Salt and Sacrifice’s eponymous hero dives and dodges through a hail of enemy attacks, or alternatively stands tall with a shield - but with an incredibly limited stamina reserve to work with, the game goads you towards going on the offensive. That’s not to say the combat system is remotely bad, though. Salt and Sacrifice's release date trailer gives you an idea of the action.

What remains is a tough-as-nails combat system that acts as the foundation for everything.

Gone is any nuance in storytelling and dialogue, as NPCs and other side characters are nearly entirely one-note in their purpose of serving the player character and advancing your quest to restore the world. Ska Studios’ sequel is like that friend because it’s a mostly surface-level study of the type of game it’s riffing on. A 2D, side-scrolling hack-and-slash adventure set in the ruins of a decaying world, Ska Studios’ sequel to 2016's Salt and Sanctuary throws your pitiful adventurer against monsters of towering, hulking shapes and sizes, asking you to venture forth into the wider world and literally eat mages alive to restore balance throughout the land. Availability: Out now on PS4, PS5, and PC (Epic).An endlessly exhaustive game on humanity and what it means to live and die, FromSoftware’s modern classic was instead introduced to me as 'look at this hard as shit game, bet you can’t even beat the first boss.' They weren't wrong, I couldn’t even beat the Asylum Demon, as it grabbed my panic-struck character from a ledge and splattered them all over the ground below.

I once had a friend who introduced me to Dark Souls. Ska Studios' sequel to Salt and Sanctuary offers a wonderful suite of combat customisation, but some shallow storytelling holds it back.

For mac download Salt and Sacrifice