System Requirements Pentium II 450 AMD Athlon 450 AMD Duron 650 Windows 95\98\00 128MB RAM 4X CD Drive 650MB Install Size 16MB D3D DirectX Certified Video Card DirectX Certified Sound Card Da Introduction: Shiny has accomplished its primary goal with Sacrifice—to breathe new life into a tired RTS genre. Now that line may sound as reused as the C&C game design, but be assured, this one reaches much further than all the rest. Sacrifice has many additions and bends to the traditional RTS recipe, not to mention showing off 3D technology better than every game I've seen, hands down. The system requirements are rather steep, but that's to be expected of a game with this much graphical flair. Thankfully, Shiny have yet to claim they have pioneered "The next big genre in PC-gaming." They are quite comfortable simply calling Sacrifice an RTS, as stated on the side of the box. That said, this game is chalk-full of new innovations, and it really doesn't feel like anything that has come before it. Unfortunately, even with all its positive advancements, gameplay did seem to lack a certain element, stopping Sacrifice short of becoming a classic. Da Graphics: The months of preview screenshots don't measure up to how this game actually looks in motion. Sacrifice has taken the lead in graphics technology. At 800X600 in 32 bit color, the immersion factor was incredibly high. All components are tied seamlessly together; Sacrifice does not give you any chance at all to escape back to the real world. Many cutscenes (all rendered through the game engine), are blended into the action, triggered mid-level during certain times or after key events. The cartoon themed worlds work well, allowing the player to slip into Shiny's fantasy realm. Beams of sunlight break through clouds of surreal skies, stretching over hilly deformable landscapes. On an adequate system, the character models have very smooth, life-like movements. For the most part models are rich with detail, although a few have a noticeably lower polygon count resulting in blocky appearances. Frame rate was consistently high, and never bogged down during larger battles on my PIII 800/Annihilator 1 test system. This is surprising, considering the number of flashy, over-the-top special effects you are bombarded with during any battle, of any size. Da Sound: Audio is first-rate in Sacrifice. Music was ambient and creepy, enhancing mood without stealing attention. It always seems to stay in the background, at the same time managing to be quite distinctive and unusual. Shiny has done an excellent job on creating the ideal music to compliment the bizarre atmosphere of Sacrifice. Sound effects luckily are not as prominent as the visual effects, and tend to be quite low profile. They are present when needed, for spell or weapon effects, and not overdone. For this reason sound effects work well in this game. Voice acting is also top-notch; the gods are always entertaining to listen to. The only complaint is with Zyzyx, your "familiar," who becomes an annoyance during battles. He repeatedly makes obvious observations, like "Your creatures are under attack!" over and over again, when the battle is unfolding right in front of your eyes. There is no place in the options menus where you can switch this guy off. Da Gameplay: Shiny took on a large challenge, and risk, when choosing to build a 3D real-time strategy game. The last RTS to be truly successful was Starcraft. With games moving towards multi-player action or role-playing, Sacrifice needed some refreshing gameplay ideas to prove the genre had not been exhausted. In many ways they were successful. Although the story was a bit lame, it was presented very well, and it was amusing to watch the gods constantly fight over your services. Prior to each level, you must select your alliance with a certain god. With each alliance, you are granted the use of certain units and spells, which you'll always have for the rest of the game. This adds a strategic element when choosing which god to work for. The biggest addition is the concept of a main leader. This worked extremely well in Total Annihilation, although there is one main difference here —you can only view what your wizard is able to see. Since the game is third person, you may only issue commands to units in your immediate vicinity. This alone makes Sacrifice feel much different than traditional C&C clones, you tend to travel in smaller armies, sending your units to do battle while your wizard hangs back casting spells and monitoring. The spells can range dramatically in effect, and must be used strategically to win battles. For example, the Guardian spell assigns a unit to guard a structure. Your unit is instantly bound by a bright red beam to the building, and drawing energy from it is transformed into a badass life-regenerating fighter. This becomes strategic for ambushes, enticing your enemy back to one of your guarded structures. For the most part, gameplay works together well, although it can sometimes stretch on and seem repetitive. In each level, you likely will have to "Desecrate" an enemy wizard's alter, in order to have him banished. (This may happen to you as well, which will mean game over). On top of that, desecrating an enemy's alter doesn't give you the same sense of destruction when watching an enemy's base crumble during a traditional RTS match. One other issue I found with Sacrifice was the overall focus on strategy. Although the many dazzling visual effects may best demonstrate the capabilities of your new video card, they really get in the way of the battles, preventing you from seeing what's happening. On top of that, spells begin to look overdone and generic after a while. Once your creatures are in a fight, the strategic element tends to fade away. Detail from a reasonable distance drops, making it difficult to make out individual characters. It becomes tough to give orders, and sometimes, it's even hard to tell who's winning. Da Conclusion: Sacrifice is a well built, quality piece of software. We should come to expect this level of cohesiveness in game design from every developer, Shiny has proven it can be done. Even with the shortcomings in gameplay, the originality alone makes Sacrifice well worth playing. It may not keep you up through all hours of the night, but it's definitely worth a look. If your system has the horsepower, this game allows you to experience the current limits in 3D gaming technology. Graphics 9.5/10 Sound 10/10 Gameplay 7/10 Tilt 7.5/10 Test System: PIII 800 128MB RAM Kenwood 52X CD Drive Creative Annihilator Pro Creative Sound Blaster Live