“Saros” shows off the PS5’s DualSense tricks

Spoiler for The first thing you’ll see in the next game Saros: It is a group of words. Letters are written one by one on the screen, illustrating some of the world-building that provides context for the start of the game’s story. I don’t remember what any of it said, because I was so focused on the haptic vibrations coming from the controller in my hand. There’s a sharp tactile buzz to each letter, and you instantly feel the intense click. From the beginning, Saros He makes his intentions clear – this is a story you should feel.

Since the launch of the PlayStation 5, Sony’s DualSense controllers have offered haptic feedback that developers can use to make the controller vibrate in the right way to communicate the feeling of what’s happening on screen. Maybe it’s messages writing across the screen, or little rain patterns, or a big clank when you fire a gun or hit something with a melee weapon. Adaptive triggers add resistance to key triggers, meaning the difference between cocking the trigger and pulling it down is very clear.

saros, It will be released on April 30 and is developed by Housemarque, a Finnish studio owned by Sony. It’s been here before, when it released the highly regarded PlayStation 5 game Returning In 2021. As a launch title for the console, that game aims to take advantage of all the new technologies that Sony has been introducing with its hardware, especially the haptic and adaptive features of the DualSense controller. Both games came with an added amount of pressure to show what the console could do, says Gregory Lowden, the creative director at Housemarque who oversaw the development of both games.

“Back when we started Returningwe almost felt a responsibility — because we were a launch window for the PlayStation 5 — what can you do with this device? Loden tells WIRED. “In many ways, we do it for our players, but we also do it for the quarterbacks to try to inspire others.”

As I did with ReturningHousemarque has developed its latest game to take full advantage of PlayStation 5’s DualSense controllers. It also uses 3D audio features to make the world feel more alive. Returning and Saros It was released on the same hardware, but Louden says everything is now more cohesive than ever.

“We’ve really beefed up the graphics and hardware development,” says Lowden. “We wanted to do something better for gamers and get the most out of the DualSense.”

From the few hours I spent with her, Saros The gameplay feels very excellent. It’s a dark sci-fi roguelike where you take down dozens of hostile aliens in a barrage of frenetic, tactile gameplay. Battles feel especially clear because everything that appears on screen translates to how you feel on console. The obvious movements are to replicate the feeling of firing a weapon or the echo feeling when enemy bullets and explosives hit your shield. But Housemarque also deployed touch in more careful and subtle ways, such as during cinema, where a constant tactile pulse helps make the tension and anger of the on-screen characters more visceral.