zwolanerd

Price: Free to download and play, cash shop available.
Client: Java – small client download.
Get it from: www.salemthegame.com

When Salem was announced in 2011ish I was desperate to get on the Beta Invite list. I hassled friends, I hassled strangers, I made everyone I know sign up because four sign ups gave you access. And then… and then I didn’t love it. I still don’t love it, I’m afraid, which makes me very sad because I want to love it.

I love the idea, I love the concept. I love the art style, but the game play is just too baffling. Yes, there’s a ton of information in the forums but the tutorial is too short and there’s not enough early direction to get you ticking over nicely. As you know because you read this column every week (you better), I play a lot of games and for me the ideal start in any game is a good solid tute. Sometimes that tute is in the form of a basic quest so you can get a feel for your attacks or how to move or whatever, sometimes it’s a bunch of words in a pop up that you don’t read properly and then go “Wait, help!”. Just me? Okay.

After recording this I spent another hour or so in game and came no closer to learning what I was doing. While it’s handy that the forums are there, I shouldn’t have to be trawling forums to find out basic facets of game play. I’ll revisit Salem in a year or so if it’s still moving along, as I said in the video the original studio has passed the game over to a new mob in order to speed up development. We shall see how that pans out.

Tags: LynPlays

Written by: Lyn