The land of Ancaria is in turmoil; Daemon lead armies of Undead roam the south, Orcs are forced into the once peaceful lands of man and renegade humans act to maximise their profits. Against them stand the remnants of the once proud human armies, a few supporting races and, of course, that one special person who is fated to hold the future of mankind in the balance.

So it is that your character enters the world of Ancaria. Troubled by dreams of destruction, you play one of six characters whose aim it is to save the forces of good from this impending doom. As with the host of other RPGs, Sacred offers the basic choice of character types, such as specialising in hand weapons, magic, ranged attacks or stealth. However, the game also introduces two more types, the bloodthirsty vampiress and the pure Seraphim.

Of all the roles available, the one I found most enjoyable to play was the Vampiress. By day her form of knight protects her from the sun but away from the sun's rays or in times of great danger her vampire form can be released. Both are highly capable warriors, yet differ greatly in their abilities. As a knight all normal weapons can be used but many of the special abilities are withheld. In vampire form weapons are useless and you must attack your enemies with tooth and claw, plus a host of abilities available such as summoning beasts or creating thralls. In contrast, the Seraphim is a servant of the gods, able to call on her power to blast her opponents with lightning and electric bolts before finishing them with her sword. Whilst lacking the complexity of the vampire, she fills the gap between the roles of mage and warrior, not powerful in either aspect but able to reach a good medium. It's worth stating that the choice of character has very little effect on the main story, be it for money, honour or just a whim, you will always have to talk, help or aid the same key people in the same order.

Instead of the complex character handling of many D&D computer games, Sacred has created characters that only become more individual as the game progresses. As with most RPGs the quickest way to gain levels and get stronger is through monster genocide and completing quests. With increased level each character can either improve their current skills or get new abilities, such as riding, use of multiple weapons and so on. This gives the player many possible types of character from the fixed starting choices, yet all these skills aid either movement or attack, as this game is very much hack and slash in nature and diplomacy is always conducted by the sword.

The control system will be easily identified by anyone who has played Diablo. All controls are mouse-based, with a choice of either basic or special attacks. Where Sacred tries to offer a new twist is the use of combos, which links special attacks into supposedly unstoppable attacks. However, it does have its problems. The idea of surrounding yourself with blades of light, leaping into a group of monsters and dispatching them with a flurry of blows should appeal to any would-be hero, but in reality by the time combo has been initiated the enemy is upon you, rendering many of the available moves useless. This means that, in practice, the hundred or so possible combinations for each character quickly drops to five or six possible combinations consisting of the same two or three special moves. This does not mean the moves are not spectacular, just a bit of an anti-climax.

It is into the world of Ancaria that the designers seem have to put the most effort and this has an instant impact. The graphics are highly detailed and maintain their clarity even when zoomed to maximum. This is all the more impressive when you realise that all the items within the game have been individually created, so when your character wears a helmet embedded with blue gems, that is what you see. Unfortunately it is almost impossible to play the game at maximum zoom and so generally the detail is lost in the normal playing of the game. The same level of detail is also present with the creatures that inhabit Ancaria, each is well detailed but again tends only to be targeted when at a further distance. When coupled with the fact that most of the larger creatures, such as dragons, also have ranged attacks the only chance of survival is to fight them on furthest zoom. However, this seems to detract little from the game as against these creatures you'll be too busy dodging flames and blows to notice.

The designers have also tried to increase the realism of the game but this has been less successful. For instance, villagers are scared of the monsters that infest the countryside and hide in their homes if the monsters attack, but unless one enters the town they are quite happy to stay outside all night and let their children play in the fields. Although this might seem petty there are worse faults. Spells from one side only effect their opponents, so bandits step unharmed through meteor storms or dragon breath whilst the player and their allies burn. Also, all but the strongest creatures seem to have a chance of duplicating during combat. This is not too much of a problem when facing Orcs or bandits but can get very annoying when fighting giants or other powerful creatures.

It is now that I reach the greatest problem of the game, that of bugs. On the Sacred website they have an entire forum dedicated to the bugs that are present within the game. The game suffers from quests that cannot be completed, problems with the riding of horses and moves that leave your character attacking scenery, to name a few. To their credit, Ascaron are planning to set right these problems. The website actively sets out to find errors so that they can be rectified, which makes a nice change over some other companies that seem never to admit any problems, however to release a game with so many significant bugs in the first place seems a little premature.

Sacred is a game that I would recommend to all those who love RPGs. It may not contain the range of character manipulation available in other titles but it does create a wonderful world in which to hack and slash your way to glory. The sheer size of the game and the time it will take to play through should keep the average player occupied for months and it moves with a steady pace that should keep most players interested. It doesn't add much to the genre but it does start to fill the void between hack and slash games such as Diablo and those of the D&D series. The issue of bugs could be made incidental depending on the patches released and when this happens the main reason for not getting this game disappears.

Reviewed by Owen Lloyd for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).