Final rest

If you've been going to the same Italian restaurant for years and enjoy eating funghi there, you're bound to be surprised when at some point they say: "Sorry, we don't have funghi any more. We no longer have pizza in general, nobody wants to eat it anyway. But we can offer you a really great salad!" And the salad turns out to be not so great.

This is probably how Sacred-fans felt when Sacred 3 was released in 2014. In keeping with the bad analogy, it was no longer the familiar action RPG, but an arcade hack 'n' slash in the style of a (bad) Diablos or Dungeon Siege III. This went against the grain for role-playing game fans, which is why the game not only flopped commercially, but also essentially buried the brand. There was still the Sacred Legends spin-off for smartphones, but that was it.

Sacred (2004)

Sacred: Underworld (2005)

Sacred 2: Fallen Angel (2008)

Sacred 2: Ice & Blood (2009)

Sacred 3 (2014)

Publisher Deep Silver will probably have little interest in rebooting the struggling Sacred and a fourth chapter is just as unlikely ... because it already exists! Apparently, the naming rights had not been secured, which is why Sacred Four was released in 2018. This is in fact an incredibly ugly VR title in which we smash monsters while swinging chains. This has nothing to do with the Sacreds I'm talking about here, nor their original gameplay principles, but is wonderfully emblematic of the development of the series. It would be sad if it wasn't so funny.

I don't really care, as I had already noticed the decline with Sacred 2 and gave the sequel a wide berth. Musically, however, this would not have been necessary, as the German music studio Dynamedion in the person of Tilman Sillescu, Alexander Röder, Marc Rosenberger, Jochen Flach, Henning Nugel and Matthias Wolf was engaged for the OST.

The studio has always been a guarantee for high-quality compositions and does not let us down with the otherwise disappointing third installment. In 15 tracks, the usual keyboard of the heroic epic is played and orchestrally underpinned as befits its status. Powerful percussion and dominant vocals meet soulful strings and loud wind instruments. As with Legend: Hand of God , however, the composition suffers from a disease: a lack of character.

We search in vain for motifs or storytelling in this conglomeration of sonorous pathos. However, this is not so much due to the supposed inability of the composers, but most probably to the underlying circumstances. In the media industry, they say "brief shit in, get shit out", or to put it another way: poor preparation leads to poor results.

Of course, I don't know the collaboration's circumstances, but the signs are that the developers themselves probably didn't know exactly what they wanted and words like 'action-packed' or ' thrilling' were used. The score certainly fulfills these criteria: Through the Breach has a little Game of Thrones-flair, the Sacred 3 sounds beautifully heroic and The Heroes Have Arrived gives me a little Stargate-feeling.

However, none of these set pieces give the score any identity, but instead make it sound like stock music or a scrapbook for action pieces. The band Erdenstern, for example, which creates thematically appropriate soundscapes for The Dark Eye-adventures and scenarios, does something similar. There, however, the idea of interchangeability is part of the concept, in line with the experience-your-own-adventure approach of pen & paper; Sacred 3 , on the other hand, is a self-contained game that remains faceless despite its high-quality musical accompaniment.

No.	Title	Artist(s)	Ratings
01	Sacred 3	Tilman Sillescu; Alexander Röder; Marc Rosenberger; Jochen Flach; Henning Nugel; Matthias Wolf	4
02	The Heroes Have Arrived	Tilman Sillescu; Alexander Röder; Marc Rosenberger; Jochen Flach; Henning Nugel; Matthias Wolf	4
03	Safiri Beach	Tilman Sillescu; Alexander Röder; Marc Rosenberger; Jochen Flach; Henning Nugel; Matthias Wolf	4
04	KarríTelís Flagship	Tilman Sillescu; Alexander Röder; Marc Rosenberger; Jochen Flach; Henning Nugel; Matthias Wolf	3
05	Tension Rises	Tilman Sillescu; Alexander Röder; Marc Rosenberger; Jochen Flach; Henning Nugel; Matthias Wolf	3
06	NíAquali Forest	Tilman Sillescu; Alexander Röder; Marc Rosenberger; Jochen Flach; Henning Nugel; Matthias Wolf	2
07	Through the Alkazaba Mines	Tilman Sillescu; Alexander Röder; Marc Rosenberger; Jochen Flach; Henning Nugel; Matthias Wolf	4
08	Roaring Danger	Tilman Sillescu; Alexander Röder; Marc Rosenberger; Jochen Flach; Henning Nugel; Matthias Wolf	3
09	Victory Is Ours. Glory Is Mine.	Tilman Sillescu; Alexander Röder; Marc Rosenberger; Jochen Flach; Henning Nugel; Matthias Wolf	3
10	Aria's Escape	Tilman Sillescu; Alexander Röder; Marc Rosenberger; Jochen Flach; Henning Nugel; Matthias Wolf	3
11	Through the Breach	Tilman Sillescu; Alexander Röder; Marc Rosenberger; Jochen Flach; Henning Nugel; Matthias Wolf	4
12	Shaddar Cage	Tilman Sillescu; Alexander Röder; Marc Rosenberger; Jochen Flach; Henning Nugel; Matthias Wolf	4
13	Dark Energy	Tilman Sillescu; Alexander Röder; Marc Rosenberger; Jochen Flach; Henning Nugel; Matthias Wolf	2
14	Legion of Dust	Tilman Sillescu; Alexander Röder; Marc Rosenberger; Jochen Flach; Henning Nugel; Matthias Wolf	3
15	Final Encounter	Tilman Sillescu; Alexander Röder; Marc Rosenberger; Jochen Flach; Henning Nugel; Matthias Wolf	4

Final rest

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