Frankly, I'm not sure what the developers were thinking with Sacred 3. The gameplay, of course, screams Diablo III or Torchlight clone, but those games actually provided worlds you could really explore and discover. Also, people really enjoy them. I definitely had fonder memories playing each of them than Sacred 3, and they're not even in a genre I usually play. That should really say enough.
As it stands, it's just neat, which is not a winning endorsement for spending your money.
I can sense the heart in the project, but heart alone doesn't make a great game unfortunately.
I could go on, of course, but the main idea is that Goliath, for having an authentically fun concept is not that much fun itself, venturing into being frustrating and overly cynical. I often thought of other games I'd rather play, not because the experience was that bad but more because it felt like filler. Goliath itself is a task and a rather underwhelming one at that.
Overall, the experience of playing The Flame in The Flood is more frustrating than nerve-wracking. I get that survival games won't be easy, but their systems should feel balanced, not bullshit. And the nodal method of traveling down river can feel futile in its own way. There's a big, bad wolf between me and any desire to play this further.
In order to maintain perspective, and sometimes to provide relief, while reviewing a game, I usually play another one concurrently. Coincidentally, my go-to game during this period was a remake, specifically Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty, which was a from-the-ground-up redo of Abe's Oddysee. I understand it's completely different from Legend of Kay Anniversary and probably has a different audience entirely (in that is has one at all). But whereas New 'n' Tasty feels like a love letter to its origins, Legend of Kay feels confused and restricted by its source. I honestly feel that this game could've been actually re-made, brought into modern times, and been successful. As it is, though, it's just further fodder for the anti-remake resistance.