Just like Sony promised, Saros received a big overview during its State of Play presentation today. Developer Housemarque first announced its latest roguelike experience back in February, and already, extended gameplay and a rather close release date have already landed. Catch the five minutes of action featuring the protagonist Arjun Devraj above.
Players take the role of this very human-like Soltari enforcer for this roguelike experience, where he will be fighting to survive and uncover the secrets behind the lost colony of Carcosa under an ominous eclipse. The biomes on this shape-shifting alien planet can change from every death that players experience, making each run different from the last.
Equipped with an advanced combat suit, Arjun is able to dash, melee, and jump through the various sci-fi environments while battling the enemies that the planet throws at him. Weapons can be formed from both his own civilization"s tech and from the alien civilizations he discovers on the planet. Various unique abilities and power weapons are involved in the gameplay too.
"Let’s talk about Arjun’s unique abilities," begins Gregory Louden, creative director at Housemarque, explaining some trailer footage. "Firstly, we have the Soltari Shield, activated by holding R1. In SAROS, you can run into the hostile projectiles, absorbing their energy to defend yourself. Once absorbed you can hit back hard with your Carcosan Power Weapon. This second unique ability allows you to charge up the weapon with energy harvested from hostile projectiles (by pulling the L2 adaptive trigger fully), then discharging this explosive energy at enemies with R2."
As seen in the trailer, there is a Second Chance ability that Arjun can find that lets him return to life once during a run. We still haven"t seen how exactly the title deals with death and revival completely though. "This is one small part of the permanent-progression systems we have added in Saros, which will allow you to always come back stronger after each death," adds the developer.
Saros is launching March 20, 2026, on PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 5 Pro.