Saros (Sony Interactive Entertainment and Housemarque reviewed on PlayStation 5, $69.99) immerses a single player in a bullet-hell third-person shooter built for fans of Doom and Dark Souls, blending relentless combat with a dense, twisting sci-fi mystery.
The game follows Arjun, a member of Echelon IV, an emergency response team sent to investigate the planet Carcosa and prepare it for colonization.
Arjun awakens shaken and as an amnesiac, with no memory of recent events.
A player is quickly thrown into a tutorial that introduces the game’s Doom-like mechanics, emphasizing fast-paced shooting, constant movement and resource collection.
Soon after, Arjun encounters The Consort, who easily defeats him and triggers the game’s opening sequence, a stunning but disorienting montage of surreal sci-fi imagery.
After being resurrected from a pool of viscous liquid, Arjun is confronted by another member of the team and learns that a crewmate sabotaged the ship, leaving only a skeleton crew behind.
The intentionally complex plot often confuses players, making it unclear how much Arjun truly knows about his team, the mission or the planet itself.
Arjun’s main objective requires locating a Soltari signal and finding the missing colony, fighting through hostile environments and waves of enemies along the way.
Saros fully embraces bullet-hell combat, often trapping the player in confined arenas against large enemies and swarms of minions.
Between these intense encounters, a player can explore alien landscapes to discover upgraded weapons, artifacts, and audio logs that slowly reveal the mysteries of Carcosa and the people attempting to colonize it.
The game structures its levels around “cycles,” which reset whenever Arjun dies or completes a major objective.
During each cycle, Arjun collects Halcyon, a resource that upgrades his shield, health and Power Weapons. Rather than throwing grenades, he carries a Soltari shield that absorbs enemy projectiles and channels their energy into his Power Weapon, enabling him to inflict massive damage.
His weapons also feature two firing modes: an automatic setting for rapid bursts and a manual option for more precise shooting.
Like Dark Souls, Saros pits players against major bosses with multiple phases and devastating attack patterns. When Arjun dies during a boss fight, the game sends him back to the beginning of the level and strips away his temporary weapon upgrades, along with half the power-up resources dropped by enemies.
Unlike Dark Souls, however, Saros provides no shortcuts or campfires throughout its levels, making every death feel like a complete reset.
Whenever enemy fire does not overwhelm the screen, Saros reveals imaginative and visually striking alien environments, ranging from moss-covered marble ruins to steampunk-inspired metal islands threaded with lasers. Its enemies combine eldritch creatures with robotic horrors that swarm around Arjun or materialize from thin air.
Saros will not appeal to everyone, but for the player who craves punishing, heart-pounding action within a strange, futuristic alien world should find plenty to enjoy.
• Noelle Henein contributed to this report.
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