Sands of Salzaar - Mount & Blade meets Dynasty Warriors?

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Madmarcus
Posts: 3609
Joined: Mon Feb 12, 2007 11:18 am
Location: Just outside your peripheral vision

Sands of Salzaar - Mount & Blade meets Dynasty Warriors?

Post by Madmarcus »

Actually I've never played Dynasty Warriors so I might be wrong about that. Total War is probably a better comparison but I haven't played TW Warhammer or Three Kingdoms so I don't know how the commander/hero units feel in those games.

No Steam link because I'm at work and Steam is blocked.

Sands of Salzaar is a Chinese M&B set in a Western China/Central Asia/Arabian Nights inspired world with MMO cooldown based fighting instead of first person fighting. Start out as a single person (perhaps with a small squad), hire troops, gain levels, find companions, and take on the world. There is a very similar system of taking over locations and either joining factions or creating your own faction. Unlike M&B there is a main quest (with a time limit, boo) although if the timer expires or you beat the main quests you can continue free roaming which is basically the M&B gameplay.

Items, classes, and skills are more fun and varied than M&B but the fights are chaotic blobs rushing at each other which I find less satisfying than watching a line of archers destroy the charging enemy. There is a manual army control mode that might allow for commanding units similar to M&B but I haven't played around with it more then commanding my army to follow me in a siege. I have played melee types so I'm standing in the middle with AoE skills which mostly feels heroic although at low levels bandits can mob you to death fairly easily. There are magic wielding classes that look interesting. Melee AoE attacks do not seem to have friendly fire so I would guess magic doesn't either. Some fights are you +companions, some are your whole army, and some are you by yourself versus a boss.

English translation is serviceable. Visually its nothing special but it works. There are mods and it looks like it might be as moddable as M&B but most of the mods are in Chinese so I haven't really explored that aspect.
Madmarcus
Posts: 3609
Joined: Mon Feb 12, 2007 11:18 am
Location: Just outside your peripheral vision

Re: Sands of Salzaar - Mount & Blade meets Dynasty Warriors?

Post by Madmarcus »

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1094 ... f_Salzaar/

The early game feels harder than M&B but I suspect that is due to the nagging sense of time. Many of the side quests have 30 or 40 day timers. On the other hand I haven't found anything on the overland map that I can't avoid so it feels like I should be able to run around picking up companions for a few levels which might be better than picking up soldiers. Which can also be true for M&B.
Madmarcus
Posts: 3609
Joined: Mon Feb 12, 2007 11:18 am
Location: Just outside your peripheral vision

Re: Sands of Salzaar - Mount & Blade meets Dynasty Warriors?

Post by Madmarcus »

Probably my last update. Sorry for the choppy format.

After playing more it really does scratch the M&B Warband itch but the movement on the overland map is awkward. I feel like I want to keep scrolling out so that I can use the automove to location function but most of the time I want to be zoomed in some to see what I'm passing or nearby parties.

Combat is mostly satisfying but some of the boss duels feel like they depend too much on timing. I suppose some people think that is a good thing. Mass combat can get hard to see but is less dependent on hitting specific stuns or interrupts.

The legacy system is cool but makes it feel like some of the more fun aspects of the game (free form builds and multiple masteries) are gated behind multiple runs needed to build up the legacy points. This might be my biggest complaint.

I'm happy with the purchase but I'm not sure how much more of it I will play after I get my current character to the big battle that seems to be hinted about around 120 days in.
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