![]() Then you can allocate those points elsewhere. Interestingly, you can refund skills, meaning that you can make your way out to a skill you really want but then refund all the prerequisites you don’t actually need. At Pardoner’s Vale, you can spend your salt on Black Starstones, which you then use to unlock different skills in a vast skill tree. Although, if you die, this salt is left in the spot you were downed in, requiring you to retrieve it. You level by amassing salt as you defeat enemies. Light attacks, heavy attacks, dodge rolls, and spell casting. Salt and Sacrifice features all the basic combat tropes you would expect from a game like this. Whilst the world(s) are great and the plot is serviceable, where Salt and Sacrifice really shines is, of course, the gameplay. ![]() ![]() ![]() The soundtrack is also a vast improvement over Salt and Sanctuary, from world music through to mage/boss encounters. In keeping with making sure the simple things are good, the world looks interesting, provides good diversity between regions, and is never dull. The regions have their own standard bosses, but you’ll spend most of your time looking for mages to duke it out with. You’ll find yourself trekking along paths, leaping from, or grappling to platforms, and eventually even using ziplines to navigate these towering levels. Then you warp from here to the available regions. Here you do all of your leveling and upgrading. There’s a hub world, called Pardoner’s Vale. That said, the world itself isn’t any sort of interconnected overall. The regions themselves are split into smaller sub-areas that themselves lead back to a larger main part. Being confined to the 2-Dimensional, the devs rely heavily on verticality and choice shortcuts that weave you within the levels. There’s a decent amount of variety on display visually and thematically and whilst the color palette of its predecessor was very drab, Salt and Sacrifice is extremely vibrant. The world of Salt and Sacrifice varies from decrepit woods, arid desert or sprawling, Egyptian-inspired temples. There is a bit of plot development further on in the game involving the King, but I’m not in the business of spoilers. You do this by defeating them and devouring their heart. From here on you travel to various regions to rid the land of the corruption that the mages have exposed it to. Simply put, you play as an “Inquisitor” – these are individuals convicted of a crime and agree to hunt mages in exchange for their freedom. The plot here is good, but it’s not the pull. Salt and Sacrifice is not a story-driven game. Far from being an exercise in frustration like many “Soulslikes”, Salt and Sacrifice is fun, alluring, and highly addictive. To my mind, the biggest similarity between Salt and Sacrifice and Dark Souls is in the fact that Ska Studios have got the simple things right. I have my own qualms with using that term, though there are undeniable similarities with the Dark Souls formula to be found here. Therefore, it’s inevitable that this game will be labeled a “Soulslike”. The platforming is back, the art style is characteristic, but the gameplay loop adds a fresh layer of chance to exploring familiar areas.ĭue to the success of Elden Ring, Salt and Sacrifice was released amidst an ever-growing obsession with From Software titles. Whilst this iteration does stay true to the 2D, “metroidvania” style of gameplay, it also deviates by introducing an entirely new mechanic. However, it is far more like a successor, an entry in the same franchise but standalone in many important ways. It’s easy to think of Salt and Sacrifice as an out-and-out sequel to 2016’s Salt and Sanctuary. Salt and Sacrifice is the latest release from two-person development team, Ska Studios.
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