A nice different kind of spin on the Diablo style action RPG game format.
Pro:Bang for the buck you just can't beat this game for an impulse buy and keeping you busy until the next big thing comes out.
Decent character variety to play thats just enough to keep the game interesting to play though it again.
Personal inventory chest follows you from town to town so look for the dark blue chest near the main hotspot in town and there your personal inventory box is located. Also the inventory space is far more roomy vs Diablo so that helps if you want to squirrel away more stuff.
Cons:
Maps are not randomly generated like the Diablo series! So the maps stay the same and the monster spawn points are the same etc. This can get old pretty fast as the missions are identical when you start a new character with very little changes in the wording only to suit the character you are playing.
What no gate spell!?! Yes its super annoying you are far away in the deep and have to do a grocery run - aka clean our your inventory for grinding junk stuff for gold. Only thing that is somewhat of a saving grace is there are portal stones at most major areas but those inbetween locations you are in for a walk.
Game is a bit buggy, be very very careful you have saved if you try to Alt Tab away from the game to check your email etc as it usually will crash to the desktop. Also it has a bad habit of losing your horse so don't buy a horse until you are rolling in the cash. For the gold it normally does not take that long if you keep soaking up everything that hits the ground and sell it. What I mean by losing the horse is you get a mount to ride around in which is a bit handy and speeds up ground travel. Even if you save the game and load it back, poof! Your horse can just disappear. : (
More game info:
First to make sure the game being reviewed is Sacred Gold edition, its a black box with gold lettering along with a gold logo at the center. This is the one to grab as you are getting the base game along with the expansion all in one box. You are looking at about 35 hours if you skip the side quests and around 55 hours if you dig around a bit.
The game format is very similar to diablo you have nice 3D feeling as you move your character around and you can zoom in to see the details but the game is really plays 2D style where it will fade obstructions etc that you walk behind so you can still see your character.
The interface is both great and also very annoying at times. It uses a click to move here but you can somewhat drive around if you hold down the mouse button. The interface is quirky so pay attention to the tutorial or you could missing some handy commands that make the game more of a joy vs a chore.
Perfect example is by pressing A it grabs all loot, you character will auto run around within a certain range and conveniently nab all the stuff for you. Remember what a headache that was when you heard that ringing ding sound and know its a ring or gem but have to wave the mouse around annoyingly until you find it? That is gone now! You can also select the option to only pick up gold and uniques for item drops, grab it all or just grab gold only - nice.
The other item of note is the voice work is solid and gives a nice flavor to the game based on what character you are playing. It can be both somber and laugh out loud humorous. An example: The Seraphim in combat if something runs away from her every so often she will yell out "Hey come back! You are messing up my quota!"
The different race/class combo you can play are: Gladiator,Seraphim,Wood Elf,Dark Elf,Battle Mage, The Vampiress Dwarf, Demoness.
Gladiator is your straight up warrior, Seraphim is a Valkrye like character with holy powers, Wood Elf is a long range bow attacker with some close up skills. Dark Elf is more close up with more rogue like skills like poison etc. Dwarf is a combination of long range and close up melee and Demoness is a close combat blender with dark powers of her own.
The above variety helps like I mentioned about replay as it makes it tempting "I wonder how this character will handle the challenges" thinking.
Item drops are pretty much like the Diablo series and there are even item collection sets. There is a fairly large selection of item drops so you will not get too bored anytime soon as well as the items sets, my guess is there is roughly around 15 sets for each character type.
There are potions in the game activated with the Q W E R keys, healing, mana, poison curing. The other interesting ones is the undead potion, this is handy to activate as it stops them from reanimating again. So when you beat a skeleton down they will poof vs rising again. Lastly there is the heroism potion, this one is super handy, find a boss monster or a huge fight, pop the potion and start a kill frenzy, each kill completed before the potion fades - lasts around 3 min or so, you get a nice experience bonus. This is a big help at later levels around 40 - 50 range as this can really speed up getting you to the next level of skills powers etc.
Quests and where to go: Questing is very easy as the main arrow on the quest compass shows what direction to head and then there is the mini arrow near the center that shows what direction the mini quest is located. You can even change the pointer direction by opening your quest book and left clicking on the side quest you want to do next.
Also you can use the Tab key for the immediate dungeon map overland map area. Pressing the M key will get you the big map. This is even better as gold book symbols - to do along with blue book symbols - completed quests return here are noted all over the map.
Remember when I said the interface is quirky? Well an example is when you look on the map for where the blacksmith is the gold hammer looks like is right beside you bzzzt! Sorry its 5 houses south of where you are standing. That can be annoying but fortunately its not a game killer.
Speaking of blacksmiths, items like armor and weapons on have sockets in them so you can place one of three type of buffs in each socket. The buffs are attack bonuses, protection/resistance bonuses, spell attack bonuses. This can make a fairly decent item buffed into a power item that at times can be even better than gold unique rare drop items.
Pay careful attention to items and their stats! There are a pile of stats and many times you have to equip swap the time to keep watching the stats change to see what to keep and what to sell.
Along with the blacksmith is the combo master. This is kinda interesting as you can take your special attacks and powers and basically set up a macro where each attack will be performed in sequence. Its pretty neat but the down side is that each power has a cool down and you have to wait till all the selection powers built into that combo created are ready again. There were a few times I found using the combo as handy but usually I liked using the abilities or powers specifically selected.
Ok almost done! I just wanted to brush over a lot of areas to try to give everyone a feel there really Sacred Gold is a great diversion of a game and should keep you occupied for awhile.
One of the characters I played was the Seraphim which was quite a bit of fun. She does not have any healing powers which is a surprise for a character of the light. Instead she is a holy warrior that hands out righteous justice with gusto. To give you an idea, one of several powers she has is an area effect spell - its a pillar of heavenly light that can be called down most anywhere but where its best is right on top of yourself. It pulses damage based on your spell skill level. A random loot drop I picked up awhile back gives health/healing per hit, if 10 guys are hit by the spell then that makes 10 light heals. So basically you are a blender under a pillar of light : ) They keep hitting and you stay healthy.
Playing the other characters as expected offer a different way of approaching the same missions which can be somewhat interesting. If only it had a random map generator like the Diablo series then I would rate Sacred a lot higher.
Lastly the monsters in the over land areas do respawn so if you are having a tough time with a particularly nasty dragon then head to some other areas to level up more and be sure to use the experience potions when you fight mini bosses to give yourself a nice boost.
So if you happen to pass by and see it on the shelf definitely grab it up if this style of game appeals to you as $20 bucks are less is hard to be for many hours of gameplay.
Have fun out there and keep on gaming!