Sacred

by Encore

Product Features

• Third-person fantasy role-playing game with battle action
• Epic story with over 30 main missions and 200 subquests
• 16 different regions with 30 percent of the world getting unlocked as game unfolds
• Six unique player characters with different fighting styles and special skills
• For 1 to 16 players (multiplayer requires Internet connection or LAN)

Product Details

• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. and to APO/FPO addresses. For APO/FPO shipments, please check with the manufacturer regarding warranty and support issues.
• ASIN: B0001IMDAG
• Product Dimensions: 5.4 x 1.3 x 7.6 inches ; 5 ounces
• Media: CD-ROM
• Release Date: March 26, 2004
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (63 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #24,676 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)

Product Description

Platform: PC | Edition: Standard

Game Informer Review

There's no way to make the case that developer Ascaron isn't trying to emulate the towering success of Diablo II with Sacred. The good news is that they've succeeded better than anyone before them, but the bad news is that Sacred doesn't touch the perfection of Blizzard's landmark 2000 title.

Playing through Sacred is a lot like sitting down for a bit of Dungeons & Dragons. You've got your main quest, which guides you through the massive world (though you're free to roam about on your own), and then you've got various sidequests that show up in each town you pass through. All involve killing stuff, and all reward you with loot and experience. What's nice about Sacred is that you feel a lot more like you're part of a heroic epic, rather than just slogging through monsters to hit the next level.

The biggest thing in Sacred that sets it apart from the crowd is the fact that you can ride horses into battle, trampling your foes beneath you or scampering away to pound them with magic or arrows from afar. Having a trusty steed to take into the fray can make all the difference, but beware – they can get injured and die just like you can. Also, mounts serve as an excellent way to traverse the huge landscape, minimizing downtime between adventures. A high-level horse can actually outrun arrows, which is entertaining, if not exactly realistic.

The six different classes available to players all play fairly differently, though many share some special moves. Also, the skill system is designed so that two characters of the same type can easily have different strengths, which helps adventurers feel more unique. The variety of equipment that drops aids this as well – it's as huge and random as any RPG, and ensures that players have different gear. The replay value this would normally imply is hampered by the lack of random maps, though. Playing through as another class will certainly be different, but you'll still be doing the same quests in the same landscapes.

The overall enjoyment factor of Sacred is fairly high, but it does suffer from some stupid technical issues. Many sections of the interface feel clumsy, especially the skill-switching, and pathing and targeting could certainly work a bit better. On the whole, though, action/RPG fans won't be ill-served by picking this up.

Concept:
Explore the gigantic world while killing a bunch of stuff and gaining some levels and loot

Graphics:
It's isometric, but the models and effects are very well done

Sound:
Kind of buggy and generic. Voiceovers are about 20 percent acceptable

Playability:
Not being able to remap keys is so 1987. The first three hours of the stupid defaults will drive you nuts

Entertainment:
Probably the best Diablo II clone around, but still doesn't measure up to the master

Replay:
Moderately High

Rated: 7.75 out of 10
Editor: Adam Biessener
Issue: June 2004

2nd Opinion:
You should be worried. Sacred has the potential to steal a great many hours away from your life. The game is immense fun, with beautiful, detailed backgrounds and dozens of individual character animations. The six playable classes are each unique and exciting in their own right. I was truly gratified to find that the menu system, maps, and inventory are all handled flawlessly. It's unfortunate that this otherwise gorgeous game is marred by some technical flaws in the hack-and-slash combat system. Even so, there are some hardcore Diablo II fans who are likely to find a new religion in the form of Sacred.

Rated: 8.5 out of 10
Editor: Matt Miller


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Product Description

Sacred is a unique character-based fantasy role-player where you'll travel in an ancient world. Explore the vast, beautiful and deadly kingdom of Ancaria, where dangers and challenges are waiting in each town. Start facing deadly monsters and dangerous enemies, for gold and glory!

See all Product Description

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

90 of 93 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Addicting gameplay, pure hack'n'slash fun, June 21, 2004

By 

Joshua Mayfield "Josh Mayfield" (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sacred (CD-ROM)

Sacred is a Diablo-style hack-n-slash RPG with a large game world and a ton of possible side quests. Although presented in the fixed-angle isometric style of many similar games, Sacred's graphics are very detailed, and mousewheel zooming is allowed. The game constantly challenges you by presenting enemies with varying skills and weaknesses, in increasing strength and number as you progress along your journey.

What to expect:
* Although there are times during your quest when you are accompanied by one or more NPCs, Sacred is a single-character game, as opposed to party-based games like Dungeon Siege.
* When starting a new game you can choose from a small assortment of vastly different predefined characters. The game begins slightly differently depending on which character you choose, but the main quest is the same for all characters.
* Combat is very simple: just click and kill. In addition to melee and ranged combat, your character will acquire special moves over time. (Each character type has its own set of possible special moves, further distinguishing the different classes.)
* Your character travels through a single, very large map that features numerous terrains and creature types. The map is so large that if you only stick to the main quest, you may only see about 50% of it.
* The story is rather generic, and certainly not the focus of this very action-heavy game.

What's good:
* Almost all dialog is voiced, and the acting is generally pretty good. Also, the handful of cutscenes are rather high quality.
* The gameplay is rather well balanced in that as your character levels up, your opponents become both more numerous and difficult to defeat. This keeps the gameplay challenging.
* Different types of enemies require different kinds of combat- for example, a number of creatures fly and attack you from above which makes melee combat very difficult. It's best to work these guys down with ranged weapons or spells, even if you prefer to swing an axe. The tactical variations necessary to deal with your foes keeps battle interesting, especially when you're swarmed by numerous kinds of creatures at the same time.
* The different playable character types truly lend themselves to different kinds of gameplay and have their own unique special abilities- it's not like Dungeon Siege where every character has potential to equal any other character in terms of skills.
* The game provides plenty of ways to keep track of the main quest and side quests: You've got your standard journal, the world map uses color-coded markers to indicate places you must visit for your quests, and there's a compass at the bottom of the screen (also color coded) that points you to your destination of both the main quest and any side quest you've got going. It's possible to have multiple side quests open at the same time. When this happens sometimes you'll have multiple arrows pointing to the different side quest points of interest.

What's bad:
* The manual seems to leave out a number of crucial details. For example, there are little gazebos scattered around the landscape. These are actually little teleporters that you can use to quickly travel to places you've already visited. You must activate a teleporter in order to be able to travel to it. There is no mention in the manual that these things even exist, and believe me they're useful!
* One aspect of the game that could have been more interesting is the fact that you can upgrade some weapons and armor in most towns. The upgrade process is rather confusing, and the upgrades that I was able to perform didn't seem to make much of a difference in my character's progress. I would like to have seen a simpler system that offered more powerful upgrades.
* Another thing that could have been cool, but turned out more annoying than anything else is the fact that you can buy and ride horses. For one thing, most of your combo attacks are not available while riding a horse, and the special horse attacks that you can use are difficult to execute. Additionally, mounting/dismounting doesn't work reliably in the heat of battle- your horse can easily be killed before you're able to jump off it and start fighting. There's also a rather strange (and undocumented) limitation whereby you cannot enter caves, dungeons, or any other kind of door while riding a horse... you won't get any feedback indicating the problem- you just won't be able to enter. Just back away from the door, dismount, and enter. (Just whistle for your horse once you're back in an outside area. He'll magically appear.) The only useful thing about having a horse in this game is that it allows you outrun most enemies when you're not interested in fighting.
* Companion pathfinding is rather lame. There are a number of occasions where you must escort NPCs to various destinations and they fall behind A LOT. Luckily, if you get too far ahead of your NPCs, they'll appear nearby in a little puff of smoke and continue trying to keep up with you.
* At least three times during my adventure the game crashed to the desktop upon completing or taking up new subquests. I learned to always save right before talking to anyone, and I admit I eventually became rather reluctant to attempt side quests.
* Respawning. Enemies respawn like CRAZY in this game. If you ever have to backtrack through a region you just cleared out, don't be surprised to find it totally crawling with baddies within a matter of minutes.
* The terrain is often difficult to navigate, in that sometimes there's only ONE way to get from one region to another (there are lots of dense woods and steep cliffs to block your way), and it's occasionally hard to find those little passages when looking at the world map. This often results in a lot of backtracking- for example when you're looking for a way up onto a plateau- which makes the game's respawn rate sorta maddening at times.

Tips:
* Don't use the same kind of tactic with every kind of enemy. Some of the strongest creatures might be vulnerable to specific weapons or spells.
* Remember to jump off your horse before attempting to enter any doors (not necessary for teleporters).
* It's difficult to find patches for the game on the official website, and there's no patch option within the game's menu. Don't despair: There's an "Update Software" option in the Sacred folder in your Start menu. (I never noticed it until somebody told me, because I always launched the game via the shortcut on my desktop.)
* If you're having a tough time trying to get from point A to point B, look for roads and trails in the terrain. Typically, if you follow a road that appears to be heading, that will get you to the next point in your quest. Following these paths will save you hours of tracing forest and cliff edges looking for a way in.

Difficulty (from Very Easy to Very Hard): Medium

My rating (from Very Bad to Very Good): Good

You will probably like this game if you liked these: Diablo, Dungeon Siege

29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Refreshing game, but cherry on top is missing, April 2, 2004

By 

Mr. Stanley M. Schmidt "boymitch" (Rockford, IL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sacred (CD-ROM)

After playing Diablo 2 for the last few years, I was really excited to see Sacred released. It's different, yet the same from Diablo 2. The graphics are superior and there are a TON more things to do. They smartly programmed the experience gain, too. No more level 80 in one day. The skill variations are VAST, so you could make several different builds of one character, so...it might take you a few months.

The single player mode is the winner with this game. You can do quests at your own pace, explore at your own pace, etc. Multiplayer on the Net is a little shaky. Wanna do a campaign or mission on multiplayer? Good Luck. I have an extremely difficult time questing in multiplayer. It seems all the quests are already done or in progress...that is the frustrating part.

The battle graphics are smokin' HOT! They will bring a tear to your eye!!

Verdict: Excellet game that needs a few finishing touches put on multiplayer. Then this will truly be the "Diablo Killer".

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Like a much improved Diablo, March 7, 2005

By 

D. Eskildsen - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Sacred (CD-ROM)

Anyone buying this game should first of all download the 1.8.6 (or whatever version is current) patch from the official Sacred website. It fixes a lot of minor annoyances, including not being able to heal your horse when you drink a healing potion.

That aside, this game is like a beautifully rendered, modern-day Diablo. 3D character models and items set against gorgeous, photo-realistic backdrops make for an exhilirating gaming experience. The lush, detailed forests; the snow-capped mountains of the north; the harsh deserts of the far south - it's all here, and shown in amazing detail.

In short, Sacred is like a much improved version of Diablo. If you've a love for adventuring, for questing and "dungeoning", it's a must-buy.

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