When you look at boss battles, most games treat them as a main course, often blocking the path forward to your ultimate goal or simply holding the key to a small reward; a larger piece of a well-oiled machine that make up the experience. We’ve all played games that offer up a mode that tasks you with battling a number of the games’ bosses in a time attack style mode or what have you, but this is typically an extra just used as a bonus. We’ve seen a few titles with this being the bulk of the game, mostly with lackluster results, stripping the game of any sort of narrative. SINNER: Sacrifice for Redemption aims to change that, incorporating a surprisingly detailed story with gameplay that relies almost entirely on battling the biggest of the bad.

The story follows a mysterious adventurer on a journey to battle the incarnations of the seven deadly sins. You’ll begin the game in what I can only assume is Hell, with a brief tutorial that acclimates you to the game’s controls and systems. You’ll face off with the game’s only standard enemies, quickly cutting a path through them like a knife through butter, setting the expectation that the game is nothing but a cake walk. After going through a portal, you’ll be transported to the games hub world, with strange monuments scattered about. Interacting with one the rock formations will give you a macabre poem, alluding to which of the deadly sins is hiding behind the gateway. Each of the bosses has a unique modifier that will make the encounter even more difficult (which can be activated and taken into other battles if you are a true glutton for punishment), such as lowering your defense or attack, making your shield effectively useless, among others. Each will make the already insurmountable challenge even more taxing.

The combat is a straight up clone of that found in the popular Dark Souls franchise with a bit of Shadow of the Colossus thrown in for good measure; defense is the key to victory. Your warrior is equipped with two weapon sets – one larger, much more powerful sword and a smaller, quicker sword and shield combo. There are also some consumables in the forms of spears, health potions, bombs, and a nifty trick that lets you imbue your attacks with fire, adding additional damage. You’ll have to take your time, carefully waiting for a small window of opportunity to make your move, only to take small bits of the enemy health bars. Don’t let your pride get the best of you if you find yourself on the winning end of a battle – most of the hulking entities you face come equipped with plenty of ways to ruin your day, even at the last second. On numerous occasions, I was feeling good about the run, sitting pretty with a number of the limited consumable items and a full health bar, only to be dispatched with a single hit or to be pushed off of the safe area of the level, resulting in the closest table being flipped. Aside from the loss of your time (and sanity in the event you struggle like me), death carries no true penalty. You’ll be given the option to back out to the hub world or simply retry the same battle from the start, with all of your items being refilled.

The game gives you two viewing options from the main menu that can be changed at any time, allowing you to free look or if you prefer, you can tell the game to always focus on the bosses, which is the option I went for. This makes evading attacks a bit easier, but causes one major issue during combat: the spears don’t have the greatest auto aim functionality. The spears work wonders for stopping certain attacks mid motion, but if you’re not locked onto the enemy, the game has a habit of slothfully chucking it wherever it sees fit. You’re given a fair amount of these per battle, but a number of battles ended prematurely when everything else was going great simply because I ran out of the tool early into the encounter.

The presentation is something to lust over, with ambient music that sets the tone of battle perfectly. The visuals are just as impressive, with huge amounts of detail incorporated into the enemy designs and stages you’ll duke it out in. Mangled appendages, demonic styled armor, or freakishly long appendages with spikes of metal jabbed through are the norm, making the characters feel as if they were spit straight from the depths of Hell. While it would be hard to decipher what sin matched up to what enemy had they been presented in a police lineup scenario, the sheer size of the hulking beasts are imposing, often feeling as if they were designed by bigger names in horror such as Clive Barker. Not only do they look completely different from one another, the battles themselves will often have singular mechanics in place to keep the player on their toes, making each encounter stand out as its own.

Even if it only consists of a number of bosses you can count with two hands, this is a solid game for the sub-genre. Honestly, the biggest sin here is the punishing difficulty in place for the sake of longevity. If you’re a glutton for punishment or one of those gamers who can beat Dark Souls while playing on a Guitar Hero guitar (I envy you), SINNER: Sacrifice for Redemption is right up your alley. Just don’t let your sins get the best of you.

8 out of 10

Pros

• Tight Controls
• Creepy, Highly Detailed Enemies
• Varied Mechanics/Attacks
• Interesting Story
• Punishing Difficulty

Cons

• Punishing Difficulty
• Spear Throwing Needs Some Polish
• Lack of Content

SINNER: Sacrifice for Redemption was developed by DARK STAR and published Another Indie. It was released on NS, PC, PS4, and X1 October 18th, 2018. The game was provided to us for review on PS4. If you’d like to see more of SINNER: Sacrifice for Redemption, check out the official site.

 

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