Beta Preview: Sacred 3
Sacred 3 releases in August and we managed to have a sit down with how the game is shaping up to be in the current beta phase. Please bear in mind everything that I talk about in this preview is during a beta phase and may not reflect on the final release of the game. Sacred 3 is being published by Deep Silver as per the other Sacred instalments, but this time the developer is Keen Games as Ascaron was dissolved in 2009.
While the game is still in beta, you can still get a decent grip on how the game is going to eventually pan out and I must say that off the bat I was slightly disappointed. No one was expecting it to follow suit of Sacred 2 as the developers have changed hands, and they had shown footage and details about the game previously, but Sacred 3 falls a bit away from the previous games in the series. If you were expecting it to be anything like or similar to Sacred 2, then you will be extremely disappointed.
First of all the game is clearly console optimised, I mean, the beta doesn’t even have keyboard and mouse support so I guess that’s a large sign of the console preference already. Though this is not necessarily a bad thing, you can possibly understand what I am talking about if I get this out into the open before talking about the mechanics and how the game plays. You have the choice of 4 characters to play, unless you pre-order the game and then you get a fifth. There is no customisation of character appearance, you have a pre-set character for the class that you have chosen and then you’re off into the game.
The cutscenes in the game are done with a digitally drawn art style and minimally animated. Considering there is a cutscene every couple of missions to further the storyline, it works very well to have it minimalistic so it doesn’t detract from the storyline. However, the dialogue in the cutscenes and throughout the game is kind of awkward at times and really sets it aside in the series from its RPG predecessors and not in the good way either. It feels like the game is trying too hard to be funny and just falling completely off the mark half the time.
One of the new additions to the game are Weapon Spirits which are probably what you imagine – spirits that enhance your weapon. Each of the Spirits has a personality and a unique ability to bring to the fight. I primarily used the Battlemage who makes a chain of lightning on occasion when you attack; he seemed like the most useful one and is also the first one you come across. However, to accentuate my point about the dialogue being awkward, the Battlemage constantly makes sexual innuendo and not in a subtle double entendre way.
As example, through various times during combat he will shout “Threesome” and also “I will still respect you in the morning” and “I want to go deep inside your keep. I don’t really mean keep.” I am not sure what kind of audience they are looking to attract which this humour, but it doesn’t fit in with the action RPG that Sacred is known for and it is a little embarrassing. Spirit Weapons as the customisable weapon addition is a great idea in itself regardless of the awkward dialogue with others bringing in benefits like extra health from health orbs.
Loot in the game is very disappointing as you don’t seem to get any loot from killing bosses or opening chests, regardless of how easy the level was or not. The only loot I have received during the game was a sword which I have no idea how I got, possibly from the amount of kills. Armour-wise you have to purchase and you unlock new upgrades as you level up. You can get unlocks from mini-missions that you have between levels, such as potions or extra slots for the amount of potions you can have.
Combat is very basic and I found that I was just button-mashing the same button most of the time. You get your main attack, a bash to interrupt and break shields, a dodge or a block (but not both), two special moves and that’s about it. It’s very simple and not really much needs to be done. The bash is used for mobs that have shields, or used to interrupt abilities which are signalled by an icon over their heads. I primarily played as Paladin which is a melee class, but I also played the Ranger for a little while to get a feel of the ranged play.
Melee combat seems to be a lot easier from what I have experienced so far with the interrupting and shield breaking of mobs to be a lot easier, you can charge up your bash to get more distance, but that obviously takes up some time that you could be using to DPS mobs. Regardless, the combat I experienced was very repetitive and the lack of being able to use both a block and a dodge is annoying.
Sacred is no longer “open-world” but singular missions that you select on a world map that you jump into, complete some objectives and leave. It’s a pretty disappointing change from the previous games where you had some exploration to do throughout the game instead of being dumped into some linear level narrated by an annoying character who likes to come out with some more embarrassing dialogue – “Now, obliterate … Yeah, I use words like obliterate” (Potential spoiler in the quote left out). It does make for some quick play time though if you would like to just jump into some gameplay for a short span of time.
Co-op is pretty much the same as singleplayer; I didn’t notice any difference when jumping into a 2 player game. Local co-op is one screen with no split screen for multiplayer and only supports 2 players, but online co-op will support up to 4 players. The distance that your characters can be apart during local co-op can seem very restricted, especially during boss fights when you need to move around a lot.
Aesthetically, the game clearly had a decent budget with the graphics being appealing and the soundtrack being well made. The camera is a top down in which you can have 3 different distance settings depending on your preference, yet at points to emphasise the story the game will change it to a side on view so that you can see the backdrops. There are a couple of bugs such as patches of fire that just sit in the same spot on the screen regardless of you moving, but I imagine things such as these would be fixed for the final build.
Overall, the game isn’t something I would be happy to call the third instalment of the Sacred franchise, but it could be something should you want to just have a chilled out brainless gaming session. I am not a massive fan of the game as it didn’t strike me as particularly unique nor did it bring anything to the RPG genre that you couldn’t find better done elsewhere. However, I will wait it out for the release and then make my judgements when the game has been completed. My first impressions lead me to believe that they are aiming the game at a more casual audience that doesn’t have a lot of time or doesn’t want to invest much into a game in one sitting, as it’s perfect for just picking up the controller and playing for twenty minutes.
Sacred 3 will release on the 1st August in Europe for the Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC, so keep a lookout for our review coming soon.