Salt and Sanctuary

It’s been a long time, loyal site visitors. But we’re back! And as per Hakeem tradition, I deliver another dose of unforgiving gaming goodness. Today it comes in the form of Salt and Sanctuary, which can best be described as Castlevania and Dark Souls had a baby and produced a brutal side scrolling RPG that’s bound to test even the most seasoned in the genre’s mettle.

This Dark Souls clone starts off like any game in that series, with creating an ugly character, and you’ll be surprised to hear I did not spend as much time creating a character in this RPG as I do most RPGs. After cycling through the fair selection of hairs, beards, and skin tones, I went with a solid “meh, good enough” and selected the Paladin class.

Fairly clichéd plot about kingdoms at war and the only hope on the horizon is the marriage of a princess to opposing kingdoms prince to secure the future of all things, whilst escorting the princess your ship is ransacked by pirates and you’re left stranded ashore after facing an unkillable Cthulian thing, queue challenge accepted.

Stranded ashore you’re asked to select one of three levels of faith that alter the gameplay slightly but add the yummy segregate factioning we all love in any game that may involve other players. Much like Dark Souls other players can leave messages for you that are either very helpful like detailing secret passages or boss weak spots, or others that tell you to abandon all hope and jump off a ledge.

The game is surprisingly haunting and the art style is quite lovely, the combat system is adequately bloodstained and not too intricate which is expected of the genre, but the skill trees are quite diverse, often aggravatingly so, as you’re often forced to pick a stat you do not necessarily want to get to another stat that you do. But thus far that’s my only quam.

The game has a fun local coop (even a PvP) feature for another player to take to the adventure with you at the cost of tougher baddies and more frustrating boss fights, but certainly delivers on the experience nonetheless as you find yourself bloodthirsty and angry to return and destroy your killer to recover your lost Salt (which serve as the soul currency in the game).

It’s certainly not the most brutal game I’ve played, but it’s a refreshing take on a genre many indies have been trying to emulate but have done so quite poorly, I think the closest I’ve come to enjoying a game of similar mechanics had been Rogue Legacy and that was ages ago.

In closing, Salt and Sanctuary is worth a gander, especially given the price tag on Steam. If you’re looking for a friendly couch coop to play with your significant other, this isn’t it. But if you’re looking to hunker down with your chips, dip, patience and wit, then this is certainly the game for you.

Happy hunting!