I mean, Salt is a pretty silly game. It's not really my cup of tea, but I'm fine having it. It's playable, you can get into it. It's really not bad at all. Relaxing even. Real pretty. Pirates to fight. Islands to explore. It's fine the way it is, I think. Updates keep happening, few and far between. It's worth the money. You will probably enjoy this game, even for a little while. I haven't played it in a while, but I do peek at it to see what the devs are doing with it. Just added a new boss, probably added some new loot. I know they just added a new place to explore. It's decent.

My only qualm is, after you get a big boat, and a good bit of gold... Learn to map the sea, and get yourself a decent sword and bow. There's little else to do. Fight pirates. No naval battles, you have to get out of your boat and go look for a fight.

This game is cute. All I can say. Would I recommend it? Yes, but not to every body.

There's not much of a survival system. You can eat, but you don't have to eat. Food is hard to come by, not even needed. I'm not sure what the point of this game is, really. But I enjoyed the little bit of time I spent playing it, and I'm sure I'll play it again in the future.

This game has that 'Minecraft' appeal - simple but interesting exploration, small victories, and not overly complex in any way. A very good exploration game with a 'pirate' take.

Ill make this short and sweet, And also make you want to buy the game... Islands/pirates/boat's/Ships! complete open and free not locked to anyone thing, And and oh did i mention ships? that you can captain! And pirates you can plunder! And ships and boats once you lower your sails you are free to move around the ship! But remember to steer away from land!

With that being said this game is literally everything your looking for if you lke ships/pirates and adventure.

This game is amazing, I don't really understand how it could be relaxing for the times when waves eiether tips over the ship or Pirates trying to attack you. I got this game for free from a family share and this was what I was on most of the time. It is an experience you won't forget on the fun and challenging times that this game throws right at ya

Fun game with an easy learning curve. The more you explore the more you are rewareded.

I climbed a mountain so tall that I could see the curvature of the planet.
I spent hours searching strange islands at night to find the material to craft a sword that glows in the dark.
I sailed through waves so large they blocked out the sun.
I defeated the spider queen, all 4 boss pirate captains, countless ancient guardians, and even a legendary white stag.
I built a ship, decorated it, and filled it with loot I had gained in my adventures.
I've caught sea bass, crabs, jellyfish, and pirannah while sailing to nowhere in particular.

And the game is barely even half done.

Salt is freedom. It's fun and relaxing, but also often mysterious and exciting. I enjoy the game so much as-is, and eagerly await every update.

Oh, Salt, you never let us down!

Seriously though, this game is really great. Developers seem to be really hard working, gameplay is great, and there are a lot of intresting things to find. This is also the only game that truly creeps me out when nighttime comes.

\========PROS========/
1. The only harvesting I've seen is mining, which is very quick and easy to do. Other than that, it's foraging, which keeps you moving.
2. Combat is great. Not too easy, not too hard. (Though the enemy AI could be improved to make it more intresting)
3. "Man I sure love sailing, I-" *Epic, heroic music starts playing* " OOOOOOOHHHH YEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!" (Good Music)
4. Islands are very varied and intresting.
5. Item spawns and drops are fair. It won't be "play-for-80-hours-to-find-that-one-extremely-rare-thing". You'll probably keep finding things you don't really need, but with such a large inventory space, and being able to sell them and buy awesome stuff from merchants, it hardly matters.

Okay I can't think of anything else good to write about this game... so let's move to the cons.

\=========CONS========/
1. If/when you flee from pirate bosses, they seem to run loose across the entire (usually massive) island, instead of back to camp. So if you really want their loot, you'll be running around the island until you're bored.
2. I'm not sure if this was fixed or if it was a bug at all, but last I checked, if you save, you die, and you go back to your last saved game, all items you consumed or lost are gone forever. Meaning saves only remember your location, not items. (Ex. Save before fighting pirate boss, whilst fighting use up 10 bandages and 2 potions, die in battle, you return to the location you saved at, but the items you consumed in battle are gone. Again, this may have been fixed, or may not have been a bug)

Huh... you know, I thought I'd think of more things to write about in both pros and cons... oh well. Last thing.
-----------
Neither pro nor con (Stuff that takes away or adds to the game as the player dictates)

1. Night creeps me out. It's realisticly dark, and you'll hear weird noises that sound like foxes. If you haven't heard a fox, last time I heard one, sounded like someone screaming. You can see why it would creep me out.
2. "Oh man night is so creepy I-" *HISSSSS* "WH!? WAGH!? There's nobody there!? WHO THE HECK IS DAMAGING ME!? AHHHHHHHHHH!" (Unable to see spiders and if they spawn on any island is usually unknown. Keeps me on my toes when nighttime comes!)
3. The new design for the Old Pirate Ship (And I assume others, haven't found them all yet). Don't get me wrong, it's great! But if you accidentaly land your ship up against the island's beach, it's pretty much impossible to shove off again without replacing said ship
------------------

One thing that should definitly be added is colonization and being able to harvest resources. That way, if you want to be on the move all the time, you can still pick up logs (And sometimes stop to mine), but if you want to colonize you can chop down trees with an axe and build houses and stuff. How awesome would it be to make a huge port and town on a big island?

Hopefully the way I wrote this review doesn't annoy you, and the review was mighty helpful.

I landed on a foreign island, slaughtered everybody on it, pillaged their chests, killed all the deer, stole all the wood, picked all the flowers, and mined all the stone/ore. And then I fixed up their boat and sailed away on it. Colonialism Simulator 2015.

10/10 Would "explore" again

No but seriously, Salt is an amazing game. There actually is quite a lot to do, even at this stage of development and you'll still spend hours playing it trying to kill all the named pirates, get all the ships, get the best armour, explore every island, etc. My favourite part though is that it isn't a punishing game in the slightest. It's "survival" in the loosest sense of the word. Running out of food only stops your stamina from coming back quickly, and as long as you have a basic club, you should be able to fend off most of the dangers of the world. That being said, you're never really truly invincible in the world and though there will come a time where you're pretty much self sufficient with your accumulated resources, it will take you a good while to get there. But the heart of the game is really about exploring the lovely landscapes, building cool ships, and watching the beautiful sunsets. So if you're looking for the Dark Souls of exploration games, this ain't it. But if you loved Eidolon or Proteus, you'll almost certainly like this. There's plenty to do already and plenty more coming with active updates and testing branches available for those who care about those things. There's plenty that still could be done (the UI could use an upgrade, the 2.5D grass could mesh better with the landscape, the AI movement could be better, etc.) but what is there is extremely promising and already a great pleasure to play with. I will definitely be following this game closely to see where it goes because I'm loving the direction it's taking right now. So try it now! There's a free demo, so you really have no excuse not to ;) Now if you'll excuse me, I must go back to being a pira- *ahem* an "explorer."

Such a peacful game,
you make your first raft, sail to another peaceful island, get some more resources.
Maybe you kill a deer, or you might just stay peaceful and pick some apples,
you eventually get enough resources to make a better boat, so you take it for a spin, then sit out there, in the ocean, and fish, watching the sunset.
You decide to rest for the night, so you find an island and sleep. As you wake you explore this new island, while you gather apples, you notice a sound and OH ♥♥♥♥ THERE ARE MOTHER FU*KING PIRATES!!!!! DIE ♥♥♥♥♥ DIE!!! IL BASH YOU WITH MY CLUB!!!!!
You hide on your boat, watching them wait for you to return to the shore,
You gather up your resources, make a bow, then shoot the MOTHER FU*KERS WHO ATTACKED YOU!!!!!!!!! YEH I GOT A SWORD NOW ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥!!!!! HOW DO YOU LIKE ME NOW!!!!!!!!! AH HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!!!!!!!! I WILL FEAST ON YOUR BRAINS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

-note, game does not contain brain feasting-

This is early access, and while the game is quite stable and beautiful to me, it's also fairly empty. Islands contain mostly the same biome: a standard tropical environment with trees and bushes. Sometimes you'll find deer and rare resources. If you're lucky, you'll find some pirates on an island and some treasure chests. There is an early selection of loot to obtain. Other than that, after 4-6 hours you will have seen most of what there is to see.

Nonetheless I love the premise and potential to this game. A massive, island-scattered world to calmly explore, with manual ship control and plenty of ships to build. The Windwaker-styled art and seafaring give this game real character. It's all immensely exciting and I do think the developers will succeed. In many ways they already have, as I personally have had a swell time.

But before I can recommend it to the general gaming audience, it needs more of the following:

- Environments. Snowcapped islands, deserts, volcanic peaks and flow, cities, etc. Exploration demands variety here.
- Activities to do on the islands. Let's see some dungeons and homes to explore, castles on cliffs, etc. Quests that aren't fetch quests.
- Loot: more weapons and armor and categories.
- More NPC's and creatures than just pirates and spiders and deer. I'd love to see the developers tap into various mythology for creatures to inhabit the islands and the sea, for example. Imagine leviathans occasionally slithering out of the deep sea and peaceful whales surfacing for air.
- Speaking of the sea: there should be more to do while sailing. Whether that means interacting with creatures, dropping anchors, searching for treasure on the sea floor, anything to reduce the monotony would help. The fishing is good, but could be expanded.
- Music. The main-menu music is a beautiful, Elder-Scrolls-like tune. But music rarely plays in the game itself, and it needs to start a little more often.

The good news is the developer is targeting many of these features and the game is still early in development. I have high hopes for this title, and once I feel it has solved some of these issues, I will update this review accordingly.

(but if you're like me, a gamer who loves nautical and exploration games who can overlook some of the emptiness, then by all means jump right in!)