Rediscovering old games

I was cleaning out some old boxes and found a pile of CD’s I had apparently taken to Vermont with me under the mistaken idea that I would have time play games in my spare time. Aside from the fact that I didn’t HAVE any spare time, my game system croaked so I couldn’t play much of anything. One of the games was called Sacred, which I picked up after playing the demo and considering it more than the “Diablo clone” the reviewers were so fond of chanting. (I guess it makes them all feel important to point to anything with an overhead camera view and call it a “Diablo clone.”) The game had a lot more going for it than just hack and slash, but like many of my other games it got forgotten since I had no PC to play it.

About a week ago I installed it, downloaded all the appropriate updates, and found that Ascaron (the guys who wrote it) had added new content. One of the patches added a new character, and they had an expansion pack available that adds two more character types (which I might download at some point.) Further, the game is now available on Steam, which has added a new set of fans to it.

So what the heck is Sacred, I hear you cry… basically, an evil Necromancer summons a demon from some plan of Hell, but as the opening cutscene shows, the summoning ritual gets borked and the demon is now loose. We don’t know what this demon is doing, but it’s obviously bad and we’re probably going to be sent off to kill it. Such is the way these games go. You get to pick what kinda character you play, which goes beyond the usual suspects.

Gladiator – your basic fighter type. Specializes in heavy weapons and armor, and dispatches enemies by bashing them over the head.
Battle Mage – Unlike a normal mage, a Battle Mage can fight with weapons as well as magic. Up close and personal, he uses a sword or a staff, but for ranged combat, he commands the elements – Fireballs, Ice Shards, Lightning, Frozen Waffles, etc.
Dark Elf – Kind of a Drow Rogue character. He uses blades and relies on traps and poisons to enhance damage done by his blades. He also broods all the time, which can easily kill most foes with a low resistance to Emo Attacks.
Wood Elf – The typical Elven Archer. She can use a sword, but prefers bows. She can also use healing magic and use nature to her advantage. Constantly whines about people who tear down trees to make houses.
Seraphim – One of a race of ancient warrior angels, the Seraphim uses heavenly magic as well as swords. Oh, and she has boobs. And her ass sticks out. Her armor is custom-fitted, meaning it protects against an ogre swinging an axe but provides no covering whatsoever.
Vampiress – One of the newer characters added since the game’s release. The Vampiress is a hybrid character (fighter/rogue) that uses Sword and Shield tactics by day, but at night can change to a Vampire and use claws and magic to quickly kill foes. Makes all the typical vampire jokes, and summons a wolf companion by writhing on the ground and.. yes, you guessed it… Wolf Whistling. (You bet yer ass I went there.)
Dwarf – An engineer / barbarian combination, using rage-based attacks as well as mechanical weapons like a cannon and a flame thrower.
Daemon – Can take one of several elemental forms, letting it harness the powers of Fire, Energy, Combat, and can even change into a cute cuddly teddy bear with large brown eyes to distract the enemies while another group member stabs them from behind. (Okay I made that up…)

So you create your character, you set off from whatever starting tutorial seems appropriate, and do a bunch of meaningless quests to help out the peasants in the nearby towns. Each quest pushes you further and further along the main plot line, which seems to have something to do with the Kingdom falling in to the hands of some bad guy. You find stuff to sell, stuff to use, and magic spells or abilities to enhance your attacks, eventually running smack into some big-ass dragon that is impossible to kill a your level. So off you go to kill other stuff, do more quests, build up your stats, get bigger weapons, and then you go back and you KILL that dragon… and you SLICE off its head and parade across the countryside with it, chanting “I RULE! I AM BAD! I AM….”

And then you run into the dragon’s big brother…