Who is the King in Yellow?
Artist: Simone Silverstri
Saros, directed by Greg Louden and written by Alex Meer is Housemarque's spiritual successor to Returnal, the 2021 bullet hell first entry from the developer. Returnal was about grief, about guilt and took the form of a journey through a science fiction version of Hades as the main character, Selene wrestled with her own memories and her culpability in the death of her child. This combining of intense third person action with a story that really plumbs the depth of personal despair is repeated here although the narrative is very, very different.
Saros, like Returnal, is a third person action RPG with roguelite elements that has you dying repeatedly and dodging endless streams of incoming fire. Returnal’s reference points were the Ancient Greek underworld, small town European grief and the concept of how we navigate such terrors.
Saros takes its reference points from The King in Yellow by Robert W. Chambers, a forerunner of modern cosmic horror who has influenced everything from Lovecraft to True Detective. Interestingly I think Saros has a deeper reference point which is less Chambers than Chambers’ own inspiration – the 1886 story, "A Man in Carcosa" by Ambrose Bierce.
As with Beirce’s story, the main character in Saros, Arjun Devram, played brilliantly by Rahul Kohli, wakes from sleep to find himself lost in a strange and uncanny wilderness. Saros transposes Carcosa from an ancient ruin on Earth to a futuristic planet far from home being exploited by a callous corporation called Soltari. Arjun is security for a small team sent to discover what has happened to previous expeditions to this planet. One of those expeditions included Arjun’s partner, Nitya and that, really, is why he’s here – to find her and to save her.
Right from the start Arjun’s main drive is that of a man who thinks he has to save those around him but despite his best efforts he cannot save even those closest to him, let alone find his lover. This drive, this solipsism, rooted as it is in a strange toxic form of masculinity is not left unquestioned and unchallenged and what Arjun discovers about his relationship and himself is devastating but subtlely foreshadowed right from his first conversations.
The story unfolds as you progress through items you can collect – logs, recordings, memories and the like. You also meet the occasional NPC who each have their own agendas and have very little interest in Arjun’s goals.
What’s brilliant about this manner of storytelling is that you can engage with it as much or as little as you like – the gameplay is thrilling – solid weapons, tough levels, fantastic design and plenty of secrets. If you wanted you could ignore every element of the story and simply blast your way through the game.
That’s not for me and I’m glad because the story is masterfully delivered. I won’t spoil it here except to say that what you learn about both Carcosa and Arjun is brilliantly layered – the story of Carcosa itself, a ruin by the time Arjun arrives, its once majestic world slowly being revealed as a place riven by war and slavery and hubris.
Alongside Carcosa is Arjun’s journey of self-discovery, the kind that only someone who wakes with no sense of looking back and no questions about his past can uncover and it’s suitably grim and unhappy.
Finishing this game then comes with the deep satisfaction of beating that final boss together with shock and ambivalence about who you learn the characters are and what they’ve done to reach this point. This contrast is well structured and the writing adds to that. Kohli gives a great performance as a man who doesn’t look back, who can only travel forwards but who neverthless, slowly, comes to realise that these drives aren’t noble at all, but are really acts of self-preservation whose impetus is obscuring and erasing his own flaws.
Arjun is the kind of man who, having done something bad, doubles down at each opportunity until he becomes something truly monstrous. Equally as interesting is Saros’ view of whether, having made that journey, you can step away from the edge. There’s a scene right at the end where he’s facing everything about himself and he’s stood there, defeated, accepting and vulnerable and all of this is captured in Kohli’s face without any words, the kind of shot you expect to see in the cinema.
All of this only works as a story if the game does too – it’s heavy material and not one many action RPG players might gravitate towards if it was handled too obviously. Fortunately Saros’s play is, as already mentioned, great but on top of that, the cinematography, the camera and the world building are phenomenal with a colour palette and design aesthetic that feels ancient, vibrant and distinct all at once whether you’re in wild mountains, fetid swamps or angelic cathedrals.
Leading you through the game is Sam Slater’s incredible soundtrack. Intense, grinding, piercing and very, very heavy, it propels you through fights, holds you tight during cut scenes and memories and never lets up. Slater’s better known as a Drone Metal artist but that sensibility works perfectly here where internal conflict is externalised in blasting away at dozens of different enemies each with their own unique patterns and strategies.
The soulslike elements work well and difficulty is what you might expect with such a game although there are some really neat mechanisms that allow you to tailor the gameplay to your own preferences (at least to an extent).
It’s rare for me to just keep playing a game, to keep exploring, to keep shooting when the credits are done, but Saros is an experience so smooth with so many little spots to explore and story elements to uncover that I’m still thinking about it now a month after I properly finished it and got the ‘true’ ending hidden from those who stop after the initial credits roll.
Saros is gaming done right and I look forward to whatever Housemarque do next.
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The Math
Highlights:
- Incredible action
- A remarkable story about culpability and self-knowledge
- A non-western viewpoint
Reference: Housemarque, Saros [Sony Entertainment, 2026].
STEWART HOTSTON is an author of all kinds of science fiction and fantasy. He's also a keen Larper (he owns the UK Fest system, Curious Pastimes). He's a sometime physicist and currently a banker in the City of London. A Subjective Chaos, BSFA and BFA finalist he's also Chair of the British Science Fiction Association and Treasurer for the British Fantasy Society. He is on bluesky at: @stewarthotston.com.
