Saros PS5/Pro Review: Stunning Visuals, Polished & Approachable
▼ Summary
– Saros is a more polished successor to Returnal, featuring permanent progression systems, fluid movement, and refined gunplay, while using Unreal Engine 5 with a unique visual style.
– The game uses a bespoke particle system for colorful VFX during combat, with enemy projectiles to dodge and defeated foes dissolving into 3D voxel-like dust.
– Environments are rendered in muted hues to highlight gameplay-critical particles, and the game avoids overwhelming the player by carefully managing particle volume.
– On PS5 Pro, Saros runs at a single 60fps mode targeting 4K with PSSR upscaling, maintaining stable frame-rates and sharp image quality, while base PS5 uses FSR upscaling at ~1224p with softer visuals.
– The game features more open and fixed gameplay spaces than Returnal, with near-instant load times, and maintains randomized elements common to the roguelite genre.
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Back in 2021, Housemarque captivated players with Returnal, a visually stunning sci-fi shooter that blended roguelite mechanics with a gripping narrative. Now, the studio returns with Saros, a more refined and accessible successor that strips away some of its predecessor’s harshest elements in favor of permanent progression, fluid movement, and tighter gunplay. What truly sets Saros apart, however, is its status as a rare Unreal Engine 5 title that defies the typical visual mold of its peers, offering a distinct aesthetic that stands out in today’s crowded release calendar. How does it perform across the PS5 and PS5 Pro, and what technical leaps has Housemarque made?
The first thing you’ll notice is the game’s bespoke particle system, which unleashes massive, colorful VFX bursts during combat. Enemy projectiles demand precise dodging, while defeated foes dissolve into striking, three-dimensional voxel-like clouds of fiery dust. Player weapons also leave their mark, with the shotgun generating physical sparks and an upgraded assault rifle firing homing projectiles that carve through the environment.
Crucially, the sheer volume of particles is carefully controlled, ensuring players aren’t overwhelmed. Environments and enemies adopt muted color palettes, making critical, color-coded projectiles easy to track. For added accessibility, these hues can even be shifted in the settings menu. There are also impressive fluid simulations, such as the teleportation media in the hub area, where particles swirl in 3D space based on your movement, a thoughtful detail that enhances immersion.
These complex systems are rooted in Housemarque’s long history of crafting proprietary particle technology. This expertise survived the shift from in-house engines to industry-standard tools like UE4 for Matterfall, and now serves as the studio’s visual signature for the current console generation. It’s not something easily replicated with standard Unreal features, especially at the scale used here.
Are you going to play Saros? (488 votes) Yes, I played Returnal and I’m going to play Saros 73% – Yes, I didn’t play Returnal but I’m going to play this 9% – Maybe, I’m still waiting to decide 12% – No, I’m not too interested 6%
The game’s desolate biomes offer a compelling visual contrast, blending futuristic machine civilizations with the ruins of ancient stone structures. The starting biome, for example, features imposing stone buildings overgrown with reddish foliage and moss, while later areas shift to dense underground networks filled with cables and platforms.
Shadow quality doesn’t rely on VSM, resulting in noticeable low-resolution artifacts. Distant environmental shadows are precalculated and blend awkwardly with active shadow maps. The global illumination and geometry also diverge from typical high-budget UE5 standards. Yet, for a game focused on a stable 60fps target, skipping Lumen RT and Nanite geometry seems a worthwhile compromise, unless you’re particularly sensitive to pop-in.
Saros retains the genre’s random elements but moves away from Returnal’s pre-fabricated rooms separated by view-blocking doorways. Instead, gameplay areas are more open, with layouts that appear largely fixed, suggesting either a more restrained take on the original system or a fully traditional approach. Load times are nearly instant, replaced by a brief white flash, making transitions between zones seamless.
On PS5 Pro, Saros truly shines, offering a single 60fps mode targeting a 4K output with PSSR upscaling. This solution handles the demanding particle effects exceptionally well, keeping them stable and sharp, a feat many temporal upscalers struggle with. The internal resolution of 1440p delivers pristine image quality, and frame rates remain consistent, with only minor dips during some sequences. Real-time cutscenes, however, can drop to 30fps, while pre-rendered videos are encoded at 24fps, creating a slight mismatch.
The base PS5 version is perfectly acceptable but takes a noticeable hit to image quality with an internal resolution around 1224p. Without PSSR, the game relies on AMD’s FSR 2 or FSR 3 for upscaling, resulting in a softer image that can flicker and break up during motion. More critically, FSR handles the particle effects poorly, undermining the game’s core visual identity and making complex combat scenes look muddier than they should. Performance is solid but not as tight as the PS5 Pro, with occasional dips below 60fps during intense fights.
Ultimately, Housemarque and Sony have delivered another high-quality single-player experience with Saros. It retains the essential charm of Returnal while removing some of its most punishing aspects, improving combat speed and fluidity. The technical execution is standout, balancing image quality, visual features, and performance in a single mode, while showcasing some of the most impressive particle effects in gaming. It looks best on PlayStation 5 Pro, but even on the slightly compromised PS5 version, it’s still well worth experiencing.
(Source: Digitalfoundry.net)
