If Returnal’s whirlwind of bullets and punishing checkpoints were too grueling for you, then you might still want to check out developer Housemarque’s next game Saros, which is shedding the former’s roguelike skin in favor of a maybe-more-forgiving rougelite structure.
Housemarque revealed another dark and twisted bullet hell shooter yesterday at PlayStation’s State of Play show, confirming that Saros is building off of Returnal’s fast-paced action and die-die-learn-die-succeed cycle. But this time the developer was quick to point out that Saros will also let you carry resources and upgrades between runs, unlike Returnal.
In Returnal, every time you died (which was probably often), the main thing you retained was more knowledge. Saros is a little more generous, though. “A key gameplay distinction between Saros and Returnal is permanent resources and progression making every death valuable,” a new blog post explains. “After every death you will face a changed world, but in Saros you will be able to choose and permanently upgrade your loadout from an evolving set of weapons and suit upgrades to ‘come back stronger’ to overcome the challenges you face on Carcosa.”
The difference between roguelikes and roguelites and roguealikelikes gets debated often. Is a roguelike really a roguelike if it doesn’t have procgen grid-based maps? Do we need to call Spelunky a roguelike-like because it’s a platformer? And do we need to call every game with meta-progression a roguelite even if it has all the other things that make it like Rogue? Eh, my brain hurts.
Some people don’t really care about the difference – they’re both genres about dying and returning with more knowledge – so don’t side-eye some of the headlines you see over here on GamesRadar+, please. But just this once, I’ll put on my nerd hat to declare Returnal a roguelike and Saros a roguelite because it seems like a pretty big distinction between the two. Or, at least, it sounds like it will be. We’ll see how different Saros really is when it comes out in 2026.
For now, see what else is coming down the pipeline with our new games of 2025 and beyond release calendar.