Polygons and Pain

Review

Bound, Plastic (PS4)

Abstract: Bound is a narrative told through motion. You explore a beautiful and abstract world as you relive your past and confront your fears. Bound learns from a long legacy of 3D platformers while creating an identity completely its own. Balletic dance permeates the experience, bringing life to cold geometry. The game’s emphasis on short cuts and speed runs in subsequent playthroughs unfortunately highlights some of Bound’s weaknesses, like its imprecise controls and long load times. Taken as a whole, Bound is a wonderful experience that is much more than it initially appears.   

For me, it was a tree house. Well not a tree house really, more like well-worn 4’x4’ square of processed wood nestled precariously on top of a Y-shaped corner of branches. The tree was a short walk into the wooded area behind my home. I’d climb, recklessly so, to perch in my spot. Time would stop. It was just high enough up to see the tops of other trees, but not nearly elevated enough to feel in danger. Cold or warm, windy or still, I’d climb to my hideout to be away from it all. The tree house was my answer to the same question Plastic’s Bound poses: as a child, how did you cope with pain? In Bound the answer is a beautiful combination of ballet, monsters, and geometry.

Bound begins as the protagonist, a pregnant woman, comes across a quiet beach. Journal in hand, she begins her walk down the sandy path towards a house. Along the way she’ll open up her journal, which is filled with fantastical images of trees, paper planes, mother and daughter and father and son, abstracted into compositions of jagged shapes. Bound’s narrative unfolds as a reflection of the past, a view into the world the game’s protagonist created as an escape. She is reliving her most traumatic childhood memories as she grapples with fundamental issues of family and forgiveness. Bound takes full advantage of its medium, sharing its story with players through actions. The game seeks to evoke emotions through movement, telling a familiar story in a new way. The story spans a few levels, each manifestations of her past pain turned fear. Bound escorts you through five vignettes in an imaginary world she called her own. Levels end with a reconstruction of the traumatic memory in a 3D space you can freely explore. The game culminates in a difficult decision that feels earned. Despite some looseness of the story itself, Bound does an admirable job at creating a narrative with which players can engage.

Face your fears.

Bound’s world is fantastical and bizarre. Bound transports players into a vibrant, chaotic, polygonal world. Shapes float in a barren expanse, reacting to the player’s presence. Monstrous structures assemble into existence as you draw near and orderly disassemble as you journey away. In this world we play as a masked young princess. Across the different vignettes we see conflict between king and queen in a world that struggles to adhere together. Bound’s world is unlike anything I’ve seen in games. It’s visually striking, stunningly beautiful, and has a signature that quickly imprints itself into your mind. Despite its abstract nature, each of the game’s levels is distinct and memorable. Bound’s world was what first drew me to the game and remains a clear highlight of my experience after playing.

 

Bound has a game world I'm not soon to forget.

Gameplay in Bound derives from a long lineage of 3D platformers. On the surface, your task is quite simple—follow the linear main path through each level jumping from platform to platform, up and down ladders, with very light puzzle solving to make it to the end. Along the way you collect memory fragments, glowing shards that both serve as a breadcrumb trail if you get lost in the dynamically shifting world and to complete an end of level mosaics. The controls are quite simple. The player can walk, run, jump, roll, and… dance. Heavily inspired by balletic movements, dance is an essential aspect to playing Bound. Movement has a lightness to it only seen at the ballet. Running, jumping, shimmying along edges, everything is steeped in dance. Motion capture is utilized brilliantly, creating a character that looks and feels human. She’s elegant and graceful. If that weren’t enough, Bound features a button dedicated solely to dancing. Dancing affords a couple advantages to the player. You dance to complete a level and dance to unlock large memory fragments. Most importantly, the player dances to bypass a level’s entrenched obstacles. You dance to fight your fears.

As I mentioned above, each of Bound’s five main levels is a powerful vignette from the protagonist’s past. Each of these centers on a childhood fear: steam, trees, pearls, shout and planes. These fears manifest themselves as physical barriers in each of the levels. Trees are nests of tendrils that grab the player and hold them in place. Planes are paper airplanes that swarm the player, again preventing movement. Dancing frees you from these fears. But there’s so much more. As you play through Bound, each level you complete conquers a fear. For example, conquer the planes level and you’ll no longer be affected by the swarms. This alters the way you play through subsequent levels. Sections that were previously blocked off now become open for exploration. The world adopts more striking colors and warmer tones. Bound is different each time you play, assuming you choose to complete levels in a different order. This offers a unique kind of replayability that I appreciated in a short game like Bound (you can complete your experience in less than 2 hours).

Dance will set you free.

Conquering fears and opening new paths are only one small part of the beautifully designed 3D worlds in Bound. These wide-open spaces are absolutely packed with depth. Levels are replete with hidden memory fragments, telegraphed shortcuts, and fear-blocked paths. You’ll also discover hidden and highly skill intensive sequence breaks, which allow the player to skip huge sections of the level. Bound wants players to find these, and even dedicates a whole mode to speed running the game (completing it as fast as possible) Bound’s main path is easy to complete. Bound’s fastest paths are punishing and demand precision. It’s a great feeling to discover a shortcut the hid in plain sight, or find a hidden path that shaves five plus minutes off your completion time. Despite not having the usual bells and whistles of 3D platformers, like oodles of collectibles and enemies to defeat, Bound offers players plenty to do.

By emphasizing short cuts and speed runs, however, Bound highlights some of its biggest weaknesses. The game’s platforming works well when players are taking their time and absorbing the fullness of the experience. The controls are less than ideal when placed under the magnifying glass speed runs demand. Jumps often feel imprecise. It can be hard to know if you’ll make a jump or fall to your death. Bound has a finicky ‘edge guard’ system that, in theory, is there to help players with difficult platforming sections, but in practice detracts from the fluidity of the motion. Bound implements some smart systems to avoid bad camera placement (endemic to the genre) like having shapes disappear when they would block the screen, but camera problems still arise from errant level geography and during non-horizontal movement. The game’s speed run mode is a disappointment, too. Levels have unskippable opening and end sequences that frustrate as you repeat a level over and over. Repeating is another act of frustration, as long load times make it feel particularly painful when you mess up your run. I typically like pushing myself in platformers to complete these challenges, but some design incompatibilities prevented me from investing myself in Bound beyond its story playthrough.

As much as they are emphasized, speed runs are not the best part of Bound.

Bound exists in great company, however, as one of the few games I’ve ever immediately played through a second time after first beating it. I wanted to see how the world changed, how my play had evolved, and perhaps most strikingly, to make a different narrative decision at the game’s end. Bound is more than visuals. Bound isn’t style over substance. Bound is, in a number of ways, about how one copes with strife. For me, I’ll always think back to my tree house. Bound makes me wish I could have escaped to its world, though. Bound’s was fantastic.

Bound

4/5

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 3/7-3/11
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: 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!

Retrieval Mission

Review

Xeodrifter, Renegade Kid (PS Vita)

Abstract: Xeodrifter is about retrieval, both mechanically and narratively. Renegade Kid’s 2014 action-adventure game takes the ideas established by games like Super Metroid and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night and implements them to great effect in Xeodrifter. For brief moments, I felt the same thrill I experienced when I first played those seminal, genre-defining games. At others, the game’s limited scope reminded me I was playing a title with a different ambition than it’s forefathers. The game is fun, functional and well made but doesn’t have much of its own voice.

Xeodrifter’s premise is simple enough. You play as an astronaut who, after a collision with an asteroid, finds his ship critically damaged and unable to continue lightspeed travel. The astronaut is then subsequently stranded in a small solar system of four planets, tasked with traveling down to each in search of the components to repair his derelict vessel. On each planet you find challenges—small monsters, traps and difficult areas to traverse. As you progress through your short time with the game, you will find yourself frequently hopping between planets as you become better able to explore them. By the end of your adventure the astronaut barely resembles his starting self. You have the ability to jetpack upwards, run at phenomenal speed, transform into a submarine, and more.

Submarine exploration is just the start of your journey.

It’s clear to me that Xeodrifter was made with longtime genre fans in mind. Everything has a place. The game felt immediately familiar, like returning home. Xeodrifter knows its pedigree and acknowledges the kind of people likely to play it. That manifests itself in a couple ways. First and foremost, Xeodrifter is not a game that’s going to hold your hand. You’re not told which of the game’s four planets to start on, that’s something you discover when you realize you can’t make progress in all but one. And even after that, it’s up to you know find where and how to use your new exploration abilities. Xeodrifter also has an exceedingly punishing first hour or so. You start the game with an extremely limited health pool. A couple hits and you’re dead. There’s no checkpoint system mid level either. You die and you’re sent back to the start of the world. I wouldn’t call Xeodrifter a difficult game, but it is certainly one that will make you pay for your mistakes. As a fan of 2D action-adventure games, and metroidvanias, it felt perfect.

Try not to get hit. Dying, at least at first, comes pretty often.

Xeodrifter’s 2D gameplay is kept simple. You run, jump and shoot. The former two aren’t done exceedingly well at first, though. As a metroidvania, a key aspect of your progression relies on unlocking new abilities that both open up new avenues of exploration and make your character feel more powerful. How do you gain these new abilities? Boss fights. Bosses test your understand of the game’s mechanics, as well as the use of all previously acquired power ups. Fights like these are often a high point in other metroidvania titles. That’s unfortunately not the case here. Every boss shares the same model, only with different colors. Though each fight proceeds a little differently (each new boss will have one or two new moves), they all play very similarly. It’s monotonous and the game’s biggest misstep. It would have been so nice if the repetition of visiting the same worlds several times over was in-part ameliorated by exciting boss fights.

Wait, you again?!

Like I said earlier, Xeodrifter is all about retrieval. Renegade Kid has retrieved the bare bone essentials from Super Metroid and repurposed them for the game. It felt as if the developers had a checklist of everything a metroidvania game needed to feel complete. They made sure to check all the boxes but, unfortunately, Xeodrifter doesn’t have much beyond that. Much of the criticism levied against Xeodrifter when it first released was that the game was ‘too short.’ Time to completion is never something that affects my review of a game, period. But there is a nugget of insight in that complaint. Xeodrifter is fun, functional, and well-executed. It also feels like it could have been more. The game is content to be a charming throwback to some of your favorite games, rather than try to strike out on it’s own and become a new classic. Xeodrifter felt like an appetizer to a more complete experience.

Straight out of Super Metroid. Not that that's a bad thing.

Renegade Kid can sure nail visuals, though. The game looks and sounds fantastic. Xeodrifter is a perfect fusion of 8- and 16-bit graphics. The end result is a game that would be at home among its NES/SNES inspirations. One of the most striking aspects of the game’s presentation is what the developers have adapted from their previous title, Mutant Mudds. A power up you unlock mid-game allows the player to hop between the foreground and background to traverse past obstacles. The way in which Renegade Kid pulls off this effect needs to be commended. The fidelity of the miniature background combined with the focus blur on the foreground that happens seamlessly between hops is remarkable. You could tell this was the developer’s signature. It never stopped being fun.

Background-foreground hopping was my favorite thing to do in Xeodrifter.

Xeodrifter filled a perfect niche in my game time. I was looking for a tightly designed, compact experience with solid mechanics and a competent foundation. All of that is true about Xeodrifter. The game felt at times like it lacked ambition, however, which was clear in the repetitive gameplay and uninspired boss fights. Still, I was happy with the time I spent with the game and would recommend it to anyone looking for a quick metroidvania fix. You’ll retrieve what you need from it.

Xeodrifter
3/5

TIF Plays: Super Meat Boy! [1]

Gameplay

My friend and podcast cohost Charles Fliss egged me on to play a tough as nails platformer on stream to show off my skills. Super Meat Boy looked to fit the bill perfectly. It’s my first time ever playing the game! 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!