Sacred 3, for xbox 360

Rating: 6.3/10; Above average

Played: 2019

Not really recommended, especially for fans of the previous Sacred games. If you can get it free or cheap then it offers enough fun if you like action hack and slash; even more if played coop.

Sacred 3 is an isometric fixed camera action RPG that leans towards pure action because the RPG mechanics are heavily dumbed down. Unlike the 2 previous games, it is not a Diablo clone. In fact it has almost nothing in common with Sacred 1 and 2 other than the name of the world and that there are Seraphim.

The game features 4 characters each corresponding to an element (The Seraphim is air) and that more or less play the same. One guy is an archer but otherwise the gameplay is fairly straightforward hack and slash with combat arts being like magic spells or supers that are not meant to be used too much. You get a standard attack, a bash which can stun and disarm shields (otherwise enemies with shields are extremely difficult to deal with), a defense move which you can set as dodge or block (not both), execution to leap on a knocked down enemy for insta kills, 2 combat arts (which have separate mana) and a few consumable support items. There are 3 of 4 difficulty levels available at the start and I found playing on difficulty 3 solo right from the get go to be a perfectly balanced experience that required skillful play, alertness and judicious use of consumables while not being unforgiving of mistakes.

The controls are easy to learn and you can fully rebind them as you see fit. I did not really like that you could not use both dodge and block but it feeds into the coop nature of the game because blocking works better with one player tanking while others put on the hurt; dodge works better solo and with random players. The game has both local and online coop multiplayer and the game seems designed from the ground up to make the multiplayer experience seamless and enjoyable. The one thing notable though is that the game defaults to public every play session so anyone can join you, and having more than 1 player introduces voting for stage and increased countdown to start a stage.

Stages are separated into very short optional ones that improve your consumables (unlocking new ones, carry capacity and even the amount that is restored for free so you do not have to use the shop) and much longer story stages. The story stages are linear, sometimes having short alternate routes and optional dead ends with treasure. The levels are beautifully detailed and feature dialogue, banter and a variety of set piece mechanics that make the play far more complicated than simply killing everything. You will have to avoid damage from artillery or collapsing roofs, use proper timing to avoid traps (unfortunately some can 1 hit kill you; thankfully there is a generous checkpoint system), protect a thing from waves of enemies, interact with switches or throw bombs while dealing with infinite enemies, find items and keys and deal with mini bosses and level end bosses. The bosses can be quite challenging and went to the World of Warcraft school of design by having you not be in the glowing areas where the boss's attacks will soon be going. Easier said than done though with all the things going on in the heat of battle.

Progression in the game is drip fed slowly and does not have a lot to offer. Basic things like your armor have a simple linear upgrade path; other things are slightly more complex with "either or" choices that can change the way you play a bit (such as a choice between raw damage or larger area effect). These trees and new combat arts are unlocked at specific character levels and cost gold to upgrade. One great thing is you can undo spending with no penalty if you just want to try something, though I am not sure if you can undo entire trees for a kind of respec (I never needed to try). 2 specific weapons per class and several spirits are granted while playing. The spirits give a bonus in exchange for a penalty and level up seemingly randomly. All the various choices seem to be well balanced, though I did not look at 3 of the characters at all.

The game has a story which is noteworthy for how thin it is. It has just enough to give a reason for the characters to be going to the next level but not so much a reason for the player. Most of the dialogue is too busy trying to make irreverent fourth wall breaking jokes to give any kind of interesting story experience. Though to be fair, a FEW of the jokes were worth a chuckle. I was slightly impressed at just how much dialogue there was, particularly the fully voiced comments from every single spirit at scripted points throughout each level.

Sacred 3 gets a bad rap because of its name. The reality is that it is a spinoff title that has very little to do with the Sacred franchise and should never have been called “3”. It changes from the Diablo clone style of its predecessors to a simpler and more coop friendly Gauntlet style and it does this quite well. For a cheap short lower budget arcade title, the game is actually well made and reasonably enjoyable, but the voice acting was a huge waste of resources given the quality of the writing they had to work with. I did not play the DLC.