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Nothing sacred

This is the music review of
Underworld (2005).

Sacred dates back to 2004 and is therefore officially old - which doesn't bode well for me, as I was born in 1992. But unlike many other games from that time, even back then Sacred had already looked out of date and the years really haven't done the German Diablo clone any good visually. Ironically, I would still prefer to play the progenitor again today instead of the successors, of which the third game in particular should only have a few fans. However, if you want good hack-and-slay, you're better off with other series and probably even better with the genre primus Diablo.

Unfortunately, this impression also continues with the music. The official soundtrack comprises 17 tracks by Dag Winderlich, the composer of the German developer studio Ascaron, which went bankrupt in 2009 and was known for games such as the soccer simulation On the Ball or business simulations à la Port Royale. What comes out of the speakers here is good to mediocre, off-the-peg fantasy music the likes of which could serve as stock music. Example: Welcome Home. Even when you listen to it again, nothing sticks in your head and I say that as someone who has even played the game that goes with it.

Here and there you can sense exciting ideas, but they are not pursued. This comes to mind, for example, in Arachnophobia , where the driving percussion drums are accompanied by electric guitar and you ask yourself the whole time: "And now? When will the climax come?" - and then the song ends. Too bad, I would have liked to be able to declare it a little gem, but it's not even good enough for the podium. Maybe I'm being a bit too critical, but that's my opinion. By the way, I came across this article on RPG-Fan for my research - if you would like to hear an opposing opinion, you are welcome to read it. As always, you can find the rest of my rating in the table below.

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Nostalgia warning

The rating of the individual tracks is purely subjective and clearly colored by my own experience with the game. You can find out more in the article About Nostalgia.

No.	Title	Artist(s)	Ratings
01	Ancaria's Soul	Dag Winderlich	4
02	Depths of a Dungeon	Dag Winderlich	3
03	The Orcs	Dag Winderlich	3
04	Crossing the Border	Dag Winderlich	3
05	Don't Be Afraid	Dag Winderlich	5
06	Hunter and Hunted	Dag Winderlich	4
07	Dark Forest of Tyr-Fasul	Dag Winderlich	4
08	Dragon's Flight	Dag Winderlich	4
09	Daemons of Ancaria	Dag Winderlich	4
10	Arachnophobia	Dag Winderlich	4
11	Recovering After a Battle	Dag Winderlich	3
12	Welcome Home	Dag Winderlich	4
13	Voice of the Blade	Dag Winderlich	3
14	Night of the Skeletons	Dag Winderlich	3
15	DeMordreys Crusade	Dag Winderlich	3
16	Volcano	Dag Winderlich	3
17	The End	Dag Winderlich	4
	The Amazon Archer [Bonus]	The Vyllies	3

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Underworld

I don't remember if I ever got into the regions that were added in Underworld . Basically, I only remember that the expansion introduced the playable classes Dwarf and Demon to the game. As with the main game, the fascination for me came from the co-op aspect, and you can only play a hack and slay for as long as the other player wants to. Or, as in my case at the time, is in the same room as the PC I brought with me. After all, my parents didn't have internet access back in 2005, so we inevitably had to play on a LAN. Anyway, I probably didn't miss much anyway.

"But those who really miss out are those who haven't listened to the soundtrack", you could say, if it weren't for the music for Sacred Underworld . For the addon, Matthias Steinwachs was assisted by composer Dag Winderlich, which in my opinion did not affect the core of the score (or score core) in any way. Cobbler sticks to his last and Sacred sticks to its lack of motifs. The melodies go straight into the ear and out again without an interlude, nothing really sticks.

What is remarkable is that the composition manages to sound more old-fashioned than games from the same year. In 2004, for example, the fantastic Star Wars: Knight of the Old Republic, the still popular World of Warcraft, Sid Meier’s Civilization IV or Sims 2were released. Presumably an attempt was made to copy the style of Matt Uelmen and the Diablo-series, but these also came out in 1996 (Diablo) and 2000 (Diablo II) , which is still at least five years earlier!

Now you could describe the soundtrack as 'underground' in reference to the name Sacred Underworld, but that would be unfair. It fits in very well with the actual game, which as a whole comes across as old-fashioned and a little outdated. That doesn't have to be a bad thing in the case of the actual game, after all, games of this type do have their charm. If you leave out the game itself, the music unfortunately falls behind.

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No.	Title	Artist(s)	Ratings
01	Demon	Dag Winderlich; Matthias Steinwachs	2
02	Siege	Dag Winderlich; Matthias Steinwachs	2
03	Friendly Eye Patches (Pirates Still Friendly)	Matthias Steinwachs	3
04	Fight 5	Dag Winderlich; Matthias Steinwachs	3
05	Wood	Dag Winderlich; Matthias Steinwachs	2
06	Fight 3	Dag Winderlich; Matthias Steinwachs	3
07	Maintown	Dag Winderlich	3
08	Dryaden	Dag Winderlich	3
09	Ice	Dag Winderlich; Matthias Steinwachs	1
10	Dead Pirates Land	Matthias Steinwachs	2
11	Desert	Dag Winderlich; Matthias Steinwachs	3
12	Fight 1	Dag Winderlich; Matthias Steinwachs	3
13	Waytohell	Dag Winderlich; Matthias Steinwachs	2
14	Forest of Toadstool	Dag Winderlich	2
15	Fight 8	Dag Winderlich; Matthias Steinwachs	3
16	Dungeon	Dag Winderlich; Matthias Steinwachs	2
17	The Hell	Dag Winderlich	3
18	Heaven in Hell	Dag Winderlich	3
19	In the Jungle	Dag Winderlich	3
20	Fight of the Nuk-Nuks	Matthias Steinwachs	3
21	Fight of the White Bones (Pirates Fight)	Matthias Steinwachs	3
22	Nuk-Nuk Dungeon	Matthias Steinwachs	1
23	Nuk-Nuks Land	Matthias Steinwachs	2
24	Pirates Dungeon	Matthias Steinwachs	1