Sacred 2: Fallen Angel – Reviewed

Months after its release on PC, Ascaron Entertainment brought Sacred 2: Fallen Angel to both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Rather than delivering a simple port, the developers tweaked and refined the game with console players specifically in mind. That isn’t to say the result is perfect — there are a few niggles — but overall this is an RPG well worth considering.

Sacred 2 is set in the fantasy world of Ancaria, where T-Energy is the source of all life and magic. Originally under the control of the Seraphim, who lost interest in the world, control of the T-Energy passed to the High Elves, making them the most powerful race in Ancaria. Over time, a power struggle within the High Elves caused the T-Energy to spiral out of control, mutating creatures, leveling towns and leaving parts of Ancaria barren and dying. Rival races, seeing the internal strife, seized the opportunity to try to take control of the T-Energy for themselves.

Players choose between six character types before starting their adventure, including the High Elf (Magician class), the Shadow Warrior (a Conan-the-Barbarian-style meathead), the Seraphim (Battlemage) and the Temple Guardian (an Anubis-like robot). Players also choose a Light or Shadow campaign path, though not every race allows both options — the Seraphim, for example, is locked into the Light campaign.

After choosing a race and watching an impressive opening movie, players arrive in Ancaria with enormous freedom to play however they like: following story quests to the letter along the golden path, or picking and choosing side quests at will. Ancaria is a huge world, packed with people wanting help.

Mechanically, Sacred 2 follows familiar RPG rules — kills grant experience, which improves a character’s statistics, and kills also drop new armor, weapons and potions. Equipment can only be used if it matches a character’s race, so a Seraphim, for instance, can’t wear Shadow Warrior armor. Despite carrying a large amount of gear with no penalty, hero chests scattered around Ancaria allow unwanted equipment to be stored, and with multiple characters, those chests become a way to share gear between them — a good reason not to simply sell or scrap items an active character can’t use.

Beyond item drops, a whole host of vendors throughout Ancaria are happy to sell new equipment for gold, and blacksmiths and rune sellers offer weapon upgrades and runes respectively.

The control scheme works well: the camera is viewed in third person with adjustable zoom, and the face buttons handle equipment and spells, with the left and right triggers acting as shift keys for a total of 12 slot choices. Potions can also be assigned to the D-pad, giving plenty of room to set up a custom loadout.

Sacred 2 offers a number of difficulty settings, some locked until the game has been completed on the highest available setting, and can be played solo or with up to three additional players in co-op. There’s also a free-play mode for repeating boss battles, and a versus mode for taking a party of heroes up against other Xbox Live parties roaming Ancaria.

The overall experience is that of a good and very deep game. The sheer amount of content is vast, with another quest always just a heartbeat away, creating a slightly addictive pull to squeeze in just one more before stopping. That said, the quests do settle into a set pattern, and while the enemies and characters change, the formula can start to feel repetitive after a while.

Another lesson learned quickly is just how many enemies there are to face. In practical terms, clearing one group of enemies often means moving no more than ten feet before running into the next group. That repeats through nearly the entire game, with breathers mostly limited to towns. It’s not really a flaw as such, since RPGs are built around kills equating to experience, but with no true pause system, time spent managing equipment can easily be interrupted by another attack.

The combat system built around magic works very well, with a large number of combat arts to learn that keep spellcasting engaging throughout. Hand-to-hand combat is comparatively mundane, relying mostly on holding down the attack button — a few combo attacks would have gone a long way toward mixing things up.

The game clearly wants to be played in co-op, and while it’s entirely playable solo, battles require more thought when facing overwhelming numbers alone. Having other players along adds to the fun, along with the banter that comes from trekking through Ancaria together.

Visually, Sacred 2 is a pretty affair. Character designs are handled well, down to spotting rank hierarchy among groups of enemies through subtle but noticeable differences, and backdrops — like individual blades of grass blowing in the breeze — are nicely done. The audio also holds up, from music to sound effects, though a few more lines of dialogue would have been welcome, since the existing lines start repeating after a few hours.

Overall, Sacred 2 leans positive even with its endless stream of enemies rarely offering a moment’s peace. Despite not being a perfect game, it’s one well worth considering, and one that’s easy to keep coming back to.

Rating: 7/10