Rating: 
Summary: Diablo III anyone?
Review: I'll make this real simple, anyone longing for a Diablo III will love this game. It has the great gameplay action and skill building of Diablo II along with a seemingly endless amount of quests to add some interest to all the hacking & slashing. Another thing, the gameworld is HUGE. The game includes a meter that measures the percentage of the world you've explored and so far I've played 20 hours and have only explored 6%, although I must admit I am a plower from the older Might & Magic games.
Rating:
Summary: A really classy RPG!
Review: I'm relatively new to gaming, but this gaming experience is definitely superior to Baldur's Gate and Diablo 2. The beautiful graphics and ability to zoom in and out are amazing. Character appearance actually reflects the different styles of armor/weapons with which they're equipped. Great sounds and music. I powered through the game with a Wood Elf and have started with a Vampiress (lots of replay value to this game). Character leveling is smooth and predictable. Once you learn how to "run" your character, battles are pretty straightforward. Controls are easy to learn. Maybe not "true" to hard core RPG rules, but I really enjoyed the quick save option, large capacity backpack and storage chest, and no penalties for resurrection when you "die." I also liked the compass system which helps you locate your objectives and eliminates any need for walkthroughs. Much variety and many quest options. Game is very demanding of computer hardware, so I had occassional problems with freezing and rebooting that were resolved when I updated my Radeon drivers. Highly addictive and fun to play!
Rating: 
Summary: Please pay $40 to beta-test this terrible game.
Review: I've had this game for an hour, and it has crashed 5 times. The first three times took my PC down completely. The PC itself is a nice AMD 2500+ with a Radeon 9800 PRO, 1GB dual-channel RAM, and it runs today's high-end games like FarCry and UT2004 without a hitch. Obviously the fault lies in Encore Software's shoddy coding. After I lowered the game's video settings to their lowest level, I was unfortunately able to play the game. The gameplay is straight out of 1997, with an inventory and fight system that is clunky and hard to use. The graphics were very poor even for compatibility mode, and the voice acting was dull. Sacred is marketed as being 'like Diablo'. This is an incomplete statement. The game is 'like Diablo,' only if one removed all of the fun, enjoyment, and excitement from the game. Actually, that's unfair. I suppose there is a certain amount of excitement in waiting to see if your computer will crash 'this time'. The developer's website doesn't seem to have patches linked, but I was able to find the 1.66 patch via Google search. This patch fixed some multiplayer issues, but did nothing to improve the stability of the game. I'm very tired of having to pay to beta-test poor software. I took this game back within 2 hours of buying it, and will steer clear of all other Encore products -- though if they last long enough to produce anything else I will be suprised.
Rating: 
Summary: A good game, but not excellent.
Review: I've only been playing a few days, but Sacred is a very enjoyable and entertaining game. It definitely has a few quirks. I'm playing now as a Wood Elf, but will definitely play a second time as the Vampire. The graphics are fantastic and cutting edge. You can't compare it to older, similiar games, because the technology improves so quickly. Baldur's Gate was state-of-the-art at its time, too. Sacred's zoom feature (roll the center mouse ball) allows you to get a close-up look at people, landscape, etc. without loosing pixels. The game is very fluid in motion, no jerking about, but the AI can be a little flaky. NPCs tend to disappear or get stuck in the corner of a room, or take off running down a dead-end. I've learned to just keep moving and they catch up to you. Also, you have no control over their fighting. You can give them a better weapon (which they'll return), but you can't give them any armor. Those you need for a quest will resurrect if they die, otherwise they're gone. The hack and slash is the same as Diablo, except Diablo has a better representation of how much damage your doing. In Sacred, it's sometimes hard to tell which bad guy you're hitting. Monsters don't have any real stats on them, just a couple symbols when you cursor over them that I haven't figured out what they mean. This is probably my largest disappointment. Similarly, roaming townspeople have weird symbols over their heads that depict what they're doing (Alt key), walking, merchants, friendly, etc., but the book doesn't show you what they mean. And when you figure it out, it's generally pointless and not entirely accurate. There are lots of places to hunt for stuff and even at the first few levels, you'll find some great armor and weapons and plenty to sell. Maybe too much. By level 9, I had so much money, I could buy anything. Which is fine, but not terribly challenging. You also get the ability to add enhancements to your weapon, like the little chips you got in Diablo. Except that you have to go to a blacksmith to have it done. I don't believe you can do this on your own (again, I'm not through with the game). The tab key brings up a see-through, overview of the map area you're in, but Sacred's version (Diablo had a much better one) doesn't give a clear point as to where an area stops. I found myself going back to places I'd already been because I thought I missed something. Diablo delineates an area with a red, glowing line which is helpful, and shows doorways. Sacred's see-through is a little confusing. The overview world map is kind of nifty, though. Run your mouse over a symbol and left click to a zoomed image of the area. Also helps with locating quests. You can buy a horse which is different and fun. If they disappear, you can call them back. They also take damage in combat so I keep them away. You can shoot arrows from horseback, but can't use certain skills unless you dismount. That's a little tricky too. Not impossible, just not real fluid. More handy when traveling alone as you can't buy one for your companion. All in all, it's neat, but not real practical. Finding how to fufill quests is very easy. In this respect, beginning gamers would really enjoy the game. Experienced gamers might find it less challenging. (Maybe the Bronze/Silver selection relates to difficulty?) Once you're given a duty, there's various maps you can view to see exactly where to go. I like the log book feature which clearly details your quests along with hints and other info. The enclosed book is the same you get with any other game. Just the basics, but helpful to learn how to shoot, use magic and various playing tips. However, I found that keeping track of everything in battle, your life, switching weapons, using magic is a little awkward and easier to understand by an experienced gamer. Diablo and Baldur's Gate were more fluid and easier to find. For instance, trying to heal an NPC during battle was tedious. Maybe there's an easy way, but I haven't found it. I think in Diablo (it's been awhile!) you can press 1,2,3,4 as like a quick key. In Sacred, quick keys are the letters, so while you're shooting you have to hunt for letters. Doing that, while pressing Ctrl to keep your character from running all over the battlefield, hitting space bar to drink a health potion, it's just a little much. Obviously, I haven't had any problems running the game, but that doesn't mean others didn't. Make sure you have the right system requirements (the game is only somewhat high-end in that regard) and your video drivers are updated. Also, if it's unloading, check how your memory is being allocated. My husband darn near took his whole system apart because the game kept dumping, until he saw all the stuff eating up his RAM. I did get some weird bugs, like an occasional jumping screen and I lost the pointer once. It also unloaded once when I found a quest object before getting the quest, but when I reloaded it was fine. There is a patch that fixes "minor bugs", but I couldn't find it on Encore's site. You can get it at "downloads-zdnet.com" or at Game Spot (which gives the game an 8.6 out of 10, btw) or via Goggle. All in all, Encore did a great job at a fun game.
Rating:
Summary: If the copy you have does not work, exchange it for another
Review: If the copy you have does not work, exchange it for another. thats what I did. and the copy I got, works fine. If you like diablo, you'll love this game. it is more enhanced and much better at least in terms of gameplay and graphics.
Rating: 
Summary: Good try but wait til they get more bugs out
Review: If you liked Diablo or Dungeon Siege, you ought to like this game BUT... On my Windows 2000 system even with the latest patch and updated drivers (and on all other versions of Windows according to other reviewers) it bombs out the system after 5-20 minutes of play -- first slowing down to a crawl and often ending with a Blue Screen of Death. There are a few uncompleteable side quests, repetitive go-fetch main quests, and a final act and endgame that are over in three minutes with no challenge. Generally good playability -- mostly hack and slash so the different character type abilities make little difference. And that leads to limited replayability interest. Riding horses is potentially a good idea but fighting on horseback is limited and you can't outrun swarming enemies even when riding. But it's better than nothing while waiting (perhaps forever) for a new Diablo follow on.
Rating:
Summary: Sacred - Worth every penny and then some.
Review: It may have been buggy at release, but the 1.5 update, which I applied before I started playing, seems to have fixed everything for my machine. I've been playing almost non-stop for 2 and a half days and not a single glitch that I can find. Diablo II fans should rejoice at this truly excellent game. Better graphics, a map that is bigger than you can possibly imagine, simple controls, a little bit of innovation (combo moves, Saraphim and Vampiress characters, special abilities, etc.) good story, diverse adversaries, good music, and a whole lot of fun. I discovered this game by accident on-line, and had a hard time finding a copy near me, but the effort (of driving to a GameStop in downtown Boston) was worth it in the extreme. Go buy this game immediately if you have any love at all for Diablo II style gaming.
Rating:
Summary: Almost perfect
Review: It's a wonderful game, but the prolific amount of bugs found in the game play cost it that final star. Overall, if you like rigid storylines with A+B+C plot sequences, this may not be the best of games for you. However, that lack of structure is also what makes the game so unique. You have the freedom to move about an immersive world that maintains a fresh feel even when you aren't working on the main quest. Sub quests are neither easy, lame, nor hackneyed, making it all feel like more an experience to play than a just another game. Overall, it's almost perfect.
Rating:
Summary: Wow i like it
Review: Its very good and satisfying rpg because it plays a lot like diablo2 but its better because of graphics and slightly diferent in gameplay but basicly go around and hack everyone down which is fun. Combos and skills look awesome when you use them gracefuly kill your enemys. Magic is pretty to everything is visble like the kind of armor you are wearing you can tell it looks just like the picture of the armor itself. PLenty of cool special unique itmes and ENOURMOS WORLD ride a horse if you want! But i still dont realy consider this game D3, it is more like ARCANUM if you have heard of, nice rpg to. Its like a hybrid of Arcanum and diablo, mostly diablo though.
Enjoy a great rpg with good variety of things to do i doubt youwill get bored in the next few month.
Rating:
Summary: Good game get the patches
Review: Like the previous reviewer says it has a lot of bugs but if you get the patch at the sacred site online it'll be one of the best games you ever play. Once got the patch and ran it I had no problems whatsoever.
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