SAROS is set to release on April 30, 2026 for the PS5. MeinMMO author Johanna was able to check out the game before its release and was almost too captivated to write this report.
Admittedly, the first thing that got me excited about SAROS was the actor Rahul Kohli. He lends his body and voice to the protagonist Arjun Devraj, allowing us to zip around the alien planet with him. I found the British actor fantastic in the Netflix series Midnight Mass, which is why I was even more thrilled to see him in the sci-fi video game and, most importantly, to be able to play as him.
What kind of game is this? In SAROS, we play as the enforcer Arjun Devraj, who has been sent to the planet Carcosa with his team from the company Soltari. Previous missions have failed, so we now need to investigate what happened to our predecessors. Arjun also has a personal mission: His wife Nitya was part of the first mission, and the enforcer hopes to find her or at least learn what has happened to her.
However, the planet holds a great secret that undoubtedly has to do with the sun. The environment seems to have caused other team members to lose their minds, and both Arjun and his fellow enforcer Jerome seem to be seeing stranger and stranger things.
SAROS transports you to a planet where nothing stays the same as it initially was. In short: It’s a roguelike, and every death is a new chance to return with new opportunities. The actual playtime I had planned for this first impression was quickly thrown out by myself, as I just couldn’t detach from the game.
The biggest lie ever: Just one more round
Who hasn’t experienced this: a multiplayer game you’re playing with your friends, you actually want to go to bed now, and your buddy says: Oh come on, just one more round.
And then you play another round because just one more round
.
I had that with SAROS too, but since it’s a single-player game, the game itself was more or less the one whispering Just one more round
in my ear. Well, maybe that was also just me alone in front of my PS5 whispering it. We’ll never know.
The biggest factor for my constant replaying is clearly the story, which is built up with a gripping atmosphere. I really want to know what happens next, but then I die again at a mini-boss. But no matter, straight into the next round!
At the beginning of each run – or cycle
, as it’s called in the game – we receive a summary of how we performed. Among other things, time, collected Lucenite, and our upgrade attributes are shown to us. This immediately gives me the urge to try again, because I think: No wonder I died, I didn’t have enough XY!
Most of the time, however, it’s actually my fault, since SAROS demands a lot from you at once: dodging, shooting, melee, shielding, and very importantly – never stand still! That can sometimes be quite a bit to handle at once, but it also provides a high replay value, as I get better with each cycle.
Another reason I was glued to my PS5 is actually the controller. The vibration functions are so well adapted to the game that I don’t want to put it down. I get haptic feedback for everything, even when I pause the game. This draws me even further into SAROS and makes me participate more actively in the game.
Additionally, it’s just great to zip around Carcosa, as the planet looks fantastic and I feel tiny among the giant structures.
Big recommendation here: Play the game with headphones if you can! I rarely use headphones, but to fully absorb the impact and atmosphere of SAROS, you should dive acoustically completely into the game.
SAROS doesn’t make it easy for me on Carcosa
Let’s talk about things I really had to get used to. The L2 button is essentially double-assigned: We can normally aim with our primary weapon if we only press it lightly. If we press it all the way, we can shoot energy from our arm.
Since I’m used to having only one function for the L2 button, namely aiming, it really took a while for me to get somewhat used to this double assignment. Countless times I died simply because I got confused by half or full pressing.
Moreover, the map is quite small; in general, the HUD is kept small. This bothered me massively at first – after all, my TV is placed at a considerable distance from the sofa – but the map is more for rough orientation and not to meticulously map out the landscape.
SAROS is quite challenging for me, as it is ruthless even in the early areas. For example, the second biome is directly one where you lose a non-recoverable part of your total health if you are hit by enemy attacks.
After some time, however, you can unlock modifications at the terminal that can make the alien planet a bit easier for you. I actually had to use that; otherwise, I probably wouldn’t have been able to defeat the first boss.
Conclusion: You’ll find me on Carcosa for the next few days
SAROS offers the perfect mix of roguelike with an interesting story and breathtaking atmosphere. It takes time to get into the gameplay or perfect it, but that fits perfectly with the overall presentation.
I wouldn’t want it any other way than for Carcosa to kick my ass, because it makes the feeling of success all the more rewarding. A mild gameplay would also not fit the serious story. After all, something is at stake here.
If you would excuse me now, I really have to go to my PS5. After all, I still haven’t figured out what happened to Arjun’s wife, and really (!), just one more round.
Will you also check out SAROS? Let us know in the comments!
About the release of SAROS, I’m not the only one who is looking forward to it; the actor of the main character is probably just as excited: “Look, Mom, that’s me” – Actor proudly shows on TikTok that he is now an action hero in a PS5 game
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