Sacred 3 Reviews
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.
While Sacred 3 isn't a broken mess, there are few redeeming qualities to be found. Linear levels, repetitive enemies, meaningless progression, and insulting voice acting add up to a dreary mechanical exercise. There are far better options for action RPGs than Sacred 3.
Deeper combat and customization could have gone a long way in making Sacred 3 a great game. Instead, it's a game with a lot to do, with little reason to do it.
Sacred edges away from the RPG, but sadly in doing so edges away from fun also.
In the end, I don't think Sacred 3 knew what its own genre was. If it was self-aware that this was nothing more than a hack and slash dungeon crawler, it could have gone the extra mile and given it a refreshing arcade feel, like Dragon's Crown did. However, Sacred 3 thinks it's a serious ARPG, and as a serious ARPG it simply falls up short.
Sadly on the whole Sacred 3 does a lot more wrong than it does right. The spirit of a good game is in here somewhere, amid all the lumpen, hackneyed nonsense. The resounding consensus from fans of the series seems to be that this latest installment is a pale shadow of the previous games at best and an outright betrayal at worst, more River City Ransom than RPG. From this newcomer's perspective, Sacred 3 is a cheesy, flawed B-movie of an arcade brawler that you might get a few evenings' entertainment out of before consigning it to the very depths of your games pile, never to infirm. I mean, return.
If the sort of effort that went into the visual and audio design of Sacred 3, went into the story and the characters, this is a game that could have been a game of the year contender. Unfortunately, these two areas were not enough to save Sacred 3 from mediocrity.
Sacred 3 is a complete let down for fans of the franchise, departing from a formula that has somewhat worked in the past in the hope of attracting a wider audience. Instead of building on features, and borrowing some from games that pull off the action RPG genera to a tee, Sacred 3 is disjointed, boring and just downright bad.
If you're bored out of your mind and you need an RPG fast, well, then stay bored. You don't want to be even more bored. It's probably best to return to games like Diablo 3 and Divinity: Original Sin, both of which offer ten times the content and ten times the fun.
In the end, while fast paced and good for a fitting end to a bad day at work, Sacred 3's gameplay simply lacks everything that makes a great ARPG: Loot, leveling, questing, and a basic (and well-written) story.
Sacred 3 has the skeleton of a fun co-op hack 'n' slash experience, but it's marred by too much repetition, balance issues, and the worst comedy routine this side of Open Mic Night at the Middle of Nowhere Comedy Shack.
Tedium is at the heart of Sacred 3, a successor to the earlier games in the series in name only.
I have no doubt that some folk will dismiss Sacred 3 because it bears no resemblance to the previous core games in the series. But that's not why it should be avoided by most. It's simply not fun to play. The writing is abysmal, the combat is all sizzle and no steak, and, for a rather short game, it regurgitates a hell of a lot. It never rises above mediocrity, but often sinks below it.
Take no note of the name, it's not an RPG, it's a fairly mindless brawler, and a mediocre one at that.
If you can endure the game's sense of humour, there is fun to be had here with a few friends, for a while at least, but it's hard to shake the feeling that Sacred 3 is ultimately a derivative and tedious experience.
It’s an action RPG at its most basic, with little to make it worth recommending.
Nope. Just nope. Go elsewhere. Sacred 3 offers nothing worth seeing.
But instead it's the rusting chassis of an ARPG, after it's been stripped down for parts and left, abandoned in a disused yard, where it really ought to be forgotten.