If you liked Dark Soulsy side-scroller Salt And Sanctuary, I have some great news. I got hands-on with an early portion of its sequel Salt And Sacrifice, and it seems set to deliver all the things that made its predecessor tick. The punishing enemies, the smooth combat, the vast skill trees, and the interconnected world are all still doing good things, but this time around they've just been joined by a few new additions, or seen some tweaks to keep things fresher, but no less difficult.
]]>Salt And Sacrifice is a “soulslike”, which is a latin for “Can you do this bit for me?” The 2D slasher sequel to Salt And Sanctuary was only announced a few weeks ago, but there’s already more to see. Here's nearly 10 minutes of footage of the upcoming game, showing blocks, chops, and the cool power of friendship.
]]>For those who crave more 2D Dark Souls in their lives, Ska Studios announced Salt And Sacrifice during the Summer Game Fest today. The hack 'n' slash metroidvania looks very much like its 2016 predecessor, Salt And Sanctuary, but with more character classes, new areas to explore,and my personal favourite: proper online co-op. It's coming out at the start of next year, check out the trailer below.
]]>If only you could have heard the RPS treehouse chat a few months ago, during the great Metroidvania debate of 2017. Battle lines were drawn. On the one side: John, insisting that of course Dead Cells isn't a Metroidvania. On the other side: everyone else, calling John an old fogey for insisting on overly strict and out-dated genre boundaries. On the other other side: the sensible people, who probably didn't get involved because this is a silly discussion that's of no consequence whatsoever.
Still, I was in the second group, and can't help but picture the smug look on John's face as he dropped news of the "Not a Metroidvania" Steam bundle into our Trello this morning. It includes the best game of 2017, the splendid Sundered, the Dark Souls-esque Salt and Sanctuary, and the comparatively essless Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition. John likes all of them, but what does he know.
]]>If you go on Twitter, where every second image is of a dog being cuddled, rated, or dressed up as a Star Wars character, it's a reasonable assumption that every year is the year of the dog - however Valve, not to mention the ancient Chinese zodiac, are here to tell you that's not the case. As of today, it legitimately is the year of the dog, which is why Valve's latest sale is adorned with images of famous game pups including Okami's Amaterasu, Half-Life 2's DOG, and I, er, don't recognise any of the other doggos.
]]>There's no shortage of great Metroidvanias out there these days, so to help narrow your search for what to play next, we've put together this list of the very best Metroidvania games to play on PC right now. Metroidvanias can be a little tricky to define at times. Most have big, knotty worlds to explore that often require the use of specific abilities to access its farthest corners, but while some put a greater emphasis on slow and methodical combat, others stuff every pixel with rock hard platforming challenges to test their players' mettle. We like to keep an open mind when it comes to these things, but that does mean our list of the best Metroidvanias may include the odd controversial choice or two. What's important, though, is that all of these games are brilliant, and come with our seal of approval.
]]>I finally completed Dark Souls III [official site] last week, a world that I have been dipping in and out of between bouts of listlessness since its release in April last year. It didn’t grip me like the first revered Dark Souls, but it still made me sad to know it was all over. Where could I go now for my Souls fix? The answer, it turns out, is loads of places. The games industry is quietly reverberating with the series’ influence. From small games boasting “souls-like” combat, to bigger games doing weird things with death and player messages. Meanwhile, our PlayStation brethren got Nioh, which took the “pocket full o’ souls” idea and simply renamed them “Amrita”. There is a popular complaint that everything in the industry is now being compared to Dark Souls, and it's easy to forget that games embraced difficulty and strangeness long before the Bed of Chaos made you weep with frustration. Nevertheless, the mechanics and the tone of Miyazaki’s magnum opus is leaking into games everywhere.
That there's an influx of Soulsian disciples out there isn’t a problem to me. My problem is that they are learning all the wrong lessons. At least, they are neglecting the most important one. But first let’s look at what sly tricks are being lifted from the series, and who is lifting them.
]]>Everything I love about Dark Souls is everything that makes me want to scream in Salt and Sanctuary [official site].
]]>We're not even at the halfway point and 2016 is already one of the best years for PC gaming that I can remember. XCOM 2 and Darkest Dungeon already seem like distant memories, and this month alone we've had Kathy Rain, Stellaris, DOOM, Salt and Sanctuary, Overwatch and Total War: Warhammer. Today there's another Hitman episode incoming and after the joy of Sapienza, I can't wait to get stuck into Marrakesh. I've been starved of games for half of the month thanks to holidays and press trips so I've undoubtedly missed some splendid releases, so I put it to you, dear readers: what was May's best game?
]]>I realise that Dark Souls comparisons are now overused to the point of near-meaninglessness but Salt and Sanctuary [official site] is, like, really Dark Souls-y. It's a hand-drawn 2D side-on platformer, sure, but does so many Souls-y things from all its parrying and rolling down to needing to go reclaim your souls salt after you die. From what I've heard, it sounds great? Following its debut on PlayStation 4 in March, Salt and Sanctuary is now available on PC. Great!
Salt and Sanctuary [official site] is a gorgeous 2D Dark Souls kinda thing that can be played in either singleplayer or co-op. It's already available on Sony's Drakestation 4 and will be coming to PC. Hopefully that'll happen sooner rather than later, and developers Ska Studios reckon they might well ready to announce the release date later this month. I'm extremely excited about this one, not only because of the good things I've heard from PS4-playing friends, but because Ska's Survival Crisis Z [download link] is still my favourite zombie survival game.
]]>You can tell Ska Studios' Salt and Sanctuary [official site] is a bit Dark Souls-y, because it's got that Souls UI. Just as a gurning mug on an FPS's UI in the '90s let players know they were in for something a wee bit Wolfenstein-y, those red and green bars and that style of font say this is a grim game with plenty of mystery, parrying, and dying. And it is. Salt & Sanctuary may have missed plans to launch last year but here, look at this new trailer's bit of co-op Soulsing.
]]>We skipped over Salt & Sanctuary when it was announced at a PlayStation event last year, but now I've seen a swish video demonstrating its 2D take on Dark Souls-y monster-mashing, I've gone back and noticed oh! It's coming to PC too! That's welcome news, as it seems to smoosh Souls ideas of careful combat, risk management, and needing to pay attention oh no that's a trap you fool why didn't you see it? into 2D platform-o-exploring quite nicely. Come see.
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