Recent reviews by shrewdlogarithm

This is pretty terrible

Career consists of trying to win races in a car which is too-slow against AI which cheats (driving THROUGH stuff)

Traffic "appears out of nowhere" (spawning in plain sight STATIONARY!)

Scenery pops-up all-over-the-place (been a while since I noticed that nit a game)

The music loop even has an obvious glitchpoint!!

I'd skip this if I were you...

First-up - I love how it looks and sounds and if it was just a BIT better designed as a puzzle, it would be great.

It has a stack of issues tho - most of which mean it comes over as too-random/a crapshoot.

We need SOME idea of the 'next piece' as with Tetris, without that the game has zero strategy

Same-color-pieces which would have made a combo break-off and don't always get matched - this is really naff (Tetris matches on hit - and again on split)

The game gains speed quickly but movement speed slow so after no-time you'll have NO chance of moving a piece before it hits and it's game over (again, Tetris worked around this well)

We NEEED a 'reverse controls' option - even after a dozen games I was still moving the wrong way!

Please enable the sticks on a pad - the DPad is worse than using the keyboard!!

tl;dr looks nice, sounds nice but doesn't play that well right now

This is poorly made first-person puzzle with not a single idea of it's own - it cribs from Portal and Magrunner without being anywhere near as polished as either.

Graphics are 'crusty' or 'flat' looking, transitions between puzzles are slow and boring (and often lengthy), physics are dodgy-as-hell with things sticking in the floor/walls and there's NO RESTART for a puzzle (you have to quit and restart an area from scratch)

The story is staggeringly unoriginal, the voicework is poor and the dialogue they're speaking is awful (and it's repeated EVERY time you restart an area)

Worst-of-all, the magnet gun is just too random - it works 'when it feels like it'. Jumps are moody (and often lead to deadly drops) and the game has 2-way physics meaning 'pulling' something towards you also "pulls" you towards it (which when you're standing on a small platform over a deadly drop is really, really unfunny)

After a while I realised I'd rather not be playing a game at all that play anymore of this...

This is another 'maybe recommend or maybe don't' so I'm going with 'recommend' but I want to disclaimer it a bit.

Most important, Sacred 3 is not a DIablo 2-style ARPG like the earlier Sacred games - it's more an arena/ stage brawler with a fixed progression of unlockable gear.

The menus - esp the stuff for upgrading your characters - are seriously obscure - I found how to buy upgrades more than luck than anything else!!

The writing varies from sharply witty to massively crass with reckless abandon. Some of the dialog is absolutely CRINGEWORTHY - some of the VO work is so similar I've no idea who's talking (and frankly I wish they'd just shut-up most of the time)

Online play seems to end/disconnect/crash quite a bit - so I stopped trying that tbh, it's playable solo so...

There's fun to be had but it's an odd package - maybe wait for a deep sale and then think twice and then - if you still fancy it - go for it.

This game teases with 'control is unique' and cautions it may take time to master.

I've certainly not seen a game which used your weapon as your only means of movement - kinda like the XKCD 'flying with AK47s' thing if you like - it's quite novel and it actually works!

Levels mix skill and puzzles quite well, tho they like making you learn their layout by rote because they'll often close-off any retreat/further exploration.

It's challenging, fun and a original tho - what more can you ask?

p.s. another way of thinking of it is "you get to shoot lasers or stars out of your ass" - this may appeal to some people? :)

First 2 hours and my review was super-positive, I like what the game does and how it does it BUT

There are some issues and the developer hasn't bothered in read the forums or respond to emails so I have to assume they're issues which aren't going-away anytime soon...

Mission Mode is a lovely idea, however missions can come in combos which are VERY hard to beat (more luck than skill) and 1 or 2 combos are plain impossible. If you get such a combo, your only option is to either play the game until you get lucky or hack the mission XML file to change the missions you're playing - neither is what I'd expect to do to complete a game.

Everytime you kill an enemy the game pauses/shakes the screen. This is fine when there are a few enemies, but when there are lots the game becomes a stutterfest and it's almost impossible to control your ship/avoid hitting stuff.

Whether a controller works or not seems random - restarting sometimes fixes it. A controller is advisable here - being able to sneak or dash is key to completing missions - so it's a pain having to restart the game a few times to make it work.

Some achievements seem reluctant to unlock - most are REALLY hard so it's even more demoralising when they fail to trigger.

As I said earlier, it's a fun concept but it needs a BIT of polishing/some bugfixes and - well - doesn't seem like the developer plans to do any

There's a very charming game of discovery and exploration in here - I think - I've hit a few snags but I'm slowly figuring-out what's going on.

In my first run I met a triangle who wanted to be my friend - some higsaw pieces who I reunited and some octopus-looking-things which glowed for - well - I've no idea but I intend to find out!

My only grumble is that dying = losing money which would be OK if that wasn't money 'lost forever' from that 'universe' - meaning your progress in that 'universe' was just stunted a bit. Every reload is a 'new universe' too - which solves the money thing but then breaks the exploration thing and

I'm still enjoying it ;0

I enjoyed most of my time with The Ball - it's original, the puzzles are decent and throwing a massive ball at zombies never gets boring...

It's not flawless tho - there are some issues to be aware of

The view angle/FoV gives me motion sickness after a while - it's quite odd and most common in more open areas - it's kinda 'fisheyed' - YMMV

The levels are vast - which is nice but more-than-half of that is usually filler and you'll just end-up walking a LOT

Savepoints are rare and progress is easily lost - it will even tell you that you've completed something but not save it. Whether it's poor design or just a bug is hard to tell - that's it's been there for years makes the developers look bad IMO tho.

Some of the first-person platforming is grim/fiddly and frankly we could live without it

Summary: There's plenty to do and most of it is fun - if I could just walk a BIT less and feel a BIT less sick and have my progress saved properly it would be top notch.

As is, it's a recommend but make sure you have time to complete a level (in some cases 20-30 mins) because the game probably won't save halfway because - well - who'd want that? ;(

This game is a massive, massive turd - avoid it at all possible costs...

The world feels like a stage set, the enemies are dumb-as-cheese, bosses cheat like crazy, hit-detection is random-to-non-existent, movement (as a Warrior at least) is like aerobics for the elderly yet that heavy armour is apparently made of string given it's inability to protect you.

Not only would I refund this if I could - if there was a button on my desk which would take it out of existence entirely I'd gladly press it in the full knowledge I'd be doing the world a favour.

Anyone remotely connected to the creation this game should be ashamed - and consider a career in ANY other field but gaming...

Firstly I want to say that this game has potential and could be an interesting twin-stick 'Diablo'-style game - there's plenty of options, upgrades, variations in the levels - some good ideas in there.

Problem is it has some design issues which cripple it as it currently stands - they make the game hard to play, hard to enjoy and are all fundamental design issues which no amount of practice or upgrading will fix.

Biggest issue - there's too much clutter/debris on-screen and it's not clear what's harmful and what isn't. Harmless debris obscures enemies (in particular, enemy spawns) and generally makes it impossible to see what's going on. This is a fundamental failing in a shooter.

Controls are less-than-ideal and there's zero options to customize em. You have a switchable primary, secondary, charge shot, utility and super weapon. Some weapons are 'aimed' and some lock - some need triggering - 10 fingers per hand required!! SOME rationalization/customization would be welcome here too!

Lastly for now, it's also crashed a couple of times - game continues but controls stop working - maybe my multi-monitor setup or something but it's not ideal.

So right now I can't recommend it. If the developer wants to address the 'visual confusion' and offer some control customisation it might be worth another peek but I suspect it's going to remain gimped by being 'too busy' in both looks, controls and weapon options...

Shame but that's how it is right now