Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Game
Game2018
Smoke and Sacrifice
Developer Solar Sail Games Ltd
Smoke and Sacrifice sees Sachi, a mother forced to give up her son, adventure into a grotesque underworld on a quest that will lead her to a darker truth. From the Steam store page
190 reactions from 3 sources (Steam reviews, Bluesky, Mastodon) · newest Oct 7, 2026 · last updated Oct 8, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
72
Fresh
134 positive · 52 negative
95% range 65–78%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 134 | 52 | 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).
4 newer reactions are still waiting for a label.
Steam's own rating
Mostly Positive
389 of 515 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What people are saying
Summary pending — the reactions are listed below.
Reactions
60 of 190 · most liked firstListen, if you like survival sandbox games, this isn't the review for you, because I don't like them. If you're like me and WANT to like survival sandbox games, you're the person I'm writing this review for. Nice to meet you. That's the trick. I really, really wish I liked crafting survival type games. I was there literally day one, pre-Steam for the Don't Starve beta, because it looked so cool and the name made me laugh. But I was gone by day two, because after an hour or so, it just feels…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The story in Smoke and Sacrifice ranges from quite strong to largely non-existent. Much of this stems from the nature of the game itself which has lots of long stretches between meaningful plot progression. Most of the game simply involves characters telling you to go and grab certain items, and so the story kind of vanishes. Smoke and Sacrifice does succeed is in creating a unique world through its beautiful painterly art style. It’s a bit of a shame that the gorgeous art style gets wasted on…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's an imaginative world, and it does look good. There's a lot of detail that's gone into all the characters and wildlife. Different things come alive and glow at night, and it's all in a bold style that comes across very well on-screen. I haven't had any trouble telling items apart or following the action. As far as controls, it's clear this was targeted at a console launch. The mouse/keyboard controls are not great, I might have been happier playing with a controller. The combat is pretty…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →My Playtime: 19.5h (100% achievement, finished the game) Grindy Achievement(s): No. Optional Achievement(s): Yes (17 achievements). Difficult Achievement(s): No. Intro Smoke and Sacrifice is a top-down survival game where you need to explore a huge map and finish quests. It's focused on a loop where you need to gather resources to craft gears that will help to kill enemies, which will drop new resources that can help you to craft better gears. Pros: - Craftable items are limited based on…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Short Review I can't recommend this game despite the charm of the art, atmosphere, and sound design. This game is essentially just a crafting/fetch quest simulator that fails at telling a decent story with a nice coat of paint. Full Review I really wanted to like this game. I found the premise intriguing, and the game's art looked unique. However, after finishing the main story and getting all achievements, I can say that this game is wasted potential at its finest. I'll go into a couple of…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It is a crafting/survival game where you are trying to find the son you sacrificed in the underworld. It starts really promising, but as the time goes on more and more design flaws of the game show up making it at the end an unenjoyable experience. Some of the flaws being: - the combat is really not good. It is especially obvious when fighting bosses and later on in the game. - Related to that the one way to switch between weapons/items is to use your scroll wheel to switch between equipable…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I gave this game a solid try but I can't say I find it enjoyable. The graphics, the music, and the concept of the game are all pretty cool but the gameplay it self almost seem to have been a second thought. All of the main and side quests are either "kill input_name_here" or "Gather # of item". The combat in this game seem to almost not be there, at least to me, and I find myself being frustrated more often than I should be. And the gathering gets old reasl fast. The map is vast, it's…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A mother's epic journey to reclaim her son.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The shortest description of this game is Steampunk Don't Starve Metroidvania. Except that you cannot starve. Because Smoke and Sacrifice is taking the good parts of Don't Starve, discarding the annoying ones, telling a story and having a Metroidvania-ish system of "unlocking access to zones" that ultimately allows for a free world-exploration gameplay while also adhering to overall story progress. The game has many well-stricken balances, such as the inventory. The inventory is generous, but…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →♥♥♥♥ combat against the most annoying enemies. Busy work running from A to B desperately just trying to do the thing. While every enemy on and off screen sprint and shoot and explode at you. I could just about get over the Supervisors, but when I got to the radiated zone I just had it. I'm just done, might finish it someday just to see how it ends. Not looking forward to another boss I have to tank and heal my way through though.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Felt a lot like Don't starve but without any user testing. Had absolutely no clue where to go most of the time, combat felt clunky and overall felt aimless.The story was good though.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →At the first glance game appeared to be casual (and I really like it) but after couple of hours I found myself constantly reading walkthroughs how to kill/get/find something. It became really frustrating as you have a quest to kill a boss but there is no hints where to find it. Again, back to google. Don't like playing games this way.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Smoke&Sacrifice, basically Don't Starve wanabee In this game you play as a mother, who sacrified her son to the sun god, which she regreted. Seven years later you find out he was just teleported to another place and he might be still alive. It reminds of Don't Starve, grinding for items, to craft weapons and consumables. Pros: Characters appearance changes depending on the wearing gear There are some cool armors and weapons and it's awesome how the look of the character does change.…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Super fun, completed it in about 3 days. Challenges remain proportional throughout different stages and farming never seemed like a grind. Would recommend!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The whole game from start to finish is just a chain of fetch quests: Go get these items so you can craft them into an item that allows to you progress through the game.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Artstyle is great. That's about all, this game has it going for. Clunky combat, constant gathering and repairing on top of rather bland story telling, makes this game annoying to play. Real shame...
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →“When we suffer, we survive.” ~Cassandra Clare, City of Heavenly Fire So... another one of those survival games, huh? Guess, it'll make harder for me to talk about it. Because the fact that I never really understood this kind of entertainment can make it look like I didn't enjoy Smoke and Sacrifice only because it isn't my kind of stuff. Personally, though, I don't think so. I try to keep my mind as open as possible and I do believe that what we have here is far from being a good game. So,…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →After experiencing the full game and unlocking all achievements, I rate Smoke and Sacrifice a 6/10. The story is flawed at points, but the interesting setting it created was good enough for me to not mind these flaws so much. Not a super amazing game, but still a good game that I'd recommend. I see a lot of people comparing this to Don't Starve, so let me make this clear... While there are similarities to Don't Starve, there are also many differences: 1. This game is more forgiving than Don't…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's a beautiful game that's a joy to explore during ingame day time. Unfortunately for me, I really disliked the combat, and the constant need to have and replenish your light source during night, got old for me real fast.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Mouse and Keyboard Issues: Poor M+KB controls for a game that requires resource gathering. Many items have a larger hitbox than the object for highlighting purposes, but require near pixel perfect accuracy to actually grab with a mouse. This results in issues such as an indestructable object that does not turn transparent being on top of an item you need. If you are lucky, you can run away and the angle might change just enough that you can click on the item behind. Resources may spawn inside…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game has limited save points and can crash easily, e.g. if you attack the "wrong" environment objects. How hard can it be to allow for saving anywhere? Pretty much every other game can do that, even games that don't ever crash unlike this piece of garbage.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The concept for this game is great, as is the art. The story gets you hooked, the characters are intriguing, and it has a very creative and interesting world to explore. Beyond that however, everything quickly goes down hill. Who ever decided that the characters should be something like 2d sprites on a 3d background, should have been shut down instantly. You never quite know where exactly you are standing and facing and swinging in regards to your foes, and the same goes for when you are…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Looks pretty, starts decent but turns into a clunky, rather miserable slog real quick. The "narrative" in this "narrative-driven" game dissipates as soon as you get out of the prologue, it turns into a fetch quest and grind/ crafting simulator. As some other reviews have pointed out, there are no survival mechanics to be found in this game (no needs, no base building, no seasons) so that's straight up false advertising. Zero RPG elements as well; no player progression (like stats, skills…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I tabbed out and it softlocked my computer to where I had to reset to a previous instance. And then for whatever reason while playing this game the character refused to cooperate to my button inputs and walked miles into the black tar surrounding the island and died. Not a great start for a game.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Problem is the save... So many things to redo after dying... Removing the fog on the map, relearning the recipes you already learnt... It is similar to don't starve but took the progress the different way. In don't starve, when dying you need to restart from day 1 with all what you learnt. Here you can save but if you do not have the time or occasion, because it is only at certain places, then all you learnt is gone and you are good to "rediscover" same things at same places... Also, by night…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It is an open-world, narrative-driven RPG \ Survival game. This Game is like other Games Niffelheim and Don't Starve Together. (Single Player Game) Excellent Graphics, Good Sound Effect and Animation with interesting Storyline. Really Appreciate Hard and Good work of Game developer. it is a Story about three Traitor Priest and Brave SACHI and her Child LEO...... OVER ALL FULL ENTERTAINMENT. I have play SMOKE and SACRIFICE near about 50 Hours and Unlocked all Achievements and Crafting Items and…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Until now a good game, with a unique art/graphics style, a very good sense of progression and a survival side that isn't hardcore but requires player attention. The combat is ok, not too easy nor too hard with a good enemy variety. The world isn't that huge or variegated, but is packed with things to do/kill/gather and the story is pretty unique and "strange". Overall, as now, is a solid game for those who like the genre. Recommended.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I don't remember whether I went on a trip to find a child or a recipe ･ˇ_ˇ･
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →just no. really wanted to like this. has no respect of the player.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →they found a way to make this type of game far worse, unused items will deteriorate in your inventory. 4/10
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I tried to like this game. The artwork and the concept seemed really great and I've heard good things about the world building. However, that's where the positive stuff ends. The storyline is just a series of fetch quests to build items to move on to another fetch quest. Not to mention it hypes you up for an epic story of a mother trying to find her child but then you end up killing rats because fetching.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →+ I really liked the visual style and the story. The setting and the whole idea behind the game are interesting. - The combat and overall controls feel imprecise and are at times unpredictable in a bad way. - It's not really a survival game as such, there's no simulated economy or a living world for you to survive in. The crafting system is used to gate areas you need to progress into, all the while your essential protective items break so you also have to constantly maintain or replace them.…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Smoke and Sacrifice is a Hack n Slash with LAYERS. The only warning / advice I offer is to save, and to save often. Unlike other titles, Smoke and Sacrifice does NOT make an audible sound to alert the player of low health. Game progression is built on the player's discovery of 'crafting recipes', (namely those for shoes). The armors give the player abilities to survive in different climates, and weapons shape the game play. Not once did I think any of my weapons sucked, until I earned a new…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →More of a fetch-and-run than an actual open world survival. Awkward combat. Only thing intriguing is the story, but still can't carry the awful gameplay. Gave up playing even before the first boss.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Enjoyed this game. It is a fun RPG with hack n' slash, exploration and crafting elements. Liked the art style. Fairly short game though, it only took about 13 hours to 100% the game. Limited replay value. One annoyance is the weapon/equipment durability/degradation system. Some weapons degrade significantly to the point of almost breaking after 15-20 attacks. This means the weapon requires constant repairs, especially during boss or mini-boss fights, lest the weapon breaks and disappears from…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Nothing spectacular, but a decent little game that delivers on what you expect.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The Story from what I played seemed very interesting, but I couldn't play further because I'm not a fan of those games where your gear/weapons breaks, and you have to constantly remake or repair them. For those that are not a fan of gear/weapons breaking and having to repair/remake them often, then this might not be a game for you. The game felt like a constant fetch quest which isn't too bad, depending if you're okay with that. The combat is fun, I enjoyed it, whenever my weapons were not…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The gameplay, characters and story are as uninspired and poorly developed as any throwaway mobile game, no amount of beautiful hand drawn artwork and shaders can effectively compensate for such lazy design.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →"Smoke and Sacrifice" is a Nintendo Switch ported 2D/isometric hybrid crafting game, adventure game, and console top down brawler. Gameplay consists almost entirely of wandering around, fighting stuff, talking to an NPC, then going off and gathering/crafting a bunch of junk for them so you can move onto the next NPC who'll ask the same thing from you. The game gets bogged down pretty quickly with repetitive crafting quests and clunky combat. From a technical perspective, the game doesn't…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I got this for 0.89p in a deep sale so it isn't as though I was ripped off or anything. It is still frustrating that a game that was so very good and very charming in its prologue was ruined by being much too difficult to enjoy. Sadly I couldn't even find any working cheat engine tables for infinite health in order to turn off the difficulty and just enjoy the parts of the game I wanted to enjoy. Sadly, since it is being sold for 89p I don't think there will ever be any kind of patch for…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I wanted to like this game: the story hinted at and the artwork was really engaging. But it's glitchy (don't do anything while it loads or crash, some drops and interactions are unreachable as drops have a different path to mobs, sometimes the view stops following the character, and crashes mean that I have actually put more like 15 hours but steam didn't log it). But the biggest flaw is that the game is unimaginatively nothing more than an endless, mindnumbingly tedious string of fetch-craft…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is a beautiful, amazing game. A lot of crafting, exploration, and hack-and-slash combat. I'm sort of a beginner to the hack-n-slash mechanics but the gentle progression and powerful crafted weapons made it enjoyable even for someone like me. I loved the story, and sincerely hope there's a sequel!!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Smoke and Sacrifice is it worth 20$?! is it?! The game is basically don't starve, at least on the style and gameplay, only you don't build and more explore. The game is actually pretty good, It's not for me obviously because it's pretty annoying for me to play in a 2.5D game. But the game itself is basic fun. It got the basics right and it only has basics. The killer for me is the price, 10$ seems fair price but 20$ is way over the top. 7/10 Good game Bad price.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Obviously, this game was inspired by [url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/219740/Dont_Starve/]Don't Starve. The beautiful art style actually reminded me of Reiner Knizia's [url=https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/9446/blue-moon]Blue Moon, a traditional card game, and another PC game called [url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/262060/Darkest_Dungeon/]Darkest Dungeon. Smoke and Sacrifice has a more serious tone, has a solid story element, and a semi-linear progression whereas Don't Starve…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Nice and quick game, simple fun. Felt like i was making progress the entire time there was no grinding in my experience. It's nice to play something finished from start till the end these days. If you got few extra hours and bit of money, I'd say go for it.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Purchased this game on a whim and am glad I did. Has a decent plotline, though some of the mechanics are a little frustrating at first. Hugely resource heavy, so if you aren't into gathering, this game isn't for you. Also, if you're getting your @$$ handed to you in combat, just keep exploring. You'll find better recipes.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Great game! Really enjoyed it. It's like "Don't Starve" but with less emphasis on survival (food heals you, but is otherwise not necessary to live), more emphasis on combat. More emphasis on recipies/upgrades for weapons/armor/food/etc and no actual base building. So you start with nothing and end up with glowing armor/weapons mowing everything down. The game world is interesting, at the begining I thought it would get stale quick, but it didn't. The story is engaging - though again at the…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The fights can be a bit clunky aiming-wise, but I like what they did of the world, the different ways to get ressources and all. I'm far from done, but 7 or so hours in, I quite like the game, lots of crafting, exploring, running away, dying sometimes... All for a good game ^^ I recommend if you don't mind exploring and going back and forth (there are shortcuts, don't worry) to upgrade your equipmetns, farming ingredients, cooking, crafting and dying a little (don't forget to save every time…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game gripped me hard and had to be beaten in just some days. Quite a feat considering i dislike the genre. 'Don't starve together' and similar games are something i just don't play so this was a real surprise to me. No expectations whatsoever other than testing to see what it was. Well there is a good game here. Pro: - Interesting enough intro and setting to keep you wanting to at least find out a bit more until it hooks you or doesn't. - Good combat, crafting, exploration. Some…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →6+/10, Greatly crafted world, but too much unfulfilled potential. Smoke and Sacrifice took me on a ride with emotions. At first I felt a bit lost in it. The game world was very strange, even weird at the beginning. After 1-2 hours it had me charmed with the very same thing. The feeling of constant danger, post-apocalyptic, unfriendly surroundings, the flora and fauna that want me dead and eaten, creepy, shadowy, lost in this world as much as I am, npc figures and mysterious reasons for all…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →What a little gem! I finished this game 100% in about 7.5 hours - and I enjoyed it the whole time! It reminded me of Don't Starve, just way less complicated. Story was solid and enjoyable. Pacing was good and the map was interesting enough to keep me entertained. Looking for a low stress survival game? Pick this!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →i had a whole rant set up but i was an idiot and clicked library so here is the watered down version bc i really dont have the energy to get worked back up: major memory drain game crash issues that happened 4 times in a three hour time span about 13 hrs into gameplay - i really tried to be patient with it, but when you dont have an autosave feature it gets really frustrating. game got a bit frustrating with the pacing, and the aiming mechanics are needing some sort of tweak bc half the time i…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I like it when developers go out of their way to build up alternate histories, narratives, creatures and cultures, and this game does that in spades. I would kill for keyboard shortcuts for inventory items, but as for the rest of it, this alternative post-apocalyptic world is filled with all sorts of things that evoke but don't over-explain a long narrative background. Full of imagination, this one.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A very poor mobile to PC conversion. Very limited instructions and very unforgiving
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Screw you, I'm not sacrificing a child. Game over before the first scene. I wish I could get my money back.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Solid little game! The controls are sometimes challenging, the inventory is always full and picking up items behind other objekts is impossible from time to time. Beside these for me minor problems the game keeps you entertained with a well-constructed storyline, an interesting gameworld and beautiful artwork.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I didn't expect much from this game, but it delivered anyway. I bought it for the art style and 'survival' mechanics, but thoroughly enjoyed the world Solar Sail created and want more. The overarching story was pretty simple, "mother looks for child", but the details were unique. I enjoyed the characters and felt that, while simply told, their motivations were clear and consistent. The gameplay was easy, but enjoyably so. In the beginning, everything is a threat, but by the end of the game…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I bought this game in a pack with The Flame in the Flood two years ago. I played an hour of TFitF, and never even installed Smoke and Sacrifice. I decided to finally try it a few weeks ago, and I was sucked into a very unique survival/crafting adventure. This is a great game that fans of the genre should definitely try. As I write this review, it’s on sale for a mere $3 USD. Don’t hesitate if you have any interest at all! This game is centered around its involved storyline, and the point…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →There are many similarities between this game and Don't Starve, but it's ultimately a story driven game supported by well established gameplay elements that combined can't reach the depth and complexity of the game it's paying homage to. Very linear and repetitive progression and there's not much in the way of survival or strong RPG elements either. The story presents some pretty overdone ideas and twists, but the beautiful hand-drawn designs managed to really bring the world to life and keep…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Fun game with lots of crafting and item management
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →
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