Salt and Sacrifice Reviews
Salt and Sacrifice is a great combination of some of the best elements from games like Dark Souls and or Monster Hunter and definitely entertains, even though the core gameplay mechanisms and the combat system could get extremely hard and annoying at some points during the game.
Review in Persian | Read full review
So does Salt and Sacrifice succeed in being an enjoyable experience? Absolutely, it does. The controls are responsive, there are many viable styles of play, the music is engaging, the sound effects are crunchy, and the animations are fun and stylized.
Salt and Sacrifice is a fantastic soulsvania that perfectly captures the feeling of a two-dimensional Souls with addictive backtracking.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Salt and Sacrifice does have room for improvement. That said, the things I disliked about the game are far outweighed by the swaths of things this game gets right. I was hooked from the word “Go!” and even though I’ve finished the game, I’m still hooked. There’s so much to experiment with, so many more hunts to carry out and that doesn’t even factor in the multiplayer! After every sitting with this game, I found myself wanting more. Surely that’s the best endorsement a game could receive? When you stop playing, but you don’t really want to. When the credits roll, but you really wish they weren’t. Salt and Sacrifice is a fantastic title with an infectious gameplay loop that makes it hard to put down, but easy to recommend.
Overall I did have a lot of fun with Salt and Sacrifice, although there were a few moments where it got rather frustrating. With the new change up to how the game plays out, I expect a lot of people to be upset with the new direction. It’s not a bad direction, just new. I really appreciate the devs branching out in a new direction, and hope they continue to do so from now on.
Salt and Sacrifice is a worthwhile sequel to Salt and Sanctuary. Where it does more of the same, it does so where it needs to and where it freshens things up, like the map change, it does it well. I still wish I had access to an inworld map, though. If you’re looking for a new souls-like to get into after something like an Elden Ring, I can’t see you going wrong with this one.
Salt and Sacrifice isn’t as good as its predecessor, but still offers an enjoyable Souls-like experience packed with rewarding combat and exploration. The world is still wonderful to explore and offers a myriad of secrets to uncover and vicious enemies to vanquish, whilst combat is intuitive and gives players more creative options thanks to the likes of the grappling hook. It looks beautiful too, whilst the boss battles are once again a highlight of the experience. The new features just fall short of the mark a little, with the multiplayer fiddly and Mage Hunts a little bit boring to complete, whilst the lack of a map and proper fast travel can make traversal a drag. They don’t make it a bad game at all though, with Salt and Sacrifice still maintaining the overall quality of the original to stand out as an engrossing 2D Souls-like experience.
Salt and Sacrifice doesn't innovate as much as it could have done, but is an interesting entry in the 2D soulslike niche.
Review in Italian | Read full review
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.
Being sequel to a critically acclaimed title is always a hardcore task. Salt and Sacrifice didn't exceed the expectations, nor did it fail. It captures the essence of soulslike genre with hand drawn graphics exceptionally well but suffers due to a whole bunch of required backtracking and some questionable developer decisions.
Review in Slovak | Read full review
In making the title Salt and Sacrifice, the creators have tried to take some risks and model the titles of Monster Hunter, which unfortunately doesn't help the overall gaming experience as it should and sometimes even causes problems.
Review in Persian | Read full review
Soulslike fanatics will enjoy the fix, while others may better spend their time elsewhere.
After thoroughly enjoying the greatness that is Salt and Sanctuary, Salt and Sacrifice is a somewhat disappointing experience. It's still a good game, though, and one that you'll be compelled to play until it starts to overstay its welcome about 10 hours in.
Salt and Sacrifice is an ambitious sequel that attempts to integrate Monster Hunter mechanics into an already crowded Metroidvania/Soulslike formula. It's not a great mix, but the strength of its core combat, customization, and refreshing co-op still make it worth at least a look.
I want to like Salt and Sacrifice, and in some stretches, I do. I enjoyed exploring the world, concepts of hunting and crafting, and the moody atmosphere, which kept me continuing for dozens of hours. But its clunky progression systems and many maddening enemy encounters quickly make the fun times easy to forget.
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.
Salt and Sacrifice may not be as exciting as the first part, but it's definitely worth the experience, especially for Souls fans.
Review in Arabic | Read full review
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.
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.
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.