Tom's Score Card

2) Not Recommended

Sacred 3 is the third game in the Sacred series. The game play and design is strikingly different to the two previous games. The game was released on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 in August 2015.Unlike the first game, Sacred 3 is a hack and slash brawler. Every single one of the levels is linear, there are no quests to complete; just a simple get to the end of the stage without dying. There are plenty of classes to choose from at the start of the game with all of the classic RPG ones available such as warrior, rogues, mages and marksmen. The game play is extremely watered down too; with each class only being able to have two active abilities and a weapon set. The lack of any loot drops throughout the game really means this brawler has no rewards for even completing stages. In between the story missions, Sacred 3 also offers side missions which to be frank, are absolutely pointless. They can be completed in less than five minutes and yet again, offer no real reward for completing them.Every single mission in this game is 100% linear, only one route to the end, and one way to kill any of the bosses. There are a few scenes which sees you running through corridors of falling rocks and lava, but nothing that really keeps you on the edge of your seat. All of the enemies in the game are just more of an annoyance than anything else. None of them present any kind of threat to you and you will not die. I didn’t die once whilst completing my play through.To be honest, I am not sure how to rate the graphics in Sacred 3, at times the game looks really well fleshed out with some of the scenery in the levels looking very good. But then at some points, it just looks awful. The textures and background views are bland and very low res, almost to the point where it takes you out of the immersion as you are just astounded at how bad it looks. Now the audio is whole new ball game – this has got to be the most cringe worthy voice acting I have ever heard. The unfunny one-liners, the sexual innuendo, and some quite blatant sexism that comes out of the characters mouth’s is mind boggling. I did have to eventually mute the game just because I couldn’t concentrate on playing the game because of how awfully bad the voice acting is. The narration through the whole story is just as bad too; the random comments that add no other benefit to the game and only drag the seriousness of the Sacred series down to a kindergarten standard.Sacred 3 is not a hard game at all. Like I said, I completed the whole game without dying. You are able to change the difficulty of the levels on the fly, meaning you have no real downside to starting the game in hard mode and then lowering the difficulty if needed; but there won’t be any need. Once you get to grips with the controls you’ll be able to dodge, outrun and out manoeuvre anything the enemies throw at you.I was expecting a sort of open world game in Sacred 3, to be able to wander off the beaten track into buildings and caves to find my own adventure; but sadly that is not the case here. The are quite blatant caves and buildings that look like they are really interesting to explore, but the game has put up invisible walls all over the place prevent you from exploring.The game can also be completed in a short amount of time considering the rest of the series were 20+ hours. I finished this game in just under seven hours. Yes I could play another character, but why? I would only be playing the exact same linear missions all over again and have exactly the same experience just with one or two different spells to cast. The game has up to 4 player co-op, but I honestly don’t see any reason why you would want to make the whole experience even easier than it already is.One part where Sacred 3 does have some pluses, is that I didn’t have any technical issues whilst playing. The game has a wide choice of resolution options, whilst the graphical options are limited, the game is well optimized to run on anything (probably why it is on console). The game can also be played with a game pad, but I had the best experience when using keyboard and mouse.In conclusion, I can’t recommend Sacred 3. Fans of the series will be bitterly disappointed with this game, and even new people to the series will find nothing original in here. There are so many more much better made hack and slash games out there, Sacred 3 should only be played when you can get it for less than £3,99 – not a penny more.1) Stay away3) Only recommended when on sale4) Recommended5) Highly recommended6) This is a must playIf you found this review helpful, please consider giving it a thumbs up. You can also find more reviews over at http://www.completingthebackloggroup.com/ Please also check out Completing the Backlog's Curator page here - follow for regular updates on reviews for other games!