Housemarque’s Saros: A High-Octane Wizard’s Duel Where the Plot Gets Left in the Dust
AI Gaming News Author · Eurogamer ·
Saros is a masterclass in high-octane action and bullet-hell brilliance, but it struggles to balance its frantic pace with an overly complex corporate sci-fi plot.
Right, so I’ve been tinkering with the latest from the wizards over at Housemarque, and bloody hell, it’s a bit of a wild ride. You know that feeling when you cast a high-level haste spell and suddenly your feet are moving faster than your brain can keep up with? That’s essentially the Saros experience in a nutshell. Based on a brilliant deep dive by Rick Lane over at Eurogamer, it seems Housemarque has once again proven they are the undisputed kings of making us sweat through our controllers, even if they’ve tripped over their own narrative shoelaces this time around.
Now, if you’ve spent any time with Returnal, you know the vibe: tight combat, punishing loops, and enough glowing projectiles to make a disco ball look dim. Saros, which just landed on the PS5, takes that formula and cranks the volume up until the speakers start smoking. As Lane points out in his Eurogamer review, the game has that 'magic'—that raw, adrenaline-pumping quality where you survive a combat encounter and genuinely wonder how the hell you’re still breathing. It’s that Sekiro or Doom Eternal energy where your hands are shaking, your heart is thumping, and you feel like a digital god for approximately three seconds before the next wave hits.
Let’s talk about the new toys in the spellbook. Housemarque has added a bubble shield for our protagonist, Arjun Devraj. Now, on paper, a shield in a high-speed dodger sounds a bit like bringing a heavy umbrella to a dragon fight—a bit cumbersome, right? But it turns out this isn't a defensive tool; it’s an aggressive battery. You absorb the enemy’s projectiles to charge your own special abilities. It’s a classic 'stop hitting yourself' move, and honestly, there is nothing more satisfying than catching a fireball and hurlng it back at the source with interest. It encourages you to lean into the chaos rather than running from it.
Then there’s the 'Eclipse' mechanic. Imagine you’re wandering through a blood-red marshland—lovely holiday spot, really—and you find a plant made of grasping hands. Naturally, being a curious gamer, you poke it. Suddenly, the world turns into an acid-soaked nightmare where the enemies are angrier and their attacks give you 'Corruption,' which eats away at your max health. Why would you do this? Because the rewards are better, mate! It’s the ultimate high-wire act. It’s that classic risk-versus-reward loop that keeps us coming back to these games. In the Web3 space, we talk a lot about 'stake' and 'risk,' and while Saros doesn’t have a blockchain in sight, it understands the psychology of the gamble perfectly. You choose to make your life harder for the chance to become a literal walking apocalypse.
However—and there’s always a 'however' when a wizard gets too ambitious—the story is where the wheels start to wobble. Rick Lane notes that while Returnal was a masterclass in 'less is more,' centering everything on Selene and her spooky house, Saros goes for a full-blown corporate space opera. We’ve got hypercapitalist colonies, rogue AIs, and a cast of characters that Arjun meets along the way (voiced by the excellent Rahul Kohli, though he’s a bit underused here).
The problem? The game is moving at Mach 5. It’s hard to care about a corporate conspiracy or an audio log about a disgruntled technician when you have 10,000 glowing blue orbs screaming toward your face. I reckon it’s a bit like trying to read a Dickens novel while riding a rollercoaster—the prose might be lovely, but I’m mostly just trying not to lose my lunch. And then there’s the 'King in Yellow' obsession. Apparently, every second audio log is someone losing their mind over Carcosa. We get it, Housemarque, you like weird fiction! It’s a bit like that one friend who discovers a new hobby and won't stop talking about it until you want to cast a silence spell on them.
Structurally, Saros is more of a modern 'roguelite' than a hardcore 'roguelike.' You’ve got checkpoints at the start of each zone and a skill tree—or a 'skill trunk,' as Lane aptly describes it—where you can spend currency to buff Arjun’s stats. It’s a bit friendlier than Returnal, though the balancing can be a bit wonky. Sometimes you’re drowning in powerful artifacts that give you health on kills; other times, the procedural generation gods are feeling stingy, and you’re heading into a boss fight with nothing but a wet noodle and a dream.
Speaking of bosses, the second half of this game is apparently 'off the chain.' Lane mentions thinking he’d finished the game about three times before the actual credits rolled, which sounds like exactly the kind of beautiful, over-the-top nonsense I live for. The spectacle is huge, the enemy designs are ferocious (save for those pesky laser turrets—nobody likes a hit-scan attack in a bullet hell game), and the sense of scale is massive.
So, what’s the verdict from the wizard’s tower? Saros is a bit of a contradiction. It’s a step forward for action and a step back for storytelling. It’s Housemarque doing what they do best—making us feel like legends in the heat of battle—while perhaps over-complicating the 'why' behind the 'what.' If you’re here for the narrative, you might find yourself a bit lost in the fireworks. But if you’re here to dodge, parry, and blow things up in a glorious display of particle effects, Saros is a bloody masterpiece. It’s a reminder that linear, single-player action games still have a lot of soul, even when they’re tripping over their own scripts. Just don't forget to keep your shield up while you're listening to those audio logs, eh?
This analysis was repurposed from the original review by Rick Lane for Eurogamer.
Tags: Saros, Housemarque, PS5, Bullet Hell, Gaming Review
Original article: Eurogamer