I remember playing this back when Shiny was a name to pay attention to. Yet I simply could not get over the interface, I could see it wanted me to play an RTS, but it all felt so clumsy. On a console this would be the only way to play, and indeed we’ve seen other games, such as RPGs, have success on the console by moving from an overhead to a 3rd person view.

The Graphics are / were breathtaking – the first time you see the spiralling beanstalks reaching to the strange coloured sky, you know you are in another world. There hadn’t been any game that had featured such amazing world destruction as the volcano and mole that could be cast by your avatar. The characters, for the most part, were pretty easy to differentiate, and the grouping was sufficient (not perfect by any stretch of the imagination).

I also firmly believe that Sac proved that a strategy game could have minimal resource gathering (but what a brilliant mechanic – you could always stop the enemy’s witch doctors, and speed up yours etc) and the trade off between souls and mana (manahores) early on was always a difficult one. The third person view gave such an immediate feeling to the action – you WERE amongst it. The disorientation felt when in a massive battle was completely fitting, but if you wanted to be safer, and have more of a standard top down view, you could run to the top of a hill and zoom out.

As mentioned in the article, the characters, especially of the gods were amazing. Tim Curry playing Stratos and also the voice work of Zyzyx (not sure the actor’s name) just made the game feel so alive.

Yes, I am a bit of a fan boi – but for those who have never played it, and like the idea of a magical themed action RTS with great characters and brilliant story, check it out.

Re the visuals, I like the look of the game very much but there’s no denying that it doesn’t make things easy on you. Can you tell a sylph from a druid from 100 paces? Not easily. Control groups are not simply convenient in Sacrifice – they help you keep your units separate.

But the colors are great, the conceptual art design is original and brilliant and no other game was quite so creative. Giants, btw, was a game that I wanted to write about for this series for the very visuals. I decided to pass on it, though.

I couldn’t disagree more strongly about the visuals by the way. Together with Giants:Citizen Kabuto this game stands out to me as one that has stood the test of time through inspired design and a scaling engine. It looked great back then and I still find its presentation of the world appealing.