Much like the roguelike hellscape it takes place in, even thinking about Saros offers me something new every time I reflect on Housemarque’s roguelike shooter. Much like Returnal , the game’s spiritual predecessor, it revels in abstract worldbuilding and symbolism that may seem unwieldy and obtuse, but as I bash my head against the walls of its tough-as-nails challenges, I find something worth pondering on the other side. Saros continues Housemarque’s evolution from something of an arcade specialist into a maker of the kind of prestige storytelling that has become synonymous with PlayStation’s first-party output. What’s remarkable is that despite Saros solidifying Housemarque as one of PlayStation’s narrative heavy hitters, the studio’s identity has not been lost in Sony’s continued desperate chase for its next Last of Us . Saros expands the scope of Returnal ’s very singular story of one person caught in an endless, tortuous loop of devastating deaths and puts an entire ensemble cast into one instead.…