Saros is not a sequel to Returnal (at least we don’t think it is), but it is undeniably a follow-up to Housemarque’s excellent rogue game, building on what the team built mechanically in that game.
Today’s State of Play Saros trailer focused on many elements that will separate it from Returnal. For one, there are many more characters to interact with. Between runs you will talk to other survivors in The Passage. There also appear to be far more permanent progression options to unlock.
The trailer also showed options for making the game more difficult or easier by turning on and off abilities. Housemarque stressed, however, that striking a balance is important. You can also teleport straight to unlocked biomes, a big dpearture from Returnal.
Finally, Housemarque explained (to a small degree, at least) how the eclipse system will work. You can manually activate an eclipse and it will change how the world looks and sounds, and enemies will become more powerful and do more damage. But there are also some positive outcomes, too, making it worth activating.
Saros releases April 30.