Topic: Saros Thread

@render having just met and died to the second phase of biome 2s boss. The tension is definitely there but.. The bullets are so beautiful

@render Your statement here " I also beat the first boss last night and have to say that was intense. There's so much going on in that fight it's hard to juggle the dash cooldown and shield etc and certainly for me a good weapon came in clutch"

Very good points. Ive been thinking this to myself the whole time I've been playing, but figured it was just me. But yes it seems hard to juggle the shield and other mechanics at the same time. And you comment about the weapon. I finally beat the first boss after a great run that had me powered up and I landed the proper weapon for that boss. In returnal since you can pretty much melee all small enemies and every single turret, to the point of spamming it, its much easier to get through any biome w.o. much powering up.

It seems like in Saros, there's more tools at your disposal, but its way more key to be prepared after running a biome leading up to the boss. If you have a crap gun, or missing a bit too much health, or even had one of those infamous runs where they are dropping you crap artifacts and weapons at the same time, you are toast vs. the boss.

@cainhurst94 Good to know it looked amazing as you met your demise 😂. I'll have to pick my run up again later but I'm looking forward to what awaits me.

[Just edited as I saw your reply]

@StitchJones Melee was the same in Returnal being very strong, and essential against shielded hostiles. I've found myself a few times trying to quite literally punch above my weight though and realising that the thing that I'm meleeing has way more health than just a standard grunt and then having to get the hell out of there.

I'm still trying to workout what the best traits are on a weapon and what's interesting is that what was alt-fire in Returnal is now the power weapon, that kind of fire and forget thing, whereas alt-fire is more like just an additional trait of a weapon e.g. rising pitch rather than being passive is now a thing you have to activate. Some of those alt-fire modes are definitely more useful than others.

@render @cainhurst94 This isn't a spoiler, because it was shown in numerous trailers. But what do you guys think about the whole Eclipse mechanic and how they present it? The presentation is amazing. How when you start walking up, that metal kind of guitar is building the tension, then when you enter, it plays that glorious cutscene with all the crazy art and visuals. This game is something else in the Art style and sound dept. All the cinematics in the game are really blowing me away. I didn't expect that with this game. The presentation is on par with a naughty dog game.

@StitchJones So far I've not really had chance to appreciate the eclipse mechanic that much but it's a really great aesthetic thing. Like you say it really adds to the tension with all the cutscenes etc and you feel that step up in aggression from hostiles. I'm looking forward to seeing how that adds to it in the later parts of the game.

The story is slowly bubbling away as well. While it doesn't seem to have revealed too much in these early stages I kind of like that and hope that we will still be scratching our heads for a long while trying to work out what's going on.

I have a physical pre-order but life happened this week and I won’t be able to pick it up until late next week, which for most games wouldn’t be an issue but for Saros, it totally is. One or two days would be one thing but I’m too impatient to wait over a week for this one. So I bought it digitally. And I forked over the extra cash to play now 😆

It is glorious. In the eclipse phase of Ancient Depths now. I’m finding it way more approachable than Returnal. Dying is still part of the core loop of course but the fact that Lucenite carries over to a permanent upgrade tree means you really do “come back stronger.” You can even permanently upgrade proficiency to ensure better weapon drops.

It really does facilitate the player’s choice of whether to run a previous biome or not. I was worried you’d be forced to anyway due to difficulty but that’s really not the case. And the metroidvania aspects (which I wasn’t expecting at all) are a brilliant way of keeping re-runs more fresh.

I haven’t even touched on the many other things I’m loving about this yet. I’m hardcore buzzing on this game right now.

@StitchJones @render

The eclipse mechanic is great. Even outside of the brilliant presentation, I love it mechanically. Allowing the player to collect uncorrupted artifacts for the first part of a run is a really nice way of easing into it.

@Metonymy Welcome to the early access party bro!!!! I'm glad you are digging it. I'm gonna be called old on here for using this word by all of you, which I am, I won't deny haha. But I really can't find any other word to properly describe everything I'm seeing so far in Saros, except "Gnarly!" The game and everything in it is just so freakin' Gnarly!

Do you have a pro, you playing on that, or base?

@Metonymy I don't normally pre-order games and especially don't order the deluxe version but I was the same and didn't want to wait.

I'm also old enough to remember the word gnarly, although I must admit that I didn't really max it out like I perhaps should have done

What I always like about a metroidvania is looking at the areas that you can't yet get to and wondering what could have been if we could have got the gear there, as well as wondering what device it will be that will allow access to those places. There's so many things I've just had to run by already, and a few times when access to the odd out of reach aether might have made a difference.

@StitchJones Aesthetically the entire game has me going insane. The sense of scale is something I'd expect from Santa Monica or FromSoft. Also those transition flashes and the guitar strumming when you reach the Eclipse room is so good!

For me it's far more interesting seeing how it plays out Mechanically. More aggressive enemies, tougher enemy set ups too I think. The corrupted bullets change how you react to them. Do you risk corruption with the shield or do you dodge and retain health but sacrifice the ability to do super damage?

incredible game mechanically and artistically which makes it all the more disappointing that NPC faces in the Passage look awful lol.

This is really unfair, reading y'all having so much fun

@Oram77 Not long now for you man. Just about 11 more hours and you can jump in. You got this.

@cainhurst94 yes, it truly is a sight to behold. I understand they are using UE5 but its a Housemarque bespoke version of it. They modified it heavily with their own systems to taylor it to what they want for visuals, style and performance. This is genius, because when so many games use the same engine, things can look too samey. So even though its UE5, they have so much of their own flavor in there, it doesn't look like other UE games. While at the same time, they didn't kill years building a bespoke engine from ground up.

I love how in the 1st biome, the graphics are so crisp and things look so smooth, that when you see those big structures, or slabs that look like they are made of marble, or granite (whatever) the textures look so sharp but also smooth at the same time, like that material actually is....that when you look at a slab like that, you can really almost feel how heavy it looks. As you said "the sense of scale", I think plays a part and also how they use depth of field properly. Some games when they have giant things in them, they just don't seem big. Here you actually feel like a little fish in a big pond.

Housemarque has really turned into magicians with Returnal and now Saros. A long way from Resogun and Nex Machina. They are up there now with Guerilla/Kojima using Decima and Capcom with RE engine. Can you imagine what their next game will look like on ps6???? And I won't even get started on how Horizon 3 is gonna look next gen.

@StitchJones Gnarly works! Yeah, playing on a pro. The game is stunning. It’s an audio/visual treat that begs to be turned up to 11!

@render It’s such a smart and simple way of keeping re-runs interesting. The game is brilliantly designed; like a big clock, with all of the different cogs spinning different speeds but working together to drive the larger picture.

@cainhurst94 The shield is a legitimate game changer. There’s real strategy to how you approach fights and a deliberate rhythm to execute the plan, especially with the slight delay in activating the shield. I find the time to hit the shield is when you see the blue ‘tell’ the enemy gives off before they shoot their projectiles. This was especially clear in the first big boss fight. Once you find that rhythm, it’s game on!

@Oram77 You’re in for a treat, man!

@Metonymy I just got a new headset a few weeks ago for this latest slew of games. The steel series nova 7's. RezEvil, Pragmata and Saros sound abso bonkers on those. Best gaming headset I've ever had. The EQ adjustments you can make with the app are a game changer. That scene when you activate the Eclipse on the headset, with the visuals is just F'in nuts. Not to change the subject, but did you beat Pragmata? I don't think you left too many impressions on that thread. Just curious how much you liked it, cause I kind of sold it hard to you while you were blizzard in hahaha. I'm hoping you really liked it.

This game rules so far. I’m finding it harder than Returnal to be honest, but it is so fun. The progression system helps tremendously, and I like the emphasis on the story. I’m still in the first biome, unfortunately.

I’ve just reached the second biome and it’s very different compared to the first; absolutely devastating and beautiful.

@StitchJones That’s awesome! I have the Pulse for now, but I’ve been happy with it.

Pragmata is great. I’m absolutely loving it but the kids all ended up really loving it too so I decided to work through it with them. We’re at the end of the mines so quite a ways into it, I think.

@Kraven Congrats!! It’s a tough game, I’m glad for all of the options.Just made it to the third area myself. I like the second area though, it’s cool. Has my imagination going!