Let’s decide right away: authors Sacred 3 They never promised to make a canonical continuation of the eminent German Action/RPG. On the page of the game in Steam black and white (more precisely, on the contrary) it is written: “This is an action-arcade for four players. Choose your heroes and fight together against the rebellious evil “. Therefore, hear and read numerous angry reviews in the spirit of “They deceived us!»Somewhat strange. Another thing is that setting a serial number in the name of a new project is not entirely correct. It would be better to call him Sacred: Heroes of Ancaria.
The third extra?
First Sacred, Seeing the light in 2004 made a real splash. It was natural Diablo with horses. It was here that the player was given the opportunity to jump on horses and shred monsters without getting out of the saddle. And it was where to jump – we were offered an open world, many quests, events and meetings. The heroes were also remembered and stood out against the backdrop of ordinary protagonists of each second action/RPG – remember the half -naked winged Seraphim or vampire, which at night could drink blood! The German Ascaron It turned out a very colorful, bright game with a healthy share of humor and irony.
In 2008 Sacred 2, In theory, I had to fix and develop success. The sequel offered all the same: an open world, many quests, charismatic characters, humor. Plus more modern technologies and the ability to play over the side of the world or darkness. However, it turned out the other way around: a boring plot, stamped missions, imbalance and a heap of technical errors led to the fact that the game received extremely ambiguous reviews, and Ascaron soon went to the bottom.
Together with the developers, it seemed that the series itself went there, but after another 4 years, in 2012, it became known that the new brand owner, publishing house Deep Silver, Together with the studio Keen Games Prepare a third part. For a long time there was no details about the project. But now it is clear that the authors immediately decided to bet on the classics, but on, as it seemed to them, a more fashionable youth cooperative.
Rails, rails … corridors, corridors
This does not mean that the game has turned into a Bess-Wi action arcade on four. Events unfold 1000 years after the history of the first part and, as in the sequel, are again twisted around the legendary artifact of the heart of Ankaria – the villain Zeyn Eschen tries to collect it and use it for their bad purposes. Four heroes should stop him. This is a pumped -up warrior named Marak, archer, winged Seraphim Clayer and half -naked girl Alitee, dashingly waking a spear.
In one mission, you can use either evasion or block. What exactly – you solve before the start of the assignment.
More precisely, you choose one of them, but the balance is arranged in such a way that most levels are better to go in a cooperative with other players. If desired, you can allow everyone to join your session. Or to rush to help someone yourself.
The gameplay itself is simple and uncomplicated. No open world, research and communication. The whole game is divided into mission, in each of which the task boils down to walking along the corridor from point A to point B, simultaneously destroying everything that moves. And at the end, fill up the fat boss. In addition, we are constantly required to destroy something-doors, landing ships, catapults and so on. And click on something. For example, turn the wheel 6 times to open the gate. With each turnover, the enemies, of course, attack everything fiercely. Sometimes there are branches that allow you to move away from the main path and play on some treasure or just earn money and experience.
By the way, in addition to the “expls” and coins at the levels, we collect only the field of health and energy – the latter charges the skills of heroes. No legendary swords “+15 to damage” or shining armored boots of enemies and chests does not fall out. But this does not mean that there is no equipment at all here. Heroes open new armor and weapons, reaching certain levels of development. Moreover, the sword, hammer, halberd and others used by you themselves “pump” as opponents are beaten.
Thus, improvements are gradually opening, six for each weapon: so, Alita for the Non -Minor can buy an “upgrade” for his spear, in which every third blow will be accompanied by a thirst with a shaft, which through the enemies pierces through and inflicts additional damage to them. There are even alternative options for “pumping” when you yourself decide what is more important for you to increase the chance of critical damage or, for example, increase the area of defeat.
Four plus perfume
Role system c Sacred 3 also not as primitive as it may seem initially. Each hero, of course, is accessible to his skills and abilities. The archer of the important, for example, can bring rain out of arrows on enemies, Seraphim Kleir lets some kind of electrically charged cloud. And Alitea is able to allow insects to the opponents or arrange a local earthquake to them. At the same time, each of the four of the brave prefers one element: the warrior is losing with fire, archer-ice and frost, Seraphim-lightning, and the heap girl is dashingly controlled with the magic of the earth.
At the same time, only two skills are allowed to use in battle, but in fact there are much more of them – new ones also open as levels are set. And in the same way for each skill, up to 6 improvements are provided, including alternative. There are also analogues of passive skills. The spirits of weapons act in this capacity – these are the souls of legendary heroes and monsters who give you both bonuses and fines. For example, if you activated the spirit of the Dryad, then your attacks will weaken the enemies, by 3 seconds reducing the damage they do by 10%. But then critical damage will be reduced by 30%.
All this fuss with weapons, skills and spirits is produced in breaks between missions, in the lobby where you choose difficulty, set up a character, invite partners or view available games. There you can also look into the shop to buy useful potions – however, for each position there is a certain limit.
It’s hard in battle
If you discard the complaints that “this is not at all Sacred“, And to consider a new project precisely as a cooperative role -playing slasher, then what is happening at first even fascinates. Contractions take place cheerfully and dynamically, against the background of colorful, detailed scenery and juicy special effects. Everything is constantly thunder here, sparkles and explodes. You now and then fall stones or fiery clods. Physics in general in Sacred 3 Not bad: it is allowed not only to destroy barrels, fences and catapults, but also to raise some bombs from the floor, to throw them into opponents. But even more fun to use the nearest enemy as such a projectile.
And if the first few missions are easy, then problems begin, which is extremely difficult to cope with alone alone. Many opponents use shields or some special skills-to interrupt them or temporarily disable protection can be a special technique. In addition, you have to actively dodge, put a block, finish off immobilized enemies and revive the fallen comrades.
Most of all, of course, delight the “bosses” – both local and final at each level. They always use some unique tactics. And almost always you need to solve the secret how to avoid crushing attacks of such a monster. You can’t help with only evasions here. Somewhere you need to run to the stone pillar in time, somewhere-to hide inside the power field, which the boss itself generates.
To cope with difficulties, you have to mess with skills, weapons, spirits and upgrades, choosing the optimal tactics for yourself – there is enough options. And messing up for the time being, in principle, interesting.
Cooperative monotony
Together, of course, both easier and more fun. And there are more options for useful interaction than the banal “Use to revive the fallen ally”. Heroes can conduct joint techniques, there are skills and spirits of weapons specially imprisoned in the team. So, you can activate the shield behind which the rest will hide. Or take the elf’s spirit to the mission – with it the healing spheres will more effectively restore health to the members of the detachments, but worse – you. Finally, you often have to correctly plan joint actions: for example, protect one player while he turns the wheels and levers or destroys important buildings.
The problem is that all the way we will twist the wheels and break important buildings. All missions are similar to each other like two drops of water. Neither interesting “bosses”, nor a specific local humor of the “full house” transfer level, nor optional tasks for the sake of additional awards do not particularly save the situation. Moreover, there are only two types of such secondary missions – “kill everyone on a small piece of card” or “hold several enemy waves in the arena”.
Really saved the situation of battle against other players – in this case from Sacred 3 it would turn out a workpiece for a good moba. But for some reason PVP was not brought here. Yes, so far it is too early to import: with all their unique skills, the heroes differ little from each other. All their blows and attacks are only variations of the same. The characters lack truly individual, branded techniques.
Sacred 3 can be evaluated from two points of view. If we wait for a classic continuation of the legendary action/RPG, then you will simply cover you with a wave of disappointment and pain for aimlessly spent money. If we consider the game precisely in the perspective that the authors themselves were counting on (and what they honestly warned), then the situation looks better. Sacred 3 – Really quite good role -threshold for four. Beautiful, spectacular, but, unfortunately, too monotonous. It is hoped that on this Deep Silver will finish with experiments. And in the near future, looking at the example Wasteland 2 And Divinity: Original Sin (and to the reaction of the players, of course), will take up the classic continuation Sacred.
Pros: spectacular and difficult battles;unusual role system;Charismatic “bosses”.
Cons: monotonous missions, locations and the gameplay itself;The heroes lack individuality, and the game itself is a PVP mode.