Saros - Before You Buy

Welcome to another episode of Before You Buy, where we offer straightforward gameplay and initial impressions of the latest game releases. Today, Jake is here to discuss *Sorrowos*, the newest title from Housemark, the Finnish studio known for games like *Resogun* on PS4, *Nex Machina*, and more recently, the challenging *Returnal* on PS5. *Sorrowos*, to Jake, represents a successful fusion of Housemark's past and present styles, combining the brutal difficulty and mature narrative of *Returnal* with the addictive arcade fun factor of their earlier 2010s games. Jake describes *Sorrowos* as awesome, brutal, fun, addictive, and compelling. This review is based on a spoiler-free review copy, with footage captured on a PS5 Pro, though some boss encounters are shown. Jake acknowledges that many will compare *Sorrowos* to *Returnal*. While he appreciated *Returnal* and understood its appeal, he found himself having to push through it and eventually bounced off it. In contrast, *Sorrowos* immediately drew him in and held his attention. Although it maintains a high difficulty, it feels more meaningful and less structurally brute-force, never feeling like it wastes the player's time. A captivating mystery at its core also kept Jake engaged, even after numerous deaths. Players take on the role of Arjun Devraj, a member of Echelon 4, an outer space division working for a powerful, universe-dominating corporation. The game thrusts players directly into the action, with Arjun's small team already established on a hostile alien planet. The team members know each other, but the player's specific purpose is initially unclear, beyond Arjun's repeated ventures into the dangerous environment. Mysteriously, Arjun resurrects every time he dies, with a few real-world hours passing. This is the extent of the story setup provided. The narrative unfolds through occasional cutscenes, character dialogue, and notes or audio logs. This method effectively doles out world-building and story elements without excessive filler, keeping things interesting even during repeated level attempts. The game features cool sci-fi elements, from the team's AI to the world design and on-screen text, all contributing to a tough personal story set on a horrific alien planet. Jake was deeply invested, despite wishing for more story content and finding it occasionally disjointed or too vague. He praises the subtle and interesting ways it tackles character issues rarely seen in games, with Rahul Kohley's performance as Arjun Devraj, a "badass" and "ruthlessly determined" character, helping to sell it. Gameplay involves fast-paced running and gunning through biomes, acquiring better gear, and growing stronger. Dying results in losing some currency but retaining a portion, and players respawn at base camp to level up, regroup, and try again. *Sorrowos* incorporates permanent upgrades and progression via a skill tree. Players can invest points into this tree after each death, becoming slightly stronger. Progress in the skill tree is occasionally gated by boss defeats, preventing endless grinding. However, the pacing encourages repeated attempts, exploration, and replaying earlier areas with new abilities and power. The game isn't based on a single run; defeating a boss allows players to respawn at that specific point, with home base treating these as distinct levels. Areas are somewhat randomized in structure and threats but maintain unique dangers. A key mechanic is the ability to trigger a "solar eclipse" at select points within levels. This alters the area, making enemies more brutal while offering better loot. These come with trade-offs, such as increased vitality but more weapon recoil, or efficient power generation but gun jams upon taking damage. The solar eclipse can be activated for increased challenge and rewards, and is sometimes necessary for level progression. Jake describes the raw gameplay as the game's strongest asset, likening it to a blend of *Returnal* and *Doom Eternal*—super fast, chaotic, and featuring a protagonist with powerful abilities. Players navigate arenas, blasting and dodging a "3D bullet hell" of particles, performing ultimate blasts, jumps, slams, dashes, parries, and shields. The movement and shooting are "zippy and satisfying." R1 and L1 are crucial for basic mechanics: yellow projectiles can be dashed through (R1), while blue ones can be absorbed by a shield (L1). Absorbing enough blue projectiles enables a power attack—a large alien blast from Arjun's arm, with different variations. Players constantly switch between R1 and L1. More movement and combat abilities, including a satisfying parry against unblockable red blasts, are unlocked later. Weapons evolve from simple to complex, including pistols, machine guns, shotguns, and alien weapons. Each weapon has an alternate firing mode activated by a half-press of the left trigger, with a full press aiming a power shot. Alternate firing modes include vertical/horizontal shotgun spreads, burst fire, charged shots, and homing shots. Crates in the environment frequently offer stronger guns, often requiring a choice between spending resources to reroll or moving on. The same applies to artifacts, which are attachable perks. Jake praises the creative and fun weapon designs, noting he never felt stuck with an undesirable weapon, which he considers a hallmark of good combat. Even the more experimental weapons, while not always his go-to, were respected for specific use cases. He commends the game for innovating in weapon design, something he rarely sees after over a decade in game reviews. Upon death or teleporting back to base, players can invest two main resources into a skill tree for permanent progression. One resource is common, collected from exploration and combat, while the other is rarer and often requires a choice between it and a perk, artifact, or health. The skill tree is solid, offering both key abilities and incremental number upgrades. Players track numerous stats like drive, command, vitality, power, and proficiency. While some specialization is possible, the game ultimately favors a run-and-gun playstyle. *Sorrowos* is challenging, but eases players in before ratcheting up the difficulty. Jake, who admits to sometimes struggling with games, found it "sweaty," requiring split-second dodges. The game offers a modifier system before entering a world, akin to overclocking. Players can choose modifiers to ease difficulty, such as increased currency, weapon damage, or health, but these benefits must be balanced with sacrifices, like increased corruption damage, loss of key resources for that run, or losing second chances. This push-and-pull system allows for easier play without fully trivializing the experience. For masochistic players, additional difficulty modifiers can be activated. The game also features optional, extremely difficult areas that offer greater rewards. Hardcore enthusiasts will find plenty of challenge. Performance-wise, the game is sharp with a high frame rate, experiencing only occasional minor stutters that didn't impact gameplay. Graphically, it looks impressive, with massive arenas that convey an excellent sense of scale, making the player feel like a small entity on a vast, horrific alien planet. The art direction is exceptional, featuring detailed and stylish environments that Jake found truly unique, evoking influences from Ridley Scott's *Alien* to *The Matrix*. Boss designs become increasingly wild, and the environments hold cool surprises. Ultimately, Jake highly recommends *Sorrowos*, emphasizing that while it's tough, it's incredibly rewarding due to its tight, intense, fun, and chaotic moment-to-moment gameplay. He commends how the difficulty is implemented, especially as someone who often struggles with hard games. The game offers a cool story, an engaging world, great vibes, and gameplay that demands focus. Jake encourages viewers to share their own first impressions or thoughts on *Sorrowos* and their favorite Housemark game in the comments.