Smoke and Sacrifice Reviews
Smoke and Sacrifice is a surprisingly complete game. It offers a ton of crafting options and challenges you on every step you take. The story is interesting and plays out in a wonderful hand drawn world. It is not perfect, but definitely worth your time.
Review in Dutch | Read full review
With a more unique crafting system or stronger combat or more emphasis on the story Smoke and Sacrifice could have really been something special. As it stands, though, it’s a fun little adventure.
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!
Smoke and Sacrifice is a beautifully drawn survival game with an emphasis on its interesting story. For me, it felt like a ‘survival-lite’ game, as it didn’t have any intense survival aspects other than finding components and crafting your way to victory, but that was great for me as I prefer them like this. At times, the game may feel like it’s ramped up the difficulty, especially if you go off the recommended path, but nothing felt unfair or impossible – You just have to master the controls and upgrade your gear. It truly is a stunning game which will challenge you and have you coming back for more, regardless of how many times you perish to the horrific creatures within the smoke!
There’s nothing ground breaking about Smoke and Sacrifice. That said, it takes some tried and tested tropes and ties them together in an effective and entertaining package.
Smoke and Sacrifice is a visually splendid survival RPG that has a strong narrative and a well designed and implemented resource system. The PS4 version is also a great port of the PC version, the control system feeling natural and intuitive. The repetition and bland fetch quests, coupled with hit and miss combat (pun intended) however, mean that getting to the games best moments can occasionally feel like a slog.
Go to hell and back to save your son in this gorgeous, flawed story-driven survival game.
Smoke and Sacrifice is a title I am conflicted about. I love the art direction and foreboding atmosphere with clever crafting mechanics, but the poor combat gameplay and unforgiving difficulty are frustrating. If you're intrigued by the premise though, it is definitely worth checking out.
Smoke and Sacrifice is yet another worthy entry in the survival genre. While it isn’t the best one, it certainly has a lot going for it and is a still a cracking little title. It has an impressive overarching story which is rare in the genre.
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.
The game uses a similar style of art to Don't Starve, only there's colour, and a whole slew of gorgeous animations to go with it. It's a gorgeous, if somewhat bleak (due to the Underworld) game packed with lots of nice little touches and a beautiful hand-drawn/animated art style. What begins as a simple exercise in survival turns into a story about a parent and her child, and the love a mother has for her son. Sure, there are survival elements and the need to craft and create bigger/better things so that you can extend your ability to survive as well as explore more places to unravel more of the plot. But there's a real heart here to the game, and this is where Smoke and Sacrifice shines the brightest.
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.
Smoke and Sacrifice is certainly different from any other game I’ve ever played, but whether this worked out in its favor is questionable.
After only a few minutes of playing Smoke and Sacrifice, You would easily recognize tons of similarities between this game and other dark survival games like Don't Starve. Still, because of it's unique story and narrative and also it's remarkable art design, Smoke and Sacrifice have it's own unique identity. Smoke and Sacrifice could be much more enjoyable if it wasn't for some technical issues, inventory management problem and more importantly gameplay repetition. but on the end Smoke and Sacrifice deserves a chance to prove itself as a good, enjoyable survival game. If you are looking for a nice survival game with RPG elements and beautiful story, Smoke and Sacrifice is worthy to experience.
Review in Persian | Read full review
Heart-breaking story of careworn mother in grotesque underworld with tons of recipes, crafting and strange universe.
Review in Slovak | Read full review
It will be hard to remain interested in Smoke and Sacrifice for more than a handful of hours. By then most will realise that what started as an emotive journey, ends up being an endless series of unbalanced crafting, unexciting exploration, and controller-breaking, clunky fighting.
Smoke and Sacrifice is a good game once you know what you're getting into. It is an adventure with clear objectives but a slower pace due to the amount of collecting and crafting involved. It's also a much easier survival game to digest, since you aren't monitoring too many meters at one time. Tying it together is a captivating presentation and a narrative that is as dour as it is fascinating. Although the Switch version suffers from some hitches in areas, the game should still be experienced by genre fans.
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.
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 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.