Sacred 3 - Preview @ Xbox360 Achievements

There was a ban on reporting on Sacred 3 until Pax and so the first previews will show up these days with one of the first being Xbox360 Achievements.

Showing off the combat, Toplansky states that button mashing is a possibility, but when things get hectic that simply won’t cut it. Players have a range of Combat Arts that can swing the tide of battle and clever players will quickly learn to chain them together with friends for massive damage. “We wanted to create a deeper experience so that players are discovering nuances dozens of hours into the game,” Toplansky states, as a foolhardy opponent is cleaved in two. “To do this we wanted more action rather than pure numbers, so it puts that sense of interest and control back into players hands.” The series certainly seems to have stepped away from the statistic driven end of the RPG spectrum and instead has a more action orientated approach. The reason for this, according to Toplansky is down to giving players a sense of reward. “There is a fleeting sense of reward for, say, getting a new item. I’m going to take that new +6 sword into battle and see that the damage numbers have gone from 200 to 206. Wow, bravo to me right?” Instead they want players to spend time learning the nuances of the game itself rather than scrounging for slightly better weapons.

More information.

Finally but the focus on CO-OP worries me it always does in rpg's. I hope it's implanted were it wont affect Single player.

Sacred 2 was the single buggiest Xbox game I ever played. Bad "humor" comments from the characters. Sub par graphics. Hack and slash. Unless you consider pretending you're a guy who wants to kill a lot of stuff is "role playing" it didn't have much there either. I really don't get the appeal.

Sacred 2 was killed off by terribad level scaling (in the middle of combat, the enemies you were fighting leveled up with you)… And the quest compass made listening to the story optional - go to gold marker, kill something there, follow gold marker back to quest giver who'd deposit some coins in your inventory.

Sacred 1 otoh - great game until the Gold patch introduced retarded level scaling. Before then, you could have great fun exploring the world, going to areas you weren't ready for, building up your character. I guess those days are gone - today that sort of system would be called 'poor balancing'.

level scaling ?! it is a hack and slash game what did you expect ?
i always stick to a buff and a CA , i am a smoker and HATE when games require both my hands on the keyboard .

First game was brilliant but I hated the second with a passion. I'll check out the third installment but I'm a little worried.

I liked the Sacred games, unfortunately part 2 had a ton of technical issues and barely ran above a slideshow at times on my pc. Im curious about this game

Originally Posted by Tragos
level scaling ?! it is a hack and slash game what did you expect ?

Sacred 1 was hack and slash too, but had no level scaling. It had level areas. So you could wander into a map section that was designed for (eg) 5 levels above you and have a real adrenaline rush. But the XP you got was huge, so you could do a few minutes of the high level map and then return for a cakewalk in the area you're "supposed" to be in. Great fun in that it gave freedom and the ability to test your build. Sacred 1 Gold and Sacred 2 made leveling irrelevant which halved enjoyment at a stroke.