A Diablo clone at heart, Sacred uses the action RPG formula to great effect, providing a unique & satisfying experie
The best way to explain what makes Sacred unique in the genre is that it emphasizes its RPG elements more than most. Games like Diablo and Titan Quest are fairly linear. You follow a specific path laid out for you, going from area to area and killing everything you see. Well, in Sacred you still kill everything you see, but the linear nature has been completely removed. The world of Sacred is completely open, more similar to a world that you would find in the Elder Scrolls series: Oblivion or Morrowind. You can travel to any town you'd like in nearly any order, or even just wander the countryside. This truly gives you the feeling that you're in a world, playing a role, not just gaining ground as you progress to the next area. There are plenty of out-of-the-way caves and dungeons to explore, and even the occasional to find just by exploring.
Of course, there's a main quest to follow, which will take you throughout the game world, but there are nearly countless additional quests to find and complete. True to the genre, quests don't have much creativity. Most quests will be along the lines of "go kill this creature", but there is at least some variety. Some quests will have you collecting specific items, some dropped by specific creature classes, and others will require to provide protection to an NPC while they travel with you to a specific destination. Still, it's pretty standard action RPG fare.
What keeps Sacred's gameplay from becoming repetitive is that it does what it does exceedingly well. The automap system is espcially tremendous. Initially covered by Fog of War, the world of Ancaria unfolds around you as you explore. Your character is a yellow dot, enemies are depicted by red dots, and NPCs are depicted by blue dots. Important quest-giving characters are designated by a white dot, and after their quest is complete they will become blue dots like everyone else. This is tremendously helpful in weeding who you need to talk to and who you can ignore - not always easy to tell in games like Oblivion and Morrowind. Once a quest has been granted, your quest destination will show up as a green map marker, or yellow for the main quest. When a quest is selected as an active quest, an arrow will appear at the edges of your map to point you in the right direction, in addition to the compass available on the HUD of your main screen.
Another feature that Sacred executes well is the journal. Quests are clearly laid out, and easy to browse. A picture of your next destination will be provided in your journal, and just clicking on a quest is all it takes to make that your active quest. This checklist makes it easy to stay organized, and play with a goal in mind. That's not all that the journal contains, though. You can also view detailed statistics about your character, even view a graph charting your experience and gold against your time spent playing. There are even opportunities to collect scrolls and other reading material during the course of the game, which when activated will add to your collection and can be read in the journal.
Like other action RPGs, there are several character classes to choose from. You can select either a brawling Gladiator, an angelic Seraphim, a sun-weakened Vampiress, a bow-wielding Wood Elf, a Dark Elf skilled in poison and traps, or a spell-casting Battle Mage. Each character will have some skills in common, such as a multi-hit and critical hit capability, but each character has many more skills that are exclusive to their class. For example, the Wood Elf can shoot an arrow that will circle back around and continue to strike your enemy repeatedly, or the Vampiress can leech the life from her opponent. Each skill is improved not by leveling up, but by collecting skills that are dropped by enemies. Every skill is character specific, but even skills you cannot used can be exchanged for one that suites your character. Also many of the items that you'll find throughout the game will be exclusive to specific characters, such as wings for the Seraphim or a two-handed blade for the Dark Elf that looks like something a Kilngon would wield. While the world of Sacred is always the same, the uniqueness of each character does add to the replay value.
Of course, being an RPG game there are some shortcomings that are hard to avoid. This can truly become a clickfest, as the enemy encounter rate is quite high. As you gain levels, weaker enemies will eventually stop attacking, which is a relief, because traveling even one screen will require you to kill a handful of enemies every time. Another frustration is that your inventory will often fill up quickly. There are five different types of potions to collect, and since they don't stack each potion takes up a block in your inventory. That doesn't leave a whole lot of room for equipment, and since nearly everything you kill will drop an item that means you'll leave a lot of equipment lying around. Getting back to town every time you need to sell your stuff can also be a hassle. Sacred provides teleport portals, but these are only present within towns, and go from town to town. There are horses that you can purchase, which will allow you to cover ground much faster, though trying to fight from your horse is extremely cumbersome, and with the encounter rate so high fighting is unavoidable. There's nothing like a scroll of town portal to instantly whisk you away to a merchant, an option which can feel almost like cheating at times, but would probably be welcome when you find yourself way out in the countryside, and having to hoof it back through yet another large numbers of enemies. All things considered though, this is a tremendous addition to the action RPG genre. It's clearly a generation ahead of Diablo, and that's true for the improvements it offers, as well as the outstanding look and feel of the game. If you don't mind games that require endless use of the left mouse button, then Sacred has hours of enjoyable gameplay to offer. This game is truly underappreciated, and I'm looking forward to see what the upcoming sequel will have to offer, as well.