Gameplay lengh: 14 - 28 Hours per regular Playthrough if you do not seek to speedrun
Required Skill Level: Low to Medium (New Game) to Very High (New Game+ mode)
This game is not suited for audiences 16 years or lower - some Blood and Gore, comic-esque physical and psychological crulity

Salt and Sanctuary is a rather unique game. You play a Hero of your choice, who got stranded on an strange isle seeking to find his/hers lost princess. However, as always, things do not seem to be the way they are.

Story wise, this game is rather cryptic, this doesn't make the appeal of the game less interesting. It is very important to read item descriptions sometimes, though you can easily finish this game without being too much into this games lore so you don't need to be bothered about it all the time. This game is also for those who just enjoy quick action as it is for those who enjoy a very thoughtful and deep gameplay experience alike. This works thanks to the excellent layout of the World the game happens to be in, which is structured like a Maze of sorts.

And This labyrinth like Gameworld is, in my opinion, the best thing about this game. Walking around, finding the right place to progress further is a ton of fun. This is partially because on how connected the Gameworld is, paths previously blocked by an obstacle open up to the player later via unique Traits, which you get by many of the interesting NPCs that roam the world. These Traits let you change, for instance, the gravity of the player character which enables you to walk on ceilings, though only at certain places. Imagine fighting enemies from the ceilings with a bow or with a big melee weapon. "Coolness" is certainly written big in this game.

After you've choosen the Gender, decided on a class to play and changed the looks on the Character, you will be thrown into the game world. Tutorials are there, but its only explaining the controls and which they do, the rest is up to the player to find out.

This game does have very fast paced Hack and Slash gameplay if you use smaller/weaker weaponry, or the slower and more thoughtful one if you carry Heavy Warhammers. Logically, the bigger the weapon, the stronger the impact. This game makes no exception of this.

Fighting itself is rather simple, as you only have a Strong and a Weak attack. However, depening on what attack you choose, you can make combos. Beside that you can also quick-switch weapons with the press of a button. Imagine throwing your enemy into the air with greatsword and then using a bow to kill your foe while its in the air. You can do that in this game and it is tons of fun.

Besides attacking, you can also use a Shield to block attacks or use a dodgeroll to roll past the enemies. As this is a 2d Platformer this seems a bit unusual at first, but the games Dodgeroll is balanced enough that it didn't bother me to dodgeroll through enemies. It also looks more aesthetically pleasing as you might think.

However, this game isn't exactly forgiving as I make it seem to be. Some parts are quite tough to beat and it required from me to attempt certain parts a few times before I mastered them. If difficult games are too stressful you should still consider to purchase this game regardless, since the difficulty in general is just rightly choosen, there aren't many points in this game where the game flow stagnates and frustration kicks in, all in all the entire game was a breeze to play through.

However, if certain enemies are too strong for you, you can upgrade your Weapons and Armor at a Blacksmith, where you can use your Salt as a currency to upgrade them. Besides your Salt, which you will also use to level up, you will also use "regular" currency to buy regular items, such as Torches. You will need those to traverse the dark caverns of this game, which there are a ton of. You get both Salt and Gold by defeating enemies. The usual video game logic applies, the stronger the enemy, the bigger the reward. Often enough, you will find yourself being a bit overwhelmed by the enemy, as you are not a Tough Hero and will die if a Strong enemy unsuspectingly attacks you a few times. So you often need to go to a Sanctuary to recover.

Sanctuaries, the other namedrop, are your Safe Spots, where noone can do you harm and those are the places where you can fill up your healing potions and where you can level up and assign Skill Points to your character. Most Sanctuaries are hidden and must be found and claimed by the player first, which adds a bit of an exploration aspect in this game.

As I already wrote, Sanctuaries are used to Level Up your Hero. What makes it interesting though is that leveling up is done in a similar way to Final Fantasy X but on a Spiderweb-like board, where you can access certain skills only if you have leveled up the connected points leading before it. Otherwise you have to choose other skills to reach the stuff you want. There are also items which let you remove your already placed skill points so you can replace them on another place if you believe that you made a mistake. Be careful with this though, sometimes you realize that the mistake your made was actually the right thing to do.

There are 12 different Weapon Classes, such as normal Swords, Staffs, Bows, Spears and Lances, Scyths (yay!), Crossbows and even Guns. Theres more than just these of course. All and all I say theres about 500 - 700 unique Items and Equipment you can get in this game. Theres also a lot of Magic skills you can use, such as making the ground on fire or cast Lightning, if you rather fancy this. This type of skilling leads to some interesting "what would happen, if..." type of scenarios if you decided what to skills you want to pick on next.

Multiplayer is also included with the game, but only be played out on a Local setting, so make sure you have a Friend to play with!

Graphically this game is very excellent, even though it is no cutting edge 3D game. The characters all look lovely and the Monsters are detailed very metriculously. You can be sure that even regular Monsters look all very destinctive and unique. Theres a little less then 100 different Monstertypes in this game, including about 25 unique bosses. The lightning is by far the best about the Graphics as they nail the Atmosphere about this game splendidly. The games grim setting and colorful lightning just synergizes very well with one another, as it is already evidential by the screenshots on this games Store page.

While everything about this game is to the very least great, including the sound effects, I found that the Music is pretty lackluster. Even if its very Atmospheric and fitting throughout the game, after you heared a certain theme like 30 times things can get a little bit boring.

The game also has some slight graphical errors, such as weirdly placed walls, which shift depending on where you stand, creating a weird uncanny valley optical illusion of walls that seem to move unreasonably in places and tiny open holes where you can look right through the void, even though there should be a room right behind it. These issues are barely noticeable but regardless they are there if you pay attention.

My, is this game lovely! Even if its just jumping on platforms, this games world makes it so there is always something interesting and challenging to see and do, with a ton of beasts to slay and a ton of loot to find.

And even regardless of those tiny issues previously mentioned, Salt and Sanctuary is, without any doubt, the best 2d Platformer and Action Adventure game I have ever played and a definite must buy for everyone who likes these type of games.

Chicken and Potatos with Chili Sauce, but Apple Juice instead of Mineral Water. No Alcoholic drinks this time.