Housemarque has incorporated player feedback from Returnal into its upcoming sci-fi roguelike shooter Saros, adding auto-saves and multiple save slots from launch. Creative director Gregory Louden emphasized that the game remains challenging while offering more accessibility. Saros runs are designed to last about 30 minutes each.
Housemarque's Saros, a sci-fi roguelike shooter exclusive to PS5, includes features from day one that address complaints about the studio's previous title, Returnal. In Returnal's initial release, players could not pause or leave a run mid-session, requiring completion in one sitting. A later 2.0 update added this functionality, and Saros builds on that by starting with auto-saves and multiple save slots immediately upon release. The game was delayed from March to April last year. Gregory Louden, creative director, told IGN the changes stem from Returnal feedback: “I think the lesson we learned from Returnal was that people really loved what we created, and we were going on the right track [...] But I think the feedback we did get is that more players wanted to love Returnal; they wanted to get further. So for us, it was about providing that ability. So it means we don't dilute the challenge; there's still a very challenging game there, but there is also the ability to kind of modify the challenge.” Saros offers permanent upgrades, second-chance revival mechanics, and Carcosan modifiers to adjust gameplay during runs. Associate design director Mitja Roskaric explained to IGN that runs average 30 minutes, shorter than Returnal's: “It's a challenging experience, but every time someone dies, we want them to bring something out of it, right? Even if it's not the resource that they will use to level up, maybe it is a lesson from that run. And if it's a short run, I think it's easier to get more and more lessons in a frequent cadence, right? So I think the 30-minute session lengths that we have are kind of the sweet spot for this kind of experience.”
