Smoke and Sacrifice Reviews
Smoke and Sacrifice is a tough and challenging game with lots to do to be able to survive. The difficulty curve might get in your way here and there at some points, and the lack of tutorials is definitely not for everyone, but if you give this one a chance I'm sure you will not be disappointed.
Smoke and Sacrifice tells a compelling tale of a mother searching for answers after being forced to give up her son. While the game's gorgeous art brings its grim world to life, its story is ultimately undercut by poor pacing and vague objectives. Smoke and Sacrifice shines in concept, but falters in execution.
Heart-breaking story of careworn mother in grotesque underworld with tons of recipes, crafting and strange universe.
Review in Slovak | Read full review
Go to hell and back to save your son in this gorgeous, flawed story-driven survival game.
Smoke and Sacrifice is an involving, vast and well crafted game that joins RPG elements to those of survival horror to create a world that is both beautiful and disturbing to explore, coupled with a long and compelling lifespan and an impressive degree of interactivity with the surroundings. One of the most original and significant games of this generation on the Nintendo Switch.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Smoke And Sacrifice is by no means terrible, but while its asking price may be lower than other known RPGs and its story is at its core interesting, its gameplay can at times also be just as fundamentally lacking.
Rote, uninteresting and devoid of narrative pathos, Smoke and Sacrifice never compels or engages enough to offer more than a few moments of potential.
Despite some of the aggravations, Smoke and Sacrifice is a fascinating entry into the Switch lineup, and is worth a look for players pining for a crafting-based action RPG on that system.
Smoke and Sacrifice is an ambitious survival, but not enough. The chance to stand out with the adoption of a fascinating story is wasted in the repetitive quests that will lead us to the ending. Solar Sail production manages to propose astounding visuals, but fails in trying to entertain us with shallow survival mechanics and a disappointing combat system.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Smoke and Sacrifice hits the Nintendo Switch, offering a survival and crafting sim with a surprisingly dark story, but also endless busywork
Smoke and Sacrifice is fantastic. It's not often where a game comes along and uniquely pieces together elements quite well both visually and from a gameplay standpoint in a genre not occupying much of the gaming scene at the moment. It's beautiful and fun to play. Dozens of hours can be had. There are clever ideas implemented such as how the crafting system is handled. Both character progression and enemies are rightfully balanced. There's a lot to take away from Smoke and Sacrifice when it comes to what we should expect in the future. The only slight issue players have to deal with is the inventory, but if you can handle that then the rest is pure excellence.
In the end I really appreciate what Smoke and Sacrifice set out to do and how well it generally executed that vision. While survival games typically have played out, for me, as being merely for their own sake the added purpose behind your character’s survival being for the sake of finding the truth about the fate of her child I found compelling. Each step I’d take to get closer there would be more demands and the drive to overcome those obstacles felt much more personal than it typically does. While there’s some tedium, which is somewhat common to the genre, and handheld mode isn’t ideal it is still a compelling game that plays quite well.
A sometimes grotesque, always engrossing take on the survival game, woven together with a twisted tale, weird weapons, and giant, charging porcupine pigs.
Smoke and Sacrifice is an attractive take on the survival genre with a diverting story examining our reliance on fossil fuels and class-dependent economies. Juggling your gear is more finicky than it should be, which is disappointing when inventory management is such a fundamental part of the game. However, if you're prepared to keep on top of things, and you have the fortitude to brave the oppressive smoke, there's plenty to enjoy in Sachi's quest and the core crafting loop.
Smoke and Sacrifice is like a fine cigar, a slow burn from start to finish. It can be very challenging at times, but the reward is worth it once you complete a quest that seems impossible. The intricate crafting and compelling story only compliments the beautiful art direction. Smoke and Sacrifice is a single game that beckons to becomes a series.
Looking for a survival action-RPG that has an excellent story? You really don’t need to look any further than Smoke and Sacrifice. With eye pleasing graphics, excellent sounds, and an engrossing atmosphere you just can’t go wrong. Will you be so kind as to help Sachi find her child and possibly save her world in the process? If you do, you may just feel like a better version of yourself!
The story, mechanics, lore and aesthetic are all fantastic, but some simple tweaks, like improvements to the mission notes, would balance the crafting and survival aspects enough to make them less of an impediment to completion. That being said, whatever effort you put in to finish Smoke and Sacrifice will be worth it. It's flawed, but it's a step in the right direction for survival crafting games, and I hope to see others in its genre take the same initiative towards aesthetic and narrative in the future.
A dark and twisted fantasy RPG which uses elements of survival games to great effect, Smoke & Sacrifice is a beautiful piece of indie software. Tonally and physically challenging, the artistry on display sets it apart from its peers, creating a foreboding world that's well worth being drawn into.
It's hard not to fall in love with Smoke and Sacrifice, simply because it is a beautiful game.
Smoke and Sacrifice is a beautiful handcrafted game with a solid game loop that fails to deliver an intense story filled with very similar and poorly designed quests.
Review in Spanish | Read full review