After almost 10 painful hours, I have to give up (temporarely) at the Train Station Depot, I'm really fed up with the stupid "faction wars" mechanic that completely ruins your experience. On paper, it looks a good idea as it can be seen as a guild or a covenant with rewards, safer (or unsafer) turfs, defending sectors...but in reality it's a total mess, thanks to the AI and the stupid scripted events... For example, I just cleared the Depot, which is supposed to stop the spawning of bandits, but in the same time, I'm a called to defend a small camp and the allies won't move until I'm there...and of course another group of bandits come from nowhere to reclaim the Depot. Sure it brings rythm, but on the other you have absolutely no time to loot for ammos (or simply claiming your rewards !) as you are constantly moving for one point to another. SoC was scarce but tense in gunfights (usually against no more than 3 bandits), here you have to clear areas with 10 enemies by yourself because your supposed "friends" won't move until it's safe for them. And in case of a counter attack, don't rely on them, they will simply stand still like target dummies while being shot at and, if by any chance they ripost, they'll make Stormtroopers look like sharpshooter... I'm not against some changes in the gameplay, but not when it's implanted so badly, without any coherence, trying to give a non stop action feeling while the strength of SoC was the oppressing but mesmerizing atmosphere of the Zone. Maybe I've not approached the game correctly, maybe I'll give it another chance later but for now, I'll take a break from this one. In case you're wondering why 2 stars : 1 for the enemies IA (even if their leather jackets are in adamantium and their accuracy could put to shame an eagle), they throw grenades to make you move, try to flank you...It's still solid. The other is from what I've seen of the story, which offers an interesting other perspective of the events.
First of all, sorry to give a review of a unfinished game but it was too annoying for me... Story of my life : this game was the third I bought on GOG, back in 2009, at a time when I was looking for similar games to Titan Quest (which I really liked), what remains 7 years later ? In fact sacred sums up what can go wrong with the hack'n'slash genre : it can become boring REALLY fast, especially if you don't have a good story of master the art of storytelling like Blizzard (their screenplays are not original but they know how to create a universe and hook the player in it). Here, you have various classes with different beginnings, which is an excellent idea...But it stops there. Once you have finished the tutorial, you'll find yourself dragged into...something ? Because despite its interesting world, you absolutely don't care (to remain polite) of what happens, you quickly become a zombie wandering from point A to point B, hacking mobs in search of a quest. This wouldn't havbe been a problem if the game was short (10 maybe 15 hours)... Another flaw lies in the loot : too much. Too much weapons, too much armors...Moreover you pick up pieces that are not for your class so your inventory quickly becomes a real mess (fun fact : by selling all my useless sh*t, I had more 100.000 coins around the end of act 2, so why should I care to save the world ? I was a gladiator, almost a slave and now I have enough money to buy a pretty house on the coast, so solve your problems by yourself ) To be fair there is a interesting mechanic : you can use amulets or rings on your weapon to enhance them at the blacksmith, but again the informations on the effects are too scarse to really understand what it does...Or even cares about it. Too bad, because with a more classical RPG approach (with real or turn based combats) Sacred could have been an interesting game...
I must admit, when the game was released in 2007, I was far from being convinced by the demo : I found the skill tree a mess, the combat system counter intuitive... But it became the success we know, so maybe I missed something ? SPOILER : YES ! As I finished the game, it means that I finally overcome my problems with those mechanics ? Well you guessed correctly. In fact the combat system is pretty unusual as it's a mix of hack'n'slash (you can do combos in real time) and turn based (you can pause the game to prepare a spell, a potion...). Same thing with the skill tree as it acts like a substitute for the absence of classes. Using token in intelligence will make you closer to a mage, in physical attributes to a tank... So even with an imposed character, you are free to decide what to do with it. Not to mention the alchemy system which is quite complex to handle but adds more variety to your arsenal as you can do potions (to heal, buff...but beware of intoxication !), oils (to repel specific monsters) or even...bombs. About the story, the most surprising point is that maybe for the first time, there is REALLY no black and white situation. Though I love Knights Of The Old Republic (the 2 is maybe one of my favorite RPG) and Jade Empire, playing the dark side in those games is not really interesting because you have to act like a selfish arrogant spoiled brat dips*** Here it's more subtle, as even your "good" decisions can lead to bad consequences (not necessarily because of you, but also because people around you have their own agenda)... Nontheless, the game is not perfect : the contract quests become boring quickly (it's always killing X monsters...), the secondary quests mix with the primary, which can be confusing, the romance cards are useless, the game crashes sometimes and the french subtitles miss some points of dialogue. Otherwise, I would like to conclude my review by saying that The Witcher finally bewitched me but only an idiot would say that...
Usually I'm quite stubborn when I play videogames Even if sometimes I'm a bit discouraged (when you meet Ornstein & Smough or The Bed Of Chaos in Dark Souls for example) but I keep trying...and succeed. Well most of the times. Omikron made me give up when I tried for 15 minutes to...pull a lever under water. Yes you read that. A LEVER UNDER WATER. Released in 99, this game has worse controls than Tomb Raider. In TR, when you have to activate something under water, if you are close enough, the animation will trigger. Not in this game, even if you are right in front of it. Beside that, the problem of Omikron is the hesitation of what to be : mainly exploration/ enigma oriented, the game also includes terrible hand-to-hand combats (imagine playing Tekken with a keyboard) and atrocious FPS levels (apparently nobody played Doom or Quake at Quantic Dreams -or played it but didn't understand their level design-). The same could be said of the story : it begins with an investigation about a series of gruesome murders in a futuristic (and of course dictatorial) world and quickly shift toward an esoteric gibberish with constant (and not very subtle) reminder that all of this is a videogame. No need to say that you do not really feel involved in the story... If you're looking for story-rich games that stick to their concept and set in a sci-fi universe, System Shock 2 and Deus Ex are waiting for you...
After the fourth episode and the cliffhanger of what happened in Egypt, Core Design had the idea to make a new trilogy with a refreshed gameplay : urban environments (Paris, Prague), a deeper and darker script involving a secret society, stealth gameplay (maybe inspired by Splinter Cell, released the year before) and a kind of RPG feeling with dialogs and inventory. Too bad, the developers got caught by the reality when they were pushed to finish the game in order to stick with the release of the second movie (yes there was a sequel...). So what remains of these intentions ? Nothing. You are caught by the security in the Louvre ? Just shoot the guards to make your way. The loot and money you find ? Useless since there are no merchants (we can guess you were supposed to buy weapons, items, upgrades). They also "changed" Lara Croft by making her slower, which is a good idea for a stealth/ adventure gameplay but when it come to action, it's a chore to play. For example the first boss (the "ghost" with the paintings) will make you smash your head on your keyboard while the last one can be defeated with one hand (not to mention some tedious platform sequences...). When you gather what all the pieces of what the game should have been, it deserves 4 stars, but we have to judge the final product...
