Sands of Salzaar Reviews

GOOD!

great

good

那么多年了，战斗里AI还是各种卡墙、原地蹦迪。。。。我玩这游戏最重要的就是队友养成，你他妈一进入站斗就卡墙，到最后还是得我自己上

i remember playing this but honestly it looks like it has potential but its just atrociously unfun a few hours in

very good but late-game need balancing with other builds as only one build stands out with the nameless

This is a really interesting game. Really find it enjoyable and definitely recommend it. I wish it had more quality of life such as finding people and things in the world. Perhaps a way to search and have an icon show on the map and see who they are currently aligned with. The whole world is dynamic, so the factions are recruiting and changing as you play. While this is really cool, also makes it a hard to keep up and track it all.

Sands of Salzaar is an ambitious open-world action RPG that blends elements of strategy, sandbox exploration, and light storytelling in a stylized fantasy desert setting. Set in a world left fractured after the fall of a great empire, the game drops you into the shoes of a wandering hero navigating political unrest, territorial conflict, and arcane mysteries. The tone is one of slow-burning discovery—players aren’t guided by rigid objectives but encouraged to chart their own course, making decisions that shape the landscape in subtle and sometimes dramatic ways. Right from the start, you’re given access to a large and interconnected map, with various regions controlled by different factions, each pursuing their own goals. It’s a world that reacts to your choices and movements, where a simple skirmish between bandits can ripple into a city changing hands if you're not paying attention. This dynamism is one of the game’s strongest suits, even when some systems feel undercooked or unrefined. Character creation is surprisingly robust, offering a variety of starting classes—from spell-slinging Ifrits to beastmasters, duelists, and elemental monks—each with their own unique skills and story hooks. Alternatively, you can start with a custom class, tailoring your ability tree for a personalized experience. The game doesn't rush you toward any goal, so whether you want to amass wealth through trading, lead armies into conquest, or focus on completing regional quests, it all depends on your playstyle. That freedom is where Sands of Salzaar shines brightest. The core loop involves exploring the world, building your army, completing quests for gold and items, and ultimately either supporting or undermining the dominant factions. You can even establish your own power base by capturing cities and defending them from rival claimants. While this creates a compelling rise-from-nothing arc, it’s also easy to get lost without a clear direction, especially early on. The game expects you to figure out its logic through trial and error, which can be frustrating for players used to more guided experiences. Combat is where the game falters for many. On the surface, it presents a real-time strategy-light system where you command troops and heroes across sprawling battlefields. In practice, however, fights often devolve into chaotic, unreadable brawls. Unit AI can be unreliable, and the lack of precise control makes larger battles feel more like number contests than tactical engagements. Your hero can use flashy abilities and dodge-roll mechanics to carve through enemies, but the responsiveness and feedback are inconsistent. While some players adapt and grow to enjoy the messiness, others find it tiresome. For all the effort put into troop progression—leveling units, promoting them into elite variants, and equipping your heroes—there's little tactical nuance. The spectacle of a large battle is impressive in scale, but it rarely demands much strategic thought beyond overwhelming force. The RPG elements are expansive, even if occasionally overwhelming. You’re constantly leveling up not only your main character but your recruited heroes, managing armies, trading goods between cities, and exploring dungeons for rare loot. Skill trees are deep and offer diverse builds, which encourages experimentation across multiple playthroughs. A legacy system lets you carry progress forward between runs, gradually unlocking better starting perks and gear. This long-term structure is ideal for players who enjoy investing in incremental growth and seeing their power snowball over time. However, the interface for managing these systems is clunky at times, and the game doesn’t always explain key mechanics well. There are moments when you’ll stare at menus or troop screens unsure of what a specific stat does or whether your choices are meaningful. Graphically, Sands of Salzaar operates on a budget, but its charm is undeniable. The character portraits are hand-drawn in a bold, expressive art style, and the overworld features painterly desert vistas, shifting sandstorms, and vibrant city hubs that evoke a strong atmosphere. Though the battlefield visuals are more functional than impressive, the game compensates with a stylized UI and some imaginative spell effects. The music is subtle but effective, evoking the exotic fantasy tone with Middle Eastern and Asian influences. However, one of the game’s persistent issues is its English localization, which remains rough even post-launch. Dialogues often read awkwardly, and many quest texts suffer from grammatical errors or unclear instructions. While the core narrative isn’t the centerpiece of the game, these translation problems break immersion and can make key story moments feel flat. Technically, the game is relatively stable on PC, though not without its quirks. Players have reported occasional crashes, inconsistent resolution scaling, and UI glitches, especially when changing settings mid-session. The mobile ports are less reliable, with reports of language settings reverting to Chinese and story modes becoming unstable after extended play. That said, the developers have demonstrated a commitment to updates, releasing balance patches and new content post-launch. Modding support is also present, which has allowed some players to tweak mechanics or fix annoyances. It’s clear that the developers had a strong vision—they simply lacked the resources to fully polish the experience. Despite its flaws, Sands of Salzaar is a compelling game for players who enjoy forging their own story in a reactive world. Its sandbox design, freedom of choice, and large-scale battles echo the spirit of games like Mount & Blade or Battle Brothers, while the RPG systems give it a progression depth that keeps you invested for dozens of hours. It’s not a game for everyone—those looking for tight combat mechanics, a strong central story, or polished presentation may find themselves frustrated. But for the patient and curious, it offers a vast playground where your choices matter and every run can unfold differently. It’s an impressive feat for an indie project, one that manages to be greater than the sum of its sometimes clunky parts. Rating: 7/10