SAROS

Carcosa and Arjun Devraj

You are Arjun Devraj, a Soltari Enforcer deployed to the alien planet of Carcosa — a world where something has gone catastrophically wrong with every expedition before yours. Thousands of people sent to establish a mining colony for the rare mineral Lucenite. None have reported back. Arjun and his team are sent to find out why. They quickly discover why, the hard way: Carcosa is caught beneath a permanent eclipse, and the eclipse drives everything on the planet — including people — towards madness and mutation.

The game's narrative draws from Robert W. Chambers's 1895 weird-fiction anthology The King in Yellow — Carcosa, the Yellow Shore, the King himself. It's a rich literary foundation that Housemarque uses as scaffolding for something genuinely unsettling. Arjun dies. He comes back. He doesn't know why. He loses pieces of himself with every cycle and finds new ones. Rahul Kohli's performance is the single best in a PlayStation game this year — grounded, funny when it needs to be, and emotionally devastating in the late acts without ever overplaying a note.

The Combat: Bullet Ballet, Perfected

Saros's combat is Returnal's bullet-hell DNA taken to its logical conclusion. You run through biomes — procedurally arranged rooms filled with alien fauna and corrupted Soltari soldiers — dodging storms of projectiles while firing back with a rotating arsenal of human and Carcosan weapons. Every weapon has an alt-fire mode activated by a half-pull of L2, and a Power Weapon charged by absorbing enemy fire with the new Soltari Shield. Mastering when to absorb, when to shoot, and when to unleash a Power blast is where the game's extraordinary skill ceiling lives.

The active reload system — tap R2 at precisely the right moment to speed up reloads — adds a layer of rhythm to every weapon that makes sustained combat feel like music. The Parry system is new to this game: timing a block at the moment of a Carcosan projectile's impact staggers nearby enemies, opening windows for burst damage. Pulling off a Parry stagger on two enemies simultaneously is one of the most satisfying things you can do in a game this year.

Where Saros makes its biggest departure from Returnal is in its approach to permanent progression. The Passage — your safe hub between runs — houses the Armor Matrix, a branching upgrade tree where you permanently invest Halcyon (the game's inter-run currency) into passive bonuses: increased starting armor, faster ability cooldowns, wider shield absorption. Runs still end on death, but each one leaves Arjun measurably stronger. The terror of Returnal's zero-progress runs is gone. In its place is a steady curve of empowerment that, crucially, never removes the tension of individual encounters.

The Eclipse and Biome Systems

The game's defining environmental mechanic is the Eclipse. When the sun above Carcosa is eclipsed — which happens regularly, triggered by progression — the biomes mutate. New paths snake through terrain. Enemy projectile patterns shift, adding yellow corrupted bullets that chip away at your maximum armor rather than just your current health. Doors that were open close; paths that didn't exist open. The Eclipse forces you to treat each run as a genuinely new experience even when you know every enemy type by heart.

There are 7 main biomes across three acts, each ending with an Overlord boss fight. Nightmare Gates — seven hidden extra-hard challenge rooms — add an extra layer of content for players who want to test their absolute limits. And the Banyan Tree, a secret endgame dungeon, contains the most demanding encounters in the entire game, rewarding players who have truly mastered all of Saros's systems.

Progression, Carcosan Modifiers and Accessibility

Housemarque has built the most accessible version of their formula yet, without compromising the experience for veterans. Carcosan Modifiers let you add Protection effects (reduced incoming damage, faster reloads, longer Second Chance windows) or Trial effects (more aggressive enemies, removed safety nets) to calibrate the challenge level per run. These modifiers don't disable trophies — they simply make the game more or less difficult as you see fit. For the platinum grind, the Carcosan Cartographer trophy requires using Carcosan Modifiers on 33 successful runs, so you'll be engaging with this system extensively regardless.

A Few Caverns in Carcosa

The story trades clarity for intrigue — don't expect clean answers. Some players will find the narrative's deliberately cryptic structure satisfying. Others will reach the credits feeling like they played 30 hours for a half-formed resolution. The lack of deeper built-for-purpose accessibility settings for players with visual impairment or hearing disabilities is a genuine gap for a first-party PlayStation title in 2026. And the game's similarity to Returnal means anyone who bounced off that game hard is unlikely to find a different experience here — the improvements are evolution, not revolution.

These are minor complaints against an overwhelming package. Saros is Housemarque at their creative peak, fully resourced by PlayStation, delivering one of the year's essential experiences.

Difficulty: 7/10 — Estimated Time: 20–25+ hours — Missable Trophies: None — Online Required: No — Minimum Playthroughs: 1 (continuous runs)

Saros's Platinum is one of the most well-designed trophy lists in recent memory for a roguelite. Nothing is missable, nothing is locked behind difficulty or randomness, and the list rewards genuine mastery of the game rather than busywork. The most demanding trophy — Untouchable — requires completing a full biome without taking direct damage. The biggest grind — Carcosan Cartographer — needs 33 successful Modifier runs. Everything else accumulates naturally over around 20–25 hours of play.