Sacred 3 Review (Xbox 360)

by Jim Smale · Published August 1, 2014 · Updated January 7, 2022

Our Sacred 3 Review takes on this arcade Hack ‘n’ Slash game for up to four players, set in the war for Ancaria. Choose from legendary heroes and fight together against the rise of evil. You will face hordes of grimmocs, brute beasts, legions of mercenaries, and undead wizards.

Sacred 3 Review (Xbox 360) Pros:

Good graphics with some gorgeous levels/locations. Big bright colors and some really good animations and actions of the characters.
Orchestral soundtrack.
Controller support.
A healthy selection of video options like AA, v-sync, resolution with multiple FPS options.
Five controller layout options or you can go fully custom and pick your own layout.
Default controller presets are comfortable and easy to learn/use.
Three characters to pick from, each one is unique in a particular field like ranged or melee.
Opening tutorial section with constant reminders throughout the game unless you turn off hints.
At the start, three difficulty options are available with your general easy, normal and hard. You can then unlock higher difficulties again like legendary.
Diablo-style game in regards to a dungeon crawling ARPG.
Local drop-in and out co-op.
Online co-op for up to 4 players, you can set the room to the public, friends only,invite-only, or people close to your level. You can see the host connection strength and the difficulty level of the room. you can also set up auto mute if you feeling particularly anti-social.
Players will have a colored ring around the character’s base to help identify each other.
Steam achievements.
Steam cloud save.
Autosaves at regular intervals and always saves upon exiting the game.
Nice hand-drawn cut scenes.
Checkpoints are plentiful.
Combo counter which grants bonus damage/rewards, not to mention a humorous shout-out from your character.
Enemies will drop money and pick-ups upon death.
Execution moves are when an enemy is down but not out, Killing an enemy with execution will not only give you a visual feast as you jump in the air to your foe but also reward you with bonus money.
Earn exp from killing enemies and doing missions, Use your exp to level up and unlock new abilities and items/weapons.
The hub is a world map where you can choose your own path in a way with its branching routes.
Story missions will flash, side missions will be grayed out until completed, red areas are areas where you can go there, But you don’t meet the minimum level requirement and will have a harder time but earn more money and exp.
Side missions are varied and have icons to identify what type they are, There are set areas where you must travel through it and kill everything with a huge payoff at the end. Other ones can be arena battles where you face off against increasingly difficult enemies. one huge benefit to doing side missions aside from exp and money.
The right stick is a shortcut wheel to items you can activate with the up direction on the d-pad. items here are things like health regen boost, faster movement, or take less damage for x amount of time.
Find chest in secret/hidden areas to get bonus money and pick-ups.
You can buy items from the shop when on the loading screen.
Big boss fights at the end of every level with a big intro scene and borderlands-style splash screen.
Equipment you wear upgrades as you play and increases its buffs.
humor throughout.
At the end of every level, you get a final score tally, Notification of any unlocked items or upgrades.
Gameplay is fast and frantic.
Huge selection of enemies with loads of different attacks like magic, charge attacks, or shielded guys who need a special move to breakthrough.
Hours of gameplay to be had and even more on top if you do all the side missions that are littered throughout the game world.
you have an AI soul companion, They never fight on-screen with you but grant you extra buffs, New souls can be unlocked by collecting soul shards in-game, You can’t miss them so don’t worry too much.
Each companion has a plus and a negative effect on you.

Sacred 3 Review (Xbox 360) Cons:

The humor is too much, If it isn’t creepy innuendo remarks or cringe-inducing jokes, The game just makes a mockery of the story, the game, and the player.
The story isn’t much to write home about as it is very cliche but the way in which it is delivered makes it instantly forgettable.
Initial use of the upgrade tree system is confusing and it’s not helped by the fact that the icons for new unlocks won’t go even when you buy the upgrade.
Gold and pickups disappear after a really short time.
The exp level system is a long-winded affair with it taking an age to level up to the good stuff.
Slow starter for the first few hours as you get used to the mechanics and struggle to build your exp up.
No proper pause button, The game continues to play even when in solo offline play.
You have a guide/narrator with you to tell you what to do and where to go in a level, they will go on and on and on and on for you to hit the objective. This is annoying as you want to look around the level and they get louder and more constant.
Too much hand-holding in the game, you always have plentiful pick-ups even on the higher difficulties, the levels are designed in a way so you cannot get lost.
Too many doorways and alcoves that look like you can go through them but you cannot.
No AI companions to help you.
not open world at all and instead is just a corridor following a set-piece.
the voice acting is really cheesy and the script doesn’t help.
No proper looting mechanic in the game. you only get new items when you level up and even then it’s only a handful of weapons/items. Enemies only drop coins and globes. it turns the game into just one big coin picker-upper simulator.
Set pieces are repeated in every level and sometimes are used multiple times in a level. For example, rocks falling from the sky are in every level, turning a wheel 6 times whilst fighting off waves of enemies is in every level.
Gameplay gets all too repetitive after a while and every level plays out the same, fight a few minions, get some dialogue, fight a few tougher minions, find a secret area, find a bigger foe than a set-piece usually the wheel turning and then wave after wave of minions than a boss fight. rinse and repeat.

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