Salt and Sacrifice Review – Consumed By Frustration

As I try to get my nerves under control, the sting of yet another death begins to fade. I’m preparing to clash with a Sanguimancer I’ve tried to slay a dozen times. Maybe I’ll learn something new as I dash back into the fray, though I’ve been down this path many times on prior hunts, and I know I’m more likely to survive on sheer luck than anything else. I often feel empty of pride and guilt when Salt and Sacrifice is used.

I choose a class and customize my marionette-like character. I then enter an interminable battle with a terrifying beast. I die as fast as I thought. Salt and Sacrifice demonstrates that the Dark Souls are still a part of this beast’s sleeve. An herbalist uses mystical arts to revive my avatar, who is now a “Spellmarked” being that’s not quite living or dead, but somewhere in-between. Marked Inquisitors were the ones that brought me back with their dark magic. Their goal was to destroy mages by eating their hearts and hunt them down.

A runic portal within the Inquisitor settlement allows me to travel anywhere I can use the runic words. Marked Inquisitors have many destinations they can visit to find Mages, including the damp, deciduous Ashborne Village and the dry, ruinous Bol Gerahn. There are only a few locations available, but they can be very expansive. You will find many caves, enclaves and beautiful vertical landscapes. This is where I learned to fight, hacking, and slashing any trolls and spiders that tried to get in my path. Other than the Highblade class, you can swing thunderous hammers or crack deadly whips, and cast arcane curses at your foes.

Learning the intricacies of each area was a great experience. For example, I discovered where my prey would be most likely to appear. Also I found out which plants I could use for valuable healing products. You will need several mage heart to unlock certain areas. A grappling hook and a parachutist-like cloth are needed to reach unreachable places. It is thrilling to step foot into a dangerous place. This was a highlight for me during my time at Salt and Sacrifice.

The Marked Inquisitors are hunting mages who were once normal people before they went too far with their magic. They’ve become monstrosities embodying whatever element they specialize in, like pyromancy, venomancy, or chronomancy, and each poses a considerable threat to the player. An Inquisitor is assigned to follow these monstrous mages and kill the minions before their boss moves on to the next area. This continues until the mage settles down in a final battle area, where they can consume their hearts and remove their power.

The Salt and Sacrifice Experience’s mainstay, the mage hunt, is a nuisance in many cases. I’ve found myself properly leveled and geared up, with my armor and weapons upgraded, and I still end up getting caught repeatedly by minions who stun-lock me into oblivion or blast me off a cliff to my death. The fight against the mages is a confusing mix of powerful attacks and uninteresting patterns by the tall threats. It will cost me a lot of time, even all of it. I’m all for punishing bosses and challenging encounters, but mages are usually a snore to learn the patterns of, and their cheap shots cause an abundance of frustration.

Besting a mage and consuming its heart grants a motherlode of items that can be crafted into armor and weapons representative of that mage and its elements – physical, fire, cold, light, dark, and/or poison. Mages can be found outside hunting quests as well, allowing for more materials to be gathered to craft an entire set of gear. I’ve enjoyed tracking specific targets to land ingredients to create the next set of equipment I needed to make another fight bearable with proper elemental defenses. Due to my character, I’m unable to use many of the hard-earned armor and weapons without severe penalties.

Salt and Sacrifice’s progression systems are unintuitive and limit any flexibility enabled by crafting new equipment by locking the use of gear in the skill web. The salt I get from enemies will give me a modest HP boost as well as Black Starstone which can be used to unlock the Tree of Skill nodes. You can use some skills to increase your stats. Others unlock armor, weapons, and quality tiers. I found it difficult to successfully use the armor I built, even though I explored the Highblade weapons and dexterity path. And to use the flame-imbuing special move of my preferred katana requires me to contribute to one of two magical paths of the web. Many times, I’ll want to try out the different weapon and armor combinations I’ve collected ingredients for and crafted, but the restrictions in place make that obtuse and difficult to do so freely. Though, when I am prepared with the proper gear and skill tree unlocks, a mage’s attack may end up killing me instantly, making it a moot point anyway.

Salt and Sacrifice are two things I really want to love. The world was fascinating, the concepts of crafting and hunting were all enjoyable, as well as the moody environment that kept me occupied for many hours. Its clunky progression system and numerous maddening encounters with enemies quickly makes it easy to forget the good times.