Preview Sacred insights at IGN

[Saint_Proverbius]

Tags: Ascaron Entertainment; Sacred

<A href="http://pc.ign.com/">PC.IGN</a> has posted a <A href="http://pc.ign.com/articles/462/462850p1.html">preview</a> of <a href="http://www.ascaron.com/gb/gb_sacred/gb_sacred_frameset_ie.html">Sacred</a>, which is yet-another-action-CRPG that hopefully adds a few twists to the genre. Here's a bit on the classes:
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<blockquote>Also different from the usual action-RPG is the sheer breadth of character selection and the depth of character customization. You have a gladiator (barbarian-type character), a wood elf ranger, dark elf assassin/kung-fu fighter, seraphim (female paladin), and the Vampiress. By day, the Vampiress,is a weapon-oriented fighter character. By night, however, she transforms into a magic-oriented creature summoner who can dish some serious damage. She can summon swarms of bats and other animals that will remain until killed, and she can also turn enemies into vampires and make them fight on her side. Thematically, she operates as the opposite of the seraphim. </blockquote>
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Sounds.. uber.
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Spotted at: <A HREF="http://www.bluesnews.com">Blue's News</A>

 

[taks]

the screenshots are pretty hot... the chicks wear miniskirts, too. now all they need are thongs and i'm in.

i'll wait till reviews on this one, however. not much of an "action" rpg fan.

taks

 

[Voss]

Huh.
Reading the preview, I initially started thinking woo, another clone. But there is some interesting stuff in there.
Particularly the really non intrusive interface (its out of the way and not blocking 30% of the screen)
Interestingly, no pure spell caster character.
A boat load of quests (230!)
Combos can be fun...
Eh, horses (I know people gibber everytime a fantasy game gets announced about horses, and its rare that they're actually in something, but they really add so little)

And, for the writer of the preview:

It falls somewhere between Morrowind and Baldur's Gate in feel

What the hell does this mean? These two games are almost completly unrelated. Most of the entire fucking genre sits between MW & BG. FP vs Isometric. Party vs. Single, levels vs. endless training. tied to main story vs. completly open... Do I need to go on?
How about:
how close it is to diablo 2 (it looks very close, is that deceptive? Is there interaction with NPCs? Theres 230 quests, how do you get them?) Is it closer to Throne of Darkness? Or Revenant? (actiony, with combos and fairly blah)
Its not frantic mouse clicking? Then how do you do those combos?

 

[taks]

cmon now voss, reviewers wouldn't make the grade if they didn't compare it to SOMETHING they have to appeal to the fans, you know. marketing and all.

taks

 

[Otaku_Hanzo]

I've been watching this title for awhile now and I really am interested in giving it a go. I've been kinda partial to the monster designs since I viewed the first couple of screenshots that were released a couple of months back. Plus, I loved how some of the effects looked.

 

[Otaku_Hanzo]

And, for the writer of the preview:

It falls somewhere between Morrowind and Baldur's Gate in feel

What the hell does this mean? These two games are almost completly unrelated.

I think what he meant by this comparison was the skill/stat system. The skill system is like Morrowind in the fact that it has some open-endedness to it, but it's also like BG in the fact that certain skills go up automatically when you level based on what class you are playing.

 

[Rayt]

If it's real time then it looks to me like they're making a D2 clone with tons of quests. They're praising the custimisation you can do with each character, but D2 did this already (or Diablo 1 or Fallout and almost any other non-DnD rpg for that matter) and I don't see how this is earth shattering new. I guess they're comparing it to Morrowind for the (again) custimisation and maybe the exploring to find new quests (which you could also do Baldurs Gate and Fallout). Plus they stole the combo system from Blade and Sword so all I'm expecting is the same old stuff crammed into a new game.

Combat is also actually fun, instead of he usual torrent of frantic mouse-clicking. This is mostly because of the streamlined interface and the innovative attack combo system, in addition to just watching those nicely animated characters and shiny spells.Left clicking opens up a physical attack and right-clicking opens up a magical attack. The bottom-left of the screen lists the weapons at your disposal, and the bottom-right lists some spells. The buttons are large enough that you can concentrate on fighting instead of clicking on the right button.

Err, it's not going to be a frantic mouseclicking fest because it has large buttons?

But maybe it's going to be fun. A D2 clickfest with absurd sidequest quantities like in BG2. Could be worse.

 

[Diogo Ribeiro]

Combat is also actually fun, instead of he usual torrent of frantic mouse-clicking. This is mostly because of the streamlined interface and the innovative attack combo system, in addition to just watching those nicely animated characters and shiny spells.

So, we don't have to click as much because it has shiny graphics. Great.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

Streamlining often means automation from what I've seen, so I'm fairly leery of this title. We'll see, though. It's different enough to make me curious.

 

[Sol Invictus]

If the combo attacks are interesting enough it won't seem like a dull game. You can get fairly bored of the clickfest in the original Diablo. Diablo 2 isn't so bad because all you have to do is keep your finger on the trigger during attacks, or if you're a spell caster you can let the spells take care of the business by dealing mass damage.