Going back and exploring old areas with new tools is always a worthwhile venture, as Salt and Sacrifice rewards exploration with plenty of loot and, most importantly, more boss fights.Īmong the game’s various minor bosses that dot each region are the pivotal Mage Hunts: prolonged excursions where the Spellmarked Inquisitor follows the trails of the chaos-inducing Mages, eventually leading to a boss fight and culminating with the Iinquistor devouring their hearts. Scattered throughout the world are various Inquisitor tools, which unlock new traversal mechanics that will make seemingly mundane pieces of the landscape all make sense once the player has discovered how to interact with them appropriately. Players will spend plenty of time backtracking through Salt and Sacrifice’s five main regions due to Ska Studios leaning into Metroidvania-style platformer mechanics compared to its more linear predecessor. However, to newcomers fresh out of Elden Ring or Tunic, it could add a layer of frustration or even a sense of feeling "cheap" as Salt and Sacrifice still dogmatically follows the original Dark Souls style level design. For experienced Souls-like players, these design principles all may sound like a core part of the Souls-like experience. In a post- Elden Ring world where Souls-likes are beginning to rely more on interesting bosses and mastery over combat mechanics as the driving force for a challenge, Salt and Sacrifice leans into using booby traps and surprise attacks to chip away at the player’s health.įrustratingly, Ska Studios makes many of these traps extremely subtle, often blending into the scenery so well that only upon repeated deaths and backtracking through the game’s levels will players know precisely where each trap is. From a level design standpoint, Salt and Sacrifice still feels as if it is working within the playbook of the first iteration of Souls-like games. While the classic platforming feeling of Salt and Sacrifice is often fun and keeps players on their toes, it does manage to feel dated in some regards. Salt and Sacrifice takes concepts that Souls games frequently dabble in, such as the rigid platforming and booby traps of Sen’s Fortress, and expands upon them as the main challenge in world traversal, occasionally to a fault. The result is a compelling series of levels ranging from destroyed towns, underground crypts, and snowy mountain tops that expand vertically and horizontally with crypts and dungeons. Salt and Sacrifice’s most notable deviation from its Souls-like inspirations come from its 2D nature, taking the sprawling and intricate level design of FromSoftware titles and translating it into a sidescrolling adventure. Every zone pops with more vibrancy than before, and the cartoon-inspired visual style benefits from it greatly while still effectively delivering a world on the brink of collapse. Where previously Salt and Sanctuary presented a very foreboding and dreary atmosphere, painted with monochromatic color tones and dimly lit environments, Salt and Sacrifice injects a new layer of color into its settings. Visually, Salt and Sacrifice still retains much of its flash game-inspired art style but with new player and enemy character models.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |