Sacred Gold [Game Review]

Beat mobs, level up, collect equipment to level up, get cooler equipment and beat stronger mobs. The game mechanics of the first, second, and, perhaps, third Diablo were based approximately on this principle. And people liked this meditative extermination of evil spirits so much that they gladly raked the already mentioned “Metelitsa” products from store shelves and disappeared in this adventure for months and years or… a couple of hours, a matter of taste, you know. But these games, especially Diablo 2, were so successful that they could not help but generate a number of followers. And how even more tenderly and by the hand It’s hard for me to imagine carefully bringing the Diablo clones to you, so let’s move on to them abruptly.

But first, I’ll still allow myself a small lyrical digression. The topic of clones of this or that game comes up every time a mechanic comes up in another game that is even slightly reminiscent of the one that was in the game that was already released. Give everyone technical progress, innovations and open worlds with non-linearities. But when they take already proven mechanics, creatively rework them and give birth to something new, the community around the game immediately begins to figure out whose clone this next non-AAA project is. What am I trying to get at through these fabrications?? To a simple and obvious thing – give chances to those games that are considered clones of something else and take a closer look at them. Today I suggest taking a closer look at the creativity of German programmers and designers, the game Sacred – or, as he was called in the Russian localization, Prince of Darkness.

The developer of this game was a German company Ascaron, which has been making economic simulators since 1992. Despite some inexperience in a new field for them, the company took on an ambitious project. It turned out that they were right and their first serious success came precisely thanks to Sacred. It was a worthy successor to the ideas of Diablo in the hack & slash RPG genre. This success was largely due to the fact that they supported their brainchild for quite a long time, releasing patches and additions. It was thanks to such expansions that versions of Sacred + and Sacred Underworld appeared, which together almost doubled the territory of our adventures compared to the original. A year after the release of the original game, it was released with additions as a Sacred gold edition. It was 2005 back then, and today we will focus on this version.

And what did the person see in the game itself?? First of all, choosing the difficulty level along with the hero. And if we talk about the heroes below, then I suggest you figure out the difficulty levels right now. From the very beginning, only two difficulty levels are available to the player: “bronze” and “silver”. They differ, obviously, in the level of opponents. If at “bronze” the levels of opponents are fixed and usually lower than the level of the main character, then at “silver” their level tends to the level of the hero or even exceeds it. When completing the storyline, “silver” unlocks “gold”. When you complete it on “gold”, “platinum” will open. And if you exhaled and thought that this would all end, then no. Complete the game on “platinum” and you will unlock the last, most difficult level – “niobium”. Why is all this important?? Because the same equipment, but obtained at different difficulty levels, will differ in its characteristics, and therefore niobium gear is the coolest. Therefore, for those who need a clear goal and have the patience, we can offer the task of finishing the original campaign and the Underworld campaign on “niobium”.

The graphics in the game are quite controversial – everything is drawn beautifully, but already mediocre for its year of release, especially considering that Titan Quest was released a year later, which looked great; The models of the main characters are well made and the peaceful, and not so good, extras are a little less well designed. Many enemies and allies are copied and reproduced as if on a printer, but remembering Diablo, where other opponents differed only in color, this claim becomes somewhat far-fetched. There is also no ubiquitous random map generation here, which negatively affects replayability, but plays quite well in favor of the impressions of the first acquaintance. Sometimes there are quite beautiful landscapes. And the only thing that darkens all this beauty is that some elements of landscapes and architecture repeat each other exactly. You can also sometimes see atmospheric effects in the spirit of fog or rain, which have little effect on anything other than visual perception. There is a day-night cycle. Thanks to this cycle, time is counted for tasks that have a time frame.

Ancaria is a good place to spend your holidays.

The backstory here is pretty standard for this kind of fantasy. A sorcerer named Shaddar comes into the world. He does not want to be content with the inherited wealth of his ancestors and longs to gain power, and not just power over the kingdom, but over the forces of Darkness. For the sake of his ambitions, he sacrifices his sister. However, his dark deeds were not hidden from the gaze of the community of magicians and they decided that Shaddar should be betrayed to the sacred cleansing fire. But the good king Valorian I changed the sentence and instead of the death penalty, Shaddar faced exile. Several centuries have flown over the world since then, and the sorcerer still accumulated strength in the southern deserts, terrifying the orcs, goblins and ogres. He rebuilt his castle on the lifeless rocks – Shaddar-Nur, where he began to recruit an army of goblins and improve his art in the field of black magic, while not stopping the search for a passage to the world of the dead. Shaddar needed to get there alive and return back, simultaneously forming an alliance with the demon of Sakkara..

Where would a magical adventure be without dragons??

The territory through which you will have to travel is truly huge and, in addition to various mobs, towns and tasks, you can find very interesting places in it. The most interesting of them, ironically, are cemeteries. After reading the inscriptions on the gravestones, you can at least smile or even be glad that there is a reference to your favorite film, favorite writer and even one porn actress. In large cities you can find useful NPCs, a magic chest in which you can store your things, and portals that, when activated, will help significantly reduce the running around the fields and villages of this magical world.

This is a mill? This is a peacock? No, it’s Seraphim!
We will be allowed to participate in the next salvation of the world for a total of 8 characters, as usual, with their own characteristics, advantages and disadvantages.

A natural berserker who can use any type of weapon. Melee is preferable, but there is also the opportunity to use ranged combat.

The only character who has no combat techniques, but has enough spells for every taste. Here you will find auras of all colors, healing, and fireballs with meteorites.

Can wield unique dark elf https://chancebetcasino.co.uk/login/ blades, brass knuckles, or be a master of traps. A very funny and effective hero.

A hero for whom the change of time of day is most critical. At night, when she turns into a vampire, she does not take periodic damage from sunlight, and therefore can fight most effectively. In addition, it can create a small army of the dead.

Typical shooter. Bows, arrows and ancestral magic are at our service. Can summon a unicorn, and it’s not a joke, guys.

A sexy girl with good melee potential and celestial magic that is not weak in terms of efficiency.

The last representative of a technologically advanced race in this magical world. The only hero who can use firearms and has in his abilities such things as a cannon, mines and a flamethrower.

A demon girl, tired of mortals and this world in general, but who committed a crime in her world and was thrown into Ancaria as punishment for this. The only hero who can fly and overcome places inaccessible to others.

Each character starts the game, as expected, in his own place – Seraphim in the temple, Gladiator in the arena, and Dwarf at the crashed helicopter.
Subsequently, at the wave of the writers’ pen, all the backstories of these characters converge in one place and then proceed according to the same scenario, filled with palace intrigue, betrayal and war.

What exactly can you do in Ancaria?? Kill monsters, collect loot, trade and complete quests. And if we put aside murders for a while, then completing quests becomes the main activity of novice (and experienced) travelers. Quests are divided into two main types: story quests and settlement quests. And if with the first everything is quite clear – they are the ones who will lead us to the end of the game, then with the second everything is somewhat more interesting. In any settlement, be it a city, town, castle or some other place, there are suffering people who strive not to leave poor travelers without work. It is for these tasks that we receive the main rewards, money and experience. Basically, these are banal “kill 10 goblins and bring their hearts” or “bring medicine from another part of the city,” but it is necessary to note that sometimes there are tasks with an unusual approach, with interesting references to literary and not so literary characters, as well as small moral choices that do not affect anything, but delight with their presence.

Dismemberment is a trifle, but nice.

But the tasks are the tenth thing, because we have an RPG here, after all, and it’s more interesting to talk about the role-playing system and other related things. So let’s do it that way. As we gain experience, we increase our level, the maximum level here is 216 (other MMOs will be jealous). For each new level we are given a certain number of points to upgrade our skills and characteristics. Characteristics – standard parameters in the spirit of strength, endurance, agility, charisma, physical and mental regeneration. The initial characteristics of all characters are different and, in addition to the points that are given to you for a new level, they themselves are pumped up by 10 percent of the initial characteristics.

Skills, in addition to the two initial ones, allow you to choose yourself (and if you use a little Google magic, then you can choose the first two yourself). We choose them at levels 3, 6, 12, 20, 30 and 50. They improve the character in a variety of ways: they increase damage with a certain type of weapon or magic, increase attack and defense parameters, the amount of life and regeneration, they even allow you to trade more efficiently and ride horses like a real cavalryman. Let me not describe every skill, because there are about 30 of them in the game, and detailed descriptions and optimal builds are not what you need Gotham review today.

And finally, abilities. Abilities here are obtained almost like in the first Diablo, if I’m not confusing anything. That is, they are knocked out from mobs and obtained for tasks. But unlike that system, in Sacred there is no mana in principle and you have to dance from ability cooldowns. In order to achieve the greatest effectiveness from them, skills and equipment with corresponding bonuses that reduce the cooldown of abilities will help you. Most characters, except for the Gladiator and the Battle Mage, have two types of them – roughly speaking, combat techniques and special techniques. This division is important for the reason that all abilities of the same type go into cooldown. Combo techniques are designed to somewhat correct the situation, allowing you to connect several spells in sequence and having their own cooldown.

The heroes don’t have a lot of abilities, but there is still room for imagination. Thanks to skills, you can sharpen the hero towards magical techniques or banal assault. In some classes, intermediate branches turn out to be quite viable.

Sects give no rest here either.

We will also meet useful non-player characters on our way.

Dealer – allows you to exchange goods with you. With a well-leveled skill, “trade” allows you to trade very profitably for yourself, and the assortment in stores changes for the better for the player, even though set and unique items are not sold. But be careful in your quest for wealth – “trading” is not the most useful skill in this game.

Blacksmith — allows you to forge blacksmithing bonuses or jewelry into equipment with sockets, which retains all its properties in the thing it is forged into. Also, when leveling up the appropriate skill, the gnome can do forging on his own.

Combo Master – allows you to create those same combo attacks. Also allows you to change unnecessary runes to others. He will exchange two runes for a random rune, three for a random rune suitable for your character, and for four you can choose the rune of your class that you need. As you understand, it is most effective to change runes 4 to 1. Even though it’s a robbery, it’s worth it.

Groom — sells, treats and buys horses, no more, no less.

It was necessary to manage and crash the last helicopter in the kingdom!

But I’m unlikely to be wrong if I say that we fight our way through crowds of enemies not for the delightful stories of peasants digging in manure, but for the sake of a huge number of swords, pistols, shields, armor and other equipment. And the main criterion by which you will select items for yourself is their quality and the bonuses you need. The quality ladder starts with white things that are more standard than GOST standards. Next come magical things, the names of which are blue. They give weak bonuses to your stats. Rare items whose names are yellow look more interesting; in addition to characteristics for bonuses, they provide one or more unique enhancements. They are followed by green ones – set items. Not only do they themselves provide very tasty and interesting bonuses, but they can also be used to assemble one of many sets. Sets, as usual, provide boosts for several items from the same set worn together. There are 47 sets in total. There are 7 for each character, except for the demon and gnome for which there are 5. Plus 7 more sets, which, in principle, can be worn by any character when choosing and leveling up certain skills to the required threshold.
There are also unique things that are quite rare, but the bonuses are often very interesting. What is the cost of just a ring that allows you to attack peaceful animals, for example. The color of their name is gold, or brown, depending on what angle you look at it from.

What else is worth saying about things is that they may have holes for inserting various useful reinforcements. When you play, you will realize that these holes are painted in different colors and this must mean something. What this means is that the holes are steep what does it sound like! will give bonuses when forged to fixed bonus values. Silver ones will give a 5-6% bonus, gold ones 10-12%, and if you are lucky enough to come across such a rarity as green holes, then in addition to the joy of a collector, you can feel the joy of a 15% bonus to forging.

Beauty is a terrible force.

Don’t forget about multiplayer. And if the official Askaron servers have long since fallen into deep sleep, the fan servers are alive, and no one will take away the opportunity to unite via a local network from you. The modes in which this can be done are as follows: cooperative playthrough of the campaign in a group of up to 4 people and free play in which you can do whatever you want. Maximum number of players – 16, maximum group size – 4 people. There is also a duel mode – the same free mode with the possibility of PVP.

The music for the game was composed by the duo of German composers Dag Winderlich and Matthias Steinwachs. They succeeded in maintaining the style and emphasizing the atmosphere of different regions of the magical world, and a couple of compositions may even deserve a more intimate listening.

The Germans created a far from perfect game. But she has enough charm and beauty that, at least for one run, will capture the player and drag him through the dark forests, wide deserts and green meadows of the magical world of Ancaria. The game has a lot of problems – a large number of repeating models, not always adequate animations, very rarely, but impossible quests. The fixed map, although huge, does not benefit repeat playthroughs. And yet, Sacred was and remains a commendable game in its genre, with a lot of interesting mechanics, pleasant style and a lot of references.