Just finished taking down the first two bosses in Saros, and if the rest of the game maintains this level of quality, it's easily a 9.5/10 for me.
Players who come from Returnal are going to find this incredibly rewarding. At least in the early game, I actually think it's noticeably tougher than Returnal's opening hours. (I finished Returnal over 2 years)
There more enemies on screen, far more bullet to track, and you're dealing with corruption which limits max health(it feels like the kind of mechanic Returnal would have saved for its later acts).
The permanent progression system is excellent. Skilled players who die less often will unlock and max out the progression upgrades more slowly. Lucelite is the currency used for these permanent upgrades you lose 50% of what you've collected when you die. Interestingly, this creates a nice balancing effect players who die more frequently will naturally grind more runs, powering up their overall build faster and making the game easier for them over time, while get good players progress through the meta upgrades more gradually.
It’s more forgiving than Returnal and can be a lot easier but harder if that’s what you want
After getting to the first boss, you can adjust the Carcosan Modifiers. You can freely adjust the damage you deal and take, toggle Second Chance, and tweak a bunch of other parameters. Everything has to stay balanced on the meter, but there's also an "Overclock" option in the menu that lets you make the game significantly easier if needed. On the flip side, if you're finding it too easy, you can crank up the difficulty however you like.
Story is excellent so far and while it doesn’t have as much as a normal first party PlayStation game its a lot more deep and has decent chuck of story and a lot more than Returnal had and has excellent voice acting.
Ufff
