Overview

Developer: Shiny
Publisher: Interplay
Sacrifice official page: http://www.sacrifice.net

More Sacrifice resources

Earthworm James

Sacrifice is a nifty little number that's been developed by Shiny Entertainment, the guys behind MDK, Earthworm Jim and Messiah. After MDK, the hype around Shiny was focused squarely on Messiah. Unfortunately, as with many games that suffered from too much hype, people were inevitably disappointed in the end result. However, it seems that the guys at Shiny recognized this hype problem early, and kept development of their second title quiet.

The various gods

The good gods

Thus, more than a few eyebrows were raised when, seemingly out of the blue, Interplay announced a new title from Shiny. Even more surprising was the fact that this was an RTS from a developer primarily known for action games. How does Sacrifice stack up? Let's take a look.

Whatcha got to say about it?

Well, for one, the title of the game is pretty much on the mark. Sacrifice is all about souls. You see, your character is a wizard who works, at any given moment, for any one of five different gods who have dominion over a set of floating islands that used to be a world.

Your god provides you with an altar that serves as your direct link to your deity. So long as the altar stands, you are immortal. You can die, but your soul won't leave the world and you'll reincarnate as soon as you regain enough mana. However, an enemy wizard can desecrate your altar, thereby ending your existence and the game. Just like you however, those enemy wizards have the same weakness. They are immortal until you destroy their altars.

Bad boyz bad boyz watcha gonna do!

Who to summon? Hmmm

You create your minions with the use of two resources. The first is cheap and readily available - mana. You get it from mana "fountains" or manaliths. A manalith is a structure you create to ensure that the fountains feed only you. However, the further you are from a manalith, the slower your mana regeneration rate will be.

You can compensate for this by creating creatures called manahoars. These creatures do nothing but channel mana to you. However, manahoars also cost souls, your other valuable resource. Souls are rare and of limited supply, unlike mana. You get a few to start a mission off and can get more by slaying enemies and converting their souls. Conversions take a long time, so it's important to preserve your creatures and quickly re-capture the souls of your creatures that die before the enemy wizard is able to convert them.

Special effects-y

Someone's altar