Platforms: Xbox One, PC, PlayStation 4
Release Date: October 18th, 2018 (coming to PC on Discord first, coming to Steam later)
Reviewed On: Xbox One S
Developer: Darkstar
Publisher: Another Indie
Price: $19.99 USD
Dark Souls has inspired a lot of games in the industry. Today I’m going to be reviewing one such title called Sinner: Sacrifice for Redemption. It’s a dark fantasy boss rush game with one particularly interesting twist. Here’s my Sinner: Sacrifice for Redemption review.
Story
You as the player have died and have been reborn in an eerie dark fantasy world. Your task is to fight some of the deadliest people in history that have also been reborn – into the Seven Deadly Sins. It’s not that simple though, as in order to fight them you have to sacrifice something. Every fight demands a lowering of your stats or removal of some gear. After every fight, you’re weaker and weaker, struggling to redeem yourself against the sins.
Gameplay
The gameplay revolves around fairly typical third-person combat. There is of course one key exception: as mentioned above, you’re going to be giving up stats and equipment just to face them. It’s an interesting inversion of progression, in most games you start out at your weakest and grind to become stronger. In Sinner: Sacrifice for Redemption, you start out the strongest you can be and have to give up aspects of your player (from equipment to health) to fight each boss. When you beat them, you just get some extra health, a gain that isn’t comparable to what you gave up to fight them. As mentioned above, this is a boss rush game, meaning that you go from one of the Seven Deadly Sins to another until you beat them all.
Each of the Seven Deadly Sins requires you to give up something in order to fight them. Fortunately, there’s some good news, as what you have to give up is not randomly generated: they will always have you give up that specific requirement, regardless of if you start it over or do the bosses in a different pattern. So that adds a interesting little bit of a strategy to the game. One boss that might have been easier when using spears might not be as easy if you fight them one of the last bosses in the game, as you won’t have anywhere near as many spears to throw at him. As for combat, you can choose between a long sword and shield dealing average damage and block with your shield when necessary. You can also use a two-handed sword dealing high damage and dodging attacks. One of the good things about Sinner: Sacrifice for Redemption is the boss fights are nothing alike and offer vastly different experiences.
Graphics
Sinner: Sacrifice for Redemption has a very grim appearance, with a dark filter over everything. As a whole, the game looks great but there’s nothing particularly jaw-dropping. Due to the overall aesthetic they went with, the dark appearance lets them get away with this. Another part of the presentation that is very impressive is the lighting. Whenever you see fire or light in this game it looks amazing, especially in the heat of battle. I don’t necessary think the rest is anything incredible but I do think its definitely passable.
I do want to bring up that sometimes the game has some frame-drops and that made the controls feel slow at times.
Sound
The soundtrack is a huge positive thing for this game. Got a great soundtrack the seven deadly sins have the best fighting music fighting them. However I feel like the sounds that the weapons make swinging them could have been worked on a little bit more.
Summary
This game is only $19.99 USD and is worth every dollar. If after reading my Sinner: Sacrifice for Redemption review you think that 20 dollars is too much for an investment, (and you happen to own a Xbox One with a Game Pass subscription) it will be on Game Pass Day One, so you can check it out there.
Sinner: Sacrifice for Redemption is a boss rush game that keep you on the edge of your seat for almost the entire game. I enjoyed every aspect of the game and although it has issues with some occasional framerate problems, at $19.99 this game is a must-own.