The Avatar
21-04-2006, 01:01 AM
When I first got my spanking new computer back in 2000, my very first game purchase for it was Sacrifice. Now at the time, I bought it because I had played MDK and felt that Shiny Entertainment had much going for them and that Sacrifice would be a good game.
Boy was I wrong! Sacrifice is not just a good game, it is a fantastic, awesome, crazy game! Sacrifice puts you in the role of a wandering wizard who decides to pledge his services to the five gods of the land. These five gods are always bickering amongst themselves and so you find it very easy to play them off against each other.
However, your dark past comes back to haunt you when a demon follows you into the new world a sets about destroying everything in it.
Well, the storyline in itself appealed to my "inner wizard", but its not your usual RPG game. Its a raw action game which uses spells and summoned monsters instead of weapons and aliens. Your goal in each level is to defile your opponents alter. You do this by sacrificing a soul to your god in his alter. To do that you must have a big enough army to keep your opponent defeated while you do this!
To get a big enough army, you must summon oodles of monsters to your aid by using souls, lots and lots of souls! You get these by destroying monsters that your opponent has summoned (much harder then is sounds, as you have to get the souls back to your alter and purify them!). Whew!
GRAPHICS Score:95%
The graphics still astound me to this day. Each level is brilliantly decorated, the sky is beautiful and the detail of the wizards and monsters is also amazing. Its amazing to watch a dragon or demon flying around, you can see through the gaps in their wings. There are so many graphical options in the game that allow you to tweak your performance to your liking.
However nowdays, with the hardware available its not really necessary. Just turn everything up to high and enjoy the graphics.
There were a few areas where the graphics became a bit choppy and weird, the ground sometimes flickered, but this does not happen very often.
SOUND/MUSIC Score:97%
Voice acting in this game was wonderful! Very well done with the familar's smart arse comments being my favourite. Sacrifice has a streak of subtle humour thoughout it and it shows most in the voice acting. They voice of Marduc is also the voice of the eternal beast from the game Soul Reaver which really gave me a laugh as I love that evil voice!
Music was also really well done that fit the game and the enviroment really well. It changes dynamically when your in a battle to when you re-couping afterwards. The sound effects of the spells are very well done also.
MULTIPLAYER Score:96%
Firstly, this game has skirmish modes which is a huge plus. Then it also has a map maker program and loadable maps which is also another huge plus. It has a character creation area for the games and a bucket load of options to customise gameplay. Finally it supports LANs as well as internet play. This game has covered every multiplayer angle perfectly.
Nothing wrong here except I cannot find anyone to play this against as all my friends are losers who only like sports games or disney crap gam....ahem, please excuse that outburst.
If there is anyone who would like to have a game of this against me feel free to PM me as I'm always up for a challenge!
(RE)PLAYABILITY Score:85%
I've had this game for almost four years now, and I still take it out and play it whenever I'm feeling a bit down! So that takes care of that score!
This game has so much to offer that you will be playing for hours to come. The end level is also hard enough to keep you going for a few days trying to crack it! Also, your progression through the game is unique, you can pledge you loyalty to a different god for each level so your progression through the game is always unique.
Unfortunatly it never really effects the ending, but you do get to customise your spell progression and use that in multiplayer mode. Also the end credits are funny as hell!
CONTROLS Score:80%
Controls can be a bit of a bitch to master in this game. You play the role of a tactical commander who should stay away from battle, a supply guy thingy who summons more monsters into battle to help your team, a magic user who must cast offensive and defensive spells to help/hinder you friends/foes. And also you must recover souls from your guys when they die and to do that you must run into the thick of battle!
It can really get crazy at times and if you dont know what your doing you can get lost very easily.
Also, there is only one way to gain levels (by gaining levels you get better spells and monsters to summon), is to attack other guys and it can be really hard to recover from a losing battle. Often a multiplayer game with two people is decided in the first battle which is kind of annoying.
ATMOSPHERE Score:99%
This game has atmosphere coming out of the wazzo! All the parts of this game come together so well to make it an amazing experience to play it. Get it and play it now! Email Shiny and tell them to make Sacrifice 2 or something!
Why havent they realesed Sacrifice 2? What is stopping them from doing it right now? Why are they not doing it right now?!!!! That is why they lost on percentage point for atmosphere, beacuse the game leaves you wanting more, and they yet, there is nothing more.
WEB INTERGRATION Score:N/A
Not rated as there really isnt anything but a plug for the game on the shiny website and I did try to find some player driven sites, but they had all gone away. A tear does roll down my cheek for this.
ScreenShots
http://forum.zgeek.com/gallery/files/6/1/6/sacrifice1_thumb.jpg (http://www.zgeek.com/forum/gallery/showimage.php?i=17671&c=209) http://forum.zgeek.com/gallery/files/6/1/6/sacrifice2_thumb.jpg (http://www.zgeek.com/forum/gallery/showimage.php?i=17672&c=209) http://forum.zgeek.com/gallery/files/6/1/6/sacrifice3_thumb.jpg (http://www.zgeek.com/forum/gallery/showimage.php?i=17673&c=209)
This game represents all that is good in the world.
OVERALL Score:92%
This game is worth a buy or even a download if you can find it. Its a fantastic game that will have you coming back for more. Its great to play against friends (especially when your sooo much better then them!) and is great for a laugh. This game is a classic and hopefully we will see some more of it in years to come.
Boy was I wrong! Sacrifice is not just a good game, it is a fantastic, awesome, crazy game! Sacrifice puts you in the role of a wandering wizard who decides to pledge his services to the five gods of the land. These five gods are always bickering amongst themselves and so you find it very easy to play them off against each other.
However, your dark past comes back to haunt you when a demon follows you into the new world a sets about destroying everything in it.
Well, the storyline in itself appealed to my "inner wizard", but its not your usual RPG game. Its a raw action game which uses spells and summoned monsters instead of weapons and aliens. Your goal in each level is to defile your opponents alter. You do this by sacrificing a soul to your god in his alter. To do that you must have a big enough army to keep your opponent defeated while you do this!
To get a big enough army, you must summon oodles of monsters to your aid by using souls, lots and lots of souls! You get these by destroying monsters that your opponent has summoned (much harder then is sounds, as you have to get the souls back to your alter and purify them!). Whew!
GRAPHICS Score:95%
The graphics still astound me to this day. Each level is brilliantly decorated, the sky is beautiful and the detail of the wizards and monsters is also amazing. Its amazing to watch a dragon or demon flying around, you can see through the gaps in their wings. There are so many graphical options in the game that allow you to tweak your performance to your liking.
However nowdays, with the hardware available its not really necessary. Just turn everything up to high and enjoy the graphics.
There were a few areas where the graphics became a bit choppy and weird, the ground sometimes flickered, but this does not happen very often.
SOUND/MUSIC Score:97%
Voice acting in this game was wonderful! Very well done with the familar's smart arse comments being my favourite. Sacrifice has a streak of subtle humour thoughout it and it shows most in the voice acting. They voice of Marduc is also the voice of the eternal beast from the game Soul Reaver which really gave me a laugh as I love that evil voice!
Music was also really well done that fit the game and the enviroment really well. It changes dynamically when your in a battle to when you re-couping afterwards. The sound effects of the spells are very well done also.
MULTIPLAYER Score:96%
Firstly, this game has skirmish modes which is a huge plus. Then it also has a map maker program and loadable maps which is also another huge plus. It has a character creation area for the games and a bucket load of options to customise gameplay. Finally it supports LANs as well as internet play. This game has covered every multiplayer angle perfectly.
Nothing wrong here except I cannot find anyone to play this against as all my friends are losers who only like sports games or disney crap gam....ahem, please excuse that outburst.
If there is anyone who would like to have a game of this against me feel free to PM me as I'm always up for a challenge!
(RE)PLAYABILITY Score:85%
I've had this game for almost four years now, and I still take it out and play it whenever I'm feeling a bit down! So that takes care of that score!
This game has so much to offer that you will be playing for hours to come. The end level is also hard enough to keep you going for a few days trying to crack it! Also, your progression through the game is unique, you can pledge you loyalty to a different god for each level so your progression through the game is always unique.
Unfortunatly it never really effects the ending, but you do get to customise your spell progression and use that in multiplayer mode. Also the end credits are funny as hell!
CONTROLS Score:80%
Controls can be a bit of a bitch to master in this game. You play the role of a tactical commander who should stay away from battle, a supply guy thingy who summons more monsters into battle to help your team, a magic user who must cast offensive and defensive spells to help/hinder you friends/foes. And also you must recover souls from your guys when they die and to do that you must run into the thick of battle!
It can really get crazy at times and if you dont know what your doing you can get lost very easily.
Also, there is only one way to gain levels (by gaining levels you get better spells and monsters to summon), is to attack other guys and it can be really hard to recover from a losing battle. Often a multiplayer game with two people is decided in the first battle which is kind of annoying.
ATMOSPHERE Score:99%
This game has atmosphere coming out of the wazzo! All the parts of this game come together so well to make it an amazing experience to play it. Get it and play it now! Email Shiny and tell them to make Sacrifice 2 or something!
Why havent they realesed Sacrifice 2? What is stopping them from doing it right now? Why are they not doing it right now?!!!! That is why they lost on percentage point for atmosphere, beacuse the game leaves you wanting more, and they yet, there is nothing more.
WEB INTERGRATION Score:N/A
Not rated as there really isnt anything but a plug for the game on the shiny website and I did try to find some player driven sites, but they had all gone away. A tear does roll down my cheek for this.
ScreenShots
http://forum.zgeek.com/gallery/files/6/1/6/sacrifice1_thumb.jpg (http://www.zgeek.com/forum/gallery/showimage.php?i=17671&c=209) http://forum.zgeek.com/gallery/files/6/1/6/sacrifice2_thumb.jpg (http://www.zgeek.com/forum/gallery/showimage.php?i=17672&c=209) http://forum.zgeek.com/gallery/files/6/1/6/sacrifice3_thumb.jpg (http://www.zgeek.com/forum/gallery/showimage.php?i=17673&c=209)
This game represents all that is good in the world.
OVERALL Score:92%
This game is worth a buy or even a download if you can find it. Its a fantastic game that will have you coming back for more. Its great to play against friends (especially when your sooo much better then them!) and is great for a laugh. This game is a classic and hopefully we will see some more of it in years to come.