Sacred Plus (PC, 2004)

Summary: I'd rate it at 4 out of 10. The bad points outnumber the good for this game, Sacred. It is a shame, it had great potential. Fix the bugs and include a rockin "battlenet," this would be a pretty decent game. Better luck in Sacred II.

Purpose: I bought Sacred because I enjoyed Diablo/Diablo II. The game was directly compared to Diablo so I said, "What the hey, I'll try it out." True, it plays similarly. So if you've played Diablo, this is another game that may fit the bill. The game is old so you may or may have better reviews out there than mine. This is why I will keep things short and sweet.

Good: Adventuring is better in virtually every respect. Graphics are very good and the details are improved since you do not have just 800x600 graphics. You can zoom in or zoom out for better views of things. The adventure is not always the same each time you play, unlike the bland, generated maps of Diablo.

Average: game play is a bit slower than Diablo--it really sux to wait for your special attack to come available again. This is what slowed down the gameplay. The slow game speed is okay at some times but boring in others. You may like this next point or not -- It is rare that you have to take on huge mobs of monsters. Most of the battles in Sacred are you versus a few opponents.

Unfortunate: This game would be SWEET with a bangin' open internet gaming experience simiar to "Battlenet." Again, low-budget??? I can see keeping up gaming servers as a huge expense. I think you can network this game but I did not ever look into it.

Bad: There was no manual included with the game. There were no basic instructions to help figure out what keys do what or a quick overview. This means in the beginning everything is clunky and frustrating, as though you were playing a pirated game. Several hours later and many failures of what NOT to do, you finally understand the basics of how things work. I suppose the game manufacturer is just saving money in not printing these manuals. Is it that they are a low-budget outfit?

The Worst: Bugs. I have never outright crashed the game, but just as frustrating is that I've found that your character will quit responding quite often. What happens is that you simply stop moving. You cannot attack, walk, or do anything except save the game. However, saving the game in this point does no good. If you reload that game, you're still stuck. It is a serious bug that took much of the enjoyment out of the game. If you have not saved in a while (which seems to happen all too often to me), you have to repeat all the action you just did. I was lazy and have not looked for patches. There may be some to help this. I don't know. I was focused on looking for a manual and I found a link for it through Google. However this link pointed to a missing file. Damn.

I bought this game because it was advertised as 'Diablo like' in style and playing mode. The graphics are awesome. Everything looks like what it should be, and you can interact with almost any character. The characters will follow you and speak even when not spoken to, the buildings are designed like buildings, trails are clearly marked, the character you are playing has a wide combination of weapons and armor to use. You have a good selection of heroes to select from. You can find weapons, armor, items and gold without having to fight for them. The playing area is huge. You are able to find a desert as well as snow in the game. Quests show up often, if you finish all the quests in a town, come back later and someone will have another quest for you. Some heroes will have quests the other heroes don't have. I have been playing this game for several weeks now and still haven't finished it. On most games, I would find the cheats to put my player in God Mode to fight and explore so I can see what the game is like. While I know the cheat codes for the game, I am unable to activate them. But, if you're careful, you don't need any cheat code for Sacred. While I have played this game for several weeks, I am still building my characters stats. There are places the character can't go until he has a quest to get there. This game is awesome and if there are any add-ons to this game, I would definately get them. If I took time out from the game long enough to order it!

Like in most RPGs games, it is after a while very difficult to increase your experience. Turning around thousands times to get the experience necessary to explore new worlds is getting harder as soon as you enter gold level (I cannot imagine what it could be in platinum and Nobium :)). Monsters respawn each time you leave a part of the country and you get them back just when you come back in the area meaning that you have to be very strong to explore far from a goodies seller :). Graphics are wonderfull and it is a pleasure for eyes. I just regreat the lack of possibility to give each character the comportment you want (attack, defend, keep behind,...), to arrange the characters in a specific formation, to recruit new characters, to give them a specific equipment (not only the weapon) or to change the view angle.

An excellent game that grabs you right away. Easy to learn, the in game tutorial provides all information needed. There is simply so much to do - race through and try to complete only the main quests or poke around and see everything. I would pick the latter as it's very rewarding to find magic hiding places or rare items. I'm currently playing as a wood elf but would like to try it with another character. When I'm a little further along, I will import my character to the silver level and try that. All in all, buy this game! An excellent RPG!

Interesting adventure game. Very similar to Diablo and Ultima Online. It's an above view and you can ride horses like in UO but the animations are smoother and the spells and sound effects are better. If you get the original version you can download a patch and get updated content and get online and play with other people. Great armor and weapons advancement. The mob difficulty is nicely spaced out and challenging.