Salt and Sacrifice Reviews
Check out Salt and Sacrifice Review Scores from trusted Critics below. With 17 reviews on CriticDB, Salt and Sacrifice has a score of:
Ska Studios returns with its follow-up to action RPG Salt and Sanctuary. Though the game largely treads familiar ground, it features an unnecessary innovation that feels shoehorned in.
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Salt and Sanctuary was a hit when it was released approximately six million years ago in 2016. It distilled the gritty atmosphere and challenge of Dark Souls into a leaner 2D package. It also shared that games’ predilection for subtextual storytelling and featured a world that was on its last leg and where little was as it seemed. When I set out to review Salt and Sacrifice, I had hoped for an evolution of the original 2D Soulslike formula. Unfortunately, what we’ve got is different and altogether less satisfying.
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Salt and Sacrifice to Salt and Sanctuary is like Dark Souls 2 to Dark Souls 1. It diverges a lot from the original, with some ideas that work well and some that don't. All in all, it's still an excellent 2-D Souls-like Metroidvania that brilliantly infuses Monster Hunter elements with challenging combat. Despite some poor design choices and questionable difficulty spikes, it's still astonishing to think this game was created by a team of just two people.
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Soulslikes are appealing because of the sense of accomplishment they evoke, offering tremendously difficult battles that — with practice — can be overcome. Every death feels fair, and the design philosophy is fine-tuned in such a way that feels intentional and deliberate. Salt and Sacrifice, on the other hand, achieves difficulty with clunky design, which completely misses the point of what makes a good challenge worth the time. Instead, the sacrifice of wasted time here is more than enough to make you salty.
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Souls-like games truly are a dime-a-dozen these days. After the success of From Software’s flagship series, Dark Souls, and the subsequent smash hits Bloodborne, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, and most recently Elden Ring, the genre is well established as one of the most dominant and popular flavours in the current market. Alongside these large, sprawling 3D beasts are a humble smattering of 2D games that echo the same game design sentiments: overcoming immense challenge, decisive gameplay, and...
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Ska Studios has taken a 2nd stab at the 2D Soulslike genre but does Salt and Sacrifice live up to their previous efforts? Let's find out.
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Salt and Sacrifice imbues its Souls-like formula with elements from Monster Hunter, creating a peculiar mixture that falls just short of realizing its full potential.
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Salt and Sacrifice has a lot going for it, but some bad design choices hold it back. I'd recommend watching some gameplay footage - especially of its bosses - before buying.
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Salt and Sanctuary checks all the boxes for what a 2D Soulslike should have but doesn’t do much beyond that, delivering a worthy, albeit conventional addition to the sub-genre.
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Salt and Sacrifice makes a number of changes to its general design and structure that are absolutely not worth the cost, and while the game is still enjoyable, it ultimately feels like a step backwards from the charming 2016 original.
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Salt and Sacrifice is enjoyable in short bursts. It retains certain core concepts from the original, including a fairly controversial one: the lack of a map. This is further compounded by repetitive Mage Hunts that become tedious after a while.
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Overall, Salt and Sacrifice still nails the core elements that make a 2D reimagining of Dark Souls a compelling idea thanks to its fundamental understanding of how character and level progression should flow and its expansive combat system. By adding in an extra layer of Metroidvania-style exploration and a unique approach to boss encounters with its Mage Hunt mechanic, Salt and Sacrifice sees Ska Studios carve out a space for itself as more than the studio that is good at making 2D Dark Souls games.
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Salt and Sacrifice is still a very worthwhile sequel to the original. While some of the elements don’t work as well as others, the game’s combat and build variety offer players a great sandbox to play around in.
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Salt and Sacrifice does a lot of cool things on top of the Soulsborne 2D action-platforming system created for the first game. The focus on hunting mages is a cool twist and getting their components and making new gear was the stuff that’s made Monster Hunter a blast for decades. Even then, there’s plenty to explore in each biome between the mage hunts. I’m not fond of collecting berries for my healing flask and I feel it can get unfair when mages team up on me. However, getting stronger and coming back with enough might that not even multiple mages...
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As it stands, Salt and Sacrifice continues to nail down all of the moving parts and elements that go into creating an impressive Souls-like game. For most players --especially those just discovering the genre for the first time-- this is an easy recommendation. But for the rest of us, it's not quite enough anymore.
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I don’t envy any developer releasing a Soulslike game in the same year as Elden Ring. FromSoftware’s open world masterpiece sets a pretty unattainably high bar. Salt and Sacrifice, like its predecessor Salt and Sanctuary, certainly borrows mechanics from Dark Souls. Being a 2D side scroller, however, it looks and feels quite different from anything by FromSoft. And this time around, it adds new mechanics and ramps up the challenge even more. It’s a remarkably polished and engaging game essentially made by a two-person team.
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Salt and Sacrifice is a labor of love, one that will scratch any Souls veteran's itch for more mysterious worlds to explore, even if it doesn't succeed at everything.
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