{"id":56232,"date":"2018-10-19T15:30:00","date_gmt":"2018-10-19T15:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/reviews\/switch-eshop\/sinner_sacrifice_for_redemption"},"modified":"2018-10-19T15:30:00","modified_gmt":"2018-10-19T15:30:00","slug":"review-sinner-sacrifice-for-redemption-a-distilled-but-ultimately-disappointing-dark-souls-wannabe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2018\/10\/19\/review-sinner-sacrifice-for-redemption-a-distilled-but-ultimately-disappointing-dark-souls-wannabe\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Sinner: Sacrifice For Redemption &#8211; A Distilled But Ultimately Disappointing Dark Souls Wannabe"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"media_block\"><a href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/2454be23c4f52\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/2454be23c4f52\/small.jpg\" class=\"media_thumbnail\"><\/a><\/div>\n<div id=\"\">\n<aside class=\"picture embed\"><a title=\"Sinner: Sacrifice for Redemption Review - Screenshot 1 of 4\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/93119\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/93119\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"Sinner: Sacrifice for Redemption Review - Screenshot 1 of 4\" \/><\/a><\/aside>\n<p>FromSoftware&#8217;s \u2018<strong>SoulsBorne\u2019<\/strong> series has plenty of defining features that set it apart from its contemporaries. Obtuse storytelling. Mercilessly precise combat models. Mazelike hubs to explore. But none of these elements hold quite as much tangible power as the series\u2019 (mostly) breathtaking bosses. From the tag-team nightmare of Orstein and Smough to the onslaught of Father Gascoigne, these are the big bads that stay with you long after the game has been returned to its shelf.<\/p>\n<p>But what if you could do away with all the exploration and busywork that tied those monolithic monsters together and get straight to the boss fights? That&#8217;s clearly the question developer Dark Star wished to pose with <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/switch-eshop\/sinner_sacrifice_for_redemption\"><strong>Sinner: Sacrifice for Redemption<\/strong><\/a>, a boss-rush experience that distils that familiar SoulsBorne experience into eight distinct fights, but unfortunately, the answer it gives fails to leave the same kind of impact as its inspiration.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"picture embed\"><a title=\"Sinner: Sacrifice for Redemption Review - Screenshot 2 of 4\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/93114\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/93114\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"Sinner: Sacrifice for Redemption Review - Screenshot 2 of 4\" \/><\/a><\/aside>\n<p>Not that certainly doesn\u2019t try. As a \u2018nameless wanderer\u2019, you begin the game as you would a good 10-15 hours into a similar kind of action-RPG. You\u2019ve two swords &#8211; one regular sized, and another considerably larger &#8211; and you\u2019re already armoured up the nines. But bar a few spectres you need to defeat in order to learn the game\u2019s simple controls &#8211; boiled down to the usual roll\/lock-on\/light attack\/heavy attack setup that\u2019s serviceable, but lacks the weighty heft of the Souls series &#8211; you\u2019ll soon reach a handful of stone altars.<\/p>\n<p>Before you open a portal to enter each boss battle, you\u2019ll need to make a sacrifice that places a certain debuff on your character. From restricting how much you can heal to making your shield prone to shattering, the game wants you <em>constantly<\/em> feel at a disadvantage. It\u2019s a mechanic that doesn\u2019t make much of a difference in the first couple of fights (you can choose the order you face the first four bosses) since you\u2019ve had no influence on the build of your character, but you\u2019ll feel these \u2018sacrifices\u2019 far more acutely the longer you play.<\/p>\n<p>By the time you reach the final boss, you\u2019ll need to take on <em>all<\/em> of these debuffs in the same fight, although you do get the opportunity to choose in which order you have to endure them, so you won\u2019t have to have your stats crippled all at once. This \u2018levelling down\u2019 mechanic can make Sinner an incredibly frustrating experience at times, especially if you\u2019re new to this kind of game, but it creates a powerful sense of satisfaction once you\u2019ve solved the puzzle of each boss pattern and overcome the limitations of the selected sacrifice. Defeating a boss also grants you an enhanced stat, so you\u2019re able to offset those disadvantages a little as you progress.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"picture embed\"><a title=\"Sinner: Sacrifice for Redemption Review - Screenshot 3 of 4\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/93116\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/93116\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"Sinner: Sacrifice for Redemption Review - Screenshot 3 of 4\" \/><\/a><\/aside>\n<p>As you\u2019ve probably guessed, the bosses are clearly big selling point of Sinner and, thankfully, they\u2019re the game\u2019s most notable highlight. Based on the seven deadly sins, each one has a unique design, attack pattern and set of escalating phases. If you\u2019ve had any experience playing <strong><a class=\"external\" href=\"http:\/\/www.pushsquare.com\/games\/ps4\/bloodborne\">Bloodborne<\/a><\/strong> or any of the four Souls games, you\u2019ll know what to expect in terms of sheer scale and immediate difficulty. If not, then you\u2019re about to get a painful education in precision movement and taking advantage of split-second windows of opportunity.<\/p>\n<p>While some are a little predictable in design for an action-RPG with a familiar European medieval theme &#8211; such as the giant knight Rhodes and his equally monolithic shield\/pike combo &#8211; there are some really breathtaking ideas at place elsewhere. The split personality of Levin Indok and Levin Undock (who pulls off one head and replaces it with another, which completely changes her attacks and movement speed) is one of the best and the most challenging, especially when both her forms attack you at once.<\/p>\n<p>However, for all the work that\u2019s gone into bringing these imposing figures to life, the same sense of creative consistency can\u2019t be levelled at each respective arena. Some have a real sense of character that really suits the sin on which they are based (such as the <strong>Alice in Wonderland<\/strong>-esque setting used for the Levins), but others are lacking in memorable <em>mise en sc\u00e8ne<\/em>. The icy domain of Camber Luce is almost completely void of detail, which makes it increasingly difficult to judge distances (something that becomes a real issue considering one of Luce\u2019s main attacks creates giant sinkholes in the arena).<\/p>\n<aside class=\"picture embed\"><a title=\"Sinner: Sacrifice for Redemption Review - Screenshot 4 of 4\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/93115\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/93115\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"Sinner: Sacrifice for Redemption Review - Screenshot 4 of 4\" \/><\/a><\/aside>\n<p>The Nintendo Switch port of Sinner runs surprisingly well. The framerate is mostly consistent, although assets and textures have taken a bit of battering in order to get the game running on humbler hardware. It\u2019s not a massive issue as you\u2019re unlikely to be stopping to admire the visual fidelity while you\u2019re rolling to avoid a devastating attack, but the blurriness and jagged edges are hard to miss all the same, especially when compared to other console ports.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"conclusion\">\n<h2 class=\"heading\">Conclusion<\/h2>\n<p>Sinner: Sacrifice for Redemption is a valiant attempt to cut away some action-RPG fat in order to get to the meat of its boss battles, but a lack of consistent quality makes this boss-rush concept a frustrating experience at times (and not for the reasons its developer likely intended). The combat lacks the heft of the series that inspired it, so while Sinner looks much like the Souls games, it never captures (or innovates upon) that familiar combat model. There are some great boss designs to take on here, but this is very much a curio for Souls fans who want something to do in-between playing the vastly superior <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/nintendo-switch\/dark_souls_remastered\"><strong>Dark Souls: Remastered<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>FromSoftware&#8217;s \u2018SoulsBorne\u2019 series has plenty of defining features that set it apart from its contemporaries. Obtuse storytelling. Mercilessly precise combat models. Mazelike hubs to explore. But none of these elements hold quite as much tangible power as the series\u2019 (mostly) breathtaking bosses. From the tag-team nightmare of Orstein and Smough to the onslaught of Father [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-56232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nintendo-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56232"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56232\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}