Game Review – Sacred 2: Fallen Angel

Dante & I received a copy of Sacred 2: Fallen Angel for the XBox 360 to review.  We had not played its predecessor, so this was an entirely new experience for us.  Due to his recent travel and heavy work load, Dante hasn’t had a chance to play it yet, but I have put in a couple of hours of game time.

General Information

Sacred 2 is designed to be an open-ended roleplaying game in a seamless world.  There is always someplace to go explore, there are always new quests to take.  You can follow the quests as they come up, or you can completely ignore what’s in your quest log and wander off around the countryside.  It is designed to be whatever kind of game you want it to be.

First Impressions

Sacred 2 is a very visual game, and the graphics are great, making it easy to become immersed in the game.  The other element that helped improve the immersive nature of the game was the fact that there were no loading screens; as you move between regions, there is only a little pause in the game play.  The most delay came in big town centers, but even that wasn’t intolerably long.

Characters & Campaigns

I have played two different characters of the six options.  First, I played a High Elf in a Campaign of Light.  The nature of the spell-caster nature was fun.  I particularly enjoyed the Blazing Tempest spell.  My only complaint with the High Elf was the clothing options; even though she was a female character, I didn’t expect to see such scanty clothing.  The second character I played as a Shadow Warrior in a Campaign of Shadow.  He was more fighter-y based, which was also fun to play; who doesn’t like to take a sword and bash the bad guys.

I didn’t play either campaign long enough to really get into the big Light vs Shadow differences, but there were minor differences throughout the campaigns.  Each starts as you make your way into larger settlements: some of the quests you complete are the same, but are different based on whether you are Light or Shadow.

Overall Thoughts

I found myself pulled into the game very easily, and before I realized it, I had been playing for several hours.  I was easily drawn into the game, and I enjoyed completing the quests; there was enough challenge to be interesting without being overwhelmingly difficult, and as I progressed, I did gain a sense of accomplishment.

However, after I had left the game, I found I wasn’t not particularly compelled to turn the game back on and continue to play.  So while it was fun, it wasn’t enough to make me want to devote entire weeks of my life to the game.

Dante’s Footnotes

I got to watch Stupid Ranger play Sacred 2 quite a bit, and visually it reminds me very much of a third person Diablo II style gameplay.  I thought that some of the visual features were nice, specifically like the in-game map showing the percentage of completed area.  Tasha liked the unobtrusive health and experience meters, but I found them a bit hard to keep track of and the little experience numbers that popped up above dispatched enemies seemed a bit cluttered.

Aside from those minor issues, this game was visually very appealing.  The spells that Stupid Ranger had earned during her time playing the game were increasingly visually interesting, several times she’d call me over to show me the cool effect that she had just gained.  I am looking forward to diving deeper into Sacred 2 myself once my Real Life workload eases up a bit.  The game is certainly worth a look if you enjoy third person fantasy styled excellence!