Sacred 3 - Review Roundup

Sacred 3 could have been a really good game, and a much needed shot in the arm for a series that has always struggled for relevance. There's simply not enough of it, though, and what is there is so slim and featureless as to be almost intangible. It certainly doesn't feel like a game that's been in development for years (Deep Silver announced it in 2010) and is constantly defined by what has been left out, far more than the little that has been fixed or added. As such, amusing as it is in its own shallow way, Sacred 3 can only come as a mediocre disappointment to the hardy few who still consider themselves Sacred fans

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It’s spectacularly bad. Bad not like Sacred games have been bad before, where maps stopped working or the game just crashed. In this game crashing would be a welcome feature. Here the awfulness is hard-programmed into the code, wilful, deliberate. It’s a series of abysmal choices strung together in a vacuous, tiresome chain of near-identical linear missions. The “combat arts” should have been its defining feature, letting you craft a unique and elaborate fighting style to afford this drivel at least the genre of “hack n slash”. But instead it’s the rusting chassis of an ARPG, after it’s been stripped down for parts and left, abandoned in a disused yard, where it really ought to be forgotten.

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Considering the scope of its predecessors and how far the genre has come since the series’ inception a decade ago, that’s as unnecessary as it is unwelcome. Still, there’s potential here and approached with the right mindset and a group of friends there’s some fun to be had. Streamline your expectations, in other words, and you’re more likely to view Sacred 3 as slick rather than shallow.

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Sadly, with a game so stripped bear of player input, Sacred 3's biggest problem becomes an overwhelming sense of repetition. Once you find those aforementioned skills and spirits that work best for you, there's no reason to change things up, and since each skill is leveled up at different, predetermined parts, there isn't really anything to work towards for vast periods of time. As if that wasn't enough, weapon spirits themselves keep spouting out stock phrases from a limited pool, in annoying voices, driving home the sense that you're doing the same things over and over again.

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Fans of the Sacred series should definitely give this one a pass unless they're prepared for massive disappointment. People looking for a co-op time waster can wring a bit of fun out of Sacred 3, but will probably get annoyed by the bad comedy or bored of the repetitive gameplay long before it's over. If this is the best that Dr. Frankenstein could do for Sacred, the poor dead franchise should have been allowed to rest in peace.

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I can see how Sacred 3 is going to upset purists and longtime fans; the latest entry has as much in common with Skylanders as it does with previous entries, to be honest. If you’re dead-set on an open world, this one’s dead in the water. If you liked last year’s Sacred: Citadel and want a slightly deeper take on it, however, it’s worth a shot.

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Rock Paper Shotgun, Rubbish

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Ovenall said:

S2 was the buggiest mess I ever played on the Xbox 360. Getting stuck in terrain. Enemies getting stuck in terrain. Bosses getting stuck, or simply not attacking back. Weird sound glitches. There were more, but I have tried my best to forget about it all.

I can't believe anyone would have funded a Sacred 3.

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Capt. Huggy Face said:

"In this game crashing would be a welcome feature." Nice line.

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