Sacred Gold caught my eye in this new holiday sale. I bought Divine Divinity a couple weeks ago and despite not having a whole lot of time to play it lately I've really enjoyed it. I'm under the impression that this is pretty similar to DD, so would it be worth it to pick this game up while it's on the cheap? Or are they too similar to warrant a "second" purchase?

SG is a lot like Diablo and Divine Divinity but it is a much larger world, sorta non-linear, save any time, compass/current quest selection, five weapon slots, dual wielding, five combo skills, the A key option, multiplayer, "cool" characters, minimal bugs, etc. etc..
I always felt that Diablo abandoned the single player mode in favor of the online play. SG is what Diablo single player could have been (IMHO). SG is designed in sections, each one offering more difficult enemies. The respawn was tedious until I learned to use it to my advantage . . . which was for leveling up before moving to the next section. After a certain level, the enemies in a section seem to ignore you, when that happens you are more than ready to move to the next section.
Took me 91 hrs to complete both campaigns and I discovered slightly more than 40% of the world. I didn't see 60% of the game?? I gotta go back, this time as a Battlemage. . . =^ ) The dragons were the only unbalanced aspect for me, really hard to kill early on.
One of my favs in the RPG genre . . .
Edit *******************************
One other SG tip, being "Diablo trained", I ignored the other characters combat arts items till well into the game. In SG, you can use other characters combat arts items to enhance your own weapons and armor.
Started keeping them in my stash along with amulets and rings, all of which can be inserted into weapons and armor. ( You can also change the inserted items but you forfeit all but the one you drag back to inventory ) A nice perk I thought . . . =^ )

I recently picked up Sacred Gold, having just completed Divine Divinity.
Missed the GOG sale though :-)
It is different from DD - but pretty similar - way huge world to explore TONS of quests - if you want 'em
Unlike DD where you can start with a warrior and end up with a mage or something in between SG is a bit more rigid with it's character classes/races but that's not particularly a bad thing.
So far I'm enjoying it.

Some points on this topic (from over the top of my head).
-As the previous posters have stated, Sacred Gold is more of an open world, where you can wander off, not concentrate on the main quest, enjoy the immense diversitiy of the land, etc.
-To a certain point (which differs from difficulty to difficulty), enemies level with you. While some say it's a bad thing, I see it as a bonus: one can return to previous areas and STILL find challenge there.
-Like Stuff said, monsters DO respawn, a lot (some say they respawn at an insane rate).
-One more notable difference is that while DD uses mana system, SG does not. You have your Combat Arts (basically, they would be called "skills" in Diablo II or "spells" in DD), and each one has a recharge timer, which gets ever higher as you increase your CA level. However, this time can be shortened by learning the appropriate skills.
-A rather unique feature of SG is that, unlike in most (all?) other popular ARPGs, "named items" (sets and uniques) have many different leveled versions. Say, you get the same sword at level 15 and level 75, and the two will have the same boni with (vastly) different stats.

Thanks for this info, had not noticed that . . .=)

I never realized you could use them on items - I typically save them up to trade with the combo master for ones I can use. When I figured that out, I was really irritated for having not realized sooner and selling a ton of them for like 2 gold each. =P

Yep, your experience mirrors my own, it was a "Duh" moment for me when I realized I could do use them. Too much Diablo training I guess. . . =)

As other replies have mentioned, Sacred Gold is much larger in terms of game map. There are a large amount of quests you can pick up along the way besides the main quest. As far as Dragons being hard, I'd say the lowest difficulty may make it a bit tedious but if you correctly develop your Combat Arts nothing is able to hurt you much until the higher difficulties.

I have been checking the reviews here, and the threads and the web reviews, and all I can say is there is huge confusion about what makes an isometric action game and an isometric RPG!
In fact, from my research, it seems that 'Diablo like' is replacing 'isometric'! Hence Divine Divinity and Sacred, seemingly being open world, full on RPG's with character creation, sub quests and 100's of NPC's to deal with are called 'Diablo like' and then have multiple paragraphs explaining how the particular RPG is different from Diablo! It doesn't even matter if the game is turn-based. If it's isometric and especially if it is a fantasy/AD&D type game!
It has now got to the point where RPG's like Fallout are being described as having a 'Diablo like interface' - have you ever heard anything so absurd.
Diablo, by any standard of what has made a PC RPG historically over the last 20+ years, is not an RPG. It is an isometric action game based in a fantasy universe. If Diablo is an RPG, then Company of Heroes is an RPG, Dawn of War II is an RPG.... Well, if they are RPG's, what is Oblivion, Morrowind, The Wizardry series, The Ultima series, Arx Fatalis, The Gothic series, etc. etc. Oh yes, they're RPG's because they are not isometric. Although hang on, The Ultima games are, sort of. Do you think if they had come out after Diablo they would have been called 'Diablo like....except'....!

For more traditional party-based RPGs with turn-based combat (but free movement therein, and rich combat tactics - positioning, obstacles [esp. choke points], and magic use choices matter a great deal [I find FF-style combat ridiculous and boring]), *huge* worlds, engaging storylines, and great writing, check out the offerings by Spiderweb Software ( http://www.spiderwebsoftware.com/ ). All shareware too, so you can play a good 15% of any of them before buying (unlocking, you keep your progress), and you'll have a genuine feel for the game. DRM-free as of last time I checked - you unlock the shareware with a code, but there's no phoning home etc. [Or you buy a series CD set and it's already registered for you!]
I have played and re-played the original tile-graphics Exile series (predecessors to the prettier, larger (!) Avernum series), and I still enjoy the people. Geneforge is built around a very cool character concept - and I got so attached to my first summon that I upgraded him at diminishing-returns cost and brought him through the whole game alongside much more powerful, efficient creatures learned later. :-)
. . . thanks for making me think of this, I'm going to write them and ask about a discount on buying a bundle of all the series CD sets. :-D

the only major differences i found between sacred gold and diablo series was
that GUNS are in sacred guns change the game a lot in rpgs as most of them are limited to bows and swords
the other thing being hp regenerates in sacred this makes a bit more playable for long specially for those chars who have a mount, at the worst times they can get away, regen some hp and come back

Really? that's the only difference? I mean they are both dungeon crawlers but other then that I think they are vastly different games. I love the Diablo games, but I also love sacred. It's like they are...cousins in a big family, heh.

Hello from 2023. Sorry for necroing, but i'm reading this thread and had to respond to this, because from what i am reading, one would think that Sacred is better. I would, if i didn't have played both games.

Divine Divinity is nothing like Sacred. The quests in DD are infinitely better. Size is not always better, and no matter how big is sacred, if you are doing badly written MMO quests all the time, like you will do in Sacred, you will quit the game at some point. Unless you are ok with that type of quests, that is.

Frankly, if you ignore Sacred horrible writing and questing and focus on the action "rpg" combat, you are still better off with other games. Like Diablo 1 or 2, to begin with.

In sum, think of Divine Divinity like a proper RPG, with real time combat like Baldurs Gate (including the optional pause in combat). On the other side, Sacred is a copy of Diablo. But with poor writing and nothing of the dark oppressive diablo ambient that made it so likable and interesting.