Saros Reviews
Saros is a high-caliber visual and sensory spectacle. If you’re here for a beautiful, fluid, and intense combat experience, you’ll have a great time. But its confusing story, shallow characters, reliance on collectibles, and mechanics like the Eclipse system — which promise more than they actually deliver — keep it from being the masterpiece so many people praise it to be.
Review in French | Read full review
Saros presents itself as the natural evolution of the path Housemarque embarked upon with Returnal, and in many ways it successfully builds on that foundation with great maturity and insight. The combat system remains the game’s crowning achievement: fast-paced, multi-layered, and supported by a color-coded bullet system that transforms every encounter into a fast-paced exercise in reading and reacting.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Saros delivers an excellent mix of 3D action and bullet hell combat, with fast, tense, and satisfying battles supported by a strong cosmic horror atmosphere and Arjun’s growing paranoia. Its permanent progression system reduces frustration without removing the challenge, but the experience becomes repetitive over time due to limited build variety, simplistic regions, and shallow progression. While still a great action game for fans of intense and difficult experiences, the lack of diversity keeps it from reaching its full potential.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Saros builds upon the strengths of Returnal and in itself creates a completely distinct experience that captivated me even more deeply. The gameplay loop worked perfectly for me, especially thanks to the more compact runs. The difficulty level was challenging yet never unfair and the game looks fantastic, runs smoothly and responds to every controller input with precision. Even without relying on preset difficulty levels you can adjust the difficulty through mods and the skill tree to make the game easier or harder all while enjoying a mysterious and exciting story.
Review in German | Read full review
The experience of Saros is not necessarily perfect, as it repeats the same mistakes we've seen in recent PlayStation games by delivering a weaker story than its predecessor, in addition to some issues in the implementation of the roguelite system. Despite that, it is still an excellent action game, whether because of its new ideas and enemy encounters, or the great game feel due to the visual aspects and its relatively high production value.
Review in Arabic | Read full review
Saros is a visually stunning technical experience that puts you in the heart of an addictive, relentless combat chaos. The game excels in providing gameplay that is among the best in its class, making full use of the PS5's capabilities to give you a real feeling of every shot and every explosion. Despite the fun of combat, the game falls into the trap of repetition due to the limited enemy types and the weakness of the Roguelite systems, which do not offer strong incentives for replayability as in competing games. Additionally, the story—which began with an ambitious scope—falters at its end. In short, if you are looking for a game to showcase your console's power and enjoy a solid and fun gameplay experience for hours, Saros is an excellent choice. However, if you expect more from the story or variety in enemies and Roguelite elements, you may feel some disappointment halfway through.
Review in Arabic | Read full review
An unforgiving alien planet, brutal bullet-hell combat, and a mystery slowly eating away at reality - Housemarque came back with another game full of chaotic combat and eerie atmosphere that demands your full attention.
Saros is a perfectly tuned bullet hell of astonishing kineticism.
Housemarque evolves the foundations of Returnal into something even bigger with Saros, delivering intense third-person combat, stunning world design and a mysterious sci-fi narrative that constantly pulls you deeper into Carcosa. A breathtaking roguelite experience that feels both familiar and refreshingly ambitious.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Saros is a triumph for Housemarque and a reminder that some of the most exciting games being made today don’t need to rely on cinematic spectacle to leave a lasting impression. It takes everything that made Returnal special and builds upon it in meaningful ways, from its improved progression systems to its breathtaking world design and its roster of unforgettable boss encounters. The story is heavy, the gameplay is addictive, and the world of Carcosa will stick with you long after the credits roll. If Returnal was Housemarque announcing themselves to the world, Saros is them planting their flag. Don’t sleep on it.
"Saros is a game where it dances on the line of head-scratching design decisions along with intriguing ideas. Its influences from The King in Yellow are wonderful and its core gunplay is excellent, yet it fails to coherently bind together its gameplay along with narrative in a way which makes it enjoyable at length."
Housemarque Studio once again proves its ability to create unique games with its own identity. Saros offers a difficult and intense journey filled with chaotic battles and huge Bullet Hell moments, creating fast-paced and addictive gameplay while giving the world beautiful visuals. The game also delivers excellent technical performance and great sound design. If you enjoyed Returnal and are looking for a similar experience, then don’t hesitate to travel to Carcosa planet and enjoy one of the most exciting action games out there.
Review in Arabic | Read full review
Saros has everything it takes to become more than just a spiritual successor to Returnal, representing a clear evolution of the formula created by the studio, but with a completely new look.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
The game is as spectacular and gripping as Returnal, but with a much greater emphasis on story and less varied gameplay. It feels like in an attempt to correct its mistakes, Housemarque considered the wrong components of Returnal to be its shortcomings.
Review in Russian | Read full review
Saros is a highly enjoyable game to play, featuring truly fantastic action sequences, a constantly escalating intensity, and plenty of chaos, managing to take its sound design and DualSense utilization to new heights. However, it has etched itself into my memory as a title burdened by a narratively lacking story, acting performances that fail to rise above average, and skill systems that lack tangible impact.
Review in Turkish | Read full review
Instead of being just like every other safe and overbudgeted action adventure by the company, this is a gameplay-first experience, just like how Returnal had done five years prior. It shows, once again, that Housemarque might actually be Sony’s most important internal development team, masterfully mixing arcade-like controls and an endlessly replayable gameplay loop with higher quality visuals and cinematic storytelling.
I have a truly strange relationship with Saros. On the one hand, it’s a game I honestly hate and that has caused me endless frustration. On the other hand, it’s a game that rewards you even for your failures, and once you finally master the chaos on the screen, the sense of satisfaction from your progress is simply immense. It’s a game that, despite its rather bland supporting characters and a lack of deeper emotion in the plot itself, manages to draw you in with an incredibly engaging story full of intriguing mysteries. The world design is a true masterpiece created by talented artists, further enhanced by stunning visuals and brilliant sound design. To top it all off, the core gameplay itself, though incredibly exhausting most of the time, ultimately proves exceptionally satisfying. Saros is a fascinating paradox that’s hard to ignore.
Review in Polish | Read full review
SAROS is recommended because it’s a step up from Housemarque’s previous title. The experience is much more polished, especially in terms of its progression system and accessibility, yet it doesn’t lose any of its intensity. It’s not a perfect game, but it knows exactly what it wants to offer and how to keep you hooked for hours.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Saros, like the lead protagonist Arjun, is flawed. It’s a lot of ways; it’s partially because of the team’s success. Somehow, Returnal remains largely uncopied, if at all, which is an absolute shame but means I can really only weigh this experience against its predecessor. In this vein, it falls short in plenty of ways. The moment when Selene escapes from her hell, only to be lowered into the ground and return on the other side, gives chills just thinking about it.