Dust and Salt

Ode for a quicksave button to save me from unforeseeable failure conditions. In terms of it's presentation I would give this game a thumbs up, it's style is consistent and the creator didn't try to overreach, instead playing to their strengths. I can't recommend the sound as it's the equivalent of the loading screen music from Witcher 3 and entirely innocuous. The Writing is solid and in line with the style of Choose your own adventure books which brings us to the crux of this review. Whether or not you will like this game comes down to what you think of old Choose your own adventure books like Lone Wolf and Fighting Fantasy. Myself I cannot stand them, and this game shows absolutely why. There is a right and wrong choice to every situation which you cannot foresee unless you have played through the game before, experimenting with other options does not net you new experiences in most cases but instead punishes you for making a wrong choice that you could not have known was wrong ti...

First of all, this is a gamebook, so you should be in the mood for reading when you start playing this. It offers few hours of gameplay for one read-through and most players will probably end up playing it at least 2-3 times, since it is rather hard. For a gamebook, it is pretty awesome - the story and the decisions are interesting and those are most important for me. The UI I find to be rather polished, compared to other similar games. The music is catchy, the artwork style is nice and works well, though some drawings might have been better, e.g. the units in battle. Regarding the combat system, it is the right amount of simple; if the game was too long, it would have grown thin - don't expect heroes 3 here :) It is still interesting and adds to the gameplay experience, but the core of the game is making the right decisions outside the battles and reading an immersive story.

[h1]Dust and Salt[/h1] may very well be a title you haven't heard of, but in my estimation, if you are an old school tabletop gamer or just enjoy a more, choose your own adventure type approach to gaming, then you really should take a look. [h1]Story[/h1] The story of Dust and Salt is nothing new. One nation rises to prominence and begins subjugating its neighbors. The nation in question being [i]Murk[/i]. Your people were one of their neighbors. Murk is going around conscripting children into their army. You are one of those children. Your father stops them at the cost of his own life. You escape and join a mercenary troop. From their, your mission for revenge against Murk and the elevation of your people, begins. You will have an impact on the story based on your morality decisions and such, and as such, the story itself provides a lot of replay value. It is worth noting that there were enough typos to make me wonder if a final edit wasn't rushed. It doesn't actually take away fro...

TL;DR: recommended for all CYOA lovers ++ Beatiful world map ++ Tactical hex-grid battles + Replayability +/- Text - First checkpoint too far away from the beginning Basically this is CYOA with tactical hex-grid battles (what it says on the tin) and really beautiful world map. To be honest, it's the world map that sold me the game, but I enjoyed every aspect. Tactical battles are nice addition to text adventure, they are not too hard and add variety to gameplay. Text pacing is a bit weird sometimes especially early in the game, where one passage just skips several years and suddenly describes you as perfect warrior. Overall story is not too exciting, but totally ok, with meaningful choices and branches. If some dialog options are locked, you will see it and know what to look for in next replay. Music is fine, though maybe little bit repetative sometimes. First checkpoint is very far away from game beginning; also there are no checkpoints after some battles/decisions. It's bit too sh...

Pros: - The game had a compelling, if slightly cliché story - The simple, text-based approach to the fantasy world was interesting Cons: - The length of this game was insulting. With one exception, if you take the time to look at the reviews for it you will note that the hours played were only four hours. That is not a coincidence. This game only takes 4 hours to complete. - Combat system is extremely under-whelming All in all, the game feels rushed and it is insulting that Prime games released this title, having obviously put so little effort into it. If you want a few hours of entertainment, give it a buy, but if you're looking for a game with any kind of replayability, good visuals, a challenging combat system, or a novel story-line, save your money and look elsewhere.

This game totally blew me away, from the beautifully crafted narrative design to the gorgeous artwork on the world map, I wasn't expecting such a stellar experience. The main sellling- point of this game is on the text-based story-telling which although not extraordinary, is pretty good. On this it delivers well, with a game-book style vibe, where you have multiple choices for your actions, which will progress the story accordingly. (Multiple playthroughs needed to get all this game has to offer). That being said, combat stands out like a sore thumb being very shallow as you only have two options, move and attack. (I know, I know, this game is more focussed on the text-narrative experience). Also some minor gripes are the UI could be tweaked a bit for better visual experience, the artwork on the map is gorgeous but this isn't carried onto the troops in-game (during battle) which makes them look odd, also troops aren't they move in the vein of a table-top game experience. You cann...

Beat it in 2.5 hours. Beautiful, well written, interesting game that is WAAAAY over-priced. Nice little book, no strategic depth at all. It's not quite a point and click, but it's the closest thing to it. Also, balance on troops is insanely favored towards a certain type - I didn't even use 4 of my troops in the final battle and I didn't lose a single troop in that battle.

Excellent game for all fans of gamebooks or just curious players. I am most impressed with the music and the art of the game. Besides its text-based adventure there are a numerous tactical battles as part of the story. I have very few critiques, but nothing major, really. I would give it a 5/5.

Great text based adventure with a pinch of tactical combat. Nice simple soundtrack, but besides the greatly drawn world map, the game lacks eye candy in the form of character portraits or any pictures. Knowing, that it was created with limited resources, I can say the creators did a great job. Thumbs up and expecting the next game of the studio to be even better.

I give this game a rank D+ (50-55%) Forgettable game - sadly nothing really good here.. See my profile for more details about my reviews. Not a bad game, just nothing good for a gamer like me here... I had more expectation, but it ends up being a boring, repetitive, very indie choose your own adventure type of work. Admittedly, the game is prettily drawn, and I love CYOA books, but here as a video game? nah. The VERY first blocks of text, I had a few non meaningful choices (both lead to the same event), but the worst was that at my very big first choice, I chose option A out of ABC.... and died. I had to restart the game, since I had not reached the first checkpoint. I did it again, reached the choice, chose option B this time... and died again. Had to do it ALL OVER AGAIN, knowing now it was option C. Well that was a VERY BAD START, not for a STORY, mind you, but for a GAME. Gameplay wise, there is nothing. So sad, it could have been much better, but I have NO intention to go on as, ...