Sacred (2004)
Sacred is a 2004 role-playing (rpg) video game made by Ascaron Entertainment and Linux Game Publishing.
Ancaria is overrun, and it wants a hero. Sacred is a hack-and-slash action RPG in the Diablo mold, set in an open fantasy kingdom besieged by orc hordes, undead legions, demonic beasts, and dragons. You pick a champion, a gladiator, a seraphim, a battle mage, a dark elf, and carve through waves of monsters across a large seamless world, hoarding loot and levels along the way. Ascaron built it for the click-to-kill crowd, favoring fast combat, deep item hunts, and horseback travel over intricate storytelling. It is comfort food for players who want a big map and an endless supply of things to slay.
Quick answers
What is Sacred about?
Ancaria is overrun, and it wants a hero. Sacred is a hack-and-slash action RPG in the Diablo mold, set in an open fantasy kingdom besieged by orc hordes, undead legions, demonic beasts, and dragons. You pick a champion, a gladiator, a seraphim, a battle mage, a dark elf, and carve through waves of monsters across a large seamless world, hoarding loot and levels along the way. Ascaron built it for the click-to-kill crowd, favoring fast combat, deep item hunts, and horseback travel over intricate storytelling. It is comfort food for players who want a big map and an endless supply of things to slay.
When was Sacred released?
Sacred was released on 19 March 2004.
Who made Sacred?
Sacred was made by Ascaron Entertainment, Linux Game Publishing and Red Ant Enterprises.
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Explore Sacred guides
Sacred in our writing
- Companion guide: The European RPG: Gothic, The Witcher and the Continental School
A few thoughts on Sacred
This is Diablo's cousin, so anyone who loves loot-driven dungeon crawling should feel at home. On screen its monster-choked dark fantasy echoes Game of Thrones and the dragon-heavy House of the Dragon. For a soundtrack to slay by, the operatic doom of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack suits the endless hordes.
Kingdoms besieged by monster hordes on every horizon
Sacred drops its hero into an Ancaria overrun by orc hordes, undead legions, and dragons, with no goal beyond surviving the next wave. Skyrim floods its own province with dragons and bandits at every turn, God of War pits you against Norse monsters on a similar scale, and Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon both build kingdoms under siege from creatures far bigger than any army.
Metal and orchestral scores for an endless dungeon crawl
Sacred's hack-and-slash loop rewards players who want a big map and an endless supply of things to kill, the kind of grind that wants heavy music behind it. Judas Priest's Painkiller and Moonspell's IX Equilibrium bring metal weight, Fates Warning's The Spectre Within and King Crimson's prog carry the same dark intensity, and the Return of the King soundtrack scores that same scale of fantasy war.
Fantasy epics about riding into a land overrun by darkness
Sacred's champion rides across Ancaria clearing out demonic beasts and undead armies one region at a time. Oathbringer and Brisingr both follow riders and warriors pushing back a darkness that keeps spreading, Wizard and Glass follows a gunslinger's long war against corruption, and Redwall's woodland heroes fight their own vermin horde with the same never-ending resolve.