I just picked this game up in mid December 2011. The game itself was released in late 2000. I have enjoyed games in general now for many years. And I would like to mention, before reviewing, that I enjoy works of diversity, individuality and art. The wide majority of games that have been released since 2004 have been ripoffs and masked sequels to established franchises. I return to GoG.com in order to escape the generic homogenization and "lowest common denominatorism" that is the gaming industry today. Although I am aware of the reasons for the gaming industries conduct, I stay hopeful for the return to the past originality of gaming. The visuals are still quite appealing. I have read many people were having trouble running this game on their machines back in 2000. Today, I am playing the game on a low end Gateway Laptop on the highest settings and am without complaints. The particle effects and movements of the units are fluent and bring the game to life. The art style used is unique with a hint of the artists prior involvements. Visual differences to today would really only include higher resolution textures and polygon counts. 10/10 (Ahead of its time) The sounds are astonishing. Aside from the incredible voice-acting lineup, this games ambiance is elevated to incredible levels alone by the music and in depth unit and tactical responses. Should the somewhat repetitive tactical responses annoy you, you can always turn them off in the options menu. There are other audible and visible signs to alert you. 10/10 (Top actors give their voice) The game play is completely unique. Sacrifice is a very fast paced RTS/RPG mix. You collect and convert souls that are needed to summon creatures. You issue orders to creatures. You construct manaliths that channel mana threw creatures called manahoars to you to use for all sorts of spells and you do all this from an "over the shoulder" perspective of a "magician" of your choosing. The campaign features a selection of 5 "gods" to align yourself under. This opens up to a branching campaign that will give you tons of replay value, as you are not able to complete all possible missions in one play-through. The missions themselves are all unique and lovingly scripted. The focus of the game was certainly meant to be the multi-player aspect. The the game comes with Scapex, an in depth level designing tool, the quality of which I have only seen in Blizzards RTS titles. I was blown away by the availability of an observer mode, a feature that is almost mandatory in today's esports scene. My only regret is that the community is not as active and involved as I would have hoped to find, but this can be remedied. 10/10 (Modern, unique RTS) This game was released way, way before its time. The developers took a risk and the game went by mostly unnoticed. Spread the word. Gift the game. Let's try to get this title some more exposure and for 2.99USD no one has an excuse to pass this one up! 10/10 (From a guy that picked this up almost 11 years after release) :P
