Mashbuttons grinds away in Sacred 3 review

The time has come in which the sequel to Sacred 2 has come and for those unaware, Sacred 2 was a massive top down, open world, dungeon crawling, action adventure title in which I spent just as many hour exploring as I put in to the similar Diablo 3, yeah it was that good. Enough about its predecessor, let’s get to the title at hand, Sacred 3 allows you to play as one of five character classes that play significantly differently in the fight for Arcania. Play with a friend in two-player offline coop, four-player online coop, and if you choose to take on the burden yourself, but I suggest against it, as your journey will consist of lots of level grinding depending on the class you choose.

Shortly after I chose my character, I decided to go with the new Malakhim class, there was a big lack in character customization and the world was no longer open but now a level tree to play through. The character classes still play significantly different which makes for a lot of fun in online matches when you can get into one, but in my time spent with this title, I had no one join my match and the fee that I tried to join, I was immediately booted from. The gameplay is where it is at as the action is fast, I did not experience slowdown when things got hectic, and after each level, I was able to upgrade and change my character's skills and weapon load outs based on the amount of ass kicked in the previously missions.

In the end, no, this is not a true sequel to Sacred 2, as the only thing that is consistent is the character classes and the top down action. Did that ruin my experience, absolutely not, I had a lot of fun with Sacred 3 as it was easy to pick up and play a mission or two to kill time, and while I was not able to play online, the online leaderboards added a replay element to grinding and replaying missions. That being said, if you are a fan of titles like Gauntlet Legends, this game will make you feel nostalgic and the couch coop made the experience very enjoyable. Sacred 3 ultimately felt like what Sacred Citadel should have been as it feels like a fleshed out version of that, and had they chosen to add a moniker to the title or did not use the ‘3’, it would have a larger community online. Sacred 3 is available now on the PS3, Xbox 360 and PC for $49.99.