Salt and Sacrifice

Salt and Sacrifice is a 2022 action RPG developed and published by Ska Studios (with Devoured Studios), released May 10, 2022 for PlayStation 4/5 and PC via the Epic Games Store, reaching Steam in November 2023 and Switch alongside it. It holds Metacritic scores around 70 — a clear step down from Salt and Sanctuary‘s low-to-mid 80s — and the gap is the story: this is the rare sequel whose own community’s defining thread asks, verbatim, whether it’s “as bad as the reviews say.”

The honest answer from three years of hindsight: no — but it is a different game, and the difference is exactly what divided people.

Technical Specifications

Mage Hunts

Playing a condemned Marked Inquisitor, you hunt named Mages — roaming, fleeing mini-bosses chased across zones Monster Hunter-style, their corpses harvested to craft themed gear. It’s the sequel’s central bet, replacing the original’s single interconnected island with hub-and-mission regions built around repeatable hunts and proper online co-op. Critics’ consensus quote framed it precisely: “Salt and Sacrifice is to Salt and Sanctuary as Dark Souls 2 is to Dark Souls 1” — genuinely good, structurally divergent, forever compared unfavorably by purists.

Reception

Praise went to the hand-drawn boss design, the co-op — among the best in 2D soulslikes — and the sheer ambition per head-count; criticism concentrated on hunt repetition, grind-gated upgrades replacing vendor economies, frustrating chase mechanics, and difficulty visibly balanced around two players. The Steam release landed with balance patches that softened the launch edges, and the long-tail community verdict has settled at qualified-yes-at-a-discount — play Sanctuary first, come here when you want more and different.

Where to Play It Today

Salt and Sacrifice is on Steam, Epic, PlayStation, and Switch, regularly under $10, with online co-op active — and at that price, the community’s own contrarians make a fair case that the reviews undersold it.