Sacrifice

List Price: $49.95 Discount Price: $13.09

Accessories:
PC Gamer (1-year)	Games for Windows: The Official Magazine	Alien: 20th Anniversary Edition [Award Series]	Aliens (Special Edition)

Customer Reviews:

Oct 2006 and it's still a great game. [Posted on 2006-10-04]
I just reloaded and played this remarkable game again and it's still as fun and challenging as it was back a long long time ago. The graphics are still as strong as many of todays standards in my book. In fact it was a game ahead of it's time.

It works on XP by the way.

This is an RTS Adventure Action RPG type of game in my opinion. Each choice takes you in a different direction every mission thru mission 4. You can choose different gods up to this point and then they start to dwindle to only a few choices, some will change you back to good if you are playing evil. There are 10 missions total that I counted. The 10th mission being the grand daddy of them all and if you can beat mission 10 in one setting I will give you a cookie. I remember I beat it years ago, but, I am still having a hard time beating it again now. That's how tough it is. So, if you think you are some RTS guru I challenge you to try and beat it.

This is one of those games that needs a re-release. Not a remake, but, some new advertising and a re-release of what I feel is one of the best rts games out there. I hate rts games for the most part, but, this one is not like all the others. The resource gathering is where you are, you have to collect souls from the dead creatures of your opponent and your own souls as well from your dead creatures. There's only a couple of buildings to build (one for more energy and one for creating creatures closer to where you are on the map), there's no need for peasants or gathering wood or gold or iron or any of that silliness. It's 100% action "where you are".

Creating an army is nothing more than clicking a hotbutton provided you have the energy and the number of souls required to build them. Once again you create them where you are. You want a dragon, press hotkey and in a few seconds (spell time to cast) wallah you have a dragon where you are. You also have these little funny looking guys called nanowhores who as long as they are with you and near you will stream energy from your manoliths (this is one of the contstuction buildings) to you faster than if you didn't have them. They are really important and if they die you won't gain energy as fast to cast your spells or collect enemy souls.

One of the greatest aspects of the game is your army formations. There's so many different ways you can use it. Each unit can be told to do a specific formation for you or for any other unit. For instance I could put one strong unit in Phalanx (sp) behind me and then phalanx another unit or units behind that unit. I would usually do this to keep my manawhores well behind and out of the battle. Then you can put units in skirmish mode that will go out in front of you, then you can skirmish more units in front of those and skirmish more in front of those and on an on. You could have a continuous line of units skirmied in front of one another. You can also do line formations and semi circles and complete circles. It's unbelieveable all the different types of formations you can setup. You can also tell units to stand/guard at a specific spot, they don't always have to be in the formation. You can hotkey them in groups as well just like most rts games and give them group orders. Since many have "special abilities" it's a good idea to keep them in their own groups.

It uses the good ole rock paper scissors format in combat. And you will have to deal with superior forces from about mission 4 onward. But, if you use careful strategy and tactics you can overcome the odds in all the missions, even the 10th one.

The single player multiplayer aspect of the game is just as good. You can pick maps, even make your own and the AI is daunting and challenging in everyone of them. It's fast and relentless and it uses a progression feature thru out the mission. You'll start off with level 1-3 units then progressively go up to level 9 units. So, if you like challenging AI's this game will give it to you in the skirmish mode of play.

This game is a STEAL nowadays with the price that it is. It certainly is equal to anything being delivered out there in the RTS genre today in fun and challenge. I recommend this to anyone who might have an interest in rts and even those who HATE RTS, this is one of those I even think you will enjoy. It's just that much fun and so different from anything else out there.

I really don't understand why this game wasn't popular back when released. It was so far ahead of it's time in the way it plays. I guess the marketing wasn't strong enough or the player feedback. There were lots of rts games saturating the market at that time. It just got overlooked and shouldn't have imho. Give it a try now, you'll be glad you added it to your gaming library.

Its so Weird its Cool! [Posted on 2006-10-21]
I have just one advice to give all the kids out there!Get this game, for Christmas. Its fun, weird, and addictive! :0 trust me on this.
It a little hard to play at first, but once you get the hang of it.
Online is pretty cool to play as well.
Get it NOW!!!

Very fun and addictive game, unique concepts. [Posted on 2007-01-09]
This game is a combination of strategy and action, and a great classic. I've wasted many hours on it. The Macintosh version has some crashing bugs, however.

Shiney puts out another winner!! [Posted on 2007-08-12]
All I have to say is that this and "Messiah" are my two favorite older games that I played. In fact I'm writing this now becuase I'm going to replay them both in 2007..they are that good..Sacrifice is a must for any gamer..incredible graphics, immersive worlds and characters..can almost match games like World of Warcraft and others of its type in todays gaming world..Buy this game..way worth it!!!

Awkward controls and out-dated gameplay by 2008 standards [Posted on 2008-06-05]
This well-reviewed game hasn't withstood the years as well as some other games of the same era (Homeworld comes to mind.) I'm a great fan of strategy games, but I just couldn't get into this game.

The minimap is small and difficult to use, but it becomes a major focus of your game, as the main screen - your third person over-the-shoulder view - really only helps you in the immediate tactical fight you're in. I found it hard to visually distinguish between some types of units, and having to click on them to identify them was quite annoying.

If you're a fan of Battlezone style gameplay, then by all means, give this game a shot. But there is a reason the experimental hybrid strategy-action genre died away in 2001 or so; it just isn't as fun as a pure RTS or pure action game. Instead you've got more successful hybrids flourishing - like grand strategy / RTS hybrids (Star Wars: Empire at War, Sins of a Solar Empire), RPG / Action (Oblivion, Bioshock), or Racing / Action / RPG (Grand Theft Auto.)

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