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For Diablo II fans, there's Sacred

H

Halenthal

Landlubber
Sacred by our friends at Ascaron is a whole lot like Diablo II, but with prettier graphics and a whole slew of new options. The English demo is out, and quite fun to play, but be warned the demo is based on code from December of 03 and has several `bugs-all` of which the devs have said are already fixed in the final release. US version is due out on March 23, I think, German version at the end of February.

If you liked D2 at all, you'll like Sacred.

Fan site with quite a bit of information is at http://www.`sacred-fans`.net/ and the main Ascaron page is at http://www.ascaron.com The demo can be found in a lot of places, it's about 230 megs, so search for Sacred demo and see what you can find.
 
i may check that out, i have been rather ignorant of it for a while while checking for PR2 News
 
Well I've played the `demo-several` times `now-and` I must say it's every bit as good as Diablo and then some. Lots of things you wanted in Diablo are standard in Sacred. Like modifying `equipment-there` are sockets in a lot of the items, and you can put a lot of things in them. Find a nice sword that does `45-55` damage and has two slots, put a ring that does `6-9` damage total with `2-3` physical damage and `3-4` fire damage, the sword just got made flaming and a bit more damage. Put that same ring in your helmet, and your `weapon-whatever` it `is-is` now flaming and does more damage. Also different blacksmiths can do different upgrades to equipment. The inventory space is huge compared to Diablo, as is the stash `space-I` read where someone figured it up and between the six characters you can have on the Ascaron closed net (pretty much just like battle.net) you have the equilavent of 22 mule characters of inventory space. There are a lot of special attacks, and they can be 'stacked' into a combo in any order you choose, so by clicking once you execute that `combo-quite` fun to be surrounded by four or five enemies and unleash a combo that does a total of 20 or 25 attacks, really smacks them around. The graphics are pretty, not quite Dungeon Siege breathtaking, but good, and that's just in the `demo-the` high color textures and advanced graphics routines aren't in the demo at all. You get to ride and fight from horseback! which isn't quite as exciting as it sounds, as you'll quickly get used to using the horse to get from one place to another without the long walk in between. There does seem to be portals, but not functioning in the demo, but no such thing as town portal. Six character classes total, two of which are playable in the demo, a good spread of possible gameplay styles is available. `Items-if` you liked hunting for those cool items that were randomly generated in Diablo, you'll go nuts over Sacred. Many more types of items with a WHOLE lot more types of flags on them, and they're every bit as random as in Diablo.

All in all, from what I've seen, it's good enough to (*gasp*) replace Diablo II:LOD completely. We know what Ascaron's customer support is like, so no worries about them pulling a Blizzard on us and forgetting to patch the major bugs for a few years. Now if I can just convince them to let me customize the hotkeys (which one Ascaron employee has already said he agreed with me and will see what can be done)...
 
I got the game today, since it features multiplayer (both `co-op` and deathmatch of some sort) I figured it should have some lastability.

After only a few minutes of playing it I've decided I don't particularly like it. Perhaps I should have got the demo first (I didn't even know there was one)... :?

It just seems mindless; another game where you once again run around doing other peoples dirty work.
 
Yeah i played the demo and it didnt appeal to me also, mainly the controls i felt were rather awkward
 
i'll download the demo, i was a big DII fan and played it off and on for a few years... made me allot of money selling my accounts.. this sounds alright so I guess i'll be downloading it today if i can manage to stay home again :?
 
It's got a lot in common with Diablo II, but a lot of things different as well. There's still some bugs in it, few if any gamestoppers, but some annoying bugs that Ascaron's fixing. There's a lot more strategy than in Diablo II, and in my opinion, the game is worth buying just for the HUMOR in `it-it`'s hilarious! Jason's hockey mask, lightsabers, funny quests and tons of hilarious tombstones (I'm on a tombstone, for instance, asking about my trade goods in Port Royale), and the characters say the funniest `things-real` attitudes on them.

The controls, bluntly, SUCK. Ascaron has said they'll implement customizable hotkeys, but it may be a while as it seems they hardcoded the keys in? I don't ask.

Anyways, Sacred has been a huge success worldwide so far, and Ascaron's simply swamped by `it-that`'s one of the reasons there's been no PR 2 updates from me for quite a while.

If you want to see screenshots, the storyline, etc, head over to http://www.`sacred-game`.com and check it out, it's the official website. The demo is a great way to check out the gameplay, but without the voice acting, it's not the `same-listening` to the characters is great.

And yes, the Halenthal that's Admin at the official boards is me, and yes, it's taking up a LOT of my time. I'm also a moderator at the official Port Royale 2 forums, so any info I get, I'll pass on (other than Mirko teasing with his 'Guess what? I'm playing PR 2 right now! The governor's daughters are MINE! ALL MINE!')
 
The character comments are quite funny, as you say Halenthal:

"I'll get you sooner or later! Well, maybe later rather than sooner..."

And there are some totally clichéd comments that make you cringe when you hear them. :?

I've heard other complaints about how the handling sucks, but I've actually had no problems with it.

I've given the game a second chance and it's really not as bad as I initially thought. It is basically mindless, but that's often a good state of mind to pass some time. :cry
 
yea the game aint bad, a little pervy on the seraphim's out fit but what would you expect from an RPG... anyways the game isnt bad, the whole timelimit on the demo is weak.. so i guess im gonna have to buy it.
 
There's no timelit in the demo! In the demo you have a small reagion where you can be as long as you like (I think there are 13 possible quests to find in the demo). But when you leave it the demo ends. Sadly the Guy says something like "Your time is over" which let us all think that there's a timelimit. Not very clever from Ascaron.

Well I really like the game and I think it's great. But for all people intrested in Sacred I will give you this advice:
Play the Demo. If you like it, go to "www.`sacred-game`.com" and read the forum there. The game is still very buggy, but they are working on it.
So don't buy it yet. Just wait a few weeks till they get all the bugs out.
Then I'm sure it will be real fun.
 
So don't buy it yet. Just wait a few weeks till they get all the bugs out.  
Then I'm sure it will be real fun
Click to expand...

yeah ur right about the demo not being time limited.

But on the game, yea it is buggy, but probly not how u think. so far that patches have cleard most of those bugs away and the game is more then playable. the only lacking part is the multiplayer which on even my connection wich is really good i still find it annoying to play. and ontop of that u cant really make rooms u have to play in the ones the give you to play in. i think the multiplayer expericence would be much better if they had made if more like battle.net but its still good. so if you really do enjoy the demo i'd say buy it because the glitches really aren't that bad.
 
I allready own the game. Bought it on the first day. :gday

But I'm one of the unlucky guys where the fps went down after patch 1.0.3.8!
I have deinstalled it and I will wait some time before I will install it again. Last version I tried was 1.5.5, but the performance problems were still there.

Yup, you're right, the game is playable but I just wanted to warn people here, bacause it's still somewhat buggy.

But every Diablo fan should keep the game in the eyes.
 
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