Saros' world-altering eclipse "has both a gameplay and narrative purpose" its game designer tells me, and it's already pulling me back into this roguelike

Saros sees Soltari Enforcer, Arjun Devraj, fighting through alien planet Carcosa to find out what happened to a lost colony, but its deadly wildlife isn't the only thing that puts him through his paces. The world itself is dangerous. Arjun's expeditions put him out of sync with how time flows for his crewmates at operating base, The Passage. Each roguelike-style run also sees the planet's environments twist into new layouts. The planet's frequent, strange Eclipses, too, increase Arjun's ability to power-up, all while also adding greater risk to each expedition.

The result is that Carcosa as a planet feels not only dangerous, but that it's tempting Arjun with the power to rise up to meet it. Compared to Returnal, which was equally challenging, during my hands-on with Saros I find myself encouraged to play riskier, to get more aggressive, to be less cautious (recovery is less punishing as well, thanks to some permanent progression options, and the ability to teleport directly to each new level). For instance, Arjun's shield can absorb enemy bullets to shoot the overcharge back as a power shot. During an Eclipse, these shots can be corrupted, still giving him that power at the cost temporarily depleting his max armor.

Forever's gonna start tonight

Encouraging an aggressive playstyle comes through in the storytelling as well. "I think Arjun as a character has a sense of more aggression, being a Soltari Enforcer," says Khalil Osaimi, senior narrative designer, cinematics. "He's no nonsense. Run at the bullets. It enforces the use of the shield and absorbing this power, and what that does to him coming back stronger after every run as well. We try to complement narrative and gameplay as much as possible."

Housemarque describes Saros, and all of its portfolio, as "gameplay first", but that doesn't mean a well-told story isn't there – just that it's up to you how much you want to explore it. The mysteries of Carcosa go beyond what you're told in cutscenes, woven into environment design whether that's ancient murals you can look over, or simply the construction of a space.

Across the two levels of Saros I play, there always comes a different point at which Arjun has no choice but to activate the Eclipse to progress. It reminds me of how in Returnal some of the environments felt paired with one another – such as a desert that becomes frozen over. Here, these flip sides are within one single run, the Eclipse transforming an area as you're becoming used to it. The Ancient Depths, for instance, is an abandoned factory that becomes reactivated with the Eclipse's energy, the mechanical enemies whirring to life; cutting lasers and spinning gears becoming new hazards for Arjun to navigate.

"From a narrative perspective, I consider the Eclipse one of the most interesting characters of the game, because no matter if you're on the surface or if you're underground, that haunting presence is always looming," says Osaimi. "It's not just to open up paths. It's not just to change the visual direction. It's the gameplay aspect of the corruption bullets [as well]. But, what is that corruption also doing to our character and the characters in the game?"

"With this kind of stuff, we try and make sure it has both a gameplay purpose and a narrative purpose," says lead game designer Abebe Tinari when I ask how the Eclipse mechanic came to be. "Our challenge as the enemy designers was, OK, it's the Eclipse now, how do enemies change? For a long time, we were prototyping various ways of making enemies more difficult. You know, [increasing] health, more damage. But, it didn't really feel immediately like an escalation, which is what it had to be. The answer that we came to was the corrupted bullets. When you start the Eclipse, they're shooting different bullets – that was the most immediately recognizable change we came to."

In fact, the ability to absorb corrupted enemy bullets is actually an upgrade you buy back at homebase, The Passage, part of Saros' new permanent progression system. Unlocked via the Armor Matrix powered by sassy, hyper-corporate machine Primary, who posits itself as a manifestation of the Soltari company's will, this is more than a simple skilltree but a part of Saros' worldbuilding just like Carcosa's Eclipses.

It's all in aid of "crafting a haunting narrative", Osaimi tells me. "Take Returnal, for example. You're Selene, and you're in isolation. Here, Arjun, how he reacts to the things that are happening with him – whether it's through the world of Carcosa, the enemies, the Eclipse itself – how does that affect him as a character? What is the perspective of the rest of the characters that he's around as well? [...] The concept of corruption definitely affects the character."

After all, it might be a neat upgrade that Arjun can use the power of corruption for himself, but then also, erm, is it really OK to constantly be steering him into the path of this deadly power? Aesthetic changes, like a gradually growing goopy appendage help to highlight how full of corruption Arjun is at any one time before he blasts it back out with a power shot.

"There's a lot of subtle things in there too. I'm not sure if you noticed when you get artifacts, you get [more] Resilience, Command, [or Drive], right?" says Tinari. "We call them growth attributes that tie into your weapon stats. It's, of course, a gameplay rich system, but the names of those attributes are not arbitrary. We tried to kind of tie that into Arjun's character, how he develops."

Saros might be aiming to be gameplay first, but that doesn't mean that the story or worldbuilding aren't there, or even that they're sidelined. It's there all the time, through how you play as Arjun, or even the way his stats are expressed. The real question is really: how much will you notice? In a way, that's a storytelling mechanic in and of itself.

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