Sacred 2: Fallen Angel
Sacred 2: Fallen Angel
Western Fantasy (ie Non-Japanese) games that are Epic in gameplay and overall length have been very rare on consoles lately and the last notable one was The Elder Scrolls Oblivion. While there have been others they are mostly very light on the RPG elements and heavy on the action. Ascaron has now delivered on a huge promise of porting their less than appreciated PC RPG Sacred 2 to the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 consoles. To say they delivered is a huge understatement. To top off this achievement the console version of the game is far superior to the PC version in many ways especially in the overall fun and stability aspects to the game.
The story of Sacred 2 is wild adventure set across two campaigns based on Light and Darkness. A magical energy called T-Energy binds the land and is the beginning of magic and life in the world. This is because the generous Creator has willed it so. But the Seraphim who have longed served the Creator have created their own world and now as punishment must protect this world and its inhabitants.
Gameplay
Sacred 2 is an action RPG at its core with multiple classes/races, around 500 quests and two campaigns based on light and dark sides of a tale. While the overall gameplay is not perfect it does have some key flaws with your character not responding some of the time and the odd time your character will become hung up on terrain for half a second you will quickly find the ins and outs of how to play the game and enjoy running around slaying thousands of monsters across the world of Ancaria.
The classes range from warrior, spell casters, hybrids and ranged all with a ton of customization based on how you want to play the actual game. Each class also can obtain through a quest and a ton of gold to buy a unique mount ranging from Hell Hounds, Spiders, Saber-Tooth Tigers and more. These mounts provide a wide range of stat boosts and allow the character to travel faster across the map. Something you will appreciate because the map is huge and it literally takes hours to cross the map.
To aid in the travelling across the map you will find plenty of portals to turn on and use as well as resurrection portals which you can use, but only one can be turned on at once which bring you back to when you die or continue the game. You are never more than a few minute run to the next portal so most of the times you will be spending running are to quests and exploring the map.
The controls are straight forward and easy to use and prove you can do a PC based RPG on a console. By using the triggers and the four main buttons you can control a large number of spells, abilities, weapons and combinations. Everything is so fast you will easily use attacks and combinations raining hellfire down across the map.
The single player map is fantastic but the game really shines in its multiplayer with four player Co-Op both local (only two players) and four player over Xbox Live and PSN. You can play with your friends on the campaign or even fight against each other in PvP combat in an open free realm world. This adds so much to the actual games longevity this is a game people should be playing for years.
Graphics
Sacred 2 for consoles does not look as good as its Windows PC cousin, but it is still a great looking game and only once during the 40 hour quest (first time through on bronze) did I get any slow down and that was strange because it was not a busy combat moment. The entire land of Ancaria is seamless unless you enter a dungeon. It ranges from deserts, forests, swamps, mountains and even volcanic areas. Each area looks amazing with hundreds of little things adding to the games overall detail. Several times you can enter a new area and be blown away by just something added to the scenery such as decaying dragon, ancient statues in the world, narrow winding pathways which lead to new adventures and more.
The characters, monsters and mounts are all impressive in design and animation. They look good even zoomed all the way in and you can still see detail on them when you zoom all the way out. Hundreds of armor pieces, weapons, spell effects, mounts and special mounts complement your character so you can truly have a unique looking and playing character.
Every town, city and dungeon is excellent in their design and truly adds to the fantasy theme of the game. Small towns have a small and provincial feel to them, Orcish villages have their own look and layout, the larger capital city certainly looks and feels like it is a capital city and not just a random layout pattern of buildings. I found the dungeons to be the most impressive because each one was by far completely separate with their own look to them. When you entered a dungeon you never knew if you were going to see a small dungeon or a huge multi-level dungeon full of traps and numerous monsters.
Overall my only complaint about the graphics is the weather effects and how little the game seems to have weather. But when the weather does hit it is impressive, especially lightning at night which impressed the hell out of me every time I saw it flash on screen.
Audio
Sacred 2 has some very good audio mixed in with some not so good audio so it is a bit of a mix bag, but the good certainly overshadows the bad. I was disappointed in some of the voice over work but that is not too surprising as the good voice over work is much better than most of what we here. Plus there is an awful lot of repetitive talking by characters, both PC (Player Characters) and NPC (Non-Playable Characters) which can become more than a bit annoying. Some of it is funny though, such as an enemy running away yelling that he should have listened to his wife or your character yelling “Come back you coward!” when it is you running away.
The environmental sound effects are excellent and rarely are almost never over used. Combat sounds mix with running, weather and the general sounds of nature just perfectly. They never over power the audio in game but are subtle enough so you know they are there if you wish to listen to them.
** Possible Spoiler Below **
The in game music is excellent and mostly that is because of the use of the German Metal Band, Blind Guardian. The band is used in a quest, characters and once you complete the quest you get some wicked gear and see a concert by the band singing a specially recorded single they did for the game. It is a great single and hopefully will be on iTunes or for sale elsewhere soon. If you are unfamiliar with Blind Guardian they have been around for a long time and their music has a general Heavy Metal Fantasy theme to it. Just an FYI, their last album, A Twist in the Myth, is by far their best work.
** End to the Spoilage **
The rest of the games musical audio is very well done and suits the game well. This is one of the better music sound tracks we have heard in a video game since Fallout 3.
Value
The base value for the game is high because of both the single player and multiplayer games. The multiplayer value is very high and it is by far the best reason to own the game. The single player value is not as high but for those gamers who only play single player games it is still high enough in value to be a worthwhile purchase and game to play.
Bottom Line
I have to say that this is seriously in my top 5 RPG’s this console generation and that is saying a lot with such company as Mass Effect, The Elder Scrolls Oblivion and Fallout 3. So saying that I say this is a must buy for role playing gamers is no understatement and I am hoping for downloadable content and a sequel. This maybe a rental for a few but it is a must buy for everyone else.Pros
+ Graphics and Audio are well done
+ Excellent multiplayer gaming
+ Single player game is long and very fun with two different campaigns
+ Controls are excellent
+ Main and Side Quests are diverse
+ Different classes are different and complement each other in multiplayer
+ Super quick load times
+ Massive seamless game world to explore
+ Dungeons look great
+ German Metal Band Blind Guardian supplied some of the music and are in the game
+ Some wicked Easter Eggs… find the Alien from Aliens?
+ Great pop culture references from music, books, movies, TV, etc.
+ A lot of game until Sacred 3 comes out
Cons
- Can grind a bit at times (problem if you do not like grinding)
- The user interface is good, but slows things down a couple of times
- Most of the voice over work is bland at best and is repetitive
- Presentation could be higher
- You cannot customize your character as much as I would like
Final Verdict
Here's a small guide to help you understand our evaluation of games.
PRESENTATION GRADE
Can be from the game's box to the contents of the booklet, and even the game introduction. (Intro, menus, options, etc)
GRAPHIC GRADE
Up to what point the graphics have been worked on my the developper. The design type, the effort used for textures and environments, as well as animations and framerate.
AUDIO GRADE
Is the soundtrack a good match to the game's style, he ambient sounds keeping with the gameplay and the sound effects clear and convincing?
GAMEPLAY GRADE
Placement of the controls and the inferface that the player with be using during the game.
REPLAY VALUE GRADE
The most important factor in the evaluation of a game. It identifies the lifespan of the game and the fun of coming back again and again.
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