SACRALITH : The Archer`s Tale Reviews

Overall Sacralith was a very fun game and I'd say it's still 100% worth a play. What they did with abilities makes this game a really fun unique spin on VR archery and it still holds up a few years later. They certainly have some quality of life issues, a meh narrative, and some other weird choices; but the core gameplay carries the experience though all of that. I honestly wish they added more abilities and progression to the game or a way to carry progression across playthoughs, but that just means the game is worth exploring. See the full analysis at https://youtu.be/AwPabEGT1po

i cannot in good conscience recommend this game. the first couple of levels are really strong, they teach you to use your bow, you get a few levels, unlock the various magic arrows, but just as you feel like you're reaching the early midpoint of the game, you get half of level of on-rails elephant-vehicle section where the mechanics that made the game fun and unique are taken away, and immediately afterwards, you get a flaccid cutscene, a very short boss fight without your magic, your levels or even your bow, against a boss that doesn't even fight back, and then the game ends. If the game could follow through on the strong start this would be a definite recommend, but the brevity of the whole thing and the absolute trash ending makes it not worth money.

[h1]Experienced on the Oculus Rift with Touch Controllers[/h1] You can view my review & gameplay here: https://youtu.be/tuRJzNHQ-7g This is one of the most fun archery games in VR and is a must buy. It's also unique. I had various play sessions and each time I had to stop when I was drenched in sweat, not because I wanted to. I managed to snag it on sale for $12.99 USD during the Steam Summer 2018 sale and just finished playing it now. I wish I had played it sooner. So what makes it so fun and unique? Well, it's got polish all the way around. Beautiful, stunning graphics and the game runs smoothly. There's voiced dialogue and cut scenes. It's got this musical, funny introduction. The bow mechanic feels awesome. It's not just about accuracy, but about getting on target quick and making some strategic decisions with your special magical arrows. It's got stuff like a slowing pool of ooze or turning dead enemies into friend zombies or healing arrows. You're basically in FPS God mode with a bow & arrow and your job is to snipe enemies and provide cover for your comrades. You move around by node teleportation. It's quite the challenge, not just skill wise, but endurance wise. There's great set pieces where all the sudden you have to pick the best vantage point. Then they throw a new challenge and it's difficult to see the enemies. There's several upgrade paths to choose from and each offers a different way to meet the challenges. And it's just a lot of fun. This game is also a nice contrast to In Death or or the numerous bow and arrow wave shooters / Tower Defense like games. It has a story. It has a well thought-out path that random generation can not achieve (yet). You want to go further because you want to see what happens (not because you want to score more points). My only criticisms of the game are that I wish the story had been longer and more fleshed out (although I enjoyed what was there). Also, I finished the game in less than 2.5 hours. Lastly, the checkpoints could have been more generous. [b]Rate 8/10. Only reason it's not rated higher is because it is light on content for the price.[/b]

Pro Good game mechanics overall Graphics and sound are nice Difficulty is just high enough to be challenging but not broken Accurate hitboxes allow you to see unlucky arrows fly uselessly through legs Cons No button for turning means play is impractical while seated Really abrupt cutscenes: I have no idea what the story was about nor who was who

A cool new take on the Archery Tower Defence mechanic. Unlike other indie devs, this one features triple A like efforts on graphics and story implementation with a progression system and skill trees. The bow itself might need a little love on how it's working in VR on certain details, but it's enjoyable already and working very well.

A well-polished archery wave-type shooter that is worth standing around for. This game is a a wave-shooter that lets you move around to multiple points within a level to attack your enemies. Essentially, you are playing as a a not-so covert sniper archer covering your sword-endowed AI team mates. There is no smooth locomotion (teleport to existing attack points) nor smooth turning (there is snap turning, but since I've got a 3-sensor Rift set-up, I do not use snap turning), but for this game that is not really a negative. You are providing so much cover to your AI team mates that smooth locomotion may actually be a detriment (there are a lot of enemies; if there were fewer, then smooth locomotion would be more immersive). Unlike most other archer games I've played (primarily 'In Death'), your enemies are moving quick and fast around your AI team mates, so accurately tracking your enemy for a shot starts to become critical. There are substantial power-ups (i.e., freeze arrow, heal arrow, stop time), and later on some of these power-ups became necessary for me to progress. With the multiple vantage points you can attack from, and the multiple pathways enemies can come from, keeps the game play relatively fresh even after multiple attempts on the same level. As with most power-ups offerings, I eventually settled into my set of favorite ones (see the example ones listed above). The story is fairly serviceable, and gets the job done, but is easily forgettable due to the engaging and robust game play. I've gotta say the final level/boss was a bit of a let down in that you needed to hit a small target kind of inside a haystack (figuratively speaking), and you were practically invincible for this level. On the other hand, if I kept dying trying to line up the shot, I would probably be more mad. When I beat the final boss, it felt more like luck than skill; whereas the rest of the game relied heavily on skill. The graphics were more than serviceable for myself (i7-8700, GTX 1070Ti), and was smooth throughout on default settings. Because of the variability of how you can attack, the relative randomness attack patterns of the enemy, and the power-ups I have yet to obtain, this is one of the few wave shooters I can see myself coming back to play. It took me a few hours to get through it, but it was a very engaging few hours. A worthwhile purchase.

First of all, I suck absolutely at this game. It took me almost five minutes to complete the little practice at the beginning. However, my ineptitude aside, this is basically a tower defense game. You stand at predetermined spots and can teleport between said spots. The arrows are dynamic, you can adjust your aim, and the bow mechanics are really impressive, even if, as I said, I'm likely the worst player to dare to touch this game. Overall, I'd definitely give this game a go, after all, if my repeated defeats leave me wanting more, i'm sure someone semi competent would have fun too.

Pretty impressed with this game, given it was barely on my radar before release. It needs a few things worked out in patches, but if the problems listed below get addressed, this will be the most engaging VR archery game yet. Pros: - Great graphics, body physics (really fun shooting guys off of a log bridge and watching them fly off.) - Smooth gameplay (at least in-game , which is where it counts) - Good gameplay mechanics - teleporting to strategic vantage points to protect various offensive fronts - Powerups, skill tree add interesting variety - High level of immersion Cons: - Impossible to aim accurately with the arrow rest on the opposite side. EDIT: This has been fixed already and it is much more intuitive to aim now. Nice job! - Long loading screens, even off an SSD - a) theres just a static map to look at, not very interesting after the first 2 minute load and b) the main problem being the insane amount of flickering with the steamVR screens (at least on my system) making the load screens very unpleasant. That needs to be addressed. - Special arrow selection feels a bit clunky. Too big, need to reach around awkwardly to find the right arrow once you have more than a couple activated. - High level of difficulty, even on normal. This wouldnt be a con if there were checkpoiints implemented, but its not so fun killing the same 500+ soldiers that you just did before dying at a frankenstein boss. EDIT: it seems there are some checkpoints, as i didnt go back to the start of level 3. - A couple kinda funny but immersion breaking mistakes: eg The story intro to level 2 where the Army General or whatever is pointing out the tower with the red flag but is pointing the totally wrong direction. I was kinda happy he got shot after proving himself clueless/blind or both. Haha, they even captured this in the store page screenshots! - Haptics on the bow are lacking compared to The Lab, QuiVR, Skyrim

The graphics and audio of this game (on HTC VIVE) are on the level of watching CGI movie. Literally, this is level of immersion that made me get into VR to begin with! Game is basically moving tower defense using VR Archery vs. steady spawn wave of attackers from many different angles. And different hits to opponents do matter in the game. 2 major annoyances soon begin to wear on you and will eventually make you switch off to another game after a while. 1) Cut scenes are neat...the 1st 10 or 12 times you watch them...then they are a agonizing and grating waste of my time. There currently is no option to skip them...and that's just bad production value in day and age of ADHD folks. 2) The controls are frustrating once the pace beginnings to pick up of the steady stream of attackers. You'll find trying to get your arrow out of your quiver increasing frustrating as you just did the same movements you JUST DID 20 times before...and no arrows?? Meanwhile guys you're protecting are calling for you to get off your butt and help them as they're dying. I've already ended up smacking my controller with my googles and both controllers together in frustration trying to get that dam arrow to show up the same exact way that it did many times before! As person that enjoys archery in RL, I can understand the desire to make something bit more authentic as to how archery works...but until the controllers can match the programming...this basically kills the fun of the game at higher levels. And honestly, why care about authentism there and then you magically teleport around in the game for movement? There really should be like a "realism" option that you can select if you wanted to torture yourself to prove something...and option to turn the quiver off and just enjoy the game. If this is done, this would be easiest one of the best VR game currently on the market for non-major studio price easy. Especially in the realm of VR Archery games. TDLR: Recommend if you have patience to deal with controls and ever repeating cut scenes.

way to short. finished in under 2h! get it when it's on sale....like a real sale. not worth the 20 bucks. sorry devs, you have a nice game here, with nice mechanics and ideas....but that's a demo at best!