Deep Silver - Sacred 3 Next Year

Dhruin

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You may recall Deep Silver acquired the "Sacred" brand from Ascaron's ashes in 2009 and Sacred 3 was quickly announced - though will no real details. Deep Silver has now announded a side-scroller titled Sacred Citadel that will foreshadow Sacred 3 in 2013. The press release:
Three warriors unite against an evil that threatens to enslave the once peaceful world of Ancaria. Lord Zane’s Ashen Empire has created an army of Grimmocs, modified Orc henchmen at war with the Seraphim. Only when these heroes unite and use their skills to support each other they will stand a chance!
Deep Silver today announced the side-scrolling action brawler Sacred Citadel, a new standalone title that is set in the rich universe of Sacred. Sacred Citadel will reinvent the familiar arcade feel of classic brawlers while setting a new standard for the future of side scrolling hack and slash games.
There are several playable character classes, such as the Safiri Warrior, the Ancarian Ranger and the Khukuri Shaman, each with a different skill set that can be further individualized through RPG features and collectible items. Each character will also have the ability to dual-wield two exchangeable weapons, use combo attacks and perform double jumps. All of which combines into a fluid and unique arcade game experience with sophisticated graphics and spectacular effects. The player will also be able to ride mounts, use war machines and spend his hard earned cash in towns all over the world of Sacred Citadel.
Sacred Citadel will also offer an engrossing multiplayer mode: as up to three players can join forces against their enemies in seamless drop-in/drop-out coop mode.
The events in Sacred Citadel will act as a prologue to the next chapter of the Sacred story and will unveil an intriguing secret about the Seraphim that will directly relate to the action RPG Sacred 3, currently in development by keen games and to be released in 2013.
Sacred Citadel will be out in 2013 as a digital download title for the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system through PLAYSTATION®Network, through Xbox LIVE® Arcade for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and through Steam and other ESD partners.
Sacred Citadel is being developed by Southend Interactive.
Website here.
More information.
 
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A side-scroller? WTH? On the other hand, Sacred 3 might have some interest, but not if it too will be a side-scroller. Honestly, I thought those went out in the 1980s. At least, that is the last time I remember playing them.
 
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considering they failed with the first two imo, a huge change in design is welcomed
 
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Sacred Gold was a fantastic multiplayer game for myself and my brother back in the day. We had a great ol' time building characters and just exploring the world.
It all got a bit wearisome by the time we got to Sacred Underworld, but we still persisted and finished that as well.

On the other hand, I found Sacred 2 to be tedious in the extreme and couldn't be bothered finishing it, but perhaps that was partially due to my over saturation by that point of action rpgs.

Anyway, a curious development. Not overly interesting, but will follow the news here as it develops.
 
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I have followed this for the last five days since I posted the story in the forums. I gotta say it's disappointing. I even checked on the developers of the forthcoming sacred 3 and it doesn't look good either.

At least we know that Sacred 3 won’t be an MMO according to an official forum post. Also Keen Games created and ported Anno 1701 DS amongst many “uninteresting” titles, so they are able to produce AAA titles, when they planets align accordingly.

I'll never understand when publishers give no name studios access to destroy other licensees. Probably because it's dirt cheap.
 
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considering they failed with the first two imo, a huge change in design is welcomed

The Sacred series is one of my favorites. While both games certainly had their flaws, ( the first one was with items. The names meant nothing and some of the bonuses were awful, such as a shield that gave a boost to dual-wielding :rolleyes: The second games characters left a lot to be desired imo), but for a hack & slash arpg I thought they did fantastic. The combat arts done with runes I thought was a nice change rather than a skill tree. Not everybody likes the game I totally understand that. But saying they "failed" is going too far imo. How exactly did they "fail?"
 
The Sacred series is one of my favorites. While both games certainly had their flaws, ( the first one was with items. The names meant nothing and some of the bonuses were awful, such as a shield that gave a boost to dual-wielding :rolleyes: The second games characters left a lot to be desired imo), but for a hack & slash arpg I thought they did fantastic. The combat arts done with runes I thought was a nice change rather than a skill tree. Not everybody likes the game I totally understand that. But saying they "failed" is going too far imo. How exactly did they "fail?"

I agree, I still play Sacred 1 as my goto hack and slash and love blasting the bejesus out of everything with my Dwarf's cannon till this day.
Also enjoy Sacred 2 though I hated the small icon inventory setup, always squinting trying to see what I have.
Hope they do a decent job on Sacred 3 and as Couchpotato said at least it's not some browser based MMO.
 
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Both Sacreds were OK, but the monster respawn rates are a bit too high for my liking. The expansion to the first game was particularly tedious in this regard, you could barely move without being mobbed.
 
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A side-scroller? WTH? On the other hand, Sacred 3 might have some interest, but not if it too will be a side-scroller. Honestly, I thought those went out in the 1980s. At least, that is the last time I remember playing them.
Strange comment. Did you smoke something? ;)

How can anybody expect Sacred 3 to be a side-scroller? This Sacred Citadel game is just promo thing to hype S3.

I have followed this for the last five days since I posted the story in the forums. I gotta say it's disappointing. I even checked on the developers of the forthcoming sacred 3 and it doesn't look good either.

At least we know that Sacred 3 won’t be an MMO according to an official forum post. Also Keen Games created and ported Anno 1701 DS amongst many “uninteresting” titles, so they are able to produce AAA titles, when they planets align accordingly.

I'll never understand when publishers give no name studios access to destroy other licensees. Probably because it's dirt cheap.
Keen Games is a contractor with 2 decades experience on consoles. They're certainly not cheap at all. They've done other jobs for Deep Silver before, so from their perspective they're probably a low-risk solution.

Sacred 2 was Deep Silver's most successful game every, according to their yearly report. (Now it's probably Dead Island.) Why would they give their most valuable IP to a 2nd rate studio?
 
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Keen Games is a contractor with 2 decades experience on consoles. They're certainly not cheap at all. They've done other jobs for Deep Silver before, so from their perspective they're probably a low-risk solution.

Sacred 2 was Deep Silver's most successful game every, according to their yearly report. (Now it's probably Dead Island.) Why would they give their most valuable IP to a 2nd rate studio?

Well I've seen there games they made and ported not very impressive. Just check there website.
The most successful projects have been G-Force (PSP, Nintendo DS), Anno: Create a new world (Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS), Anno 1701 (Nintendo DS), What’s Cooking with Jamie Oliver (Nintendo DS) and Dance Dance Revolution – Disney Channel Edition (PlayStation 2).
Yeah doesn't give me hope.
 
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I know their web site. They were known as Neon Studios before. Bought and killed by JoWooD, resurfaced as keen. They have a reputation as efficient and reliable, but it's clear S3 will have a far bigger budget than all their other games. We'll see if they can handle it. First previews should come during the GC.
 
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I know their web site. They were known as Neon Studios before. Bought and killed by JoWooD, resurfaced as keen. They have a reputation as efficient and reliable, but it's clear S3 will have a far bigger budget than all their other games. We'll see if they can handle it. First previews should come during the GC.

Well lets hope so. I have been disappointed by developers one to many times.
 
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I played Sacred 1 and its expansion and I remember that I had fun with it. I did complete the game. I bought Sacred 2 but just didn't get into it. I didn't become familiar enough with Sacred 2 to know if it was the game or just me as the reason why I didn't play it. With my lack of interest in Diablo 3, I'm beginning to think I am just tiring of that kind of action RPG gameplay.

With 10 years of Diablo and Diablo clones at my back, not to mention many years on the item treadmill playing WoW, I think I'm just tiring of the idea of loot being the main motivation of playing a game.

Interesting loot is always fun, but I want more from games than just combat and loot. I find I'm really yearning for more of the world simulation aspect of RPGs found in some of the Ultima games, Divine Divinity, Arx Fatalis, and Gothics 1 and 2.

As far as the side scroller game goes (Sacred Citadel), I really don't know why developers/publishers are keeping on with this trend using established brand names in different generes. For every small success there are many more examples of failure. Why not just focus on Sacred 3?
 
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I had a shirt made of pure T energy. I called it a t-shirt :D If they can tone down the mob respawns, I may give it a look. Sacred has a habit of throwing hundreds of mobs/screen, which is just silly.
 
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Blah, I was part of the closed beta for S2, and it got to the point where I got nauseous at the very thought of logging in. They would not listen, one bit, to us testers, and bugs persisted, even after multiple reports. Did anyone else notice that the combat was about as visceral as Combat, on the 2600? Now, I know that S3 will be, by necessity, a different animal, but it will have to get a pretty amazing reception, from all of you, before I can force myself to try it.
 
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