Sacrifice

Rating:
Summary: An astounding masterpiece
Review: This is, quite simply, one incredible game. It combines a unique control system which puts you right in the middle of the action, yet retains traditional RTS characteristics. Instead of the usual 'build your base, build your troops, charge at the enemy' routine that has become the mantra of the RTS genre, Sacrifice offers a continuous thrill ride that won't let you down. Think of it as a combination of Diablo, Warcraft, and Quake all in one (the last for the graphics). The command is from a detached first-person perspective that essentially casts you as a field commander- not some omniscient satellite being looking down from the sky. The sides are very well balanced both spellwise and in units, and each side is distinct enough that you'll want to change often. On the graphics end, it is visually stunning, and one of the best games for eye candy you'll find anywhere. Perhaps the best part of Sacrifice is its excellent interface, which you will quickly become accustomed to and is highly intuitive. The game's mechanics are excellent, which is commendable for a 3-d RTS. In particular, the path finding and spell casting works flawlessly, and is obviously the result of a great deal of dedication. Sac won't pull a 'Force Commander' on you, and is incredibly addictive. Definitely worth checking out.

Rating:
Summary: Great, but not perfect
Review: This game is great. It breaks the mold of normal RTS games - you are on the battlefield rather than just watching. Also, it's not a two-hour buildup and a five minute fight - since you can only get souls from other people after the initial grabs are taken, you have to skirmish a lot.

The graphics are wonderful - lots of explosions and other nice effects, like with lightning sparks.

On the other hand, it has a couple problems. A game tends to turn into a landslide easily with the first skirmish - since your opponent takes your souls, you have less to fight his army that just got bigger. All in all, though, this game is quite good, and 4/5 is a pretty good estimate of it.

Buy this game if you're a fan of Starcraft or C&C but don't like the "build lots of structures and train troops for a while, then one big fight and it's all over" cliche.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I spent some time with this game and had some very definite reactions to it.

First the good:

The graphics are fantastic. It's not often that you find a game nowadays that follows the first- or third-person perspective that's not set in a dark, dank dungeon or citadel someplace that you don't have to see further than the next stone-lined chamber. Sacrifice is not one of those. You get to run around outside and see the rolling green hills, bright sun and blue sky. The game engine is extremely well done with smooth scrolling, fast framrates and snappy performance. The graphics design is also just as good, with interesting characters and maps. Special effects are pretty impressive and the engine is capable of doing massive real-time geomtry deformations quite well. Which means in English: when you hurl a powerful spell and leave a crater, the crater is really a hole in the ground instead of a texture map of a crater! You get to interact with more than just the other creatures and characters in the world - you actually get to interact with the world itself.

But now the bad:

Notice I didn't mention anything about gameplay in the "good" section. With everything this game *could* have been, it wasn't very much at all. It's a lot of glitter with little substance.

I'm not sure what type of game genre I'd classify Sacrifice; somewhere in between real-time strategy and action/adventure. However neither aspect of game play is strong enough to pull the game through as anything more than mediocre. The storyline is long and drawn-out and tends to interrupt actual gameplay entirely too frequently, but is too linear to be taken as anything terribly interesting in terms of role-playing. On the other hand, the action is interesting, but tends to be in terms of long periods of running around between checkpoints seperated by brief, intense periods of purely finger-twitch fighting and spellcasting in which I found myself dying an awful lot of times only to have to start the mission over again.

For as difficult as I found it to win, the combat scheme is extremely simplistic. You have basically three creature types, each of which is capable of one type of attack: hand-to-hand, ranged ground-to-air, and ranged air-to-ground. That means to defeat "hand-to-hand" creature types, deploy your "air-to-ground" creature types, and so on. It's kind of like rock-paper-scissors with better graphics, and not too much fun. (Well, ok, rock-paper-scissors where each side of the game can also throw spells, which is why it's any fun at all. And the other side always seemed to have more powerful spells than I did...)

As the main character of the game, you are given the choice of being a representative of one of five gods, each with powers over a different element of the realm, however the spells you learn and creatures/henchmen you gain by choosing one or another god really aren't very differentiated - essentially being the same powers with different special effects attached, and same creatures with different texture maps.

There are interesting aspects of the game, but after spending about four hours playing it in the first sitting, I haven't picked it up again since.

If you want an interesting first- or third-person action/adventure in the same genre, Giants: Citizen Kabuto is much more enjoyable, and if you just want to be a God, then Black & White is worlds and universes more engrossing and fun.

Rating:
Summary: I really dont actually like this game
Review: The truth is i really dont actually like this game, but i had to give it 4 stars because the story, graphics, and sound are amazing. im not that much of a real time strategy guy, i think that is the main reason i did not like this game, but i recomend it to ne one who likes those kind of games

Rating:
Summary: Way Overrated
Review: This game is way overrated. It gets boring in a hurry in single and multi play. The community is ugly and customer support is just short of arrogant fascism.

Rating:
Summary: This game sure does shine
Review: Shiny Ent. are by far my favourite games developers. I like their twisted imagination, original gameplay, unique characters and dazzling graphics. "Sacrifice" succeeds in all of this. The storyline goes as follows: you play a wizard that can choose allegiance between five quarelling gods, and then has to rage war against the othe gods (during the game you can switch deity just about as much as you want to).

So basically it's a real-time strategy game with a twist. The twist being that you're no longer an overseeing general commanding your troops from a bird perspective, but you have now become a wizard who's present on the battlefield. You still get to command your units around, but you also get to cast nice little spells and such (but you can also get attacked just like your units can).

The graphics are stunning. The worlds are huge. The characters are highly imaginative. So what's the let down? The gameplay might be a little confusing. You often feel you loose control of your units and it's not always easy to give specific commands to specific units, when they're all tossing and turning around each other. The game is also quite heavy on the requirements. But luckily, you can tune the graphics down just about as much as you want, so most new PCs should be able to play the game smoothly on a given level.

Rating:
Summary: Exciting, immersive, overwhelming . . . outstanding!
Review: At a time when I'm sick of just about every type of game out there (especially 1st-person shooters . . . ugh), comes Sacrifice. I'm not even a fan of the Real Time Strategy genre. More often than not, I'm turned off by losing focus because of haing to keep up with WAY too many variables. Sacrifice is so different, and has really changed my mind.

The deep, inventive gameplay, massive control, excellent graphics and voicework make this one a real winner. Shiny has again come up with a truly original idea. It's a real system hog, though, so be warned. I'd take the minimum requirements with a grain of salt, and make sure you have plenty of RAM and a doozy of a graphics card in order to truly enjoy the game. I give it 4 stars only because it does run a bit funky (freezing and other glitches) on systems that aren't up to spec. Be sure to get the most recent patch, too.

So, if you enjoy controlling hordes of flying demons and bloodthirsty ground troops, running pell mell all over crazy landscapes and destroying everything in sight, then Sacrifice is for you. It's so much more than that, but I'll spare you the details. Dying over and over and learning from my strategic mistakes has never been this fun!

Tired of computer games? This one just might renew your interest...

Rating:
Summary: You'll sacrifice sleep to sacrifice a few monsters!
Review: I love this game. It has to be "the best" RTS game on the market right now. The 3D graphics are stellar, the gameplay doesn't skip a beat, and the storyline is clear and well-written. You'll never get bored while doing the various tasks of whichever God you choose to work for. And with an endless amount of possible endings, the replay value is a definite 10.

Rating:
Summary: Pretty Good
Review: This game has excellent graphics no matter what anyone says. Altough it is kind of hard in the begining. The only bad part it is the stupid bat that always tells you obvious tips and just flat out stupid stuff. One cool feature it has is youf can make your own levels for multiplayer. But multiplayer is confusing when trying to get into a game. The short version(out of 5): Graphics: 4.8 Sound: 4.0 Control: 4.6 Fun Factor: 4.0 Total: 4.35

Rating:
Summary: Can a Game get any BETTER?!?!?!?
Review: In my entire gaming experince I have never seen a game with such outstanding graphics, unique gameplay, enticing story line, and a great sense of HUMOR! This game is a sure thing! It will make you laugh and make you just sit in awe at the graphics while your forces are being decimated. This game is a RTS in the fullest. You have five unquie forces to control which is awesome. A major enticing tool of the game is allowing to switch alliances in the game to get creatures and spells from any god that you worship!! SACRIFICE IS A MUST BUY!!!!!