At the end of the day, you tend to rely on your most powerful weapon and a couple of powers exclusively. And essentially, like most games in this genre, fighting is just a matter of holding down the left button to slash at your foes, all the while keeping an eye on your health bar and your magical energy replenishment, ready to fire off another spell or down a healing potion when the moment is right.
Still, the game does look pretty good when the blades are flashing. Your spells invoke all manner of heavenly energies, spewing magical fire, calling down lashing lightning and blasting winds at your foes.
The high-res visuals manage to conjure up plenty of minuscule gore - look closely and heads are lopped off, blood gushing from between the shoulders and limbs are severed with similarly graphic consequences. It's just a shame that these little details are somewhat lost, when you and 20 foes are crammed into an area in the centre of the screen not much bigger than your mouse cursor.
Although Sacred confines your viewpoint to an old-skool isometric perspective with no flexibility in angle or rotation, it manages to summon up a set of visuals that are particularly easy on the eye. The environments are insanely detailed, each with its own distinctive feel, whether it be the footprints you leave behind in the sands of the deserts, the rain that lashes down in the forests or the bats that flap about in the catacombs.
And if your graphics card permits, the resolution reaches spectacular levels, meaning that even when zoomed in on the closest level, the minutiae in the scenery remains clear. Despite these intricate visuals and environments however, Sacred doesn't convince that the world you're in is in any sense alive. For 24 hours a day, the traders and blacksmiths are still standing out front, ready for business. Some of them even allow their children to play outside through the night, which we find particularly irresponsible.
Enter any house, shop or even a Lord's chambers and you can rifle through any chests or boxes, nicking whatever you find and no-one will blink an eyelid. Out in the wilds, the beasts and monsters hang around in groups, like gangs of odd-looking estate kids, loitering on street corners with nothing better to do. In their desire to pack everything with detail, the designers have also included a dazzling array of statistics; both for you, your opponents and even the items you find lying around.
This may appeal to the serious number-crunchers, but when a sword has 16 or even 20 different numeric parameters, deciding what the hell it's good for can be a tad difficult. We've all seen what Sacred has to offer in the many similar games that have gone before, not least the Diablo titles. But that doesn't stop it from being an enjoyable, extensive fighting fantasy romp. We'd like to say that it's something akin to a Diablo 3 , but the truth is it doesn't advance the genre anywhere near enough, rehashing it instead and serving up more of the same.
But if you're hungry for a top-up of sword-swinging, this will be welcome news. The main letdown in Sacred is how flat and lifeless the world feels, despite the gorgeously detailed high-res visuals. The townsfolk and peasants all wander around but don't actually do anything. The monsters hang out a lot, but don't seem to have homes to go to, or places to store their treasure. A little effort to make this place seem a little more lived-in would have worked wonders.
Having farmers who tend their crops as well as wander about aimlessly wouldn't have gone amiss. Having guards to stop you pillaging anything you can get your hands on, and monsters who do something other than just wander round in circles waiting for you to kill them would have helped.
And having wolves and bears that don't drop the big bag of gold they've been carrying when they die wouldn't have harmed the believability cause, either.
Labels: download , free , Sacred 3. Sacred three is an isometrically-viewd, loot-oriented, hack-n-slash motion RPG. They stimulated tons of discussion on electronic mail boards, office water coolers and Twitter feeds. Neither piece broke any new ground. Neither piece was notably effectively sourced. Why then, were both these items mentioned so closely and why should we not take this too critically? Nominate this game for an award. Is this game relevant to you?
Sign In or Open in Steam. Languages :. English and 7 more. View Steam Achievements Includes 45 Steam Achievements. View Points Shop Items 3. Points Shop Items Available. Publisher: Deep Silver. Franchise: Sacred. Share Embed. Read Critic Reviews. Add to Cart. Package info. Bundle info. Add to Account. Add all DLC to Cart.
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