Prefect continuation for the Sacred game but the immeasurable hack-and-slash is the thorn between the two Sacred roses.
Graphics: 8
Sounds: 8
Value: 7
Tilt: 7
Actual score: 7.2
When Sacred entered the ever-so-crowded action RPG scene back in 2004, it became a pretty big hit especially in Europe. Tagged as a Diablo clone, Sacred still managed to carve itself as another contender due to its innovations and considering the good success it had, there was little doubt the continue saga will be announced. So within a year Sacred Underworld was unleashed to the world with more monsters, items, quests and locations in addition two playable characters being the Dwarf and the Daemon.
On the surface, Sacred Underworld feels just like Sacred as the story continues immediately thereafter where Sacred left off (and I won't say how it ends otherwise I will spoil it for you). Yet the immediate changes that will come about are the minimum level requirements being twenty five and the two additional characters (Dwarf and Daemon); thus far everything else from the menus all the way down to the controls themselves remains the same (and so it should be as it was very easy to manage).
To those who's familiar with the Sacred lore, the two new characters the dwarf and the daemon plays an important part of the history of Ancaria as the dwarves should be totally annihilated from the face of the world and the daemons are the servants of all things bad so introducing these two characters creates a fresh approach to the game play. Yet, if you prefer to keep your original Sacred character, can be easily import into Sacred Underworld with all items tacked (as long they are at least level twenty five). Lastly like any good RPGs, if you are impatient you can still play Underworld using only the two new characters.
Once entering the new lands of Ancaria, even though the controls are practically untouched, the entire landscapes feels different, almost alien-like. Your character will trot through ancient Dwarven municipalities, skirting above the tree lines through the Dryad's forest, scuttle through moon-like fungi infested countryside, catch a ray or two on Pirate Isles, witness the undead city of Darkwood and even tread carefully through the barren regions of Hells' Ridge and the Valley of Tears therefore human settlements are pretty much a rarity. Coming to think of it, any settlements is a sign of relief so cashing in those items stashed in your backpack needs careful planning otherwise it will fill up before you can say 'golly gee'.
Graphically, and considering a year after its release still looks beautiful; 2D backgrounds with 3D characters seamlessly interact with each other with little reload time. In addition the attention to detail is still evident as really pays to explore the vast lands to see more of those peculiar locations (e.g. someone getting hanged, demon sacrificial alters and even those little park benches being placed in an odd location) will guarantee a quizzical thought in your mind.
Similar to graphics, the quality of sounds hasn't changed much from the original Sacred game yet this does not mean it's a bad thing as the eminence is by far beautiful. That said, it really pays to invest in a decent pair of headphones or surround sound speakers as the game can support 3D sound effects. Imagine the sounds of battle going from one speaker to another as you hear the thuds, screams, squeals and anything imaginable right down to the footsteps, spells and the occasional flutter of birds to say the least. The musical scores are nothing short but divine but sadly the combat sequence can be very repetitive as warfare will take up most of your playing time and just like Sacred, the voice acting still remains poor.
There's plenty of things to do in Sacred Underworld and just like its predecessor, you are free to roam the vast countryside without any 'invisible' barriers. Yet this can turn out for the bad as a wrong turn could spell disaster as the re-spawning of monsters are more frequent and considering the minimum level being twenty five, there's no weak critters about. This unfortunately is the downside to Sacred Underworld as even the devotees of hack-and-slash can only take so much. For example, it took me fifteen minutes to move from one side of the screen to the next as there are way too many 'boss' equivalent monsters bunched up in one area and really doesn't make any sense. Maybe the developers regarded this a challenge – I call this a royal pain in the rear side.
Yet, Sacred Underworld has an additional act (Act V) which consists of over twenty main quests and over fifty side quests so there's no real arguments about the extra material presented in this game. That said, you can easily clock up thirty plus hours however (and sadly so) add another fifteen plus hours of hacking your way through the countless of monsters.
Sacred Underworld is a prefect continuation for the original Sacred game as the story is so well interlocking as you may discover 'hints' from the original Sacred that just didn't appear at all (e.g. the Nuk-Nuk, the Dwarven ruins, the Pirate's Cove, the Dryad's forest and so forth). Thankfully the expansion pack was released with these 'rumours' squashed as there will be many times you will experience that nostalgic feeling when seeing or visiting these 'rumoured' areas. However the downside is the repetitive combat is far too much to handle as the critters are not only ramped up but re-spawning all too frequent; so it's the immeasurable hack-and-slash is the thorn between the two Sacred roses.