No doubt about it, Salt and Sanctuary wears its inspiration on its sleeve. All the classic Souls mechanics are plain to see with not-Estus, not-Resins, and even a not-Siegmeyer, and it mixes in a lot of Metroidvania-style exploration complete with unlocking new means of mobility. The combat is fast-paced, the aesthetic visceral and very unclean (to say nothing of the lore of many enemies), and for the most part what it takes wholesale from the Souls games it does right, as well as what it does to mix things up.
The Tree of Skill takes some getting used to since it takes a while for you to really have options with it, and you can end up having to purchase skills or stat boosts you don't really need for your build just because they're in between where you are and what you want. Still, experience comes fairly easy in the game (provided you don't lose it) and even in the endgame it's fairly easy to grind for levels or items.
That said though, the game's 2D nature leads it to have a lot more emphasis on platforming, and come the Red Hall of Cages, lethal falls are going to become the norm vary quickly. Sometimes it's not too bad, but when dealing with enemies on small platforms when they have potent knockback effects, deaths might end up coming fast and frequent until you manage to pull things off just right. Add on the fact that if a big enough enemy is sitting down at the very edge of a platform you need to get on you're gonna have to poke it to death with projectiles or risky jump-in attacks, and yeah. The platforming can get hellish, especially when you rarely can tell if a fall you're about to take is fatal or not.
Tragically, some builds also just aren't cut out for things in the long run. My first run was as a knife user, and things were pretty solid until the aforementioned Red Hall, and after that more and more enemies and bosses appeared with a strong resistance to slash-type damage, leaving me to sometimes be doing single-digit damage to bosses with thousands of HP. The game annoyingly does not specify the damage types of various weapons either, so my best guess is that the only strike-based Dex weapons are pistols... which are also extremely heavy and run contrary to the ideal of having a fast, lightweight character. Point being: at least for the moment, don't play a dagger character unless you know what you're getting into.
While staying true to the ambiguous, vague narrative style of the Souls games, S&S still tells its own, unique, and disturbing story of decadence and greed. The in-game world itself serves as a peculiar vertical slice of mad despots with standalone stories, but the further you go in the further things come together, before things get literally turned on their heads come the final areas.
If you have a PS4 and can't wait for DS 3 to come out, give it a shot and maybe it'll tide you over. Everyone else... well unlike Bloodborne at least this thing IS going to get ported.
Videogame A triumph of emulation
No doubt about it, Salt and Sanctuary wears its inspiration on its sleeve. All the classic Souls mechanics are plain to see with not-Estus, not-Resins, and even a not-Siegmeyer, and it mixes in a lot of Metroidvania-style exploration complete with unlocking new means of mobility. The combat is fast-paced, the aesthetic visceral and very unclean (to say nothing of the lore of many enemies), and for the most part what it takes wholesale from the Souls games it does right, as well as what it does to mix things up.
The Tree of Skill takes some getting used to since it takes a while for you to really have options with it, and you can end up having to purchase skills or stat boosts you don't really need for your build just because they're in between where you are and what you want. Still, experience comes fairly easy in the game (provided you don't lose it) and even in the endgame it's fairly easy to grind for levels or items.
That said though, the game's 2D nature leads it to have a lot more emphasis on platforming, and come the Red Hall of Cages, lethal falls are going to become the norm vary quickly. Sometimes it's not too bad, but when dealing with enemies on small platforms when they have potent knockback effects, deaths might end up coming fast and frequent until you manage to pull things off just right. Add on the fact that if a big enough enemy is sitting down at the very edge of a platform you need to get on you're gonna have to poke it to death with projectiles or risky jump-in attacks, and yeah. The platforming can get hellish, especially when you rarely can tell if a fall you're about to take is fatal or not.
Tragically, some builds also just aren't cut out for things in the long run. My first run was as a knife user, and things were pretty solid until the aforementioned Red Hall, and after that more and more enemies and bosses appeared with a strong resistance to slash-type damage, leaving me to sometimes be doing single-digit damage to bosses with thousands of HP. The game annoyingly does not specify the damage types of various weapons either, so my best guess is that the only strike-based Dex weapons are pistols... which are also extremely heavy and run contrary to the ideal of having a fast, lightweight character. Point being: at least for the moment, don't play a dagger character unless you know what you're getting into.
While staying true to the ambiguous, vague narrative style of the Souls games, S&S still tells its own, unique, and disturbing story of decadence and greed. The in-game world itself serves as a peculiar vertical slice of mad despots with standalone stories, but the further you go in the further things come together, before things get literally turned on their heads come the final areas.
If you have a PS4 and can't wait for DS 3 to come out, give it a shot and maybe it'll tide you over. Everyone else... well unlike Bloodborne at least this thing IS going to get ported.