Saros continues to kill with style, but miss on variety

Before we get started on Hosemarque’s new AAA PS5 exclusive, Saros, I wasn’t really huge on its predecessor, Returnal.

Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s a good game. It’s really pretty, and the storytelling is interesting. But the lack of any metaprogression between runs really irked me on both my first and second time through Returnal. Despite the bullet hell-style gameplay being considered punishing, I breezed through the final boss of both routes in fewer than ten runs. I finished the epilogue, but it just didn't sing for me the way it did for others.

So, it was a surprise that when Housemarque revealed Saros, a game that looked functionally identical to Returnal, I was pretty damn excited. Partially because I just like when devs are able to iterate on a first draft – and Returnal felt very much like a first draft – but mostly because they were clear from the start that metaprogression would be a big piece of Saros. Finally, each new run wouldn’t just feel like an opportunity to unlock some new artifact or something and get back out there. Each time I’d fail, there was now a promise that I’d come back stronger, and I love that in a roguelite.

Now that I’ve cleared Saros’ final boss fight and epilogue, I feel conflicted. I do like it quite a bit more than Returnal, and I still really like the base experience Housemarque is creating here. But while the metaprogression was enjoyable to have, it didn’t fix as many of my issues with the game as I thought it would.

Returnal was a fine game I had hoped would be good, and Saros is a good game I thought would be great.