Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Game
Game2021
Sands of Salzaar
Developer 汉家松鼠Han-Squirrel Studio
Sands of Salzaar (Chinese: 部落与弯刀; pinyin: Bùluò yǔ wān dāo; trans.: Tribe and Scimitar) is a 2021 fantasy strategy action role-playing game for Microsoft Windows and iOS. It was developed by Chinese indie video game company Han-Squirrel Studio, and published by Hong Kong company XD. The player controls a customized character to battle, recruit troops, manage a fief, and explore dungeons. The game was launched as an… From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
172 reactions from 3 sources (Steam reviews, Bluesky, Mastodon) · newest Oct 5, 2026 · last updated Oct 7, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
65
Fresh
110 positive · 59 negative
95% range 58–72%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 110 | 59 | 0 |
| Bluesky * | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Mastodon * | 0 | 0 | 0 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
3 newer reactions are still waiting for a label.
Steam's own rating
Very Positive
18,815 of 23,052 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What people are saying
Summary pending — the reactions are listed below.
Reactions
60 of 172 · most liked firstDecent game but the translations are incomplete. Only 80% of the game is in English and 20% is in Chinese... There are definitely portions of the game I can't play because I can't read it. For example, all dialogue options with captives are in Chinese. I don't understand how this is a full release with DLCs without basic priorities like having a consistent language.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Very beloved game by the community even with all the problems that it has, but looks very left behind by the developers. It hasn't received any important update since it launched, except for some useless DLC's, and the game has a lot of things to be improved.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Yes, it's a Chinese game similar to Mount&Blade. Yes, the world map is smaller. Yes, the characters only have 3 equipment slots (Accesory, Armor, Weapon). Yes, there are also fewer ways to interact with the world. Yes, the combat is like in mobile games. Surprising, right? You've found a game, development cost of which was times less than Mount&Blades's. So why would you even consider playing it? Well, first of all, Sands of Salzaar doesn't try to be a Mount&Blade alternative. It's a pure…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →had the game for years gave it a few tries between accounts, but translation is ass i actually do enjoy the game
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Can we patch the game instead of releasing more DLCs. The game is solid if the devs just patch some bugs in this game.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Typical Chinese money farm. As soon as it makes a bit of money, it's abandoned by the devs without ever finishing it...
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Feels like a mix of Mount & Blade (armies roaming the maps, fighting, doing quests, recruiting more soldiers and training them up, and capturing towns) and Dynasty Warriors (you have both heroes and soldiers, and heroes with their powers and magic are a lot stronger than armies, but you do need both to do well). Full disclaimer: it is clear this game was not written in English, and had to be translated. Having said that, the translations are fairly good - there are a handful of buttons or text…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Temu version of the Bannerlords
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The translations are worded like words spoken to me by a mental patient in such a way that you have to think about what they really mean.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →chinese games are always really fun but the second you translate them it turns into something out of my uncles schizophrenic episodes.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It may seem like anime Mount and Blade in an East Asian setting. Actually it is a well-thought-out fantasy RPG with a decent story and world, lively characters, dialogue choices, diplomacy, and talent points. Well-thought-out and well-written, but not very well-executed. Every time I come across an idea in this game that would easily put Mount and Blade to shame, I find some annoying flaw that ruins it. For example, characters get stuck in geometric details on the global map and tactical map.…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Unbalanced and buggy. Half the quests, and pathfinding are broken. Performance drops, using fast forward. This is just shameless.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Gampad support was promised to arrive on full release. It has been well over a year since then, with multiple paid DLCs since. No gamepad support. No apology for failing to deliver the promised gamepad support. I physically cannot play mouse and keyboard games without injuring myself. Gamepad support is an accessibility feature. You cannot just promise an accessibility feature, reaffirm that promise repeatedly, then pretend you never made that promise as soon as the game releases. Months…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Cartoon Bannorlord type game. Honestly had a LOT of potential to be a great game but it seems like the developers have abandoned it. English translation is super spotty, okay in some places, really bad in others. Lots of small bugs and jankiness that NEED to be addressed. There is alot to do and impressive unit variety but theres just too much holding the game back for me to sink time into. If this game were to be revived by the developers I would definitely recommend playing.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I've bought this game many years ago, while exploring chinese single player games. Since EA I still enjoy it and replay it once in a while, despite its shortcomings. Speaking of which, most of the problems are related to the english translation, including borked quest(lines). Generally such problems can be fixed by temporally switching to chinese or following guides. Main culprit here is Spirit Witch's questline. So don't start your first playthru of the game on 'expert mode' (1 save file). It…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The entire game is extremely unbalanced literally everything is either completely useless or extremely OP.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Really enjoying it. Mount and Blade but isometric, plus unique Companions with interesting personalities as well as Unique classes and playstyles. I really like the legacy feature where each playthrough isn't fatal and actually counts towards score for abilities and bonuses that make you more powerful in the next run. Recommended.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I hit max level in around an hour of grinding and then it was just fetch quests. If you're considering this, just get Mount and Blade or Kenshi instead.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A Wild, Wacky Desert Romp Sands of Salzaar on Steam is a chaotic, gorgeous open-world RPG that hooked me from the start. I dove in blind, ignoring guides, and spent hours fumbling through its vibrant desert world, leading my ragtag army of wolves and mages into battles that felt like Dynasty Warriors on a 2D acid trip. The art is stunning, the freedom to conquer or befriend factions is thrilling, and the janky translation only adds to its quirky charm. I lost countless hours exploring,…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Weirdly translated and clunky Chinese Mount&Blade. Have no idea what I am doing half of the game.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I have played this game for a bit, and I think its very solid all around. It is a Mount and Blade Clone (and I have thousands of hours on Mount and Blade). This game is similar to one of the better mods of Mount and Blade, like Perisno. It has magic and fantasy. It has some great elements like being able to marry a female hero of your choice, and have children (and raise the children into heroes). I would give this game a 9/10 or even a 10/10. I am shocked and confused how this game can only…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Not quite ready, but good for an early access game. Nothing makes sense. 100% of how to play is using online resources. Fun but there is better out there.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Game needs some serious polishing.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Not a fun cultivation game. In general not even a fun game.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I gotta say.. I used to love this game. It had it's bugs, sure. But the core was good. I recently went ahead and bought all the DLC's only to find that the bugs are getting progressively worse. The lack of translation in MANY parts of the game (Including a four-part quest that you get but cannot read because it is not in English) and many dialogue options. The things that ARE in English are often hard to understand. The AI is pretty horrendous. On the map, you never know what anyone is doing.…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →No controller support when it was promised years ago.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →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…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It looks promising, but is actually quite shallow and one can reach the bottom very quickly, with battles being boring, and not much to do on the map. Not to mention typos, poor interface and bugged pathfinding/
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Man this is a hard review. The game itself is fine, an interesting blend of rpg and rts. But the biggest problem is the community and mods. Most (like 95%) of the community/mods are Chinese. Imagine awesome mods that adds new units and items, new characters and graphics, new story lines and etc etc, and yet all of it is in Chinese. Because of that, this game is great for people that can read Chinese, but for the rest of us that can't, you have what is essentially a plain/mediocre game with a…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I missed the part where getting killed by everything is supposed to be fun..... refund requested...
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Basically mount and blade with topdown hack'n slash element and more interesting graphically. This game lacks polishing: unit pathfinding is bad(they get stuck running in walls), loadings are rough, npc unit sometimes displayed in wrong color on minimap. But still a good game.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I wanted to give this a positive review, but it hasn't been updated in over a year. The english translations used feel awkward at best and the phrasing leaves you pondering what they really meant. The combat is okay-ish. Sometimes the pathing of troops breaks and you need to literally push troops forwards. Some move descriptions are deceptive, saying it effects enemies but it also harms your own troops. (Again, this is likely a translation issue.) The character customization is great. You can…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Hundreds of hours played. One of the best oddball games in its genre with tons of playstyles and choices. The only real issues are the bugs and the lack of clear info on settlement management. If you like Bannerlord 2, Wartales, or Battle Brothers, you’ll enjoy this. I hope the devs make more games like it.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →finish ur freaking game what a rip off
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is crazy. If you like games like Kenshi or Rimworld this may also be for you since it scratches that itch - even though it has nothing to do with those games gameplaywise.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Translate the game
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Very unfinished game. It's to say the least. So many glitches, stuck in the texture, AI running into the wall. missing translated text is the least of this game problems. It's playable, yes. You can even have fun, like me. But so many rough edges. Be warned. At this point, only Murim or Wuxia fans (plus sand and desert theme fans) can have fun here. Others wouldn't understand.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Game is dull as hell. played it for 6 hours and feel like i have accomplished nothing, I control the red valley or whatever it was. wish i could give it a middle of the road but till then its a negative for me.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Advertised as coop a while back anymore, I'd honestly like a refund at this point, only bought it to play with friends.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Gradually going through my Steam games and leaving reviews (if I feel like it. This one, I did). I wanted to sink my teeth into this game. But for me, the controls and lack of gamepad support really did a number on my enjoyment. The English translation at the time appeared to be a work in progress for story, UI, and side quests. And if you misplay your run while progressing, you may end up with content that is very difficult or too difficult to overcome - and better off starting over. The…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The Mount & Blade gameplay loop is there, the combat will feel closer to dynasty warriors with the loop and management of M&B. It's entertaining but has one fatal flaw to me and it's the targetting in combat, it just feel awful and leads to me getting more frustrated than having fun. I'd recommend it because somebody else can probably overlook it and it just feels wrong to write off the entire game over it. However, for me, it's something I can't get passed.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Literally takes forever to figure out how to play the characters you really want to play. Then the storyline itself is not intuitive like most other games in a similar genre so you're forced to look up guides (when you can find them) and you have to hope you don't run into any bugs or glitches because you could literally lose all the effort you put into figuring it out. Then guess what? You will have to start all over because it bugged out your saved game also. Yeah, I'm done.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →summary: play if you want to mindlessly grind, but don't care what/how/why. I have NO IDEA what I'm doing. Sure I grew my army by converting some of my captives, and I pay resources to upgrade them, and I click on enemies when there's a fight. I win 70% of them. I understand I'm not strong enough for the 30% I lose. But I'd like to know BEFORE I engage what are the risks. Sometimes they tell you, sometimes they don't. I try to do quests, but 50% of them just point to empty locations. Are…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Awful game. Glitched my movement third fight so I had to just stand there and die. Many other issues, too many to mention.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Sands of Salzaar is an addicting game. At first I thought it is like a generic flash game but when I played it, I was hooked. Though the biggest downside would be the bugs, lots and lots of bugs. The immersion broke for me when I got to late game. All my heros and squads are in max level, by that time the UI was so broken that I had to reset my game constantly just to continue playing the game. I still have hope though, for the devs to fix it. Hopefully they will <3
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →mount & blade + kenshi vibes, lovely
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →if you love mount and blade, & Kenshi then you'll gonna love this game. So much fun!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Awesome game. Translation can be jank (or nonexistent at all), there's basically 0 mechanics that are explained at all, and you're guaranteed to run into at least 1-2 bugs per run (currently, the "bone purification" quest or whatever doesn't work, and the "ice dragon caves" has no reward, but I'm guessing that's supposed to be part of a quest and normally inaccessible). But I don't care. People describe it as a mix of mount & blade and kenshi, and they're not entirely wrong, but I wouldn't say…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Dreadfully boring and plays like a 99 cent mobile game.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Idunno the translation is fine but i cant really read anyways. Game play 10/10 Endless loop
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It is a really fun game until one of the end game quests, Into the Abyss. This quest makes you go on a rabbit hole of a chase down to find leaders with not much context on how to find them. I have played 2 times enjoying myself up to this part and then getting demotivated to want to actually finish the game. Didnt think a quest could be this bad and I've played WoW for 480 days worth of time.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Sadly I cant recommend this game when path-finding for units is this bad. in early access I did not mind but now they are selling dlc so they will most likely not fix this issue. They even add walls in sieges for the AI to get stuck on in one dlc. edit: Few buttons are not translated.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Reminds me off Mount and Blade, but a cheaper chinese version. Feels kinda repetetive and you will hit the level cap (lv. 20) quite fast... When that happens the battles/ fights are no longer important as you gain more resources from just buying up things from other cities and the exp. just gets thrown away. I guess for the price the game is ok?
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Salzaar is not the best action combat in gaming. It's not the best sandbox game. It's not that great as an RPG. The translation is pretty rough in a lot of places, though nothing that I've never been able to figure out. But the sum of it's parts add up to still be something I still really enjoy. You go from an individual bum wandering around aimlessly to leading an army of troops taking over a nation and commanding other armies as well; while your own character has gone from getting beat up by…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Addictive time-waster, yes it is like bannerlord, it also reminds me a bit of an old flash game called feudalism, you can just get lost mindlessly in here for hours and not realize how time has passed, very fun.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →mabe i chose the wron character, but for ranged character the controls are abysmal
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's good to be true however graphic of this game need to be improve a little :) totally recommend this game.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →0/10 Cant play anymore. ran just fine before today game will download/update 98% of the way andddd Corrupt Download steam changed the download system and now im unable to download/update this game because im using windows 7 when trying to download and play i get Corrupt Download or Content Severs Unreachable. ways of bypassing this and running the games but you need to do it each time for each game, this takes a decent bit of work. im give this game a 0/10 on steam and if your looking into…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →One extremely addictive game (I completed campaign three times in a row). Campaign is not that much relevant (same outcome), but everything else... WOW! Like Mount&Blade set in Chinese culture and mythology. Your hero can learn different combat, magic and passive skills with various effects (even learn skills from other followers and traders). Recruit various types of warriors (and creatures), evolve them in different ways (both in fighting style and tiers of strength) and equip various gems…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →An interesting, mostly fun exploration/ skirmish RPG. Lots of inspiration taken from the fun bits of MMORPGs like WOW. There's a lot to do, with progression made mostly through battlefield combat. A lot of content to experience, but much of it is easy killing, fetch quests and farm (the "authentic" MMO experience ). Not that its bad. It's almost as fun as the best progression and PVP content of WOWlikes. The 200 unit skirmishes feel almost a carbon copy of the Capital City raids on Stormwind…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →
Posts are quoted from public profiles with links to the original. Want yours removed? Contact us.
You Might Also Like
similar titlesFINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTH
FINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTH
Game
DRAGON QUEST VII Reimagined
DRAGON QUEST VII Reimagined
Game
Little Kitty, Big City
Little Kitty, Big City
Game
What Remains of Edith Finch
What Remains of Edith Finch
Game
Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection
Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection
Game