Sacred, back in 2004, was a decent competition for Diablo (devs knew it, just check a village north of Moorbrook) – and still is one of theSacred, back in 2004, was a decent competition for Diablo (devs knew it, just check a village north of Moorbrook) – and still is one of the best classic hack’n’slash games. Although both original game and its sequel succeeded, the developer (German studio Ascaron) did not make it in the industry and got shut down in 2009. Afterwards, the franchise was killed by Sacred 3 (a reportedly terrible game) and has not been revived to this day. Quite a tragic story, especially that Sacred games generated a relatively big base of players.
The game is a slasher, so do not expect an ambitious story – but who cares, when slaying hundreds of enemies and loot picking is so satisfying? This seems to be a very simple thing but doing it right is actually a complex task. Devs made sure this aspect of the game is perfect (except for some bugs but I will talk about it later). Multiple combos that get more powerful with each level, class-specific attacks, thousands of items and gold to loot, cool (not too difficult, however) bosses – all you need for an entertaining hack’n’slash. Quite simple stat system and basic crafting make it really entertaining to grind and improve your character. I played as Gladiator, which (obviously) is all about physical damage but you can choose from 6 different character classes that are quite distant from each other and offer different kinds of gameplay. Saving princesses and kingdoms and fighting evil necromancers who summon armies of undead is a nice story arc to play in the background. Check it for yourself but I had a strong feeling that if it was told a bit better, it would actually make a great plot (as there are certain moments and twists that actually surprised me). Also, pieces of universe lore have been placed as books in different places on the map but they appear in a random order without much indication which is the right one – so good luck figuring out what part of story comes after which.
What is also a great addition is the visuals. Obviously, it is a 2004 game, so if you zoom in the map you will see worryingly many pixels – but except this the locations look just magnificent. Carefully drawn and involving a lot of little details that make them intriguing, they only lack higher resolution… My personal favorites are the swamp area and underground Gnarlstadt, which are some of many diverse regions available in the world of Ancaria. The map is pretty expansive and it provides a sense of exploration which is essential for any open world game. Also the music that accompanies it feels like it is perfectly designed for a fantasy setting.
During my basic game playthrough I decided to finish all quests available. As there are more than 200 of them, it took some time but was immensely satisfying. Unfortunately, the tasks quickly become repetitive and are in general not too creative (mostly fetch quests). Nevertheless, there are some really fascinating quests or storylines that offer choices which actually change the outcome (try treasure hunting in the swamps…) Still, I do not regret doing any of this. Thought about repeating it with Underworld expansion but… well, let’s talk about it now.
Sacred Underworld has the most bizarre opening cutscene I have seen in a video game and definitely one of the worst narratives I have experienced so far. It is just a huge mess – you are supposed to save the world again but with so little explanation that even after completing the game I do not really know what happened there. Apparently, the game tries to compensate it with **** of enemies (much more than in the original game) that never stop spawning. This is another controversial aspect of Sacred’s gameplay – you cannot fully clear any of the locations, enemies will eventually come back. In Underworld, though, the balance is almost non-existent and you just waste your time slaying waves of monsters. I started to ignore them after some time which definitely was not developers’ intention. They are visibly better designed and more challenging than in the basic game, though. Nevertheless, after some time in Underworld I just rushed to the end as the game got tedious and, honestly, boring.
Other downside (of both original game and expansion) are bugs and glitches which despite various patches are still in the game and probably will never be fixed. Some of them block certain side quests but I encountered one bug that broke combo mechanics and loot picking which made the game almost unplayable. Also it happened an hour before the end, so if I did not manage to fix it by accident, my entire time put into the game would get wasted. Another annoying thing are inaccurate controls and hitboxes or the character occasionally getting stuck in a certain place.
Nevertheless, as a whole it is a great game totally worth trying again (or for the first time!) in 2021. I spent 53 hours playing it and can definitely put it among one of the classic games of its category.… Expand
