Beautiful Spectrum

Review

Hyper Light Drifter, Heart Machine (PS4)

Abstract: Hyper Light Drifter is a new classic. The game’s stunning art direction and soundtrack compliment an immensely satisfying gameplay experience. Combat is a perfect balance of simplicity with depth and fluidity with strategy. Hyper Light Drifter creates a world that is easy to get lost in and is filled with hidden secrets. The game does so much with so little and respects the player’s intelligence and perseverance throughout. Hyper Light Drifter should not be missed. It is easily one of 2016’s best.

Hyper Light Drifter makes me jealous. Not as a game designer, not as a critic, but as a scientist. In many ways, Hyper Light Drifter resembles the perfect kind of research manuscript. The game sets itself a goal and accomplishes it with resounding success. And, with what feels little effort. More than that, though, Hyper Light Drifter does so much with so little – it is the perfect combination of small parts that delivers an extraordinary experience. Hyper Light Drifter is simple, but underneath that simplicity (as any good research scientist knows) there almost certainly was an excruciating struggle and peerless work. Hyper Light Drifter is everything I want my own thesis project to be: intrigue, complexity refined into perfect simplicity, and something that immediately grips its audience and doesn’t let go.

A fluorescent-steeped and moody prologue begins your adventure into Hyper Light Drifter. The textless exposition sets the stage of a world destroyed by giant monsters, a deadly disease, a sealed off power, and a people forced to rebuild. The quasi-medieval setting quickly unfolds into something much deeper, with echoes of a lost technological age. Your protagonist is a silent wanderer, donning a flowing cape, glowing sword, and small pistol. He finds himself in a small town with adventure waiting on all sides. The drifter seeks to explore the ruined world and uncover its truths. Along your journey you’ll fight monsters of all shapes and sizes, tyrannical bosses and treacherous terrain. Hyper Light Drifter’s narrative leaves a lot up to the player for interpretation, but by so confidently establishing both mood and lore I was immediately sucked in.

The world calls to me.

The game’s zoomed out isometric perspective gives a great view of its gorgeous world. Usually I wait until later in the review, but I can’t help myself. Hyper Light Drifter is an astoundingly beautiful game. From its animations to its highly detailed pixel art, the game’s aesthetic shines through. Snowy mountains, verdant forests, barren deserts are all wonderfully realized through Hyper Light Drifter’s unique perspective. The world has a certain indefinable charm that exists as a combination of art, music (by the amazing Disasterpiece) and enemy design. In all honesty, the art is what drew me from the start – as early as the game’s embryonic (i.e. Kickstarter) stages. I was so relieved to see the full realization of the designers’ vision in the game’s final release.

Hyper Light Drifter is a 2D action RPG. Gameplay divides nicely into a couple key areas: combat, upgrading your character, and exploration. Hyper Light Drifter’s combat is superb. Fights occur naturally when exploring, in set combat arenas, and against bosses. The drifter has a number of tools to deal with the monsters that flood the world. Your primary weapon is the sword. Enemies can be hit with quick single blows or, if you’ve read their patterns correctly, can be punished with a three-hit combo. Firing your sidearm can damage enemies at a distance. The damage is minimal, unless charged up for a big shot, and ammunition is limited (it refills slowly upon attacking foes with your sword). Your opposition is aggressive, so Hyper Light Drifter also provides the player fantastic tools for escape. You have access to a lightning fast dash move, which can be used offensively or defensively depending on your situation. The player is invulnerable for a short time while dashing, increasing the skill threshold as whole attacks can be mitigated by a well-timed dodge.

Nothing should be underestimated. Hyper Light Drifter
keeps you on your toes.

Combat starts slow as you learn the language of the game. Fluency comes rapidly, though, as your fights become a flashy choreography of dashes and sword strikes and weapon swaps. Mastery feels always just out of reach, perfect for a skill intensive game like Hyper Light Drifter. There’s always more to learn. Your skills are put to the test in boss fights. Bosses run the gamut of shapes and sizes but they always force fluency in some aspect of combat, whether it be pattern recognition, short punishes, or chain dashes. Hyper Light Drifter’s combat also quickly opens up to player customization. You’ll unlock new guns to bolster long distance or close range engagements and new abilities that make battles even more fluid. Combat is a perfect combination of simplicity and depth, risk and reward, and I couldn’t get enough of it.

 

Time to show what you've learned.

Speaking of unlocks, Hyper Light Drifter lives up to its RPG name by featuring a nice suite of methods to power up your hero. Gearbits can be found throughout the world and used as currency to unlock new abilities. Your sword can gain a charge strike to deal massive damage, or a dash strike to attack after a dash. Your dash can gain the ability to chain into itself infinitely and the ability to reflect enemy projectiles. While there are no stats to manage, Hyper Light Drifter does allow for the hero himself to be powered up. You can unlock the ability to carry more health packs, which is essential, as health never regenerates. As you progress through the game, you’ll also come across new outfits for the drifter. These are often more than just an aesthetic change as they can grant bonus abilities like faster ammo recovery or an extra point of health. Hyper Light Drifter is a great RPG while making your RPG-experience as streamlined as possible.

Streamlined or not, I enjoyed Hyper Light Drifter's RPG elements.

Exploration is where Hyper Light Drifter truly shines. Hyper Light Drifter has a world you want to get lost in. Tranquility belies a setting rife with intrigue. Tucked into every nook and cranny of the world is something interesting to see or some new item for your playthrough. The nonverbal communication of the game to the player is fantastic. You’re never told where to go or what path to take—everything is discovered through playing. You’re never told to look for secrets, nor are you told what to do with those secrets. There is a system in place that indicates where a secret hides, but Hyper Light Drifter relies on a player’s intelligence and perseverance to find the pattern. I hate comparing one game I’m reviewing to another, but I can think of no better way to put it here: playing Hyper Light Drifter evokes the same feeling I got playing the original The Legend of Zelda on the NES. The game is a puzzle box that can be solved as rudimentarily, or as meticulously, as you desire. The joy I felt moving from screen to screen scouring for paths is unparalleled in modern gaming. Exploring Hyper Light Drifter is part epic poem and part learning a new language, and the two combine to create something spectacular. There are a precious few games I wish I could erase from my memory so I could experience them again for the first time – Hyper Light Drifter is one of them.

In the spirit of the mostly wordless Hyper Light Drifter I attempted to keep this review brief. I could go on for another thousand words about the satisfying gameplay loop, the hidden bonus challenges, or how the real world around me dissolved while playing. Hyper Light Drifter is one of the most supremely well-designed games I’ve played all year. Hyper Light Drifter not only lived up to expectations, it created a new classic. Hyper Light Drifter is a wide spectrum of excellence not to be missed.

Hyper Light Drifter

5/5

A Drop In The Bucket

Review

Risk of Rain, Hopoo Games (PS4/Vita)

Abstract: Despite sounding like a game tailor made for my gaming interests, Risk of Rain underwhelmed. Buried beneath slow platforming, mundane combat and an overreliance on finding the right items is a wealth of smart systems that demand a better moment-to-moment play experience. I appreciate Risk of Rain’s premise, aesthetics and world and wish that there were more to keep me playing. Despite my issues, however, I generally enjoyed my time with the game. Risk of Rain is not bad, I just wish it could have been better.  When looking at Risk of Rain as zoomed out as its in-game perspective is, I find enough there to recommend to enthusiasts of the genre.

Life and death is measured in pixels. The vast openness, and emptiness, of an alien planet is the only shelter for the sole survivor of a derelict spacecraft. Equipped with basic weapons and little else, your goal is simple: find some way off this deadly planet and stay alive. Turns out neither of those is as simple as they sound. Every action, every decision, carries some risk. Welcome to the world of Risk of Rain.

Risk of Rain started as a student project that grew into something much larger, the freshman outing for the independent studio Hopoo Games. The game, originally released in 2013, was met with critical success. Reading reviews got me excited too. A purchase of a Humble Bundle a couple years ago granted me a PC copy, but I never managed to get controller support to work and therefore never played it. Risk of Rain made its way to PlayStation consoles this May so I knew it was finally time to jump in. Was Risk of Rain all it was cracked up to be? Yes and no.

Risk of Rain is a 2D pixel art action platformer with randomized elements. The game is set in the distant future, in which space travel is common. At the start of the game your vessel, functionally a space train, meets a catastrophic fate—it’s blown to pieces by an alien attack. It turns out your ship was carrying some pretty special cargo, a mysterious piece of technology with untold power. The sole survivor of the attack, your character finds himself on a hostile alien planet. The setting serves as a compelling backdrop for the game at hand.

This strange alien world is a great backdrop for Risk of Rain.

When I saw that Risk of Rain is a platformer with randomized elements I got excited. Spelunky also fits that description and is one of my favorite games of all time. Unfortunately for Risk of Rain, it nails neither the platforming nor randomization in a thoroughly satisfying way. Your character moves incredibly slowly and has short jumps. It makes progressing through each stage a slog, as you know where you want to go but actually going there is slow and unfun. The slowness and heaviness is reinforced by Risk of Rain’s chosen perspective—the view is incredibly zoomed out. Your character is no more than a few pixels on a gigantic backdrop. I appreciate the mood this sets for the game, you do truly feel isolated and insignificant on a strange alien planet, but it reinforced the aesthetic at the expense of gameplay. The large environments only further drive in the fact that your character’s movement is just too stiff. Platforming doesn’t require precision or skill, just time. It’s not great.

 

That tiny little speck in the middle of the screen is my character.
Not that you could really tell.

During your journey throughout the level in search of the exit you’ll face off against a variety of alien foes that want nothing more to end your journey before it begins. Risk of Rain has a nice suite of baddies to combat: tiny lizard people, sky soaring jellyfish, ancient golems, giant ethereal humanoids. Each character you play has four attacks: one basic that can be used constantly, and three special that have cooldown periods after use. Your starting character, The Commando, has a long-range rifle to shoot at foes as well as a dodge roll, explosive shot and concussive fire. The Enforcer, another character, has a short-range shotgun, a riot shield, and a grenade. Playing each of the game’s 12 characters changes the way you approach combat and adds replayability to a game that can be beaten in about 45 minutes. Despite being only a couple pixels large, Risk of Rains cast of characters is replete with personality that lends itself to various play styles and types of players. I loved trying out each of the characters to figure out who best suited me.

Risk of Rain’s combat itself left a lot to be desired, however. Given that the platforming and exploration was not too fun, being let down by the combat felt all the worse. Basic attacks on the whole felt weak, taking many attacks to take down even the most basic of threats. This meant that you had to rely on your three special abilities to deal noteworthy damage. But because these have cooldowns I often found myself just running away from monsters until my abilities had recharged, which led to overlong encounters and a reinforcement of the game’s deliberate pace. Further, enemies chase you relentlessly with little means to escape their attacks. A few characters have mobility options or shields that prevent damage, but many others do not. Given little damage output, this design choice artificially inflates Risk of Rain’s difficulty. It isn’t fun to be swarmed to death with few means of countering the attack. My favorite play sessions happened when I turned the game’s difficulty down to easy, not because I don’t enjoy punishing games (because I do) but because it was the only difficulty in which combat felt fair. Difficult games that feel unfair to the player do not do “difficult” well.

 

Not a whole lot of ways to mitigate damage here. Especially not without
the right couple of items.

Items shape the majority of your experience in Risk of Rain. As you explore each stage, your character levels up and acquires money. Money can be used at stores, to open treasure chests, and on luck-based shrines found throughout the map. Items strengthen your character in various ways: some have passive effects like increasing health regeneration or dealing damage to enemies that come close to you, and others need to be activated, like an item that summons huge meteors down from the sky. There are things I liked about item design in the game. Items stack, increasing their effect or effectiveness, so every single one you find is useful. Acquiring a huge collection of items feels great, you go from a weak defenseless survivor into a wrecking ball of might and space magic. Some item effects are really clever and can single-handedly change the way you approach exploration and combat. Unfortunately, however, playthroughs in Risk of Rain are totally reliant on obtaining great item builds in order to succeed. I say without exaggeration that every single one of my good runs relied on finding an item called the Frost Relic. I had so many runs that I felt like giving up just because I had not found the right kind of items in the first stage or two. You will be overwhelmed by your enemies without the right setup. This creates a terrible problem, and one I have had with other item-reliant games like The Binding of Isaac. My skill should be able to get me from start to finish, items should just bolster my ability. That was never the case in Risk of Rain. It makes the player feel disempowered and like he or she is wasting their time on runs in which they don’t get lucky in finding the right items. 

Not items and fighting a boss? You're going to have a bad time. Slowly.

I wish Risk of Rain had a more enjoyable moment-to-moment play experience, because there are so many smart systems at play. The way in which Risk of Rain creates risk versus reward for exploration is brilliant. Every playthrough features a bar on the right side of the screen that starts empty and indicates “very easy.” The longer you play, the more that bar fills. The higher it gets, the higher the difficulty rises (more monsters, new monsters, tougher monsters). The system is genius in that it makes the player carefully consider how long they want to explore before moving on to the next level. Is it worth killing and exploring more to find more items, even though the monsters are getting progressively stronger the longer you take? If you want a successful run, is it better to speed through the levels or take your time to get the best build? It’s a push-pull that I wish scaffolded a more fun play experience. Risk of Rain also features some great secrets, the kind that make you want to keep coming back. From hidden artifacts, to new characters, Risk of Rain creates a world you want to learn more about. I love the idea of incorporating abilities with cooldowns into new genres (not just MOBAs and hero shooters), and I appreciate their inclusion here, even if they didn’t fit well into the game’s combat.

It is worth noting that Risk of Rain has an impressive presentation. Though small, the pixel art is incredibly detailed and vibrant. Enemies and characters alike have distinct personalities. The game’s backdrops are simple but feel perfectly alien. Risk of Rain’s gigantic end of level bosses are magnificent. The soundtrack is great, nailing that 80s sci-fi vibe that is found throughout the game. As a quick warning, however, playing Risk of Rain on the PlayStation Vita is not ideal. The zoomed out perspective on the Vita’s small screen does not work—to the point in which gameplay can become incomprehensible. Skip the Vita version.

I love the way Risk of Rain looks. I only wish I loved the way it played just as much. 

In the end, my review for Risk of Rain probably sounds more negative than it should. Looking back on my time with the game, it was a mostly enjoyable experience. There is a lot to like. So much of my criticism stems from how narrowly Risk of Rain missed for me. With a few tweaks Risk of Rain would be exceptional. A game I could play for dozens of hours. But it wasn’t, and I only played for 10 or so. Oh well. Risk nothing gain nothing, right?

Risk of Rain

3/5

Supreme Architect

Review

Salt and Sanctuary, Ska Studios (PS4)

Abstract: Salt and Sanctuary is a 2D action-platformer with heavy role-playing game and metroidvania influences. Sold to players as “2D Dark Souls,” Salt and Sanctuary had a lot to live up to. Thankfully, the game met and even exceeded expectations. Salt and Sanctuary skillfully reimagines Dark Souls as a 2D adventure, including hallmarks of the prestigious franchise as well as bringing something new to players. Great combat, punishing difficulty, organic world building and masterfully designed platforming can be found throughout. A few gameplay missteps detract from the final experience, but taken as a whole, Salt and Sanctuary is a remarkable experience that’s well worth playing.

You awaken in a dimly lit room. You’re at sea, aboard a wooden ship buffeted by a turbulent storm. A quick walk down the hallway and you find yourself greeted by a worried looking sailor. Out of nowhere, an assassin comes out of the dark and ends his life in one fell swoop. A bloody display. You were among a group of individuals tasked with protecting a princess in her diplomatic journey across the ocean—your country’s last best hope at peace. Slicing your way through the swashbuckling assassins brings you to the deck of the ship, soaked by the rain’s heavy downpour and enveloped by the all-encompassing blackness of night. In front of you stands something unbelievable. In front of you stands a towering eldritch horror, with hulking arms and flowing tentacles. It’s The Unspeakable Deep. You’re taken out in one hit, only to awaken shipwrecked on a gray, fog-enveloped island. Your journey has truly begun. Prepare to die.

Welcome to Salt & Sanctuary.

That is how the player is introduced to the world of Salt and Sanctuary, a 2D action-platformer from Ska Studios. Salt and Sanctuary comes from an incredibly small independent studio—a husband and wife. The first game in PlayStation’s annual Spring Fever promotion, now titled “Launch Party,” Salt and Sanctuary amassed an eager fanbase as the game was gradually revealed to the public. A lot of that initial excitement at least, stemmed from the game’s clear inspiration: Dark Souls. The developers themselves sold Salt and Sanctuary as a “Soulslike,” a game that draws thematic, world-building and gameplay inspirations from the hugely influential Souls series. I’ve written quite a bit about my love for the Souls series here on The Impact Factor. The term “Soulslike” is new, and one I expect we’ll see with increasing frequency as the industry moves forward. But what are the tenants of a “Soulslike”? If Salt and Sanctuary and the Souls games are any indication it’s (1) a simple but mechanically complex combat system, (2) punishing difficulty based upon pattern recognition and self-improvement, (3) organic world-building through sparse characters interactions, environmental hints, and/or item- and boss-based cues. Ska Studios, through Salt and Sanctuary, intended to make a 2D version of Dark Souls. Did they succeed? Unequivocally yes. And it’s truly remarkable.

Derived from a now fairly long lineage of Souls games, the story of Salt and Sanctuary only gradually makes itself clear as you progress throughout the game. After washing up on The Shivering Shore your objective isn’t clear. You need to move forward. Your quest is part finding a way to get off this foreboding island and part figure out what exactly is happening in this increasingly mysterious place. A short stroll finds you surrounded by undead ghouls as they participate in their festering banquet. It’s clear that there is evil on this island. An evil you’ll have to fight. Perhaps the same evil behind the attack on your boat? As you get further into the game, the true vastness of the island is revealed. There’s a gargantuan ziggurat, a dark woods, a floating castle, a laboratory. The geography is diverse and confusing, but it all fits together. It’s the work of an evil architect, one that’s supremely powerful. I won’t get much more into Salt and Sanctuary’s story in part because it’s worth discovering for yourself and in part because I’m still trying to piece together what all transpired. Suffice to say the narrative is enough to keep the player moving and the world is fascinating enough to keep you hooked.

Explore the world and meet new people. Well, death and monsters mainly.

The core facet of your experience in Salt and Sanctuary, or any Souls game for that matter, is the gameplay. Souls games have been widely praised for how expertly crafted their gameplay systems are. As I have written before, the Souls games “exude complete confidence in every single design decision.” Dark Souls and Bloodborne are masterclasses in excellent game design. So I felt it only fitting to spend the bulk of my review writing about the gameplay in Salt and Sanctuary.  I want to preface my discussion by saying that I am writing from the perspective of someone who is deeply passionate about the Souls games. As someone who scrutinizes the minute details of how I interact with the games. Ska Studios willingly brings comparisons of their title to Dark Souls by selling Salt and Sanctuary as a 2D Souls game. Therefore, even more so than in my other gameplay-focused reviews, I will be more specific and severe in my analysis of Salt and Sanctuary’s gameplay mechanics. I owe that much to a “Soulslike.”

Let’s start with talking about combat, the first hallmark of a Souls game. It’s what you’re engaging with for a majority of your roughly 15-20 hour first playthrough. Salt and Sanctuary’s combat is excellent. Attacking is fast and fluid, but always thoughtful. Every action, attacking or jumping, requires stamina. Stamina is represented by a green bar below your health. You need to wait between attacks to allow your stamina to regenerate which, to be fair, happens quite rapidly. The combat itself is remarkably simple and pulled straight from other Souls games. You need to balance attacks with dodging or blocking, brashness with hesitation while learning enemy attack patterns, and pushing your luck versus stepping away to heal. It’s a dynamic dance of risk and reward that you’ve seen before, but it still works so well. Salt and Sanctuary nails that Souls combat feeling—what you’re doing is simple, but executing your actions perfectly is immensely skill intensive. The combat makes great use of the game’s 2D world, allowing the player to visualize enemies in the 2D space and plan their attack strategy accordingly. See a big brute flanked by two smaller enemies? Try to jump around the map to draw the smaller monsters away to finish them one by one.

Combat in Salt and Sanctuary is deeply satisfying.

Salt and Sanctuary has an incredibly well thought healing item system, keeping it (for the most part) to one “Estus Flask” like restorative item that has a limited number of uses. The uses regenerate upon resting at a checkpoint (sanctuaries). Salt and Sanctuary also has a remarkably clever risk-reward system with wounding & focus. Each time you get hit by an enemy you are wounded, temporarily losing a small portion of your maximum health until you return to a sanctuary. Focus acts a similar way but for your max stamina and it is triggered by casting spells. Both wounding and focus keep you keenly attentive on every moment of gameplay. Get hit too many times before getting to a boss? You’re going to be working with a reduced total health pool that could make the difference between winning and losing. Cast too many spells? Now you not only have to watch when & how you cast spells at the boss, but your ability to roll out of danger is also reduced (it costs stamina!). Wounding and focus add to a solid Souls combat foundation in novel ways and round out an already exceptional combat experience. Hallmark one, check.

Salt and Sanctuary’s combat is not without its faults, however. The chief issue among them is the game’s dodge roll—it just doesn’t one to one translate from 3D to 2D. Rolling is an essential part of the Souls games, as blocking with your shield will often fail you. Overall the roll works well, with telegraphed invincible frames and distance traveled. What doesn’t work, however, is trying to roll around or past enemies. It’s wonky. Because Salt and Sanctuary is a 2D game, rolling past an enemy requires rolling through them. But enemies take up physical space and have their own hitboxes. You cannot be standing in the same place as an enemy, nor walk through them. But it also means that rolling through them (essential for many boss fights) can be hit or miss. Space your roll just slightly incorrectly and you’ll roll into a boss rather than through it. It can lead to frustrating and sometimes cheap-feeling deaths. Not good. Salt and Sanctuary’s combat also has some balance and strategy viability issues too. Fast-hitting low damage weapons are essentially useless with the damage scaling system in place. Heavy hitting weapons like greatswords and greathammers are overpowered, touting little risk with great rewards. Not every weapon has to be equal, but to gain no advantage whatsoever for using a dagger over a greataxe is an issue, albeit small (because I love using giant weapons, per my JRPG heritage).

Using magic won't stop your need to cleanly roll through enemies.
I died a lot by ending up on the wrong side of a monster.

How does Salt and Sanctuary fare when looking at a Souls game’s second hallmark: punishing difficulty based upon pattern recognition and self-improvement? Pretty darn well. Salt and Sanctuary feels like a Souls game. Each new area is nerve wracking and death by silly mistake hides behind every corner. Each new obstacle you overcome leaves you with a sense of elation. You overcame the odds and executed your plan to perfection. All enemies are lethal. One on one you have the advantage, but you’re often pitted against several deadly monsters at once. Monsters and bosses alike have clear patterns ripe for exploitation. Patterns that are essential to memorize if you hope to quickly and efficiently take out your foe. Boss fights are standout in the Souls series and are done well in Salt and Sanctuary too. Bosses range from the grotesque to the dark, from man to monster to everything in between. Visually, bosses are stunning, often placed against dramatic backdrops. Getting better at Salt and Sanctuary does rely on leveling up and improving your weapons and armor, certainly, but even more important is the player’s self-improvement. You are the experience points. I was able to beat 75% of the game on a fresh second playthrough in 3.5 hours because I had gotten better. It is an exceptional, and essential, feeling that I was so happy to see recapitulated in Salt and Sanctuary.

The place where the Souls difficulty begins to stumble, however, is a little over midway through Salt and Sanctuary. The game loses a lot of its challenge. This is due in large part by recycling of enemy and boss attack patterns. It got to the point where I could look at a boss I’ve never seen before and already know how it would attack and how I should dodge. This is where a little more boss diversity would have been nice. There are just too many “big humanlike dude that has 3 attacks.” I can think of no better example than the final boss itself. I beat it on my first try. I’m good at Souls games, but not that good. Neither had I overleveled nor worked too hard to upgrade my weapon. I just looked at the boss and figured (correctly) what its attack patterns would be. The final boss in particular should be the culmination of your experience with the game and a final test of the skills you’ve gained throughout. In Salt and Sanctuary, the final boss (and several others along the way) were a bit of a letdown.

Not as hard as he looks.

The final hallmark, organic world building, Salt and Sanctuary knocks out of the park. Salt and Sanctuary’s lore and island are fantastically rich. Item descriptions are a blast to read, adding to the world at large piece by piece. You meet a few other adventurers throughout your journey, each of whom is interesting and enlightening of the game’s hidden lore. The island itself is standout because it not only facilitates a diverse gaming experience, taking you to varied locations for your adventure, but all of it fits within the larger narrative of the game. The hodgepodge is explained. Even more impressive is the island’s interconnectivity. I got jaw-dropping moments like those I had in Dark Souls or Bloodborne when a shortcut would open, linking two seemingly disparate areas together. Salt and Sanctuary’s map is one huge open world. Discovering every nook and cranny is a joy and you never go unrewarded, be it lore-wise or loot-wise. The world’s design just feels so clever, so well thought out. With no in-game map and a gigantic world you’re tasked with exploring, you’re forced to make a mental map. In the process you deepen your immersion. I got lost in Salt and Sanctuary’s world.

Salt and Sanctuary's world is huge and interesting. And interconnected.
And now I want to go explore some more.

Where Salt and Sanctuary dramatically differs from other Souls titles is in its 2D platforming. Longtime followers of TIF know how much I love my 2D platforming. I’m happy to write that Salt and Sanctuary does it well. The first area teaches you everything you need to know without beating you over the head with it. You very quickly learn your jump arc, height and distance. You can eyeball a jump and just know if you can make it or not. Salt and Sanctuary also teases the player very early on with areas they cannot reach (yet), fueling the excitement in discovering how you’re supposed to get there. I learned as I was playing that Salt and Sanctuary also derives substantial inspiration from metroidvania games. As you play you unlock new movement options that, while not new for the genre, work perfectly in Salt and Sanctuary. Your first unlock is gravity inversion, allow you to interact with strategically placed obelisks throughout the map. Next is the wall jump, which allows nimble back and forths between nearby walls. Movement through the world is consistently satisfying. There are a few challenging platforming sections throughout the game, but never do they hinder exploration. Ska Studio’s 2D pedigree is evident, and it makes Salt and Sanctuary all the stronger.

The platforming feels great, especially when you start getting movement power-ups
(brands). Oh, also the game has local co-op multiplayer. Very cool.

Salt and Sanctuary is also an extraordinarily deep game. There are a huge variety of items, weapons, and ways to approach playing. You can collect boss armor, items that damage your opponent when thrown, dozens of spells, dozens of miracles, and the list goes on. You manage familiar stats like strength and endurance and magic. RPG elements are clear in the micromanaging of player equip burden, attack damage, armor reinforcment, and leveling up your affiliation with a chosen deity (essential for your healing poultice count). Playing using magic is totally different than using heavy weapons. Playing a shield-reliant build is totally different from a fast-roll build. Salt and Sanctuary is designed to appeal to all kinds of players, as you can make it by with as little or a much investment into the game’s depth as you want. My only major issue is the unnecessary Tree of Skill used to increase your character’s stats. Inspired by the sphere grid from Final Fantasy X, the Tree of Skill feels out of place in a Soulslike and is incredibly intimidating at first glance. It could have been reduced to a much simpler system, at least on a visual level.

I love the game's complexity, but come on. Looking at the Tree of Skill is horrifying.

Finally, a few quick nitpicks. As beautiful as the world and monsters are, I never came around to liking how characters look in Salt and Sanctuary. I was elated when I got my first face-covering helmet. The music is pretty weak and recycled a bit too often for boss fights. And just a bit too much in Salt and Sanctuary felt directly lifted from Dark Souls. From aesthetics to UI to stats to everything in between, I wish Salt and Sanctuary had established more of its own identity. All of these complaints are minor, though.

I was blown away by Salt and Sanctuary. How two people made a game so rich, so expertly crafted is beyond me. There’s a depth and sophistication I never expected. The best complement I can don upon Salt and Sanctuary is that the game is exactly what it sold itself to be: 2D Dark Souls. Its scope was ambitious, its goals lofty. A few missteps aside, Salt and Sanctuary achieved an extraordinary level of success. I got to play 2D Dark Souls and I could not be happier. For Souls fans and newcomers alike, Salt and Sanctuary is deserving of your attention. It’s really good.

EDIT: In the days following this review, I couldn't get out of my head that the final score was too low for just how impressed I was with the game (previously 4/5). It's a stellar 2D take on Dark Souls, it continues the legacy of amazing 2D Iga-vania games, it's huge, it's deep, it's smart. So I've revised my final score. My nitpicks were just that, nitpicks, and I would hate for them to impact the legacy of my review here. Salt and Sanctuary is one of the best games this year and my final score should reflect that. Thank you for your understanding.

Salt and Sanctuary

5/5

TIF Plays: Week of 3/14-3/19
Gameplay

Welcome to the The Impact Factor's last week of gameplay! Check out below to links of all my gameplay. Be sure to catch me live on Twitch (MegalodonPhD). I stream every Tuesday at 5:30pm PST and Thursday at 6:30pm PST. Plus some special Friday streams, too! You can do me a favor by subscribing to The Impact Factor's YouTube channel, but hey, don't let me tell you what to do! 

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See you all next week!

TIF Plays: Week of 3/7-3/11
Gameplay

Welcome to the The Impact Factor's last week of gameplay! Check out below to links of all my gameplay. Be sure to catch me live on Twitch (MegalodonPhD). I stream every Tuesday at 5:30pm PST and Thursday at 6:30pm PST. Plus some special Friday streams, too! You can do me a favor by subscribing to The Impact Factor's YouTube channel, but hey, don't let me tell you what to do! 

To keep up to date with everything The Impact Factor, and me, follow me on Twitter: @alexsamocha

See you all next week!

TIF Plays: Nuclear Throne! [5 & 6]
Gameplay

There's nothing quite like an awesome free game: like Nuclear Throne! This twin stick Roguelike shooter from Vlambeer is pretty darn great. Watch from the beginning as I learn the game's system, try to discover its secrets, and make my way towards the nuclear throne! Check out an archive of my stream linked below, and be sure to catch me when I go live by following me on Twitter (@alexsamocha) and Twitch (MegalodonPhD) Enjoy!

These two are pretty special. Not only is it my first time with a PS4 camera, but I also loop the game. TWICE.

Distilled Descent

Review

Downwell, moppin_ (iOS)

Abstact: Downwell is a precise, fun, and compact experience. Each run is a balancing act: a chaotic dance of dodges, jumps, and monsters. Tight controls shape a wonderful and brutally challenging game. Downwell provides some of the best 2 to 3 minute play sessions you can find for smartphone. Though touch controls aren’t ideal and the game never hooked me in the way other similar titles have, Downwell is still spectacular and well-worth playing.

In a year where games got bigger, denser and more complex than ever, Downwell went the exact opposite direction. Downwell is about as distilled an experience as you can get. It must be a scary prospect for a game developer when I think about it. When you limit your game to a few simple systems and ideas, every single thing present in the final game must be perfect. It’s just like cooking—a simple dish demands perfection. Downwell is a very tasty dish.

Coming from a small indie development team out of Japan, Downwell’s premise can be boiled down (cooking pun un-intended) to one short sentence. You’re falling down a well. Yep. Of course there’s a bit more to it. A bevy of enemies lurk below, standing between you and your quite rapid descent. Each hit you take reduces your health by one. Given your severely limited health pool (4-6) you die early and often. Luckily for the player, you’re given the perfect defense: gun boots. Some enemies can be destroyed by landing on top of them. Others, marked in red, cannot. But for all enemies, you can use your gun boots. As you fall, tapping on the game’s one action button will cause your character to shoot projectiles out of its feet. Each monster killed drops gems, which act as both a scoring mechanic as well as currency (more on that later).

The quiet before the storm.

As you fall towards the bottom & exit of each level, you’re tasked with performing a few tasks. First and foremost is not dying, which is done by killing enemies before they kill you. This requires a very delicate balancing act, though. You fall fast in Downwell making it difficult to follow a set trajectory, often leading to you colliding with and taking damage from enemies. Firing your gun boots is the one and only way to slow down your fall midair. Sound easy enough? Maybe. But your gun boots only have a limited amount of ammo. Once depleted, the only thing stopping your fall is finding that safe platform in the unseen below. Landing on the ground or stomping on an enemy’s head replenishes your ammo. This results in making each and every descent a chaotic dance, balancing ammo with health with momentum.

And what a dance it is.

Along your fall you can find small rooms in the sides of the level, which contain a power-up. Each power-up transforms the projectiles your gun boots fire, changing the ammo consumption, damage and spread. Like the shotgun or laser, that is great for killing enemies but very poor at controlling your fall. Or noppy, which is the exact opposite. Each power-up you collect also does one of two other things: it increases your ammo capacity by one or restores one health. At the end of each level you’re given an option to choose a perk that strengthens your character. Like gaining the ability to suck in nearby gems, a small explosion around you when you jump, or small chance at health restoration when you land on bodies of dead monsters. Further, from the second level onward, you can visit shops. At shops you can buy items that restore health or increase ammo capacity. As you can imagine, how you use power-ups is another one of Downwell’s great balancing acts. Is it worth restoring that one point of health, even if it means replacing your burst fire with the shotgun? Should you spend your gems on a +1 health item now or hope to save up more for a +2 health item later? Each time you play Downwell you’re faced with a macrocosm of important decisions confined within a fiendish microcosm of platforming and monsters. It’s so satisfying when everything goes well.

Rooms offer a small respite. This laser health
power-up is a pretty good find.

Downwell is a Roguelike, When you die all of your power-ups are removed and you’re sent back to the beginning of the game. The only in-game progress is achieved through your collected gems, which accumulate to unlock color swaps for the game or slightly different player characters (called ‘styles’). That means each time you play Downwell everything is for that run and that run only. Each run is short, only a couple minutes long before you beat the game (haha) or die trying. Your runs usually follow the same sort of progression: avoid taking damage early, try to find the gun boot powerup you like, and restore health whenever you can. It’s also about making the right build, i.e. obtaining the power-ups and perks that suit your personal playstyle. For example, I loved using burst fire boots with the drone perk. Starting up Downwell is consistently exciting: will this be your next, great run? Or will it be an exercise in frustration as you’re overwhelmed by bats on 1-2?

Downwell nails the perfect Roguelike feeling. You never want to give up on a run because things aren’t going your way. You always feel like you are one lucky break away from this run being your best yet. Losses are never too demoralizing. No run lasts more than a few minutes, so you don’t feel like you’ve lost too much when you die. Everything in Downwell feels fair, too. I’ve played the game between 10-20 hours at this point and never once have I felt like my death wasn’t my fault. Downwell can be extremely punishing (like most Roguelikes), but you always know where and when you messed up. What makes this feeling even better is how supremely tight the controls feel. The game is impressively responsive. With enough practice you gain full mastery of all aspects of your movement. Everything is so perfectly precise. You won’t get a much better 2-3 minute gaming experience anywhere, especially not on your iPhone. Downwell distills the Roguelike platformer to its base essence and makes it work so well it stands up to its more complex counterparts.

Fast, frantic, and fun. Downwell nails
that perfect Roguelike feeling.

Design excellence aside, Downwell is simply fun to play. For 3 minutes or 30, Downwell is worth the time. For a game so simplified and perfected as Downwell it’s hard to find faults, but there are some to be found. Perhaps more a fault of my own rather than the game’s itself, the touch controls on iPhone are not ideal. I appreciated the option to hide the left, right and action buttons (the only three buttons in the game), but having your fingers on the screen still cut off crucial visual information. That, and no matter how much I tried I would still occasionally press the wrong button by mistake. For a game like Downwell, going the opposite way you’d like to, even for a second, can mean the difference between death and victory. Additionally, but unrelated to my first complaint, the supremely simplified design of Downwell does have some downsides. Namely, longevity. I’m still playing Downwell every other day or so, but I never felt hooked by the game. I want to do better and get better, but I don’t feel the urge to play for hours on end. I’ve become obsessed with a couple Roguelikes in my time. I play them constantly and when I’m not playing I’m thinking about my next run. That never happened for Downwell. I’ve only made it to the Aquifer (world 3) and I’m ok with that. I could not put Spelunky down until I beat Hell and I played Nuclear Throne non-stop over the winter break until I looped my run. I want to feel that kind of obsession and journey of self-improvement while playing a Roguelike and it just didn’t happen with Downwell.

I just wish there was a bit more to hook me.
A bit more to make me say 'just one more run.'

Still, it’s hard to argue that Downwell isn’t spectacular. It was easily some of my favorite iOS gaming in 2015 and will be a mainstay on my phone for the long run. Downwell is one succulent dish, simple or not. Go indulge a bit and give it a try.

Downwell

4/5

TIF Plays: Spelunky Daily Challenge! [19]
Gameplay

You all know my love for Spelunky. It was the first game I streamed for The Impact Factor! After my regular Thursday night Hearthstone stream, I hopped into Spelunky for a daily challenge run. Check out an archive of my stream linked below, and be sure to catch me when I go live by following me on Twitter (@alexsamocha) and Twitch (MegalodonPhD) Enjoy!