Review Sacred regurgitated by Gamespy

[Whipporowill]

Tags: Ascaron Entertainment; Sacred

In the worst <a href="http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/sacred/504519p1.html" target=_blank>review</a> yet of Ascaron's Sacred, <a href="http://www.gamespy.com" target=_blank>Gamespy</a> serves up the punishment and "awards" the game with a meager <b>2/5</b> stars. It's a short and uninspired affair, mostly mentioning some general gameplay and bug issues, such as this:
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Other than quest bugs, one of Sacred's most annoying problems is that the controls don't respond all the time. Sometimes you'll try to attack, but your character will just stand there, for reasons you can't determine. Other times, your combat arts just won't work, even when you've gotten them to work in the past. The game also seems to occasionally lose the last move of a combo chain after you've exited the game and restarted.
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Having played the game for quite some time, I'd agree that it's somewhat buggy - but it sure as hell didn't reserve that infitesmal score.

 

[chrisbeddoes]

Agreed .

2.5 stars out of 5 would be more fair.

Ot even 3 stars.

But no more.

 

[Whipporowill]

I'd say at least 3 stars, compared to what kind of games get 3 or even 4 stars. I was more bugged by the review not going into detail on the different classes and combat arts. I'd say the review was a lot more shallow than the game... good work!

 

[chrisbeddoes]

Lol . They gave 65 % to Lionheart

http://archive.gamespy.com/reviews/augu ... onheartpc/


4 stars to TOEE

http://archive.gamespy.com/reviews/september03/toeepc/

And 74 % to the hmmm ... masterpiece named Daikatana

http://archive.gamespy.com/legacy/revie ... ana_c.shtm


So 3/5 stars to Sacred is surely fairer.

 

[jimkirk]

and since when is gamespy the know it all about games .. i make my own decision .. i played the demo and i got hooked .. is the game perfect no no games are

many so called A list games have lots more bugs .. ive heard of some games even currupting your drive (i cant remember the name)

 

[Whipporowill]

.. ive heard of some games even currupting your drive (i cant remember the name)

I can. Pool of Radiance 2.

 

[Seven]

.. ive heard of some games even currupting your drive (i cant remember the name)

I can. Pool of Radiance 2.

LOL, BTW, Sacred was shit compared to the demo, nuff said.

 

[Whipporowill]

Well... let's say it's like a small man in a big suit, shall we? Game is good and there's plenty of stuff, but it's not enough for such a huge world... it's a bit... watered down.

 

[DarkUnderlord]

Build it up with silver and gold,
Silver and gold, silver and gold,
Build it up with silver and gold,
My fair lady.

 

[Anonymous]

The character art is terrible. I never understood how males who wear full plate mail and use a sword and shield always have a bunch of battlescars but women in their pajamas or whatever using dual-longswords never have anything bigger than a scratch, in fantasy games.

 

[Psilon]

It's a concept known as "bulletproof nudity." For (attractive) female characters, exposed skin has the same armor class as the scrap of clothing they're wearing.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

Lol . They gave 65 % to Lionheart

http://archive.gamespy.com/reviews/augu ... onheartpc/

Vivendi and Interplay, fairly big names in the industry that hand out lots of goodies and do exclusive stuff.

4 stars to TOEE

http://archive.gamespy.com/reviews/september03/toeepc/

Atari, same deal.

And 74 % to the hmmm ... masterpiece named Daikatana

http://archive.gamespy.com/legacy/revie ... ana_c.shtm

EIDOS + JOHN ROMERO = YAY!

So 3/5 stars to Sacred is surely fairer.

Encore likes to hand stuff out.. They wanted me to do two contests so far, so I could pimp two of their games I was interested in(but note the lack of Spellforce pimpage at all on this site, even though they published that and most places are calling it an RPG - I declined on it because something about RTS/RPG hybrids just pisses me off). However, they're a small time publisher that just started up, and they don't really publish anything that big yet. GameSpy doesn't really have to go all the way down on their knees yet for Encore.

 

[jimkirk]

what i want to see in a review is 1)does the game work or is it buggy? 2)is it boring or does it catch you 3) will it take a zillion years to figure out how to play 4)is it so hard that u keep dying therefore removingf any shred of intrest in the game what i am not intrested ina review is someone personal reasons why a game is good or bad

in my humble opinion (for what its worth) sacred to me is kinda enjoyable its not perfect no game is there probably is some bugs in it still but so far none of the bugs prevent me from playing 1 exception tho when i finished a few quest i didnt get the reward i was supposed to get this bug only happened after d/l the 1.5 patch


from all the games thats out there .. the 1 game that caught my attention and hooked me the most was total annihilation of course it was a little buggy but it sure was fun to play and still is

 

[Malak]

However, they're a small time publisher that just started up, and they don't really publish anything that big yet.

I don't know if you knew this bud, but the version of Sacred released by Encore came with:

B&W Manual
Paper cd holders
AOL disc

Sounds to me like Encore is more worried about saving costs than putting an effort into their job. Atari's versions in Europe came with a colored manual, map, DVD case, and no aol disc.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

Yeah, I know. I bought the thing shortly after I moved. Encore kind of screwed the pooch on this release in a number of areas like the ones you mentioned, and the lack of gore is one of them IMHO.

I would love to know where Timberton is, and I'm pretty sure the map that comes with the European version has that kind of thing on it. The lack of the color in the manual is somewhat acceptable but still detracts from the overall package. Paper sleeves though, those really, really piss me off. The AOL CD is the icing on the cake.

About the gore thing, though.. I play zoomed all the way out, and when you're fighting undead like skeletons, it's nearly impossible to tell when you've actually killed one in some circumstances because all it does is display a little gray puff of smoke when they go. If you're fighting a group of them, it's hard as hell to see that puff. When it's night time, it's pretty hard to see that puff as well. With gore, that isn't a problem because you see the bones flying everywhere.

 

[Vault Dweller]

I don't know if you knew this bud, but the version of Sacred released by Encore came with:

B&W Manual
Paper cd holders
AOL disc

Atari's versions in Europe came with a colored manual, map, DVD case, and no aol disc.

This is an outrage! Once again European players are screwed, but we're here to help. Claim your bonus content here!

 

[Malak]

lol

 

[undead dolphin hacker]

Encore = liquid shit. Cheap, censor-tastic (they removed gore from the US version, even though you can warez-hack it back in), and reeking of low quality, amateurish production (intrusive copy protection, anyone?)

Sacred's pretty cool, though. It needs about two more huge bug patches then three more game balance patches after that, then it'd be an A-list game. It's addictive while you're playing it, I'll give it that, but in my case, once I put it down I had trouble picking it back up due to the glaring issues with the game... I guess I'm waiting on a patch before continuing. But I'm still waiting on a patch for TOEE too, so...

 

[Voss]

Saint,
Timberton is West of Crow's Rock Castle- off in the woods. Northwest of Faerie's Landing. Fairly dangerous area (depending on when you get there, of course). Bears, flying lizard flappy things, assorted bandits, orcs & ogres to the northwest of it.

By the same token, where is the portal gate for the Fields of Uruk? I feel like I should have found it by now, but never have.

 

[Malak]

You know I can only think of 2 bugs that need fixing that actually affect me.

I did report a bug today for the first time, a bug no one had reported. Nothing serious, just some monsters that didn't have a name. Found them on the way to my first dragon.

 

[jimkirk]

the portal to urkuk is a little southwest of wyvern pass yuo will see a sulphur and grey type of earth where fire trolls and other chaos type monsters are just south of that .. its actually where u need to go to recover 1 of the 4 element for shareefa whatever her name is

 

[chrisbeddoes]

Since we are talking about AOL


from
http://www.fuckedcompany.com/

Finally, clever use for MS email virus
Somebody at AOL released an email virus informing employees that they're getting raises, and that they just have to fill out the attached application (which, of course when opened, propegates the virus). Here's the bogus email received by hundreds of AOL employees. Brilliant!

http://www.internalmemos.com:8080/memos ... mo_id=2233

From the fake e-mail

As of today we are sending this letter out to inform each and every one of
you that we have agreed that you need a bigger paycheck! Due to the time
that you have been working with the company and your work, we have audited
and reviewed your status and are offering up to a 26.75% bonus on your
paychecks to come.

In conjunction with our notice, we have also attatched the application that
will need to be turned in via E-mail to obtain your payroll changes.

When: 4/9/2004
Company: AOL
Severity: 10
Points: 90

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Now thats fucking hilarious!