My relationship with the Sacred franchise has been a tormented one ever since I tried out the original Sacred game back in 2004. I’ve tried so hard to like the franchise, but every time I think I may be beginning to enjoy an RPG experience it does something to hinder that fact.

In Sacred it was the fact that unless you downloaded multiple updates and fixes, you weren’t able to get past the initial quests of the game. Sacred 2 didn’t have the game breaking bugs its predecessor did, but ultimately had nothing that really shone out for me from the game, and was deemed merely “okay”.

Since then however it has been half a decade, and the license for the Sacred franchise now exists with Deep Silver, and not Studio II Software and Ascaron Entertainment, so there was a bit of hope for the latest iteration, aptly named “Sacred 3”.

Sacred 3 is once again set in the fantasy land of Ancaria, where the evil Ashen Empire is trying to get their hands on a powerful artefact known as the “Heart of Ancaria”, and it up to you and your friends to stop them.

The game is played in the traditional RPG top-down style, and the story is told over the course of multiple levels that you have to traverse in order to progress. You will find a plethora of different locations on the course of your journey, from frozen wastelands to neon jungles, and it must be said, they are (for the most part) extremely easy on the eye.

As for questing in Sacred 3, it feels like an incredible grind for the most part. Besides the main quest there is a variety of side missions, but with only two variations on a theme: Either you have to survive five waves of certain minions, or you are put into an area and told to kill all of the enemies.

This takes away hugely from the replayability, as you definitely would not bother with those missions the second time you played the game through, as they are frankly not worth the effort.

In terms of character selection, there are four characters to choose from in Sacred 3 (compared to the seven of Sacred 2 I might add), and each has its own skills and abilities. You will be able to choose from Vajra the Khukuri Archer, Claire the Seraphim Paladin, Alithea the Ancarian Lancer and Marak the Safiri Warrior. There is an additional character available if you purchase an extra DLC as well.

Each character has its own speciality that is pretty easy to figure out. Vajra, for example, is at her strongest when attacking enemies at range, while Marak excels when the enemies are in melee range.

The gameplay itself is basically what I would describe as a “left click button mash”, as that is what you spend a majority of the time doing. Besides the occasional dodge roll and ability, the way the weapons and levelling system works you soon have a pretty overpowered normal attack, and can just wail on enemies for hours on end.

With only fifteen levels to overcome during the course of the game you can actually clock Sacred 3 in a surprisingly short amount of time even if you are not at the “recommended level”, and my play through only took a few hours once I realised that the side missions essentially had themselves on repeat for the entire game.

There is no open world here whatsoever, and you change levels by selecting your next location on your map, which makes the game incredibly linear, as there is almost no exploration at all during the course of the game.

The Sacred franchise has always been known for its slightly off-beat humour, and Sacred 3 has tried to keep up in the same vein, although I have very mixed feelings about the dialog and humour in the game. While some may find it quirky and entertaining, I found it soon lost its appeal and quickly became quite forced and slightly annoying.

There is a shining beacon of hope for this game however, and that is the full orchestral soundtrack accompanying the game. Although sometimes fairly dark and sombre in melodic nature, the music often tends towards the more “epic” style of orchestral playing, and is often what kept me going during the quieter periods of the game.

The most confusing thing for me about Sacred 3 was the loot and upgrade system used in the game, because if anything, it actually took away from what could have been a pleasant experience. The loot is almost non-existent, and when you do eventually find some new gear, it is often worse than the gear you are currently wearing.

This is partly because of the way weapons work now, as they get upgraded the more they get used, and can be modified with “Weapon Spirits” to give extra bonuses, such as lifesteal or fire damage. However, this means that when you do find a new weapon which is not upgraded and kitted out it is nowhere near as good as your currently equipped items, so you end up using the same items for almost the entire game.

Sacred 3 definitely has its moments, but is unfortunately drowned out by the mediocrity that often veers its ugly head during the course of the game, which makes for an altogether lack-lustre experience. This is incredibly disappointing to me, as Sacred 3 had huge potential to be a great RPG, but instead leaves any RPG fan out there wanting.