In pursuit of the ideal roguelike, Saros runs are shorter than Returnal's as Housemarque wanted to "keep the feeling of danger" and "reduce the feeling of helplessness"

Five years on from Returnal, developer Housemarque is about to return with Saros, another sci-fi roguelike shooter. This one's quite different, though, favoring shorter runs and offering specific mechanics for them, like the ability to teleport between areas. Getting these aspects right is more of an art than a science, but the devs are proud of the balance they've struck.

"We were asking ourselves, what aspects of the roguelike do we like, and what do we want to augment?" Abebe Tinari, lead game designer, tells GamesRadar+. "One thing for us was to keep the feeling of danger when you're on a long run, where you don't want to lose your progress, but also reduce the feeling of helplessness when you know there's a potential three hours to get back to where I was."

Returnal was built on this, as it's split into two halves, each made up of three biomes. Getting to the end can be a slog, where you're sweaty, stressed, and pushing forward because going back seems like more or a chore. In Saros, after the second biome, you unlock teleporters to skip ahead of well-worn places you've already blasted through.

Saros - Gameplay Reveal Trailer | PS5 Games - YouTube

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But the problem is, you're skipping more potential rewards in those areas if you choose to hop over them, since Saros lets you keep your loot from each run. "There's no objectively right answer, but we tried to strike this balance," Tinari says. "Do I want to do the whole run from the first biome into the second to reach the second boss, and have all the artifacts and weapons that I've gained along the way, which will give me a head start against the boss? Or do I want to save time?"

A conundrum one can only ever answer themselves based on their current abilities, really, but then, jumping to a specific biome lets you practice it specifically, even if you're definitely going to get mashed. "Maybe I want to practice the fight, learn the enemies, learn the boss's patterns, and go right to that biome to begin," Tinari muses.

I frequently do this anyway, and since I can be easily intimidated by scale, I often do a bunch of dry runs just to get rid of that initial anxiety around a heavyweight enemy. I suspect I'll be making heavy use of the teleporter just to lessen the absolute terror some of the bosses in Saros will no doubt give me. Saros arrives April 30.

Returnal is a roguelike, Saros is a roguelite: "Permanent resources and progression" make "every death valuable" in Housemarque's new shooter