Sony’s latest State of Play is currently in a state of…eh, play. It kicked off with an extended look at Housemarque’s Saros[1], the follow-up to Returnal[2]. Lots of fun gameplay details were shown off, but the big news is that we have a release date: March 20, 2026.
It seems Saros isn’t quite as focused on dodging heaps of incoming projectiles, as a new shield lets you soak up some of the damage.
“Let’s talk about Arjun’s unique abilities. Firstly, we have the Soltari Shield, activated by holding R1. In SAROS, you can run into the hostile projectiles, absorbing their energy to defend yourself,” says the official blog post.[3] “Once absorbed you can hit back hard with your Carcosan Power Weapon. This second unique ability allows you to charge up the weapon with energy harvested from hostile projectiles (by pulling the L2 adaptive trigger fully), then discharging this explosive energy at enemies with R2.”
Like Returnal, the core gameplay loop is built around dying and coming back slightly better than before.
“The final element we highlight is the “Second Chance” ability. On death, Arjun has the ability – once discovered – to use eclipse corruption energy to rise back up on first death. This is one small part of the permanent-progression systems we have added in Saros, which will allow you to always come back stronger after each death. These systems include the ability to upgrade your Soltari advanced combat suit & abilities if you choose to do so.”