For the past eight years, the action role-playing genre has been defined by one game: Diablo. For better or worse, Blizzard's 1996 smash hit--which let you hack-and-slash through hordes of monsters with a single character from a top-down isometric view--established the formula for a number of imitators that followed. Therefore it's not surprising that Sacred, the upcoming action role-playing game from England's Ascaron Entertainment, would borrow from this successful formula as well. However, the folks at Ascaron hope to entice players with the promise of a heavy emphasis on role-playing in a vast, living, breathing world.