Salt And Sacrifice preview: worth its salt

With mage hunts and talking copse, Salt And Sacrifice is looking like a worthy successor to Common salt And Sanctuary

Worth its salt, I reckon

A dramatic shot of the player character in a doorway in Salt And Sacrifice.

If y'all liked Dark Soulsy side-scroller Salt And Sanctuary, I have some swell news. I got hands-on with an early portion of its sequel Common salt And Sacrifice, and information technology seems prepare to deliver all the things that fabricated its predecessor tick. The punishing enemies, the smooth combat, the vast skill copse, and the interconnected world are all nonetheless doing expert things, but this time around they've just been joined by a few new additions, or seen some tweaks to keep things fresher, just no less difficult.

To fix the Soulslike scene, Common salt And Sacrifice is a 2d sidescroller that riffs heavily off Dark Souls and its gothic, perilous world. We're talking crumbled castles and misty caverns, littered with wretches feasting on corpses, or ultimately, looking for a fight. Of which I had many in the hour or 2 I spent in the game's earliest areas.

Kickoff a new game in Salt And Sacrifice and you'll be faced with a familiar character cosmos screen. Here, y'all can select one of eight classes, customise your appearance, and decide what sort of crime y'all've committed. Yous're an indebted criminal, you run into, and therefore doomed to be a Marked Inquisitor, which is fancy speak for someone who hunts mages. Get and so much as a whiff of a mage in this game and y'all'll go after them.

I went down the Fighter route, which outfitted me with some heavy armour, a sword and shield, alongside some weighty throwing axes. My crime? Brigandry, because highway robbery seemed fitting for this build. Although, what difference your crime makes is unclear. I started multiple playthroughs, selected all sorts of misdeeds, and it only contradistinct some text in the intro sequence. Perhaps your drunkenness or arson has different consequences later?

Still, the game's classes all felt rather distinct, at least in the early portion I played. Combat is punishing, as even standard goblins are capable of cutting you downward in only a few hits. My Fighter was clunky, but powerful; slow rolls followed upwardly with large swings. I had to make sure I timed my blocks and dashes well, otherwise I'd dice pretty chop-chop despite my chunky armour. Every bit a Duelist, in contrast, I was nimble and could dance effectually enemies with quick dashes. My katana was equally fast and choppy, only didn't hit quite equally hard as my Fighter's axe.

The player chooses runes to spell out Ashbourne Village at The Arch in Salt And Sacrifice.

But much similar the previous game, your starting class in Common salt And Sacrifice won't lock you into a particular playstyle if y'all don't want it to. One time you've earned enough Salt from fallen enemies, y'all can caput on over to an chantry to level up, likewise as allocate points into a sprawling skill tree. Not much has changed here, but that's fine. There'due south plenty of choice for those who'd similar to steer their class in a totally unlike management, add together some complication, or just go on it simple.

This chantry is located in a hub space that'due south also abode to NPCs that'll merchandise items, upgrade things, and hint at where yous should head adjacent. It's also hither where yous'll find one of Salt And Sacrifice'southward most important new additions: the Arch. Essentially, information technology'south a teleporter that'll have you to places where evil mages lurk, though y'all have to spell out the location in Runestones for the Arch to whisk you in that location. Progression seems to be tied to exploring areas and clearing them of mages, thus unlocking new locations to spell out at the Arch, visit, and clear of mages.

A warrior speaks to another, who says that someone, or something, wants to speak with one who has devoured the heart of a Mage. — To speak to this fella, I kickoff had to find a Grappling Claw to scale the wall he sat atop. From then on, I could employ it to reach new heights and areas and chests. Information technology felt lovely to use likewise.

All this hunting mages concern is new to the series too. Salt And Cede has 'normal' boss fights, with hulking brutes that'll block your path unless you tackle them - for example, I faced off against a large lad with a whopping great axe - simply there are Hunts too, which take you lot follow a wispy, nighttime trail in search of a powerful mage. In my instance, I needed to devour the middle of a pyromancer named "Arzhan-Tin", who engulfed Ashbourne Village in burn. Come on Tinny, at that place'south merely no need for that.

Hunting Arzhan-Can was pretty fun, albeit a touch unclear at times. It was a bit stop starty, with no clear endpoint to begin with. I bumped into Tinny a number of times, once in the hamlet, in one case in the depths of some mines, and again on a wooden platform of sorts. I could smack him during these pit stops of his, but wasn't certain if I was damaging him or not. Each time, he'd summon some fire, maybe some enemies for me to bargain with, and piss off into the ether. Information technology was but when Tinny stopped on a large, flat, "this is a boss arena" surface that the game explicitly said: "Now y'all may fight Tinny". Finally, some clarity. Although I was a bit miffed that all those times I'd wailed on him had amounted to nothing.

The player unlocks a Mage hunt in Salt And Sacrifice. — Hunts let you unlock doors, that lead to more hunts and deadlier areas.

Thankfully, the final showdown with Arzhan-Tin was a decent slugfest. As a towering pyromancer, he'd endeavour and engulf me in towers of flame, or opt for the archetype flamethrower technique. If I got besides shut, he'd swipe at me with a blazing sword. After numerous failed attempts to boxing him head-on, I went for the run-away-and-lob-axes approach, which worked a charm. Tinny went down, I devoured his centre, and the chase was ticked off.

My reward for Tinny's demise? Seemingly, a great deal. There are glowing red doors in the globe which require a certain number of mage hearts devoured for use. Step through them and they'll oft atomic number 82 to more hunts, new areas, and tougher enemies. Perhaps more importantly, casual raw cannibalism proved me worthy to certain NPCs in Ashbourne Hamlet, mamely a tree with a face up. Information technology mentioned a new location - although information technology explicitly stated that it couldn't tell me how to get at that place because this was a demo. At least it was honest.

My very pocket-sized slice of Salt And Sacrifice left me with many questions. How is the Arch tied to progression? How practise I used the materials gathered from hunts? What's the deal with that tree? But overall, it proved to be a decent time. It's a world I'd like to dive deeper into, and that'south what matters, really. Despite my curt play time, I can already encounter this shaping up to exist an unmissable follow upwardly for Salt And Sanctuary fans.