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CG rating |
The Bad
- Huge world
- The level design
- Graphics
- The character development system
- Addictive gameplay
- The musical score
- Dumb AI
- Bugs, bugs and „gubs”
- Stupid moments that ruin the atmosphere
- Tiresome camera control
Review
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There’s one thing that has always intrigued me about CioLAN, one of Level magazine’s editors. It’s that no matter the game, if he says it’s good, then it is. His senses have nothing to do with the critical manner in which our jobs skewed some gaming journalists’ perspectives.
He sees every game through the eyes of a regular player, who only expects relaxation, (sometimes obsessive) detachment from reality. I don’t know if social-wise it’s a good thing for him. But for his regular readers and people like me, who often ask for his opinion, he bridges the gap between having a job as a game editor and the hobby of gaming.
This is how I got attached to the first Sacred game, which upon its initial installation only lasted about 10 minutes on my PC. A lot of people considered it an underrated game, so I reinstalled it at the aforementioned gaming guru’s suggestion. It’s funny how cool Sacred can be after you’re past the initial shock. It hooks on to you and doesn’t let you go... which is amazing, considering I’m not a fan of the Diablo series, which I always saw as a major downgrade to anything that has ties to the RPG concept. Not that I changed my opinion much, mind you...
Say Creed Two
You should know there’s an explanation for what I wrote above. It has to do with my passion for exploring, which I first discovered while playing Daggerfall, in which I’d never get to do more than 20 quests because all I did was stroll around. I wanted to see everything... it’s just too bad there wasn’t much diversity.
The first hack’n’slash in which I experienced exploration was Divine Divinity. There also are other games, but Sacred came out on top with its vast game world, a decent leveling system and pretty captivating gameplay. What also got me hooked in the end was that you had more RPG elements than in the Diablo games, because you had the possibility of controlling many aspects of the character you played. This is how I got to anxiously wait for Sacred 2. Obviously, I’m not naive and I waited for the first month’s batch of patches until I started playing it... and there were many things to fix, as the producers added over 1 GB of content and tweaking to the original package.
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Almost a Fiasco
Sacred 2’s launch was a total fiasco. And I don’t mean that there weren’t any lines at game stores or the chicks dressed up in plastic armors and PVC helmets weren’t presentable. Actually, these things didn’t exist (save, perhaps, for some people’s imagination). I mean that the game was nearly impossible to play. Sort of a Silent Hunter IV launch, with a beginning-phase beta product with loads of elements thrown in just for the snap of it that only ran in theory.
In practice, the game worked about 5 minutes before crashing, usually taking Windows with it. Then came hotfixes, patches, hotfixes for the patches and so forth, until finally the 2.31 update was released.
You could argue that reviews should be made on the „shelf edition” games and the score sitting at the top of the page doesn’t fit a cheap title launched like a mock jab. And I do agree with this reasoning when we’re talking about titles that are abandoned after launch... but I really don’t want to say anything bad about older EA games.
However, the people at Ascaron worked their asses off until they changed the game to such an extent that they made a 6-7 title into an 8. All they had to do was allow the game to work, because the Sacred spirit was preserved and polished.
Ancaria be with you
I won’t get into Ancaria’s universe too much because everything I say can be interpreted as a spoiler, at least from my point of view, being alone in the room and all... It’s a big universe, whose history revolves around a type of energy, T-Energy, some sort of magical energy, Fae, or magic water from Zuluf’s Well of Eternity (a chat we had about some absurd concept in the Warcraft universe, with elves carrying magic around in plastic bottles –„Magic! Now in six-packs too!”).
Oh well, this energy created numerous controversies between Ancaria’s inhabitants, especially after its protectors, the Seraphim, passed it over to the elves, which lead to a war that changed the continent’s face into something less attractive. Obviously, a new civilization rose and began using this energy for irrigations. It’s not that they splattered it on each other, but that they didn’t isolate the piping right and cows started drinking from it. Under the influence of radiations, a series of bizarre (to say the least) creatures appeared, threatening Ancaria’s peaceful existence once more.
This is where you come in, naturally. You can be diabolical or saint like, you can save the world – or not. Then there’s the more ambigous part, in that there’s a main storyline quest and a second main quest built around your class. Not only that, but the quest differs depending on your alignment. And at one point the two merge into one, which definitely causes some confusion.
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Comments [Add a new comment]
| Yes | |
 | 59% |
| No | |
 | 27% |
| Haven't decided | |
 | 14% |
Total: 1666 votes
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