Sacred

[Sirian]

There's a Diablo clone out there called Sacred. Anybody here tried it? The reviews at Amazon were a mixed bag, and checking out This Fansite seems to indicate that Sacred has borrowed an enormous amount straight out of Diablo II. If imitation is the highest form of flattery, they are flattering the heck out of Blizz North.

The sheer number of copycat items leads me to wonder. Can it really be that much like Diablo II? Or have they borrowed less than it appears? Reminds me of FPS clone games, where they offer only pale imitations of the original instead of something creative that actually fixes the original's weaknesses and builds on its strengths. If the price were twenty bucks, I'd still give it a shot, just out of curiosity, but at forty... Unless someone I trust says it's golden, I'll be biding my time and enjoying the Rogue Revival variant.


- Sirian

[Cluppoo]

I have played sacred and have a few points.

For one thing, it's much more of a challenge than Diablo 2 will ever be. They have HC playable for characters and have 6 chars instead of 7. One interesting thing is that there are skill "runes". You can combine different runes and make more powerful ones.
EX. You can use runes that are for your class or combine runes you find, if i have 4 runes that I can't or dont want to use i can take them to the runemaster (for lack of a better name, I forgot what he's called) and get the runes combined and chose what rune i want. I can choose any skill for my character class and use the rune to learn of power up the skill.
Also the world is incredibly huge. I'm talking you most likely won't visit everywhere in a full game. Always finding some hidden dungeon containing a dragon, etc. Still five acts in the game, and they have names. No cutscenes though between acts.
Character classes somewhat resemble Diablo 2 but with some differences. The skills learned are not a tree system, no prerequisetes (sp). With skill runes and combining runes you can in theory pump any skill you want but combining skills is wholly necessary in this game.
Casting delays are longer. Another thing is that there is no system of mana or magic points. Casting delay is the only thing that keeps you from spamming spells. However, there are many items that decrease casting delays.
Items wise, there is much more variety. Even something named "sword" could have one or two special abilities. Also, items affect character appearance much more than in Diablo 2. For example, there are about 10 types of glove skins that you can see on your character, also bracers (wrists), and shin gaurds (cant remember medieval name :P). All are plainly visible when you take them on and off and help all characters look unique. Speaking of uniques, there are many more than in Diablo 2 but they are as hard to find as a needle in a haystack. Same with set items. I went whole games and found 1 or 2 unique or set items. There are also MF systems in Sacred.
Quests are different too. You can't see how many to complete for the next act. Also, there are many subquests and tons of optional ones. You get various awards for quests, items, exp, gold.

Ok, I'm getting tired of typing and will stop now. Just pointing out a few differences. The gameplay is basically the same. Click on things to attack them. Backpack, character interface to put things on.

They did take quite a bit from Diablo but it is still pretty unique with it's huge world.

[Thecla]

Sacred was pretty derivative of Diablo, and it was a nice diversion for a bit (along the lines of Divine Divinity, if you ever tried that). But I wouldn't rely on it as a long term distraction.

[CelticHound]

I tried the demo for Divine Divinty. I thought it was pretty good - except for being horribly buggy and crashing every time I managed to immerse myself in the game. From the bit I've heard, they did a decent job with the music. DD seems to have much more plot than Diablo, but it seems more like an RPG - can you do more than a once-through with a given character?

Same question about Sacred - can you continue to play a character or is it a once-through? Can you continue to get random quests? How is the sound?

-- CH

[Urugharakh]

Can it really be that much like Diablo II? Or have they borrowed less than it appears?

The later is true. It is more like comparing GalCiv with Civ or MOO. There are of course some similarities, but the game is different as a whole.

I won't go into details as it might spoil your fun in case you try it. I only add, that my CalCiv comparsion was pretty good. It is definitely a game worth its money, but it can't compete with D2 like GalCiv was worth its money, but can't compete with Civ3 or MOO. Disadvantageous might be the still not finished patching progress, but the main problems have been solved now. So if you like trying something new for a while, you'll get your money back in fun, but don't expect to come back to the game again and again. I'm finished now with the game and its unlikely I'll come back, but the same is true for my GalCiv copy and I don't regret buying either of them.

Urugharakh

[Sirian]

Thank you.

[HowGozit]

Sacred..

I enjoyed it, but got bogged after a bit. (I did finish the game though - with the Wood Elf, who is a tad overpowered). There is a nasty bug in one of the quests in Act 2 which can be a total show stopper until you learn the cheat command to get past it. (An item you absolutely need is not spawned - and the quests are linear - you must complete one to go on to the next).

The skill system with points added to attibutes on level up is not that brilliant either. You can only build up about 5 of the many attributes as you don't get a new one until you have attained a number of levelups. - and the gap between the choice points keeps increasing. You REALLY have to know what your character needs to have ultimately when you choose your path. Wasted points will hurt you.

Graphics and scenery are great though - well worth a look. All in all - waiting for the price to drop is prolly not too bad an idea.

But - its very Diablo like - and I find a session will easily waste a couple of hours - a bit like a ??quick?? Diablo 1 run.

HowGozit