. It makes Saros a much more accessible experience for those looking for that, without making it the default.

Saros packs enough punch to stay with you after you turn off your television. 

Saros also looks and feels fantastic. The performance is rock solid, with no technical issues at all. It’s gorgeous, with each biome changing drastically once the Eclipse rolls in. The Dualsense feels more immersive than ever, with the haptics and adaptive triggers letting you feel every gun rattle or hit. It even uses the half pull on the triggers to change fire, with it all quickly becoming second nature as you destroy enemies left, right, and center. 

Saros is Housemarque at its best. It nails the roguelike formula, with each run feeling completely different than what came before thanks to changing areas and a variety of weapons. The story grips you and doesn’t let go, with Rahul Kohli’s fantastic performance at the heart of it.

The game will stay with you even after the TV turns off – even when I closed my eyes after playing, I still saw projectiles flying at me. Saros is aggressive and keeps you coming back for more, and it’s also an incredible, harrowing, haunting experience, while also letting more people enjoy it than ever before. It’s another PS5 must-play.

Saros is out on PS5 on April 30, 2026.