Buy Sacrifice

I bought this game in its original big cardboard box + jewel case (who remembers those) when it was released back in 2000 (just looked in my cupboard and the cardboard box is still there ha), and man i can honestly say this is 1 of the best games i have ever played. I lost one of the discs over the years and then it popped up on my radar on offer here on Steam and i just had to pick it up.

This game probably has one of the best stories ever (not just for when it was released, but even nowadays). Obviously the graphics are dated at this stage, but back then games were made with quality, not like these days (hell looking at the cardboard box now, the effort alone put in to the art on the box is beyond anything iv seen in recent years)

If you want a game that has 5 different endings and hours of narrative story dialog. Then pick this game up. Back in those days i did not have proper internet so never truely got to try out the multiplayer, only ever managed to do skirmishes against the AI. Now that i have this again on Steam i seriously hope it has an active MP base to play with.

This is likely a classic of a game, but I cannot recommend STEAMS version because of what appears to be a complete lack of compatibility support with modern operating systems.

So if you happen to own such an operating system, be smarter than I was and go buy it from GOG.com.

Sacrifice is a game that is old, but still looks good and is perfectly playable, even online.
It is a third person perspective... RTS game :)
You play as a sorcerer who can summon creatures, order them to follow, move, attack, etc.
Your units are very unique and the best part is, they are given to you by the gods, that give you certain missions.
If you work against certain gods, you can forget about their units, but you get others instead.
And they don't behave the same, they have different skills... You can often alternate or even redeem yourself in the eyes of angered gods, which allows for a very replayable game.
The resources for summons are souls, which can be re-used for your creatures, or captured, for enemy creatures.
The AI are good, that makes the game hard. Very, very hard :)
Plus, the voice acting is kind of legendary in this game. There really is no urge to skip the lines of the gods, they are fantastic :) I played the game some time ago, but it seems like Steam version works, but doesn't offer full HD. My version had it, possibly a third party patch?

I highly recommend this game.

One of the first masterpieces I played way way back in the day. Beautiful back around the turn of the century, dated a tad now but still beautiful. Difficulty ramps up very fast after 4th fight, you'll learn or die. Very, very strategic. You MUST stay on your toes at all times.

9/10 would sac doctor again

One of the best games of all time. Many of you will skim over this because you've never heard of it, because none of your friends play it or because of its sparse store page. You shouldn't.

Sacrifice offers the best mix of tactical depth and ease of learning I have ever seen in a strategy game. You play as a wizard standing down on the field where everything happens. Any units you summon are summoned directly next to you, buildings are created only by you standing next to them (for up to 10 seconds for the largest buildings), and orders are given based on what you can personally see. This makes for a much more immersive and easy-to-grasp gameplay than most other strategy games out there where you may be queuing up orders, units and buildings; might be zoomed far enough out to be disconnected from the world but not far enough out to see any useful distance.

Furthermore, the wizards you can choose from in multiplayer (you always play as Eldred in the fully-voiced campaign) are all equal. That is, everyone you might play against has access to the exact same spells and units as you. Or rather they have access to the same choices: your spell and unit lists are fully customizable offering a massive amount of variation possible. You could have ranged units that damage over time, can go invisible, can track enemies etc. Or you could pick units based on style if you prefer and do just fine: disease-ridden monsters, aloof mythical creatures, rangers, soldiers, constructs...

This customisation is in the campaign too but in a much more organic style so that you won't have to worry about choosing units based on no previous experience. Every level of the game has 5 alternatives (one for each of the gods) and each god will try to convince you the help them for each mission. You can decide who to help on a mission-by-mission basis, picking the most interesting or beneficial mission for you. You can become unwaveringly loyal to a particular god (or a certain alliance between 2 or more gods) and only server them. Or you can decide completely randomly if you like. Every mission you take increases your pool of spells or units equally, with units and spells granted by the god you choose to work for. You can also pick up heroes along the way who will be loyal to you (unless you do something completely against their nature) and will follow you in future missions until they die or you lose their trust. Every mission you choose (and don't choose) affects future levels to varying degrees. By making a god's defence stronger you protect their territory that another god or being was after and would've been able to use in future levels. Discovering something allows the god you discovered it for use that information in future battles. Capturing a village, building, character, area etc. will give the benefits of that asset to your god (whether that be a new factory, new allies, a weakness in another god or a number of other boons). This all leads to your character and the world evolving organically in a way that's not always obvious but always makes sense. By the end of your fifth mission you'll have access to a wide variety of spells and units (and perhaps a hero or two) and certain gods will have grown or diminished in power noticeably.

All of the spells are breathtaking. From the bog-standard heal and speed-up spells you begin with which create a pleasant glow/melody and a cool-looking trail effect respectively. To the more extreme spells granted later on including tornados, volcanos, earthquakes, death-incarnate and many more. In addition, most of these spells can be cast within a couple of seconds and without stopping. This allows you to run amidst your army healing, speeding up and buffing who you need, sniping an important enemy unit (or a bunch of them) and then hiding behind your own units again within a very short period of time. A lot of these spells (and some units) scare the landscape permanently too. This makes places where small skirmishes and large battles have occurred very obvious, even after 5, 10 or 60 minutes. Scorch marks, blood stains, unnatural bumps or dips in the earth, sometimes even the earth itself has gone.

The penultimate thing will mention (even though there is so much more I could say) is that the humour in this game is incredible from start-to-finish. From the gods (voiced by Brad Garrett, Kevin Michael Richardson, Castulo Guerra, Jennifer Hale and Tim Curry) to the units (every one of which with the sole exception of the manahor (an armless, mana-dispensing bunny) has a half-dozen lines if you enjoy clicking on a unit repeatedly long enough for it to yell at you to get lost) to the wizards. This game has so much personality and not in an annoying way. The humor interlaces with the rest of the game beautifully instead of being forced like in so many other games.

Lastly, this game is worth your money and time without question. Without exaggeration I have played through the campaign seven times with a vastly different playthrough and experience each time: once following each of the gods wholeheartedly, once working for all of the gods and keeping them all as friendly with me as possible for as long as possible and once attempting to keep a pair of gods powerful and friendly with each other until the end.

At £7 it's worth it easily, at half-price (as it is at the time of this review) I can't recommend it more to everyone I know. Get it, it's awesome.

One of the less-known jewels of gaming history and one of the most innovative games ever made. The only RTS from a 3rd person view i have seen so far and it is really cool idea to stand on the battlefield and order your summoned creatures around like a true commander. Also the idea of verbal announcement of orders you are giving is really helpful and i can't imagine how chaotic the game would be without them. Big + for humour as well. The game shines in story mode as well as multiplayer for which (according to me) it was mainly made.

For all issue-oriented comments : I have Windows 7 64-bit and the game works fine so far. You just have to live with the fact that you CANNOT make the game looks like 2014 titles when its dated back in 2000. Just take a deep breath, swallow those spoiled manners of yours and play with the most suitable resolution you can use or if you are not able to do that dont buy old games.

I remember buying this game in a target bargain bin for ten dollars about 12 years ago. I was obsessed with Giants: Citizen Kabuto at the time so it took me a while to get around to it, but when I did, damn was I surprised. A great blend of RTS/Third person gaming that is fun, engaging, and incredibly unique. After playing the masterpiece of Giants, I felt so spoiled and grateful upon having Sacrifice to play. It's an amazingly fun game with an interactive campaign that changes in a multitude of ways, both subtle and dynamic, depending on the player wizard's actions. It's great fun and I'm about to jump in and play as Stratos' right hand man! I hope you decide to throw down the cash to purchase this masterpiece and if you do, I will feel jealous, because of the awe the game evokes when you play it for the first time!

This is one of the greatest Third person RTS's of all time. Sacrifice is a must play. Still highly enjoyable even with the dated graphics. Shiny Did an awesome job with this game and needs a remaster HD version or even remake it with no unit cap. I can't say enough that this game is awesome.

Best game ever, very innovative for it's time. Highly underrated game.

One of the best games ever made. A solid story backed by unique gameplay. I would love to see some sort of remake with modern graphics.

Easy my fav retro game ever :)
Fun addictive and still gr8 if you can find someone else who has it

A Game like no other, I have sunk many hours into this game well before steam was popular I great buy and a great play

Have you ever played Brutal Legend? If yes, have you heard of Sacrifice? Assuming not, Sacrifice IS one of the first and the best Action RTS hybrid titles out there, so BL's gameplay is hardly all that "innovative" (though still fun). Fun fact: Tim Curry starred in both of those games. You don't know who Tim Curry is? Go sit in the corner, you're on timeout.

Sacrifice is an incredibly bizzare and twisted game. Probably the weirdest I've ever played, aside from American McGee's Alice and The Path. The game sounds fantastic, has got a very memorable soundtrack and the voice acting is simply superb. The world and the creatures that inhabit it are quite strange, but unique and beautiful in their own way. The graphics are pretty outdated in this one though and it's something that may be difficult to overlook, especially if you're having a hard time getting engrossed into the game.

The gameplay is something that takes time to get used to and playing the (rather comprehensive and enjoyable) tutorial is a must here. As previously mentioned, it's a third person squad based game where you make formations out of your units, cast spells to aid them in battle and complete various map objectives. Whatever units and spells you acquire vastly depends on the deities you choose as the story progresses, thus making the game replayable due to the large amount of combinations that can be created.

Last but not least, game has the same oddball sense of humor you might find in titles like Earthworm Jim. Considering that Earthworm Jim was the first successful creation of (now defunct) Shiny Ent. along with Sacrifice that followed a few years later, it's not all that surprising.

This game is really, horribly underrated. But at the same time, it's not for everyone. If you enjoy the hybrid gameplay of games like Brutal Legend, Overlord or Natural Selection (to name a few, but those three are on Steam), you might as well give Sacrifice a chance.

one of the best games of its time!
and a game that passes the test of time!

+ unique gameplay
+ unique combat - big brawl
+ great solo and multiplayer
+ deformable terrain
+ great physics! (mostly for stratos creatures and spells)
+ great map editor (including the whole single player campaign)

- dated
- combat without much depht (still lots of fun though)


this game is on my all time favorite list, and i can highly recommend it!

This game deserves a remake.

A wizard fleeing from a land torn asunder, his past tinted a bloody red, finds succour in a land on the eve of war. A pawn of the gods, or chaos itself? Or perhaps no pawn at all...

Imagine a world without the internet. Imagine being alone in a room with a computer, and no internet, for several hours a day. Perhaps some of you don't need to imagine, perhaps some of you still live a life away from the madness of the net, able to sequester yourself in an insular paradise. Well, if that is the case, or perhaps you need to forget the world for a few hours and a lifetime, I honestly have to recommend Sacrifice.

I bought this game back in 2002, the first year of uni, and I have to say for about 4-6 hours of every day - before I met up with my friends, this was my world. I suppose I should have been a better student, studied more and achieved better grades. But it's very rare to be able to look *back* at a time, and say while it mightn't have been the best use of the time, you don't regret it. This game was that much fun.

Later on it was joined by staples such as Wizardry 8 and fps's i'm sure we've all played, but even throughout the next two years of my life, it still earnt its place on the shelf. It's just...an amazing game. It is still beautiful, the insane character models defying time, the gameplay still challenging and sometimes even frustrating, the spells still awesome, the gods still scheming and the action as frantic as ever.

I have yet to play a game that really catches up to Sacrifice. Like a lot of great innovative games, at the time it just didn't get to its audience. Like your system shocks or deus ex's, where decades have passed before they've been emulated and resurrected, Sacrifice fits into a niche that is hard to define. You play like a field marshall, summoning troops to your side even as you dodge incoming fire and fury, and your objective is often simply to conquer, to destroy, to cleanse. But the path to that goal is often turf-war, sneak attacks, flanking, trap-setting and straight bull-dozing through your enemies. It's a wild and wonderful ride, with an atmosphere that pulls you in almost from the first moment.

I can't recommend it enough.

A very much underdog game it got passed up by a lot of others and that truly saddened me, this game has a mix of RTS and a magical FPS system too it, you're down in the fight and controlling the units is surprisingly easy for not being above the action. The game is charmingly funny and while the story is not the most engaging thing in the world it is quite fun to play through many times over for the branching and changed story lines. Many different endings phenomenal voice acting (including Tim Curry) It is quirky fun and an overall enjoyable game and is in fact one of my favorites of all time

This game is a lot of fun. The combat and strategy elements are fast-paced and keep you on your toes without being frustrating. The music is great, the character designs are great, the writing is great, and the voice acting is great. This game does not deserve the limited exposure it got.

One of my favorite games of all time, tons of replay value in combining new unit/ability sets and a unique feel for the tug of war style RTS that everyone already knows.

This is one of the best games I have ever played. Unique mixture of RPG/RTS/TPS, which doesn't feel like almost any other game. You are a wizard, who comes to a new world and is being offered to serve multiple gods, totally 5 of them, which one you will pick is your choice and each of them has its own distinguishable personality + the voice acting is just excellent! With names like Tim Curry, Brad Garrett and Jennifer Hale.

The gameplay self revolves around collecting souls that enables you to create your own units and capturing manaliths that gives you mana regeneration to cast spells and summon creatures. The objectives vary in campaign, but is mostly focused on defeating enemy Sorcerer by desecrating their altars (casting Desecrate spell on own unit and killing enemy sorcerer), since if you only kill them, then they can ressurect.

Every time you choose to play mission in campaign, you have to pick which god you are going to side with, which grants you either specific creature/spell of that god or both, meaning each god has 9 Creatures and 9 Spells that you can combine. Some creatures and spells have similar concepts, but each has specific visuals and/or twist, which provides huge variety and replayability, although I personally think Pyro is the most powerful one.

The campaign also provides interesting story with some quite nice twists, it's indeed not the anything extremely extrodinary, but I still like the story regardless. The best part is that you can side with different gods with each gameplay, thus playing from different point of view, making it look like multiple different storylines. Every god has also specific personality, based off elements. Nature/Life + Ground/Rocks/Earth + Air/Ice + Fire/Machines/Technology + Death/Decay.

The graphics looks quite good for it's time (2000!), especially thanks to the character designs I've talked about earlier, but Sacrifice was also one of first games to use anti-aliasing, terrain change and other advanced technologies, which actually makes it feel more like 2004-2006 game, which is quite an extrodinary achievement, so kudos to developers.

Still, despite being accepted extremely well by critics and being called one of the best games of the year, the game didn't sell well. It probably was due to many factors, but one of the main ones would be that it was quite performance depending game and only top PC setups of its time could run it propetly, making it sort of Crysis of its time, thus the actual market for the game quite tiny and the Shiny (company that developed Sacrifice) ended up in huge losses and never recovered, which is personally kind of ironic, since I consider this one of best games ever made to this day.

In conclusion, Sacrifice is worth not only playing, but also replaying. It is one of most unique games that works flawlessly, the designs looks amazing and characters are extremely memorable, with great writing and voice acting, it is a gem that we should treasure, not only for its quality, but also for the efford it took everyone to make it. The developers put everything they had into this game and I only wish they had opportunities to make more great games. So buy and play this game, because it actually has, I dare to say it, soul!