Topic: Saros Thread

Just booted up for the 1st time today. Noticed patch 1.003.004. Played and I can tell something was different and felt a bit better. According to patch notes, there was some tuning and fixes to latency. IDK, the game feels like its flowing a bit better for me now.

@Th3solution based on the 3h I played now, it feels like they took all the feedback from Returnal and really thought it through.
Autosave during a run is now the standard. You can get permanent upgrades even after failed runs, so you're less likely to get stuck on difficult parts - although "getting gud" is definitely the recommended way
I haven't gotten to that part yet but I understand that later on you can use modifiers to make the game easier (or harder) if you want to. Not sure what else they'd need to add...

@Nei exploding bullets for shotgun with Vertical Alt (massacres flying enemies)

Pistol with bouncing or exploding bullets. I always avoid if they have the charge alt fire. Favored enemy is also a good perk

Smart Rifle any. Theyre the most well rounded of the bunch.

@Oram77 @Nei

Nicely done! I had a great run and ended up pushing to the next area. Some nice weapons here.

@cainhurst94 @render @Metonymy I'm a pretty stupid person and stubborn. I just pick up games and start playing and disregard the important stuff like a clown, thinking I'll just wing it.

I was wondering why it seemed sometimes i had a weapon that was destroying everything in sight and other times it wasn't doing a damn thing. I had no idea until now that your weapon scales up with whatever of the 3 areas you are most proficient. And therefore I would just grab random artifacts, not taking into account which ones will make me stronger and output higher weapon damage.

I also had melee binded to the square button for it to be like Returnal. That botches things up because it took away my ability to dash through projectiles while the shield is popped open. Another tactic I didn't know you can do until now. Its impossible to hit sqaure and circle with your thumb at once. Unless you got sasquatch hands.

I'm such an idiot, it's embarrassing.

Beat Biome 3s boss. He isn't difficult but he is VERY aggressive. I played at 8am this game has me in its hooks, the story is also starting to come together well. When you get that "flow" state going it feels like Tetris Effect and Returnal just sublime.

@Oram77 The dodgy faces stand out so much because the environments and the rest of the game are so INCREDIBLE!

@Th3solution The game is very smooth so far. No crashes, you can quit at any time without losing progress.

@StitchJones It took me a while to understand the weapons too. I think some of the tutorial prompts coming mid-combat is a bad touch. I found myself closing them immediately to keep the movement and combat going.

@cainhurst94 and right when i think i got it figured out, I'm getting pasted again. Still stuck on biome 2 all this time. Had the game early access too. Im not even making it to the boss today at all. The dude takes so much freakin' damage per projectile, its absurd. And that's before you add in the corruption if you start getting waxed by that. Im done with this game for a bit. I obv suck at this game and being good at returnal is doing nothing for me here. I need a break from this thing, clear my head. I refuse to dial back the difficulty with the modifiers like a pu***.

I can't understand how i have so much patience with every Fromsoft game they put out. But this game is driving me bonkers. Maybe its my old age and this game is too twitchy. Soulsborne games are very difficult, but way slower and methodical. idk.

@cainhurst94 I don’t know why games do that— they put up tutorial boxes mid combat and you don’t have time or ability to read them because you’re in the middle of the action. Then the info is gone and you have to dig through menus or search online to see what you missed. 😅

Had a couple of runs last night. This is fantastic. Even liitle things like how the text at the start felt on the DualSense. Runs like a dream on my peasant PS5.

First tried 3rd boss (had to use second chance though), it's funny the gun they gave me when I first got to the biome was literal god tier, so thanks Housemarque for showing me pity 😅

@Oram77 lucky. Gun I had on my first attempt was a no autoaim marksman pistol. Worst weapon so far. Shotgun has become very good for mobs and decent for first two biome bosses. Funny seeing how terrible they were in Returnal

@cainhurst94 Oh yes the pistols are terrible I avoid them at all cost (they need a buff in my honest opinion) I also bounced off the shotguns fairly quickly too (they just don't suit my play style I guess), I have to say it feels like Saros is harder then Returnal as in the general mobs, they just hit way harder and are way more aggressive!

@Oram77 Eclipse mobs in Biome 3 were killing me until I decided to use the shotgun. Turns out sometimes the best Offense is just going IDGAF and running like a headless chicken into danger.

@StitchJones Shame to hear you are putting the game down for now. I don't think you should give up so easily.

I had a few failed attempts at the boss in B2 and had a few deaths getting back to it but to mix it up I thought I'd have a run back through B1 with the intention of carrying on through B2 and what a flippin run. I got some really good artefacts and I even picked up one that repaired integrity on hostile kills (it did have a negative affect, fall damage maybe). That coupled with a really good smart rifle and trying to use the shield more to capture the blue orbs in order to maximise the power weapon usage and I absolutely mashed the boss in B2.

This game is awesome though. You still get that feeling of dread as you make your way into the next room but also that feeling of elation when you walk out of there still alive. And like you say @JohnnyShoulder this game runs like a dream even on the base PS5.

One thing that I feel was better on Returnal was the controller speaker use. I've been playing without headphones and Returnal used to have way better noises for things like the overload and knowing when your alt-fire was ready etc. I found the setting in the audio menu to maximise the use of the controller speaker as for some reason that's not the default. It's a little better but I think I'll just have to get used to it.

I seem to be getting presented with a lot more weapons without auto-aim now as well as more shotguns than I'd like. I think the game is trying to tell me something.

@render I remember some not liking the speakers usage in Returnal. I wonder if they didn't add it for that reason but generally alt fires work very differently to Returnal.

Alt fires in this are basically Bloodborne Trick Weapons where Returnal used them like the Arm Attacks. Either way I do miss that cooldown noise.

One thing I do like is hearing the human screams in the Eclipse. It's so ominous and foreboding.

@render I know you were probably joking with that last statement, but do you think that the game may actually have some AI type of algorithms related to the random drops? In Returnal I don’t remember the drop rates of weapon or items feeling skewed and seemed to me to be fully random for the most part. But so many games do seem to have something in their code to alter what they will give you, based on how you’re playing or some individual characteristics. I usually notice it with ammo pickups and sometimes health items in treasure boxes in RPGs where games will usually toss you a bone and preferentially give you ammo for the gun you’re using more, or health instead of armor if you’re repeatedly on death’s door, etc.

Is it possible Saros is programmed to actually force you to use weapons you struggle with? Maybe it’s taking the opposite approach and actively trying to challenge the player more? 😅

And now that I think about it, I do recall in Returnal that I hated the lobber and I seemed to get that dropping a lot in the early game. Eventually I grew to understand how to best use it and actually ended up liking it in certain situations, and eventually I started seeing the drop rate become rarer for it. Perhaps I’m reading into it and it was merely less common later as the number of options grew with the addition of new weapons.

That's funny because I didn't even unlock it until I beat the game and went back for collectibles.

@cainhurst94 Yeah those screams are something else. There are also a lot of other very atmospheric noises going on including one which always makes me think that some enemies have spawned in but luckily they haven't.

@Th3solution I was joking but you never know there might be something in the code that's steering you towards certain weapons. When you've just been offered shotguns three or four times in a row it does feel like something is working behind the scenes. I would be an interesting thing to put in but I think I'd generally prefer if it was completely random.

With Returnal there was actually a thing where if you didn't take the weapon when it was first presented to you then it wouldn't be unlocked. My wife played it through again and just chose the carbine at the start and then didn't take the others so only ever got drops for the carbine or pistol, but if you knew when other weapons you liked were offered then you could take those and they'd be in rotation with those two. There were a few weapons that I never got on with like the coilspine shredder so that would have been great knowledge at the time. I quite enjoyed the lobber though but I think to get the best out of it you had to charge it a bit so it was one of those where timing was paramount.

@render Oh, i either forgot that aspect of weapon drops, or never knew it to begin with. It does explain why @Voltan never unlocked the lobber then. Yeah that is interesting. I must have taken the standard route of just picking up a new weapon everytime it showed up so I could try it out. It ends up with some junk weapons in the rotation but it also reveals new ways to play, as you say with the lobber it took a slightly different playstyle and timing. I ended up liking it for mobs in the third Biome where I could fire a few shots at the machines then run and hide for a while, rinse and repeat. In smaller rooms with no cover it really didn’t have the DPS to be effective for me like the faster firing guns.

I think we can all agree that the sound sound design/music is amazing in Saros ,whether that's during in a fight or running around the levels so massive props to the sound team. Voice acting is also very good, even though sometimes when I hear Rahul talk I think it's Ben Starr doing his Clive voice 🤣. Got to biome 4 and it's seriously kicking my ass... may have to fall back and level up more in the Matrix.