The game puts players in the shoes of a Marked Inquisitor that has been conscripted to take on Corrupted Mages that are terrorising the Kingdom of Altarstone. Players will be able to choose from eight different starting classes, each with their own play style, as they set off on their quest to purify the kingdom.

As they make their way through Salt and Sacrifice‘s different zones, players will have to track down the Mages by finding clues to progress in their Mage hunts. Enemies players will face include Pyromancer, Venomancer, and even Corpumancers. Defeating these Mages will allow players to use their bones to craft new weaposn and armor.

Salt and Sacrifice also features co-op, as well as PvP invasions. The game features cross-platform multiplayer. For more details on Salt and Sacrifice, check out our review of its original release.

Set in a realm under siege by Mages, players control Marked Inquisitors who hunt them down. Unlike the first game, which took more of a Metroidvania approach, Salt and Sacrifice is more like Monster Hunter, as you pursue targets across stages. Defeat them to farm their materials and create powerful weapons and armor (including sets with unique bonuses) while also learning Runic Arts.

Co-op is also included – check out some gameplay from the same here. You can also read our review here. Though it launched with some performance issues and received criticism for its repetition, Salt and Sacrifice may be worth checking out for fans of the original.

With an art style and combat similar to the developers’ previous game Salt and Sanctuary, fans of that game will feel right at home but also treated to a much deeper combat system and more fully-realized web of RPG systems like armor, weapon crafting, enhancements and so on that make Salt and Sacrifice feel like a game that earns the 15 to 20 or so hours it will take you to beat it. Most of the presentation and functionality of your inventory management and hub world activities will feel instantly familiar to most with very logical arrangements of information throughout the game’s menus and on-screen indicators. Combat is similarly intuitive yet with a give and take that of course relies on timing dodges and blocks, memorizing your enemies’ tendencies, as well as the pros and cons of your own weapons.

"With an art style and combat similar to the developers’ previous game Salt and Sanctuary, fans of that game will feel right at home but also treated to a much deeper combat system and more fully-realized web of RPG systems like armor, weapon crafting, enhancements and so on that make Salt and Sacrifice feel like a game that earns the 15 to 20 or so hours it will take you to beat it."

This is of course seasoned with the handful of key tenants that make it Soulslike. This extremely familiar approach to most of what makes up Salt and Sacrifice can make it feel a little conceptually stale in 2022, but it’s largely executed well nonetheless as it reaps more rewards from that decision than it suffers losses. The game’s several levels are large, and meant to be backtracked through as new modes of traversal are learned and the game’s mage hunts have you running all over the place. The enemies are perhaps a bit too similar at times, but they are broken up by the epic mage battles often enough to where it isn’t noticed for long.

With everything being as intuitive as it was, it wasn’t long before I found myself in those recognizable loops of slaying enemies, taking advantage of newly acquired abilities, and comparing recently looted armor, charms and weapons with what was already in my inventory. This along with trips back to the hub world from any checkpoint adds just a drop more flexibility into the formula without necessarily subtracting from the moment-to-moment challenge. Speaking of difficulty, I wouldn’t say Salt and Sacrifice is a particularly hard Soulslike most of the time. It’s certainly more challenging than a non-Soulslike, but as far as these games go, it’s a little more on the welcoming side of the spectrum than average. Enemies are tough and will kill you multiple times, but they telegraph their attacks in a fair way and rarely do you die without having a pretty good idea of what you should be doing differently.

What can present an unfair challenge however is working around the game’s occasional lag and frame-rate drops that I was more than annoyed to encounter in a game so heavily reliant on timing and split-second decisions. These moments didn’t plague my time with it, in fact they were somewhat uncommon, but they did threaten to drag it down quite a bit when I missed an important dodge or a block because the game decided to chug in the very moment I pressed the button. With such short windows of time to dodge in certain boss fights, it can be very costly for a button press to fail to register. I can’t imagine this not getting smoothed over in the near future but it’s still worth a mention.

"I wouldn’t say Salt and Sacrifice is a particularly hard Soulslike most of the time. It’s certainly more challenging than a non-Soulslike, but as far as these games go, it’s a little more on the welcoming side of the spectrum than average."

It’s also worth a mention that these epic battles with the mages were immensely fun and satisfying otherwise. While the designs of the low-level common enemies sort of ran together a bit for me, the bosses are awesome and really effectively show off the personality of this art style. The variety in their attack patterns and general designs makes them the star of the show here. Given that wiping out these entities is heavily tied into the story, if you aren’t fighting one or getting ready to fight one, then you aren’t fully taking advantage of the game.

Traversal is another major spoke in Salt and Sacrifice’s wheel. Outside of wall hopping up narrow vertical tunnels, basic platforming and climbing up ladders, you also have some spots where a special ability is needed like windy updrafts, helpful ziplines, and glistening grapple points. These serve as the gatekeepers to a lot of areas in the game’s massive levels, which is where the backtracking mentality comes in. It’s a shame that using these techniques isn’t as satisfying as it could have been though, as an annoying amount of pin-point accuracy is often needed to do it right and most traversal abilities won’t work until the prompt for them is visible, which makes everything feel more stilted than just being able to use them when your naturally in range to do so. Plus, the animations for some of them, the grappling hook in particular, don’t look quite right. Still, the large levels are well designed with lots of splintering paths to explore and mini-bosses and interesting NPCs hidden pretty evenly throughout.

Salt and Sacrifice’s art direction is perhaps the most familiar part of it all that only lets characters move flatly and at their most basic joints, which doesn’t give different personalities much with which to express themselves. It’s certainly done better here than how a lot of other games handle the style though, as it’s accompanied by a lot of great background detail, multiple independent layers behind and in front of the action, as well as a nicely withered and pale look that gives the whole vibe of the game a desolate, moody character that’s hard to not like. I just wish the animation style was as expanded as the rest of the visuals instead of bottlenecking them with dimensionless movement.

"For veterans of Soulslikes, especially 2D ones, Salt and Sacrifice will fit neatly into your library as yet another largely successful interpretation of the subgenre. Those looking for the next level of challenge, artistic creativity, or gameplay innovation in it will almost certainly be left wanting though, as so much of this game’s DNA has already been explored countless times."

The sound effects and music seem to have been intentionally minimal throughout most of the game. While no sounds feel wrong or out of place, nothing really caught my ear as particularly interesting either. With that, and only the occasional decent piece of music rumbling beneath the more meaningful battles and revelatory moments, there’s not nearly as much to talk about with this game’s sound as I wish there was. Still yet, what’s here certainly serves its purpose.

For veterans of Soulslikes, especially 2D ones, Salt and Sacrifice will fit neatly into your library as yet another largely successful interpretation of the subgenre. Those looking for the next level of challenge, artistic creativity, or gameplay innovation in it will almost certainly be left wanting though, as so much of this game’s DNA has already been explored countless times. Still, while Salt and Sacrifice’s few wrinkles do add to the format, and with how well the boss fights pop off the screen, it’s still a game that has much more to like about it than not.

This game was reviewed on PC.

Where the latter has concerned, new details have emerged, thanks to a new update on the PlayStation Blog, written by James Silva of Devoured Studios. PvP will feature several improvements that, according to Silva, will make it more “dynamic” than it was in Salt and Sanctuary. Abilities such as sprinting and various sprinting attacks have been added, while players can also use grappling hooks. Meanwhile, there are also Runic Arts, which Silva describes as “powerful situational abilities employed by the Inquisition–from lightning shockwaves and pursuing insect swarms to elemental buffs and storms of spectral blades.”

Meanwhile, new details on the game’s setting and story are also revealed. We know, of course, that Salt and Sacrifice will see players playing as a member of the Inquisition, an ancient and mysterious order that hunts and kills mages- and that’s what your ultimate goal is going to be. It seems, however, that the Inquisition has factions within it fighting against each other as well.

The Shroud Alliance is an overzealous sect that sticks to every letter of the Inquisition’s charters, the profit-seeking Bluehart Runners “pilfer the frontier of its unique magical materials”, while a new trailer of the game, which you can view below, also mentions a faction called Chaos Hunger.

Finally, a release date has also been revealed for the game. Salt and Sacrifice will launch for PS5, PS4, and PC on May 10. On PC, it’ll be available exclusively via the Epic Games Store.

Defeating a Mage provides several Eldritch materials for crafting new weapons and gear. One such set provides poison damage and it can be very useful when playing alongside a tankier character. Sure enough, we see this in action with some new multiplayer footage. Along with showing off, the chance of gaining some rewards from a boss during co-op are good incentive to jump in.

Salt and Sacrifice is currently slated to release for PS4, PS5 and PC in 2022. The PC version will be exclusive to the Epic Games Store. For more details and gameplay, head here and stay tuned for more in the coming months.

Salt and Sacrifice is a follow-up to Salt and Sanctuary but is set against the backdrop of Mages being the main threat. As the Mages bring Altarstone Kingdom to ruin, it’s the job of the Marked Inquisitors to stop them. Along with utilizing weapons, they can also harness runic arts and use materials from the Mages to create powerful items. There are eight starting classes and options for customizing one’s appearance.

Online co-op is fully supported (though you can also summon others temporarily) but doing so will cause fiends to infiltrate the player’s world and target them. Thankfully, there are multiple factions to join like the Shroud Alliance (who specialize in PvP) or Dawnlight Order which offers more noble assistance. Stay tuned for more details on Salt and Sacrifice in the coming months.

While co-op had already been confirmed for Salt and Sacrifice, it has now been confirmed that the game will feature PvP as well. Silva explains some of the mechanics, and talks about the various factions that will be crucial to the game’s PvP (though some will be related to PvE as well). Check out the video below for more details.

Salt and Sacrifice is currently in the works for PS5, PS4, and PC, and will launch some time in 2022. You can get an extended look at its gameplay and see how it’s shaping up through here.

https://youtu.be/JfP7LXUJjeI

While there are new features like a grappling hook, Salt and Sacrifice also makes key improvements to its interface. You can now select individual slots for equipment instead of having to navigate an entire list of everything owned. Animations also look to be improved though the aesthetic maintains the dark and moody atmosphere of the original.

Another interesting bit seems to be having enemies fight each other to thin their numbers a bit. Of course, traps like the classic swinging log remain so you’ll need to be vigilant. Salt and Sacrifice is out in 2022 for PS4, PS5 and PC. Stay tuned for more details on it in the coming months.

The fantastic 2D Souls-like indie game Salt and Sanctuary will be making the jump to Xbox One, the developers confirmed today. The best part? The game will be coming to Xbox One in just a few short weeks, with an announced release date of February 6 meaning you won’t have to wait too long for the game to hit Microsoft’s platform.

The title will cost $18 on Xbox One, and will be ported by BlitWorks. For those of you who like challenging platformers, Souls games, or Metroidvania style titles, this is definitely worth a buy (and at the price, is practically a steal as well). It’s good to see the game coming to more platforms yet as well, and expand its audience—the title originally launched as a PS4 exclusive, then went on to hit, in order, PC, PS Vita, Nintendo Switch, and now of course, Xbox One.

If you’re unsure on what kind of game it is, make sure to check out the Xbox One announcement trailer for the game below.

Do you remember Salt and Sanctuary? The excellent 2D Souls-like game launched originally on PS4, with a PS Vita and PC release following afterwards. It was a great game, and a wonderful translation of the Souls concept to the 2D sidescroller format. Now, it will be coming to Nintendo’s Switch.

Ska Studios announced today that they will be bringing the game to Nintendo’s hybrid on August 2 (as in, literally next week), with BlitWorks having been brought in to help them out with the port. It will be available for $18, and will launch with support for a whole host of languages- English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Traditional and Simplified Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. Plus, if you like your games physical, even on Switch for some reason, there’s more good news- Salt and Sanctuary: Drowned Tome Edition will be available at retail this Holiday season.

Given the success of games like Hollow Knight on Switch, as well as the continued, inexplicable delays the Switch version of Dark Souls Remastered is suffering, this is sure to find an enthusiastic and receptive audience on the Switch. You can check out a trailer for it below.