Returnal, Housemarque’s first foray into the roguelike shooter genre, was notoriously grueling and punishing, to the point where some folks bounced off it out of frustration. Saros, the studio’s spiritual successor, is also like that, but it doesn’t have to be. This time around, Housemarque has added modifiers that let you tweak the difficulty similar to accessibility features you’d find in other action games; however, these optional switches can’t be flipped willy-nilly.
A few hours into Saros, you’ll unlock Carcosan Modifiers. These are both perks (Protections) and nerfs (Trials) that you can manually apply to your runs from the game’s safehouse. Some of these are things you might expect, like the option to increase your damage output; others are more specific to Saros’ various mechanics and systems, like the ability to turn off the Second Chance perk that lets you revive with partial health if you die. Each modifier has either a positive or negative point value, which turns a dial that cannot go below negative three, or you won’t be able to venture out into the dangerous world of Carcosa.
If you don’t want to make the game easier, and in fact, want to make it more difficult, Saros doesn’t have any restrictions on how many Trials you can turn on at once, so if you want to overcome the game’s greatest challenges, that option’s available to you. Having messed around with them during the review period, I’ll tell you that if you find the right combination of modifiers, you can turn Saros into a pretty easy third-person shooter, making most enemy’s attacks a negligible threat as your guns tear through them.
Saros may not have a traditional Easy Mode, but you can create one yourself if you’re willing to make a few hard decisions. Roguelike purists will probably hear that and scoff, but it’s all optional. Live your truth and let others live theirs.