Developer: Keen Games
Publisher: Deep Silver
Platform: PC, PS3, 360
Sacred 3 – Review
Hack and slash brawlers have always been a quite popular genre on all platforms, be it the typical dungeon crawler or the more in depth rpg game. Sacred 3 however, decides to take another route than the previous games. The open world was traded in for short levels of hack and slash action.
Story
Lord Zane, the typical king gone bad, has allied himself with dark forces in order to gain total domination over the world. In order to achieve his goal he will need the sacred artifact that is called the Heart of Ancaria. With this item his goals could be achieved but of course there are still forces of good who will try and prevent him from expanding his Ashen empire even further.
The Seraphim, the long forgotten guardians of the world seem to have returned under the leadership of sister Telari. Together with her psychic daughter, Aria, they decide to guide a band of heroes, each with their own quirky characteristics. These heroes are the world’s last chance to lead the rebels to victory.
Overall Sacred 3 is fairly story driven and what may seem like a typical ‘evil-villain-taking-over-the-world’ plot at first is actually brought to you in a very fun and witty way. The leading characters of the game, which in turn each present a class, each have their own unique and funny personality.
Before each ‘main’ level on the map you’ll be treated to a short cinematic with the necessary story value and fun dialogues to match. In short the game will present you with a typical story that is being brought in a very amusing and original way.
Graphics
The graphical quality of Sacred 3 does not leave one wanting for more, when it comes to the overall looks that is. The overall strength comes from the environments, which are all very detailed, colorful as well as fun to look at. That being said, it’s fair to mention that a lot of the enemies and obstacles get recycled in the game, which makes some levels lose their initial appeal. This is luckily made up with the great looking enemies, detailed bosses and the cast of heroes you can choose from.
Having tried the PS3 version, a few frame drops were noticed but they never reached an annoying level. Playing co-op did not really make things worse, which is certainly appreciated when playing with friends or online.
Sound
Music wise, Sacred 3 does not offer that much special when it comes to its soundtrack. The music is good but it never influences your mood at all. In the end, you’ll be too busy cutting down your enemies anyway.
Whilst the music might not be the most impressive soundtrack you’ve ever gotten in a game, the voice acting is actually quite superb. Each of the characters has its own set of witty lines that are often triggered by story events and the cutscenes offer entertaining conversations. You’ll be able to enjoy a lot of bickering, silly remarks and a dish of great storytelling on the side.
Another bit of voice acting comes from an unfamiliar angle, namely the battle spirits you can find in the game. These also serve as the ‘announcer’ for your combo’s or score multipliers. These also tend to say their own set of amusing phrases from time to time. These spirits give an original touch to the typical score multiplier and you’ll be amazed on how different all of the spirits’ personalities are, as well as the amount of voice acting they’ll treat you to.
Gameplay
In essence Sacred 3 is a very typical hack and slash/dungeon crawler game. Whilst the previous games of the franchise offered a more open world experience, Sacred 3 falls back on a common level based structure. A feature that will be liked by some and hated by others.
When starting you adventure, you’ll have the choice between four classes (five if you have the DLC), each having their own set of skills. You’ll not be able to choose your own name, seeing you’ll be playing with the pre named characters that you’ll encounter during the cutscenes and the overall story. Each character is basically a different class, varying between classes that will remind you of the typical warrior, ranger, caster classes and so on.
During your quest for salvation, you’ll gain experience that cause you to gain levels. When leveling up you’ll unlock a few new skills, weapons and armor once in a while. Whilst Sacred 3 will offer you a limited things to choose from, your skills, weapons and armor is upgradeable as you gain more levels. All of these upgrades will work with a ‘tree’ in which you’ll sometimes have to choose the upgrade that suits your play-style the most, to offer you a bit of more options.
Items are there to help you on the way, such as potions, totems and shields. These are consumable and are unlocked as you progress through the game. In-between missions you’ll be able to purchase items you’d wish to use during the upcoming missions.
Battle spirits, the spirits of warriors that have fallen in the past will be there to help your character. In short, these are passive skills with a few fun extra’s. Each of the battle spirits will have their own positive effect but they will also have a negative effect, making it a tad harder to choose the one that suits your play-style. Other than that, these will not only strengthen your character, they will surely entertain you during your playthrough with their witty remarks. Sadly leveling the spirit you fancy is a harder task than you’d want it to. Level shards are assigned randomly to a spirit when you accidently encounter one. This means, if you’re unlucky all the other spirits will level up before the one you are using.
At any given time you’ll be able to use your regular attack, a bash to break shields and two skills that consume energy. Whilst you’ll be able to unlock more than two skills, you’ll always have to pick those you feel fit for the mission or simply those you like the most.
You’ll be presented with a lot of different stages, some of them story driven whilst others are simply for grind purposes. These levels will take from a few minutes up to 30-ish minutes to complete. The story driven missions are needed to be completed in order to unlock the next batch of stages. All of the levels can be replayed in order to grind for new power-ups or experience.
A bit like Diablo 3, you’ll be able to pair up with three friends or strangers to battle your way through the missions the game throws at you. It’s fun to have a bit of competition at times to try and achieve the highest score, or just to handle certain challenges more swiftly.
Conclusion
Whilst Sacred 3 takes a different direction from its predecessors it’s still not a bad game. Perhaps naming it as a game of the main series was not a good call and a ‘spin-off’ title would have served it a bit more, the game is still worth checking out. Those who are a fan of fairly simplistic dungeon crawlers with a few fun touches will stay amused for quite some while and the story itself proves to be entertaining, be it greatly thanks to the cast of characters.
Sacred 3 - Review,
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