And one look at the size of the gameworld will tell you that this is a good idea, as travel between towns when not using magical teleportation gates can be torturously slow on foot. Unlike most games in the genre, Sacred enables you to saddle up and travel - as well as fight - from the back of a trusty steed. And since 75 per cent of the massive gameworld is open to exploration from the start, you're never going to be short of something to do in the land of Ancaria.Īs you wander through the more friendly areas of the land, you'll encounter the usual collection of merchants and ironsmiths to offload your booty to, as well as a few unexpected traders such as horse-dealer. Venture off the path even a little and you can almost be guaranteed of stumbling across a goblin lair, a slave-traders' hideout or an enchantress's tower. Every town, village, hamlet and farmstead seems to have a tale of woe that needs righting. Though you have an overriding quest line you have to follow, the game boasts around 200 side-quests for the more intrepid adventurer. What soon impresses is how densely populated this land is - both with life and adventure. On the high-res mode (which you should be able to run if you've got a 64MB graphics card), things look particularly sharp, with rustling leaves, shimmering water and lifelike weather changing subtly in front of you. The visuals are pristine and nicely detailed, from little frolicking bunnies to arrows sticking out of the side of yourįoe's armour. The environment is presented from a 2D viewpoint that can be zoomed, but not panned or rotated. Once you've settled on your hero, it's out into the big wide world, with your trigger finger on your trusty mouse button, ready to dispatch the many creatures that will be set against you. Take a look at the box opposite for more on this. While you've got your tried-and-tested warrior, magician and wood elf archer, Sacred offers a few nice variations of its own here. Your first choice along the road to thwarting this psychotic conjuror is to choose a character class, the first of a Pandora's box-full of familiar choices for the RPG fan. To devour the world of Ancaria (yes, that old chestnut). Wanting to get to the action, we'll dispense with the plot in an instance: a dark mage is trying to summon a demon Or at least it will be if it turns out as it should. It's Divine Divinity with more interesting character classes and a streamlined interface. It's Diablo with better visuals and more freedom of exploration. Instead, it wants to take what we already love, enlarge it, refine it and then let us gorge upon it once more. Few gamers will look at Sacred and think: "Wow, this looks unusual!" Its isometric 2D viewpoint, point-and-click combat and scuttling gangs of orcs, goblins and trolls gives it the kind of familiarity usually reserved for close family members and that jaz mag you've kept since you were 14.īut after a few hours' play, you begin to realise that breaking genre boundaries is not the point of this combat-heavy RPG.
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