- Housemarque was aware of refinement Saros‘ onboarding experience
- Mitja Roskaric, associate design director, admits as much Return took a while to get the hang of
- The team has also made sure that the movement of the game is rewarding
Housemarque has said it paid more attention to refinement Saros‘ combat and the game’s onboarding experience, admitting that its predecessor, Return, took a while to learn to play.
Speaking to IGN as part of the outlet’s preview, Mitja Roskaric, associate design director at Housemarque, explained how the team developed the game’s so-called “bullet ballet” combat system by making the player’s constant need to move around rewarding.
“We made sure that movement is rewarded, movement is encouraged,” Roskaric said.
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Unlike Returnal, Saros will break away from the game’s roguelike mechanics and instead feature permanent progression systems. The third-person combat will also require players to be quick on their feet, parry and dodge the attacks of huge boss fights with perfect timing to stay alive while also blasting them with their weapons.
Roskaric thinks Return wasn’t that difficult, but admitted it took a while to get comfortable with the game’s controls, so Housemarque paid more attention to Sarosthe learning stage in more ways than one.
“I don’t think Returnal was that difficult a game, but it took a while to learn how to play it properly,” said Roskaric. “So we paid a lot more attention to the onboarding experience. We wanted to make sure we teach the player how to play the game properly, not just with the text on the screen, but also by designing rooms and encounters and other challenges with that in mind.”
Dying in the game is also part of the learning curve and players are sure to do just that.
Creative director Gregory Louden explained that earlier this year Saros‘ permanent resources and progression “make every death worthwhile”.
“After each death you will face a changed world, but in Saros you’ll be able to choose and permanently upgrade your loadout from an evolving set of weapons and suit upgrades to ‘come back stronger’ to overcome the challenges you face on Carcosa,” Louden said.
Saros launches on PlayStation 5 on April 30.
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