| I personally think the game sucks.
POINTS
You gain levels like other games which means you can put your str, dex, and whatever higher each level..BUT every time you gain a level, those things go up a certain amount by themselves. So let's say you have 20 strength..you gain a level and get 5 points..so you figure you are going to put your strength upto 25 because at 40 strength you can use a specific item you picked up..so you put 5 points in and don't pay attention to anything else.
Then you get to the point where you should have like 40 strength and you look and you have something like 53 strength instead..because the strength was growing naturally without points..so basically you waste points that you might have just used in physical regeneration.
So basically what I am saying is every statistic you have goes up automatically each level and then you have a couple points extra to spend which will most likely be wasted unless you throw it in physical or mental regeneration.
QUESTS
You may think of the game as more "open" than diablo..which is true in a sense..meaning you can run all over the map killing guys and doing stuff rather than following a wall to the left and a wall to the right pushing you in one direction..but what actually happens is you get a LOT of repetition.
There are "random quests" generated for you to do on top of fixed side-quests and plot quests..so you go to the first town..someone wants you to clear out some bandits..and then you clear them out and all is well. Then you go to your 3rd town and get a quest to..clear some bandits? Okay you think to yourself, they may have a bandit problem..and you clear them out and return for your reward. You go to your 4th town to do what you may ask? Oh yes..clear some bandits.
Or they may send you to kill some wolves, kill some bandits, kill some wolves, kill bandits..the choices are endless!
TRANSPORTATION
Okay, one of the plusses in the game is that you can buy a horse..and each horse has different hitpoints and a different speed than the last horse. And there is a "riding" skill which allows you to ride your horsed even faster! And you can also pick up a "saddle" as equipment (which never makes your horse look any different even though the saddles all look different) which can ALSO make your horse run even faster!
So okay..you got a really fast horse now. You can also attack on horseback..but it is horrible. You have a sword and want to attack that guy on the other side of the screen? Okay, click him..you click him and your horse runs way over there...nothing happens. Then the guy runs away. So you click on him again and run all the way to him...nothing happens. What you have to do instead of clicking him and holding the attack button (like you do in ground fighting) is click the guy to get to him, and THEN click him when you are right at him so you start attacking him. But don't bother with ranged enemies because as soon as you get to them they start running away, so unless you have a ranged weapon you are screwed.
You are on horseback with a sword and a shield, or two swords even..there are enemies that are all around you..so you attack. Oh, you can't use most of your attacks like you can on the ground, so you have to hit the people from your horse really slowly..all the while they are taking down your hitpoints and your horses hitpoints..so it's like throwing a baby in a room surrounded by professional boxers and throw the baby a spoon to defend itself. All that happens is the baby hits a boxer..and then all the boxers beat the crap out of the baby because HORSEBACK SUCKS!
Oh..the horse has it's own attack as well, so if you can't use one of your special attacks on the people walking around, you can use the horses attack..which is basically just the horse tapdancing around the place. Pretty much does the same amount of damage of your very first weapon you ever looked at and decided NOT to buy.
So Horseback sucks for anything other than getting from place to place faster.
NPC HIRELINGS
Okay, you can have backup in the form of an NPC..they aren't so much hirelings as they are people that go with the plot and need to go from point A to point B and you are to help them with that. But you don't really have to so straight from A to B..you can explore everywhere on the map and THEN go to point B if you really want. So that part is pretty good. You can also throw equipment on these guys too..atleast I know you can throw a weapon on them, not sure about armor or not. So you run around with a poor looking peasant guy with tattered robes, looks like an ant can kick him butt (not a monster ant..and ant ant) and then suddenly he has a ginormous greataxe twice his size and he is swinging it like a madman.
So that part is also pretty neat..you basically can use your hireling as monster fodder. Then he dies pretty fast (after dealing out some decent damage) and you feel like crap because you have to go all the way back to town to get him..but what is this? He just respawned on your way back to town..and he still has the axe you gave him! Your NPC will die over and over again in the game, but don't worry about it because he will just respawn in like 30 seconds or something in the same place, so no need to go get him again. I believe the same type thing happens to your horse too, but I don't remember.
ACCESSORIZE!
One of the most enjoyable things (atleast to me) about this game is that every piece of equipment (other than bracers maybe?) that you pick up makes your avatar look different. I watched my friend play as a Seraphim and she(seraphim, not my friend) gets a unique item to wear on her back. They are labelled as "wings". They don't let you fly or anything, but it is just a set of metallic wings that you strap on to make yourself look kewl. And yes, each set of wings that you pick make you look different as well..just like armor and boots and helmets and stuff. Then there is a set of rather unique looking "wings" and I say "wings" because they are still considered that in the game. You put a metal thingie on your back and out sprouts these shiny neon ropes that stick out in I think 5 directions and just kindly wave there slowly in the air when you are standing still. Then if you take off in your horse they wiggle behind you looking awesome!
IN CONCLUSION
Sacred looks a bit better than Diablo 2 and every other game of this genre.
But it plays like a retard swimming up river. Meaning that you can beat it..but it is annoying and stupid looking trying to get there.  |