This was one of those games that I simply missed back when it was a new release. I never recalled hearing about it at the time, and it was only much later when it appeared here that some old friends started gushing about how great it was. When they realised I never played it, they didn't give me the option of leaving it unplayed, haha. Well, I'm glad they insisted. This must have been amazing to play at its release year, because even after all this time, it holds up. Yeah, maybe it starts a little slow, and those not more accustomed to older titles might find the hop backwards in graphical fidelity a little jarring, but this is a story that can really sneak up on you. If you're looking for something fresh but with a twist of nostalgia, I'd absolutely suggest putting this high on your list of things to check out.
A passer-by might look at this game and turn their nose up at the graphics, which admittedly haven't aged very well. Once you get into the game, trust me, you won't notice. Besides, the lighting system is still delicious and the environments quickly blast away any thoughts of "ugly". Before you get into this, make no mistake, this game is difficult, but not in a "badly designed" way. This is difficult in a very deliberate "conserve your health, consider your approach" kind of way. When I recently played Dark Souls, my first thoughts were of this game. In fact I was a bit surprised that Dark Souls didn't allow you to dismember each other like this game does, but oh well. Each character you can pick has their own little narrative slant on how they got into the main storyline, and they play quite differently beyond just varying health, stamina and speed values. Particularly in their weapon proficiencies. Passing by awesome-looking weapons meant for other classes provided a strong urge to replay the game as a different character. Those who become easily lost, frustrated, or find it hard to adapt to limited control schemes should subtract a star from my score. People who simply cannot overlook the graphics should subtract half a star (but trust me when I say you will quickly come to no notice it, or better yet, like the style).
Without a doubt, this is my single most favourite older game. Quirky characters, chucklesome voice-acting, interesting missions, addictive station/layout editing. Everything hangs in a great overall balance and a silky-smooth difficulty ramp. Even the arcing station rotation feels fresh. I can only wonder why more games weren't made with such imaginative, polished, experimental themes such as this. The best way to describe this to someone who has never played, would be to ask them to imagine Theme Park, but in space, with aliens as staff and as visitors... and that your theme-park is also a hotel, a research centre, a hospital, a prison, a shopping district, a garden, a shrine, and a military base. Yep! This game does so many things right. Even managing your cargo by hand is a little joy. Rather than simply buying your desired items from the UI, you buy the blueprints (or sometimes pre-fabs) from traders, and then pick their various colour-coded crates out of a big automated rack for deployment. A big automated rack that you must also build, and can organise by hand, I might add. Maybe I am picking on all the dumbest things to talk about, but really, this game is just stuck in a giant happy haze in my mind. Man, I kinda want to go reinstall it and play it AGAIN now...
The first thing people would notice about this game is the surprising learning curve. The missions vary from tricky to brutal, but are never entirely unmanageable. Sacrifice is an RTS game played from the ground floor, as an active commander who also happens to be a summoner-mage. In this game, the main currency is souls, and every time a unit perishes, it's soul is loosened and able to be collected. The mage who owned the unit can simply scoop them up quickly by moving into close proximity, allowing them to quickly knit the soul a new body and allow it back into the fight. An opposing mage must call a sacrificial doctor to snag the soul like a helium balloon and escort it back to their base for conversion. This may sound a little contrived, but with a finite number of souls in any mission, a shift of just one or two souls can significantly effect the numbers and efficiency of an army. Made by SHINY, the characters (and voice acting) are kooky and enjoyable. One of my three top favourite oldies, and good enough to sway someone like me, who actually dislikes RTS games.
