Sinner: Sacrifice for Redemption

Have mercy on our souls.

Sinner Sacrifice for Redemption ultimately feels like an average -- if unforgiving -- boss battler cashing in on the popularity of a certain From Software juggernaut.

Sinner: Sacrifice For Redemption has some inspired choices. The agony of choosing what to give up next and trying to work out what loss will hurt you least is really innovative, while the boss designs all stand apart from one another, each feeling as though they represent the sin that they have become. Unfortunately, it is let down by some of the design choices and difficulty that will you feeling unfulfilled. There will be some who love this game despite this, but it crosses over the line from challenging to unfair and sets up shop there. It is hard to recommend a game that doesn’t even feel ...

You just need to take one look at Sinner: Sacrifice for Redemption to see the obvious resemblance it bears to the Dark Souls games. I know, I know – way too many games get compared to Dark Souls these days. But in this case, developers DARK STAR have actively stated that they took massive inspiration from FromSoftware’s iconic series. And it really shows – hell, your character even Praises the Sun. Unfortunately, this is also one of the game’s biggest flaws: Sinner sticks so closely ...

Overall, Sinner will start you off without knowing what to do, and it will continue to push you through harder and harder challenges while still not really knowing what it’s all for. The game is currently available on Discord, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One for $18.99 USD. Is it worth even that? Maybe it is for someone who wants to play a Dark Souls type game with no levels to go through. It isn’t a big cost so it is a little bit more palatable than say a sixty dollar game.

Though its achievements feel very incremental, Sinner: Sacrifice for Redemption moves the Soulslike genre forward in some interesting ways. The slimmed down structure presents some challenging and entertaining boss fights, but doesn’t quite feel like a complete package. It lacks narrative and aesthetic detail, but there are a few clever new ideas hidden inside its generic shell.