Review: Sinner: Sacrifice for Redemption (Nintendo Switch)

The kind of game that will chew up anyone afraid of a challenge, Sinner: Sacrifice for Redemption eschews any sense of progression in favour of throwing you immediately into the deep end.

The tutorial is simple and brief. You learn how to move, how to attack and you listen to the whispering of the spirits that pass you by to work out how you ended up in the dark, ravaged world in which you woke up.

You play as a faceless silent soldier, known only as Adam, faced with the task of taking down the Seven Deadly Sins to earn redemption. Once you’ve learned the basic movies, you are thrust immediately up against them. The game skips the gradual development of skills and abilities over the course of a plot-heavy RPG in favour of throwing you straight into brutal boss battles.

Given that Sinner: Sacrifice for Redemption consists of just eight fights in its entirety, there is a decent amount to keep you occupied.

For starters, it is absolutely gorgeous. The attention to detail is fantastic, right down to the clanking of armour as you move. The world around you is grim and unforgiving and you can’t help but want to know what happened to leave it so mercilessly torn.

You don’t get the full story as such, but the snippets the game does offer gives you enough to weave together an idea of how a once ordinary world succumbed to sin.

Each sin is given its own backstory via a brief poem followed by a wonderfully illustrated cutscene, before you are launched into their lair.

The boss avatars are simultaneously incredible and monstrous to look at, each with their own unique design and fighting style. Sinner: Sacrifice for Redemption definitely provides a creative take on each sin that feels both accurate and original.

Their individual battle styles are all demanding in their own way. You must make a sacrifice to each one before you can challenge them, meaning you’ll have to contend with sudden unexpected weaknesses on top of the monster lying in wait for you.

This game is not for the faint-hearted. It is for fighters who want to test their skills against a truly ruthless opponent.

This means that Sinner: Sacrifice for Redemption isn’t going to be for everyone. The minimal storyline and sheer brute force of the game will surely put off those looking for more depth. Your growth as a character is purely on you to develop your skills by learning from each attempt you make against the sins. For anyone prepared to commit like that, this game will have a unique appeal. But it will also be the thing that puts other people off.

This approach gives Sinner: Sacrifice for Redemption a certain uniqueness. This, along with its breathtaking visuals, definitely make it worth a play, but its longevity will depend entirely on how much of a beating you’re prepared to take in the name of a challenge.