When players didn’t have explicit storytelling to rely on, they started paying more attention to the environment design, the items they picked up along away, and any other number of small clues. It’s hard to blame the writers, because it’s an incredibly difficult thing to do, but From Software’s ability to build a sense of lore and heritage while using a minimum of dialogue and cut scenes was critical to Dark Souls, because that game tells a hell of a story. Where the developers of Salt and Sanctuary have struggled a little is in creating the same sense of narrative that the Dark Souls series. I never expected that it would convert to two dimensions quite as well as it has in Salt and Sanctuary. What I’ve always liked about Dark Souls is the environment design and the way it captures the thrill of exploration. There are secret passages everywhere, and intricate patterns of pathways and platforms that really help to sell the sense of creeping through dark, atmospheric dungeons. You’ll regularly find little trinkets glittering in the darkness that are initially out of your reach, but you’ll just know it’s worth figuring out how to reach them for the loot. What makes Salt & Sanctuary better than some other “Souls-likes” is the effort that the developer put into truly understanding the level design of this pseudo-genre. Then you’ll push further, unlock a door that allows you to bypass entire sections of the dungeon when you need to backtrack, and fight a brutally powerful boss.

Set in a grim, dark world you explore labyrinthine level design, fight of devilish traps and enemies, and hunt out for the occasional area to light a torch and take a rest.

Salt and Sanctuary is exactly what you would expect if someone told you a developer had taken Dark Souls and turned it into a 2D platformer. Related reading: Here’s our review of Dark Souls Remastered, which will at some stage land on Nintendo Switch

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