Saros, the successor to the roguelike game Returnal, is shaping up to be one of the best games of the year.

Finnish developer Housemarque has refined a great deal, added new elements and pushed the game close to a fully fledged third-person shooter, while remaining true to its roots and delivering a wild, challenging experience.

The game, a PlayStation 5 exclusive, opens with a striking introductory sequence: a telescopic survey has discovered a previously unknown, seemingly inexhaustible deposit of the mysterious element Lucenit on the planet Carcosa.

Three interstellar missions – Echelon I, II and III – are dispatched to explore and take possession of the distant land so that the raw material can be extracted. Then, communication with the missions goes dark.

Players step into the role of Arjun Devraj, a member of the Soltari civilisation. As a so-called Enforcer and a part of the crew on Echelon IV, he is tasked with tracking down the previous missions. His true intention, however, is to find his partner Nitya, who travelled to Carcosa with Echelon III.