Saros (PS5) - HouseMarque Studios

I am a lover of Housemarque games. I've either completed or sank more than 80 hours into all of their releases save one. In addition to playing them all I have loved them all. There's something about this team that has us locked in on what makes a fun and engaging game. They scratch that perfect itch in my brain.

I was turned off from playing this game, despite the really alluring trailer, by price. I am not a gamer who buys games full price these days. Too many times have our highly recognizable studios output AAA titles that charge $80 for the same game they've made again and again. They're a true letdown. The plethora of options at any one time, including games I've downloaded in the past but didn't play, remind my hedonistic mind that "we've got games to play at home".

Enter the crack cocaine of Playstation Plus: timed game trials.

Saros is the second game that I fell into the 2 hour trial trap leading directly into me buying the game with the other being Stellar Blade (I have a ton to say about that game in a future review).

As a player of Returnal, hopping into the trial felt really comfy with the exception of two things: the remapping of the buttons for some new features and the pivot to running into damage bullets with your shield. The latter bit I'll talk about more later.

The remapping is what you'd expect. A slight shift here and tweak there. One thing to note here is the addition of pressure based shooting so when you half hold one of the triggers you can fire with its twin on the other side of the controller.

The new shield mechanic is insane and really fun. It makes the gameplay extremely dynamic and you're never really kicking back on auto-pilot. You can choose to play either the avoidant route basically taking the hard way or to lean in and figure out how to suck the most you can out of the shield behavior.

Where I feel this is lacking is in the story. I can tell you generally what this game is about but it's clear through the lack of exposition for what felt like the majority of the first 10 hours of play the focus is definitely the circular nature of the combat and slowly evolving your character into one that could beat the next level.

Verdict: Must Play

dope

fun gameplay

easy to pickup, especially for Returnal players

gorgeous colorful bullet hell lights and graphics

sucks

story is thinnnnnnn

possibly repetitive with the lack of connective story

price

Fans of previous Housemarque games, shooter lovers, roguelike fans, will all want to buy this game immediately. You won't regret it from the gorgeous visuals to the captivating gameplay. Just give it a little leeway when it comes to story and we're all good here.