Three years. I’ve been playing Returnal for three years, on and off, and I’m still stuck at the first boss.
Call it a skill issue, me being a “game journalist” (derogatory) or whatever insult you have at me, but I have yet to get past the filter that stopped 87% of Returnal players, based on publicly available Trophies statistics, from ever leaving the first biome.
For the record, I can play soulslikes. I just beat Demon’s Souls (2020) this year, cleared the final boss on Elden Ring Shadow Of The Erdtree DLC, and rolled credits on Wuchang: Fallen Feathers before review embargo was lifted. I swear I’m not terrible in games in general, I’m just no good at bullet hell shooters!
That said, I love what I’ve played of Returnal, all the ten hours stuck on the same first biome (level) in the span of three years. But the curse of a roguelike is that more often than not, I feel like I need all the stars to align to really actually make progress. Luck never have been my strong suit, or is performing clutch plays under pressure.
So when developer Housemarque announced the follow-up to Returnal, Saros, I was both excited and worried. Excited, as we get to see this plucky development team that used to be indie gets to make another big-budget cinematic game with the trademark gameplay tightness as seen in their past arcade shooters. Worried, as I fear the cycle of getting stuck at the first level continues again.
Gamer Matters were among the local media and creators in Malaysia that had the chance to play three hours of Saros as part of a preview event. A bit later than other parts of the world, but better late than never.
Three hours. I’ve played Saros for three hours, continuously, and I’m still stuck at the first boss.
Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger (To A Certain Limit)
Now that the Chekhov’s gun has been shot, let me be clear, the gun wasn’t aimed at Housemarque, it was on me. I had the hubris coming into this preview session that I will prevail.
I was betting on the new permanent progression system Saros has will make the odds be in my favour. Returnal is closer to a roguelike, albeit not exactly a “pure” roguelike, in that most of the item drops are random and you more or less start from scratch each run, with the permanent currency used for mostly one-time advantages and unlocking the pool of advantageous items plus a few permanent abilities.
Meanwhile, Saros has a branching upgrade tree where you can use the currency you collect to spend on permanent stat upgrades. Weapon stats can now be bolstered by permanent and per-run stats. This new feature eliminates the weapon proficiency system from Returnal, and offer more variances of the same weapon. For example, maybe this one run you keep getting points added to Resilience so you want to not only stick to the handgun, but handguns where more than one of the stats are tied to that Resilience attribute.
But don’t you dare think you can farm and grind through the upgrade tree until you can overpower the boss. Saros cleverly puts progression blockers on the skill tree, demanding you to beat the specified boss before you can continue unlocking more permanent upgrades.
I had one good run where I was more or less poised to beat the boss with a good weapon (it was doing 20 damage, Saros’ damage numbers are a little inflated compared to Returnal, at least at the start of the game). The main attribute tied to most of the weapon stats was at 20 points. I’m strong. All I need to do is locked in and whittle down three health bars while dance through the barrage of bullets. The framerate, to my eyes, were locked in 60fps with no stutters even through the hellish of all bullet hails.
Unsurprisingly, I choked at the third and final phase, and had used the second chance to revive with full health (which isn’t something you have to get lucky enough to buy, you unlock it permanently through the upgrade tree) earlier in the run. The next three or so runs, each lasting between 15-25 minutes, was attempting to get that high stats run again to no avail, as I was simply not good enough to do put a dent on those three health bars while not being overwhelmed by the sheer vastness of the bullet hell.
Interestingly, game director Gregory Louden insisted that Saros isn’t a bullet hell game, rather, it’s a “bullet ballet.” You dance to the rhythm of the multi-coloured coronas all homing to you like it’s the plague that locked us down in the early 2020s. How “parry-or-die” action games and soulslikes can be described as a tango or some form of dance (I did, and there’s at least one developer who also get this), so is the roguelike named Saros.
And that segues to my next point about another fascinating change to Saros’ gameplay compared to Returnal: your relationship with the aforementioned colourful orbs of damage-dealers.
Rhythm Of The Night Eclipse
Returnal has you dodge and jump to avoid bullets at all costs. Or maybe hide behind cover when it gets overwhelming. Saros insists on you to take risks by rewarding coming in contact with the bullets. Protagonist Arjun has a shield, activating when holding down the melee attack. Instead of just swinging a blade, he fluidly follows that up by activating a bubble shield. It drains power from a bar, but take hits on bullets of the right colour and you basically absorb them, topping the power bar up so you can continue use the shield. Or even better, use a power attack.
Power attacks are new to Saros, activated by holding the aim button and then the fire button. They are interchangeable like weapons are, so be on the lookout for powers with bigger attack numbers. In Returnal, the powerful alt-fire, activated in the same way, operates on a cooldown, so I personally never use it as often as I would have. Even with audio cue and the little icon telling you when it’s about to be available I just don’t find it worth the risk popping them outsides for the boss fights (that I can’t beat).
Saros gives you a massive incentive to make use of this power attacks. You can always charge the power bar back, bullets home to you on the regular, might as well take advantage of that burst damage. Especially against the pesky enemies that likes to maul you up close and also harass you with bullet barrages. They’re bullet spongy than their Returnal counterparts and harder to stagger. (Side note: a lot of the fodder enemies in the first biome have functionally the same equivalent in Returnal.) You’re less likely be saving resources for a rainy day that never comes. I mean, look at the weather here in Carcosa!
And there’s another way Housemarque will force your hand to use power attacks more often. When the eclipse hits, there will now be a different colour of bullet projectiles, corrupted yellow, which will drain your max health. The only way to clear it? Deal damage with power attacks. The push-and-pull of this bullet ballet gets even more amped up when the eclipse happens, and it’s the first test of how tough Saros can be, to prepare you for the even tougher boss fight waiting for you at the end.
That said, Saros hasn’t eliminated alt-fire on weapons. Housemarque is making use of the DualSense’s adaptive triggers for this as you hold halfway in the trigger to activate your chosen weapon’s alt-fire. And I have to say the alt-fire gimmicks here are more fun than it was in Returnal. These use regular bullets now, still refilled overtime and can be active reloaded for bigger damage on the next clip of bullets. And they can make the two weapons I got to try feel like at least four different ones. The starter handgun for instance can be charged, with a full charge unleashing multiple shots with heavy recoil. While the other variant I had shot regular bullets slowly but its alt-fire turns it into a Jakobs gun from Borderlands, fire as fast as you can fan that hammer. This is just one of many little tricks Housemarque has deployed to make full use of the DualSense’s capabilities.
Also, small note: mapping the dodge and melee button to the L1/R1 instead of circle/square respectively is a massive improvement. Now you’ll always have your thumb on the right stick at all times to control the camera and fine-tune your aim. Not that you need to perfectly aim at enemies, Saros has more noticable aim assist and bullet magnetism that makes shooting feel good (by compensating one’s inaccurate aiming).
Stairway Escalator To (Bullet) Heaven Hell
And there’s one other change Saros makes compared to Returnal is the level structure. Returnal’s opening level feels vast and labyrinthian with multiple branching paths that can have 10 different teleporters scattered about should you wish to backtrack.
In contrast, Saros, at least in the first biome, is more linear with no meandering optional paths and a specific escalation in difficulty. If you find Returnal’s roguelike-ness where you can start with only cursed items (parasites, items with a benefit and a debuff when picked up) annoying, Saros is a bit gentle in that regard. The first part of the level you only find artefacts that purely confers buffs and stat bonuses. But once you’re halfway there, you will trigger an eclipse which now replaces those pure buff items into something akin to Returnal’s parasites. Some stat increase but with a catch, a debuff or penalty like increased fall damage. These are only start to be available at the end of the run.
Also, Saros has anti-backtrack tech, which can feel nasty, but it also removes the item shop (or maybe those will appear later in the game?) and allows you to cut the runback to the boss by half if you’re not willing to risk going through the eclipse before facing the boss again. Once you attempted the boss fight, you can head straight to the boss once the world has eclipsed. I’m not sure if hardcore fans would appreciate this change, but it does make the flow of a run have a clear ramp up, an escalation if you will, in difficulty. It only gets tougher as you go further.
All this and I haven’t even mentioned how intriguing and more substantial the main storytelling is. Saros has a lot going for it, plot-wise. But I can’t believe I now have two nickels from every PlayStation Studios title released this year about a sci-fi colony gone wrong. And this one has some captivating performances by the star-studded cast.
Don’t think of Saros as Returnal 2, but more in the lines of the next new film from a Christopher Nolan or a Edgar Wright. Familiar trademark style, familiar cast, familiar feel, oozing that auteurship throughout, yet it’s a whole new standalone experience.
Closing Thoughts
While Saros hasn’t made itself any easier for me, it’s clear as day that Housemarque has pruned this roguelike-ish third-person shooter to be something of its own league. Only masters of their craft would dare to rejig their masterpiece of a gameplay loop because they firmly believe it can be even better.
While I initially thought it would be formed into a roguelite, which in some way it is, there is more care and thought being made here to make the already compelling loop somehow even more juicer and buttery than one possibly and reasonably expected out of an already exquisite steak and lobster dish that was Returnal.
All my failed attempts at defeating that boss in Returnal in the three-year span filled me with contempt, enough to rage quit after that good one-hour-ish run was not the run. I sometimes get the itch, but it didn’t hook me to keep trying over and over again within a session.
With just three hours into Saros, I walked out with goosebumps, adrenaline-pumped and the fortitude that victory is possible within each 30-minute-ish run. I have a fighting chance. I can come back, well, stronger. It had me going “one more run!”
If you are one of the 13% of players who had reached the second biome of Returnal, you will be missing out if you intend not to play Saros. The bullet ballet gameplay is immaculate as it is addicting.
For the rest of us who may or may not able to get past the filtering boss fight, Saros hasn’t been made any easier, you have been warned. But if suffering is your pleasure, by all means.
Played on base PS5 at a preview event organised by the publisher.