Sancticide Preview: First Look at Steam Early Access – Read Now!

Rating: 0
Author: Jim Smale

by Jim Smale · February 20, 2025

Sancticide Preview: A Dark, Action-Packed Roguelite Adventure on Steam Early Access, Step into the boots of Ezechiel, a sin collector serving Them at The Top, in Sancticide, a gripping third-person action game inspired by a popular Polish book series. Set in the haunting remains of our world during the End Times, this melee-focused adventure blends roguelite and Soulslike elements for a brutally rewarding experience.

Wield unholy and divine weapons, unleash devastating “Purple” powers, and battle through an unforgiving apocalyptic wasteland. Master the unique Kosherness mechanic, which shapes enemy behavior, NPC interactions, equipment, and even access to hidden areas. With each death, rise stronger, adapt your strategy, and craft formidable character builds to survive the chaos.

Sancticide is now available on Steam Early Access—dive in and discover why every run is a chance to conquer the End Times. Read more and join the fight today!

Sancticide Preview Pros:

Decent graphics.
13.08GB download size.
Graphics settings – fullscreen, resolution, v-sync, brightness, v-sync, sharpness, anti aliasing method, TSR mode, and quality,.
Advanced graphics settings – anti-aliasing, post-processing, shadows, global illumination, reflections, textures, effects, foliage, and shading.
Mouse and keyboard support.
You can remap the buttons for the keyboard and the controller.
Gore-level options – low, medium, high, and off.
Camera settings – Invert axis and sensitivity sliders, camera type, camera lag slider, camera shake scale slider, and lock on mode options.
Four profile slots.
Three game difficulties – Easy, medium, and hard.
Action RPG gameplay.
Tutorial pop-ups as you play with full voice work.
A full 3D game world with 360-degree camera control.
Cutscenes are in the game and cool art stills with voice.
Third-person view.
Health bar system and you collect purple jars to replenish.
There are four levels of item rarities – common, rare, unique, and legendary.
The game has dark arts and abilities so you can do cool stuff like force push to open gates and break walls down.
A power radial wheel is used to select powers and abilities.
The game world is really intriguing and full of wonder.
A semi-open world with a lot of exploration possibilities.
Breakable objects littered around.
Fantastic sound effects add to the already dark uneasy atmosphere.
Combat is soul-like as in you learn enemy attack patterns and use blocks and counters to get the advantage.
A full physics engine is at play, see how you can reshape doors and walls with powers or how an object will fly and land in the world.
Earned Exp shows up in the corner of the screen.
You can pause the game.
Handy save and quit option.
Lock-on makes combat a lot easier.
When getting tutorial pop-ups the game slows down and it looks really good.
You can parry attacks to get an opening.
Enemy health bars show at all times in combat.
When doing any tutorial stuff you have infinite health so you can concentrate on learning.
Honestly with just the push ability it makes the game feel like Star Wars Dark Souls and I am all here for it.
Combat encounters can lock you into a set area.
Really cool over-the-top final hit kills.
Load out is a one-handed, two-handed weapon, ranged, armor, four collectible slots, and two equipment slots.
The bestiary fills in with characters and enemies as you encounter them. Here you can read about them.
Two skill tree types – Character statistics, and Sin collectors powers.
Earn exp and level up to get skill points.
Character statistics skill tree is split into physique, mobility, and survivability.
Sin collector’s powers are split into three – kinetic, passive, and active.
Stamina-based system for fighting and running.
The game has full-on guns for ranged combat.
Environmental hazards like oil barrels etc.
The lighting in the game is really good, you have a lantern to turn on and off.
Big boss encounters.
The game does it where cutscenes will integrate into what is happening.
You can loot some enemies.
The resources and materials you get are so random from cushions to USB pens to condoms and pens.
The compass at the top also shows markers and objectives.
There are main story missions and optional side quests.
Multiple choice encounters.
There is a centralized chest to Store items.
The world map is where each move it advances time and the enemy forces will also move, when you meet each other you fight, win regain health, and get exp.
Combat off the world map will fast travel you to that area and then you play and explore whilst dealing with enemies.
The game has a loot list, it’s not as strong as others but they do a great job with looting bodies and chest placement.
Discover new areas.
Kosher is the system where the more kosher gear you wear the higher the kosher level and makes weapons easier to handle and deal damage and kosher enemies are less aggressive towards you.
I love the dripping chest aesthetic they are going for, the dripping aura from it is colored to indicate the type of rarity within.
Death will have you losing some items and you sowan back at the citadel.
Save slots in your inventory lets you keep the items in them even after death.
When you drop items they show on the world map and you have 30 minutes to get them back before they disappear forever.

Sancticide Preview Cons:

No Steam achievements.
Combat with multiple enemies can be tricky when the kick-on either doesn’t swap others or it loses lock on and you just cannot get it back.
Not always sure what can and cannot be broken or opened.
Uneventful chest openings, it’s just a few lines of text in the corner that you can easily miss.
Performance can be a bit up and down in built-up areas or when fire and powers are kicking off.
There is no compare weapons and gear button so you have to do a load of additional button presses.
Tutorial pop-ups are either well behind or non-existent.
Swapping between ranged, single, and double handed weapons is all the radial menu which is not easily done in battle.
The menus are clunky and item management is a pain and slow.
Cutscenes and integrations can be hard cuts and immersion breaking.
Slow starter as you do some action, then a chunk of story and slow walking.
Pop-in can happen and lighting like day and night can be an abrupt transition.
Early on there will be a lot of back-and-forth fetch quests.
The rolling and blocking/parrying is slow enough that it makes combat frustrating.
Combat encounters on the map can use the same little arena area over and over.
The game takes a while to get going and for everything to fall into place.
Had multiple instances of weapons not working as in I couldn’t draw them.