Diablo and Diablo II have inspired a number of action-RPG clones and most of
them have been, well, uninspired. These games have tried to capture the basics
of Diablo without bothering to add anything new or to even give any thought as
to what made Diablo so much fun in the first place. At first glance you may be
tempted to lump Sacred in with all those also-rans, but you’d be making a
mistake. While it won’t challenge Diablo for the action-RPG crown, it is a
decent game in its own right and worth a look from you hack-n-slash fantasy game
fans out there.
Sacred starts off by presenting you with a half dozen characters from which
to choose to play. Most fall into the standard categories of fighter, mage, etc,
but you also have the choice of playing as a vampiress or seraphim. The
vampiress has the ability to turn creatures into undead allies while the
seraphim is skilled with the sword and can make acrobatic attacks. Your starting
location will vary slightly based on which character that you select to play,
but the storylines quickly merge after that. Speaking of story, Sacred departs
from most other games of its type by giving you a lot of freedom in pursuing
quests. You’re not herded from one story-driving quest to another in a
preordained sequence. Instead you are free to explore Sacred’s huge world and
take on numerous side quests as you see fit. In reality, though, you can’t
wander too far a field since you’ll have to gain valuable experience by
completing the easier quests before you’re ready to face the nastier beasts that
inhabit Sacred’s world.
If you’re familiar with Diablo II, you’ll find a lot of familiar touches in
Sacred. Control is all mouse-driven, with left-clicks used to indicate where
your character should go to and which creature should be attacked and
right-clicks used to unleashed your readied special attack or spell. This is a
simple control scheme but it is not without its quirks in Sacred. Your character
will sometimes have trouble finding his or her way to the designated location if
there are walls or other obstacles in the way. You’ll find that you can actually
move around more quickly by taking a baby steps approach. There is also an issue
with attack clicking in that your attack orders are sometimes ignored. Sometimes
a click on an enemy won’t register, or your character will stop attacking in the
middle of a fight. Holding the mouse button down doesn’t ensure that your
character will attack until the enemy is vanquished either. Be prepared to do a
lot more clicking than you do in most games in this click happy genre.
Sacred uses a skill system similar to Diablo II’s that give you access to new
attacks and spells. However, skills are not earned through experience but rather
by finding tokens dropped by monsters or hidden in treasure troves. Some are
class-specific but others can be used by all and there are also some tokens
which improve an existing skill. Once used, a token disappears and you’re
awarded with the corresponding new skill. With the help of a combo master,
you’ll even be able to combine skills to make new combo attacks.
The skill system is a good touch but there are a couple of minor problems
with it. The first is that there’s no skill tree in Sacred, so enabling one
skill will not preclude you from acquiring any other skill. While this leaves
your character with the capability to acquire a greater skill set, it also means
that you won’t be able to customize your character as much as you could in
Diablo II. The second issue is that while new attacks and combos can come with
their own animations, it’s all pretty much for show. After acquiring a new skill
you still attack by clicking on a monster except you do more damage than before.
There’s not much strategy to attacks here other than deciding which monster to
click on first.
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