Saros Isn't As Orange As the Game's Trailers Would Have Believed

Housemarque's upcoming PlayStation 5 exclusive Saros leans into orange as a key motif in marketing, but hands-on time reveals a far more diverse visual identity than trailers imply.

A three-hour preview covered the game's opening two biomes and the major enemy of each area. While burnt-orange eclipses are used deliberately at pivotal moments, most playtime unfolded across a broader array of hues, textures and lighting schemes that keep the environments distinct and avoid monotony.

Orange functions as a narrative and mechanical signifier in Saros. Protagonist Arjun carries an amulet bearing an alien sun, and when players interact with certain pieces of alien machinery an eclipse is triggered. The resulting orange wash signals a systemic shift: foes scale up in toughness, but the Lucenite dropped by enemies — the experience currency used to upgrade Arjun — becomes more plentiful.

The eclipse is intended to be the game's central pivot, according to art director Simone Silvestri, who explains that the event ties together story beats and gameplay escalation. In practice, the effect punctuates encounters rather than dominating every scene, allowing other colour palettes and environmental design to come to the fore across biomes.

Visually, the opening areas mix alien flora, industrial architecture and varied atmospheric lighting. The burnt-orange eclipse moments are striking precisely because they are not constant; their contrast with greater chromatic variety makes those moments read as significant, both narratively and mechanically.

Saros will likely reveal more uses of the eclipse and the orange motif across later biomes and story beats. For now, Housemarque's decision to reserve the most saturated orange moments for mechanical and narrative turning points preserves visual variety while still giving the symbolmatic sun a clear role in the game's systems.

Returnal set expectations for Housemarque on PS5; Saros appears intent on carving its own visual and mechanical identity rather than simply echoing the studio's previous success.