Sacrifice

The Good
The title of this review may be confusing at first... Let me explain. Sacrifice was the first game that "came" along with my new PC (it was bought not offered with the PC) so no matter what, I cannot forget this game. I still play it even if the first day in which the game got into my PC was 13th of January 2001 (yes, I remember the exact date). A quarter past 8 A.M. more exactly.

But of course those mentioned earlier by me are not the only reasons for me to love this game. At first I didn't think that this game will stay installed on my PC for more than 5 years. This game has anything a hardcore action player would wish for. Same for RTS players... Hell! Even for RPG players...

As you may have guessed by now, this game is a combination of RTS/Action/RPG. I liked the gameplay... Especially the gameplay. The action camera perspective is perfect for scouting the area, and the easy control over your creatures makes the game really fun. Also, with each level up you get new spells and possibilities, and of course, I was really curious to find out what I'd be able to unlock next.

The story is great. I finished the game with all 5 available gods each time the game got more and more interesting. However the ending is the same... Only the spells/creatures differ.

But the game is not only great in single player. It is great in multiplayer also, which offers quite a lot of possible game modes. In the multiplayer match, your strategist soul will be awakened ;)

I also fell in love with the music of the game... It is simply perfect and atmospheric.

The game graphics are really good. I can't believe now that game had such good graphics back in 2000. It amazed me when I bought it, and it still amazes me.

Perhaps the strongest point of the game is it's originality. Simply put, I've never seen any game like this one before...

The Bad
None I may say... Maybe the short campaigns... but that's not really such a great flaw...

The Bottom Line
The most original game ever, my favorite game and one of the best games ever. If you haven't tried it by now, you shouldn't call yourself a gamer. The game features all good and specific things found in Shiny's games... It also reminded me of MDK somehow :D Great game. If I had a hat, I'd take it off.

The Good
- amazing engine, well used and performed magnificently. Stable.
- well presented - graphics are quirky, colourful and original
- good level building tools - people made some great levels in Sac.
- the game was non-linear and had a high replayability. I finished it 3 times over, taking different paths.


The Bad
- multiplayer suffered from drop-outs and a lack of player base
- no SDK released for modding (great opportunity here)
- once you lose your mana fountains then you basically lose the game - it's really hard to recover
- the powerful creatures dominate to the point that it's not worth creating any other


The Bottom Line
Think "magic the gathering" in real time with fantastic spells and creatures. You are in the game as the wizard, so you can attack/be attacked yourself. Summon creatures to fight for you, and rain down death with powerful magicks.

An interesting story coupled with unique presentation and great technology makes for a fantastic experience.

It's a shame that they didn't sell well enough to warrant a sacrifice 2 or an SDK for sac. It was also a shame that the multiplayer was never that popular.

The Good
- the graphics are terrific, even ten years later. I've run this with an ATI Radeon 4650 with all the game graphics cranked up to max at widescreen monitor resolution. Not the world's most powerful GPU, it's still far beyond anything the designers had available to them. The game still looks gorgeous. Toward the end of any campaign, when the maps get huge, you can climb mountains and realize you can see for miles, and those tiny moving dots are really giant beasts that are so very, very far away...for the moment...

• all kinds of spells, and the biggest ones are really big. Those tiny moving dots are really giant beasts that have gotten caught up in huge tornado and dragged way up into the sky, aren't they? Say, aren't they MY beasts...? And yipes, now it's got me! What a fascinating view, looking down at the spinning world so very far below! Unfortunately we're all going to fall down in a minute...ouch!

• a variety of paths through the game (although some are definitely easier than others. Ya wanna make it easy on yourself? Always go with James. Play your cards right and you can even get a dragon companion).

• the missions have some variety. Some are scramble as fast as you can, others require settling in and having the patience to chip away at the enemy bit by bit

• a cult following has put lots of YouTube videos on this game revealing all kinds of things I didn't find the first time I completed it. So I can go back and do even better!
  
  The Bad
  - the first time I played it I gave up in frustration because the manual said "always secure your mana fountains" and then I ran into a mission where the opposing side began to blow up my mana fountains (and my creatures!) with a kind of volcano machine I couldn't figure out how to beat. Grrr! I hate games I can't win!

• some of the spells don't seem to be worth bothering with, and some of the creatures seem quite useless. Or maybe I just never figured out how to use them properly

• it's a bit disconcerting that the final level boss "doesn't play by the same rules" that govern the rest of the game. On the other hand, that makes it quite a challenge, doesn't it?
  
  The Bottom Line
  Technically amazing and fun to play, so it's frustrating that you don't appreciate as much as I do.