Salt and Sacrifice

 PlayStation 5
User Score
4.9

Generally unfavorable reviews- based on 40 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 13 out of 40
  2. Mixed: 7 out of 40
  3. Negative: 20 out of 40

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  1. Kaiba777
    May 14, 2022
    7
    Hunt Mages system is bad , also this game has a lot of random things like enemies or bosses , overall salt and sanctuary was better
  2. Birdie
    May 14, 2022
    7
    Edit: I got used to the controls and the game was actually really fun after I learned how to coop. More fun and easier. So I raised the score from 4 to 7. The controls are horrible!
    You really have to wait for every move to play out before you can attack for example. Try blocking with the shield and hit the enemy after it hits the shield. Nope. You have to wait. And the enemy will hit you    Edit: I got used to the controls and the game was actually really fun after I learned how to coop. More fun and easier. So I raised the score from 4 to 7. The controls are horrible!
    You really have to wait for every move to play out before you can attack for example. Try blocking with the shield and hit the enemy after it hits the shield. Nope. You have to wait. And the enemy will hit you instead. You roll for way to far. You will end up to far away from the enemy. And you will either miss or hit in the wrong direction. Yes, you read it right. You will experience this many many times. As I said, you have to WAIT for every move to finish before a new input from the controller can be added. So roll, wait for it to reeaaaaaally finish, turn around and then you can hit. I can go on forever with this. Do you need QA people?!? I’m pretty disappointed and feel like I wasted my money. It’s not that expensive but I’d rather use my money for something that’s more fun than frustrating. Elden Ring for example..    … Expand
  3. tmillet2017
    May 18, 2022
    7
    If it ain't broke, don't fix it. That about sums up this game for me.

    Salt and Sanctuary was absolute gold. I wish they hadn't caved to the pressure to make changes... all we wanted was more Salt and Sanctuary.
  4. IIIAHMIII
    May 24, 2022
    7
    Would give it a higher rating but they made one bad terrible call on this game. The last boss is such a joke you will enter new game plus without knowing and if you join a friend after to clear up the trophies you can't pick anything up anymore. Forcing you in another 35 hours play time. Thanks
  5. snallegub
    May 5, 2023
    3
    First game was great. I played it through twice. This game is not good. Controls are solid but there is just so much brain dead design choices, chaos and unfairness going on that it does not matter. You need to hunt down same bosses over over and over again. While those flee in the stage. Same time you need to of course face all the enemies of the stage too. Most of the time you areFirst game was great. I played it through twice. This game is not good. Controls are solid but there is just so much brain dead design choices, chaos and unfairness going on that it does not matter. You need to hunt down same bosses over over and over again. While those flee in the stage. Same time you need to of course face all the enemies of the stage too. Most of the time you are fighting on a ledge or climbing there and one hit and you get thrown off and die. Enemies just wait for you on the edge to hit you. You try to shoot them but most of them have unbreakable shield they use to just block the hit every single time. They are flawless in the blocking and take zero damage. Fights are most of the time pure chaos and you will 100% get hit. There might be two bosses/mages on screen and there is no way for you to avoid getting hit.

    Health and mana potions are tied to resources as well as any ammo you use. So have fun grinding those out when you notice those are running low. Since you 100% have to do this and let me just tell you how irritating it is when you are trying to fight a boss and have to go and collect those and if you leave the area you need to start from the beginning to get back to the boss. They really ruined the game by these idiotic decisions like what morons.    … Expand
  6. Fogado
    May 15, 2022
    2
    Salt and Sacrifice takes the worst aspects of old school Monster Hunter and Souls games, mashing them together into a frustrating, boring and repetitive mess. Do yourself a favor, forget about this game and get Salt and Sanctuary.
  7. balleando
    May 28, 2022
    4
    Salt and Sanctuary, albeit imperfect, was a small gem and became a classic for soulslike fans. This game is garbage! Instead of releasing a cleaner, more polished version of its amazing predecessor, this game has all the flaws of Sanctuary and adds on top a ton of new flaws! Souls like does NOT mean that everything has to be frustrating. Sacrifice is not fun, at all, it’s just frustration,Salt and Sanctuary, albeit imperfect, was a small gem and became a classic for soulslike fans. This game is garbage! Instead of releasing a cleaner, more polished version of its amazing predecessor, this game has all the flaws of Sanctuary and adds on top a ton of new flaws! Souls like does NOT mean that everything has to be frustrating. Sacrifice is not fun, at all, it’s just frustration, poorly designed mechanics, absurd damage output, chaos and imbalance. Such a wasted opportunity… Expand
  8. Taux
    May 22, 2022
    4
    Salt and Sanctuary was a pretty dam good game, Salt and Sacrifice... not so much.
    I really tried to enjoy it but towards the end of the game, the **** just started pissing me off.
    The main boss fights were ok, nothing memorable, but the mage hunting system is where the **** starts. Getting to the mages itself is a matter of fighting multiple monsters and the boss to then chase it to    Salt and Sanctuary was a pretty dam good game, Salt and Sacrifice... not so much.
    I really tried to enjoy it but towards the end of the game, the **** just started pissing me off.
    The main boss fights were ok, nothing memorable, but the mage hunting system is where the **** starts. Getting to the mages itself is a matter of fighting multiple monsters and the boss to then chase it to another area where you do the same until you get to a boss arena, and sometimes the level's regular monsters will fight them too which is alright. The problem starts when you enter a boss arena and the random monsters show up and start beating the crap out of you, or even worse, monsters come through the fog gate and join in the beatdown. It seems really random and beyond frustrating when you're trying to run back to save your salt to just get gimped by something that comes out of the fog gate. It was a struggle just to get back to the some of the mages with everything around it dead. Some of the mages were really tightly tuned but I don't really have any more critique on them specifically.
    The skill tree UI was either too big or too small, and UI for the crafting and upgrading could use some big improvement. Controls felt fine. Storyline was meh.
    You take away some of the frustrating aspects of the mage hunting and the game easily becomes a 7/10.    … Expand
  9. Ramas
    May 15, 2022
    3
    Sadly first game was much much better and i mean like 5 times better if not more, this one seems like experiment, no interesting story, no interesting exploration, even bosses are quite bad. finished it in 35 hours hoping there will be something interesting, but nope, even ending is boring and no warning once you finish game cant explore anymore have to start from beginning.
  10. Spitfire85
    Jun 3, 2022
    0
    Do not buy this crap ! It has nothing to do with salt and sanctuary , mage hunt system is a mess , game is totally inbalanced, only thing you will get is a mass of frustration.
  11. TheRealBando
    May 16, 2022
    9
    Solid souls like experience mixed with Monster Hunter elements all in a 2D game… didn’t expect much from the game only being £13 but had a blast with it! They done a good job
  12. Melodicdeathjaz
    Jul 9, 2022
    9
    Loved it. Loved the added monster hunter esque features that keeps this series fresh. Played as a typical warrior class 1st and 2nd playthrough and mage on 3rd and 4th. Plenty of other ways to play also, and I plan to fo more. Put about 100hrs into it, getting the platinum trophies on both ps4 and ps5 and still wanna gonback and play it. It is an overall great sequel
  13. Haudacow
    May 12, 2022
    9
    I played a lot of the previous game, and I mean a lot. I’d get home from college for a little and my brother and I would boot it up and play the addicting coop nonstop. It was that classic coop fun, and I’m happy to say that it’s just gotten better with Salt and Sacrifice. The multiplayer is seamless and feels so good. I never once felt like I was sitting out on the game when I made aI played a lot of the previous game, and I mean a lot. I’d get home from college for a little and my brother and I would boot it up and play the addicting coop nonstop. It was that classic coop fun, and I’m happy to say that it’s just gotten better with Salt and Sacrifice. The multiplayer is seamless and feels so good. I never once felt like I was sitting out on the game when I made a mistake and died like in salt and sanctuary. With the addition of online coop you even get your full screen and are no longer bound by the previous games borders. Bosses are exciting with the mage hunts and I was always excited to find the next mage to hunt down and fight, looking for that next monster to face. Enemies are interesting and well designed, with only a few which felt like a little cheesy. The map world design is gorgeous and the new tools you can use at your disposal are the cherry on top. My only complaint it that sometimes the more difficult mage hunts throw several mages on screen at once. While it’s cool to see them fighting one another, it’s too cluttered at times, and can be downright infuriating when you get swamped by 2-3 bosses at the same time who each summon minions. Overall though Salt and Sacrifice is a fantastic game, with more customization and freedom then the first, while also being easy to pick up and go. This is easily a must buy if you love challenges, but also just a fun game to sit back and play with a friend. I wouldn’t skip out on this one! It’s crazy that 2 people made this game, and well done to them for this incredible experience. It’s just as addicting as a high profile game like Elden Ring.… Expand
  14. VajraEnki
    Jul 10, 2022
    1
    You want to do something different, not be the second part, good for me. Definitly it's a worse game, but he's been valiant, and the wizard mechanics are interesting. However at the playable level it is very bad: all enemy attacks send you to fly, you spend half the game flattened on the ground, it's ridiculous.

    And worst of all is the extreme verticality for two reasons: the first is    You want to do something different, not be the second part, good for me. Definitly it's a worse game, but he's been valiant, and the wizard mechanics are interesting. However at the playable level it is very bad: all enemy attacks send you to fly, you spend half the game flattened on the ground, it's ridiculous.

    And worst of all is the extreme verticality for two reasons: the first is that if they send you flying it's over. The second thing is that the mobility is the worst I have ever seen in a metroidvania, 90% of the times that I have died in this game have been because when jumping the character did not grab the ledge.

    Everything was over, there was nothing left for me to do in the game but to go for the final boss, for that you have to climb... and before reaching it I have died 11 times because the character did not grab to the ledges, This game is not difficult, it is disgusting.    … Expand
  15. The_Great_Wumbo
    May 16, 2022
    0
    DO NOT BUY THIS GAME The worst indie game of 2022. A complete and utter failure at launch. The mechanics ripped from Monster Hunter? Bad. The lack of a map, tedious level traversal with no fast travel and a braindead hub where everything is out of reach for the sake of wasting your time? Bad.

    But above all, the games greatest sin for sure; the actual fights. Holy mother of God, the    DO NOT BUY THIS GAME The worst indie game of 2022. A complete and utter failure at launch. The mechanics ripped from Monster Hunter? Bad. The lack of a map, tedious level traversal with no fast travel and a braindead hub where everything is out of reach for the sake of wasting your time? Bad.

    But above all, the games greatest sin for sure; the actual fights. Holy mother of God, the bosses and enemies in this game were NOT TESTED. I would bet my life that this greedy (or lazy or incompetent) little indie company didn't bother to launch the game with actual QA testing done beforehand because it is absolute inconceivable that anyone playing this game would have not complained about virtually every single **** Bosses have no rest in between their attacks and your stamina depletion is the cherry on top of this frustrating gameplay.    … Expand
  16. Jilllloyd23
    Mar 23, 2023
    9
    Salt and Sacrifice is beautiful chaos in terms of it's systems and gameplay. What's interesting is that rather than sticking to a formula, Ska Studios and Devourer instead made the Dark Souls 2 of the Salt and Sanctuary series, a polarizing game that's not afraid to upend the expected mechanics from the first game.
    Rather than a traditional soulslike, this comes closer to the roguelike    Salt and Sacrifice is beautiful chaos in terms of it's systems and gameplay. What's interesting is that rather than sticking to a formula, Ska Studios and Devourer instead made the Dark Souls 2 of the Salt and Sanctuary series, a polarizing game that's not afraid to upend the expected mechanics from the first game.
    Rather than a traditional soulslike, this comes closer to the roguelike chaos of something like Rift Wizard where you're just fascinated by what is happening on the screen.
    Yes, it's not perfect and if you're coming to this game hoping things that were issues in the first game would be fixed in this round, you'll be disappointed. But there's also something admirable in the way Ska Studios is attached to their problems as well as their successes.    … Expand
  17. Ughhh
    Dec 27, 2022
    0
    Why did they break a good formula? They bring back the bad early soulslike mistakes, and add nothing interesting. Fights are 90% easy, and difficulty is only due to cheap one hit kills. Was really looking forward to this game, but its really not worth the time
  18. StrelokSparrow
    Jun 25, 2023
    1
    I'd highly recommend playing "salt and sanctuary" instead, Unfortunately salt and sacrifice seems to not fully grasp what made the first so good and alot of the innovation / changes in the second simply fail
  19. Auverus
    May 19, 2023
    0
    Fans of Salt and Sanctuary should stay far away from this terrible sequel. I've been playing games since the Atari was mainstream and this is one of the worse games I have ever played. It feels half finished, there are little options for most of the weapon types, especially at the high end, outside of the bosses, most enemies only drop ammo or healing stock, etc. It feels as though theFans of Salt and Sanctuary should stay far away from this terrible sequel. I've been playing games since the Atari was mainstream and this is one of the worse games I have ever played. It feels half finished, there are little options for most of the weapon types, especially at the high end, outside of the bosses, most enemies only drop ammo or healing stock, etc. It feels as though the developers realized the only had two hours worth of game play a month before release and decided to make everything longer, slower, and more repetitive to make you play longer. The multiplayer option is jammed in awkwardly and never feels like a natural part of the game, but rather a 2010 style facebook game pyramid scheme. Other reviews here talk about the difficulty, but most of these is not achieved by complex, well thought-out boss battles like Hollow Knight or S&S, but rather with far too many ways to be knocked off a ledge, ragdoll physics out of a cartoon, and enemies that do excessive damage and spam screen-wide attacks. The sole piece of redeeming value found here is a cute cat in your home-base that you can pet.… Expand

Awards & Rankings

90
#90 Best PlayStation 5 Game of 2022
71
#71 Most Discussed PlayStation 5 Game of 2022

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
73

Mixed or average reviews - based on 14 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 7 out of 14
  2. Mixed: 7 out of 14
  3. Negative: 0 out of 14
  1. RPGamer
    Sep 6, 2022
    70
    Salt and Sacrifice is, by and large, a faithful continuation in the niche Ska Studios carved out for itself with Salt and Sanctuary. Nearly every element will be immediately familiar to those who’ve played its predecessor, with gameplay that sees all the common action RPG staples carried out admirably. However, it’s in its one novel concept, mage hunts, that it misses the mark a bit, as these add some frustrating pieces to the puzzle without really bringing anything worthwhile and unique to the formula. While it may clock in a bit below its predecessor in terms of overall package, main gameplay staples like combat and exploration continue to be of enjoyably high quality, and make this series’ second outing a worthwhile entry.
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  2. GameCritics
    Jul 21, 2022
    65
    While I found Salt and Sacrifice worth breaking at least one controller over, it’s not for every Souls fan as it commits bizarre mistakes in design and comes with a few baffling omissions — in some ways, the experience is the total opposite of Hidetaka Miyazaki’s teachings. I’m glad I finished it, but it’s not an easy one to recommend.
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  3. PLAY
    Jun 29, 2022
    60
    Mixing Dark Souls with Monster Hunter all in 2D sounds like it shouldn’t work. And it 6 doesn’t. This evolution doesn’t shine as brightly as the original. [Issue#16, p.142]
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