Interface

Simplicity is key

Sacrifice is far from a simple RTS. You have to worry about keeping your character alive while keeping him useful. Also, he is your only view of the world. The minimap is fine for a general view, but it's hard to command your forces through it.

I hate that volcano machine

But it's an awesome effect

The interface manages to handle things quite well. The WASD configuration gives you control of your wizard, although A and D don't strafe, they turn you. The rest of the keyboard keys are used as shortcuts for spells, unit groups, and unit formations.

The mouse turns the camera, controls the view angle and the view direction - though it's always based around your wizard. It takes a fair bit of getting used to, but a simpler and more effective setup would be hard to find. Our only gripes about the interface relate to spell selection.

Come on, come closer

Those red lines mean the monsters are 'guardianed'

Crikey, it's the gripes!

At the moment, the only spells that are key-mapped by default are the basic spells that every wizard has. The deity-specific spells have no shortcuts, and you have to make them yourself as you progress through the game. A better solution would be making spell slots in the interface itself. As the player gains spells from his god, he could stick them in slots which have pre-defined spell keys. We'd have to memorize which spell has which hotkey, but that seems easier than having to go through the hassle of setting up keys for spells. Oh well, the current setup works more than well enough.

Tactical control

Learning the game is very easy - the three tutorials are very good at explaining the various game concepts. There are three categories of spells - creation, structure and general. Creation spells let you spawn your critters. They have mana requirements and soul requirements. The more powerful a minion, the more mana and souls they need. Then there's a re-cast timer. You can cast spells only so fast, and the most recent spell cast takes a longer time to 'recharge' than usual.

Setting up a singleplayer game against bots

Convert that heathen

Once your troops are created, it's off to the races. A left-click on a troop selects him, and a double-click selects all units of the same type that are visible on screen. Depending on what you target, a left-click might mean move, guard or attack. When you have your men selected, right-clicking does various things.

Right-clicking brings up a menu of orders or formations. After selecting one of 4 initial options by dragging your mouse cursor over it, that option then balloons into more commands. It's simple and easy and requires only a bit of memorization. The popup menu is best used to select formations if your hands are busy moving your wizard out of danger.

A rumble in the distance

Breila, an enemy wizard working for James