Smoke and Sacrifice
Nintendo Switch

Reviewed by Brett

Publisher – Curve Digital
Developer – Solar Sail Games
Category – Role-Playing, Adventure
Release Date – May 31 , 2018

Don’t sacrifice this one to the backlog

Loving crafted by Solar Sails games, Smoke and Sacrifice is a heart breaking journey filled with wonder and imagination. Danger lurks around every corner and rolls in with the smoke, it’s a game a survival and perseverance. It will test your will to live and the bonds of love. Do you have what it takes? Will you give everything for what has been taken from you?

You live in a harsh frozen wasteland on what is perhaps the only habitable area left, made possibly by the blessing of the sun tree. After sacrificing your first born, as is the forced customary tradition, your character Sachi discovers a dark secret hidden in the light. You venture into a hidden land below where everything is hostile and life is even harder than it was on the freezing surface. A dangerous smoke fills the air and threatens the loss of life and memory. You must discover the truth by crafting, fighting and surviving on a journey to find the child you thought you had lost forever.

Smoke and Sacrifice truly is a game of survival. Damn near everything wants to kill or eat you and there is a deadly smoke the rolls in that will choke you to death and has ghosts in it that also want to kill you. This gas serves as basically a day and night cycle, with a gauge that tells you when this ever looming threat approaches. When the gas rolls in things get more dangerous and you really need to have your guard up. You will be crafting everything from healing soups and salves to weapons and armor best suited to each inhospitable environment. There are four different bioms with the added smoke layer on each of them. Each biom has several different locations on the map and contain creatures and dangers specific to them.

You will sometimes encounter somewhat friendly faces, the local inhabitants who are stuck in this hell will help you out by pointing you in the right direction and by occasionally giving you some useful items, most of the time in exchange of a favor.

As part of your quest you will need to hunt and harvest ingredients from flora and fauna to craft gear that will allow you into other regions of the game world. There are so many things that can be harvested and crafted i would need a whole separate post to list them. None of this comes easy as anything can and will kill you very quickly. This is however part of the fun and allure of Smoke and Sacrifice. The challenge. Taking down a strong enemy is always rewarding in both much needed components for crafting and the feeling of accomplishment.

Save, save, save, save, save.

One gripe I have is that there is no auto save feature and as you will most likely die quite a lot, this sucks. I highly recommend saving every single time you wander near a save location and sometimes go out of your way to get to one. I found myself loosing way too many hours of play because i am very forgetful. Getting sidetracked in Smoke and Sacrifice is just as deadly as anything else. You can spend a fair amount of time wandering the wastes if you have the right gear with you and you never know when your going to run into trouble.

Always be prepared.

Always save.

Always.

The hand painted art direction in Smoke and Sacrifice is wonderfully done and a joy to look at. Tancred Dyke-Wells the artist for the game left his old job because he did not get to do enough artwork and you sure can tell he missed it by the level of detail and love put into every inch and every detail of Smoke and Sacrifice. Music and sound effects also do a fantastic job at creating this living world.

Smoke and Sacrifice is a gorgeous, wonderfully fun and dangerous world that’s a great time to explore and survive in. While it can be fairly difficult it’s always a good time. Unless you lose an hour to not saving. That’s the only negative thing I have to say about the game, everything else is perfectly executed. With the talent on display in Smoke and Sacrifice I eagerly look forward to whatever Solar Sail Games puts out next. This games a winner, if you like a challenge and love amazing games, dont wait on this one.

TL;DR