Sacrifice

"Shiny has done it again with unique ideas on magecraft and creature summoning, but it is desecrated to the evil pit of the underrated..."

Don't think this is another WarCraft or other fantasy RTS game. Unlike its ''peers'', Sacrifice is able to reach high ground to escape the flood of the norm. Shiny has crafted a stellar story and cast, with twists and turns to keep you hooked. It is unfortunate that it falls into the pit of the underrated classics that were before their time. Sacrifice now lives on with fans and the impressive polish of the game. Maybe it is for the best that there never will be a Sacrifice2 that would have been defiled and desecrated by one of the uncreative gaming empires. May Eldar rest in peace with his little imp knowing that he did his best.

The Controls of Sacrifice are spot on with you being able to bind buttons to spells and creature summons, along with a wide assortment of movement and other commands. While the movement and spell casting controls may be overwhelming at first for a new player, soon, very soon, the slick controls will have you casting with the best.

Gameplay is story mode style with you playing Eldar, a now wandering wizard that stumbles on a new world with powerful and speaking deities that wield influence in the different sections of the world and worshiped by peasants and zombies of the world and this worship sustains them. The story has five paths to take, each path represented by a god(or the goddess) in which you go tasks for the disembodied gods and also invade other god's homes and realms for the glory of your god. There are two sides (at first), the ''good'' side of James,Stratos and Persephone, and the ''bad'' side of Pyro and Charnel. Each path has different stories and heroes you gain. Heroes enhance your army with powerful ablities and firepower, but once they die, they die for good (unless you have animate dead or the like.) Gamplay is smooth and seem less with all the paths ending the same way, but with a different finial sequence (I won't say more cause it would spoil the fun!)

The Sound of Sacrifice is top notch with impressive voice acting. Each god and heroes and even heroes and units sound very different from each other, with even the roar of a dragon can be heard in the heat of battle. Sound effects are solid but somewhat weak in places, although rock hitting flesh sounds like it should.... The Music fits like a glove most of the time with very few flaws or loopholes. Battle music is dramatic and uplifting and each realm of a God has very different music.

The Graphics of Sacrifice are stellar, with huge and distinct creatures, free form terrain of each God's realm, and very impressive building textures. Each ulimate or last spell of each god's arsenal fill the sky with ash and lava, sky high impaling plants, hurricane winds, glowing Death trails, and even trailing spirals that create instant abysses. Other spells warp the terrain itself, adding another aspect to the game. You can control the texture and detail levels and if you set the detail on low there is warping which hurts the game's graphics for low end computer players.

Replayablitiy is somewhat high with so many little details in each god's path its fun to replay sacrifice once or twice, and being able to save your custom spell book and use it online is great but underused feature. The different wizard skins add flair to online play and its always a treat to blast people with Acheron's Death. Fear the soulless one!

The Game Art of Sacrifice is pretty well done with impressive creature designs and building layout. The gods themselves look great and the overall work is great, but pales in contrast to the greatness of Final Fantasy's Game Art for one. Still the game art gets the job done very nicely and I salute Shiny's artists for that.

Conclusion is that Sacrifice is a awesome game but terribly underrated. The creativity and unique ideas give Sacrifice the edge with its blending of elements to create a different beast in the end. I highly recommend you buy Sacrifice, its low price makes it a winner and the gods won't be around forever if their champion Shiny is desecrated? Can they return in the end?

My review by the numbers:
Controls-8
Gameplay-9
Sound-9
Music-7
Replayablility-6
Game Art-7
Overall-9 (not the average)

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 04/12/03, Updated 04/12/03