Sacred 2: Fallen Angel

"A Hack and Slash game in the style of Diablo II meets Oblivion."

Introduction: Sacred 2 originally released on the PC roughly 6 months ago. This is the ported version. How does it hold up on consoles? Let's find out.

Gameplay 10/10

There are 5 difficulty settings. Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Niobium. Bronze and Silver are available from the beginning, with Gold requiring a Silver campaign to be beaten, Platinum requiring Gold campaign to be beaten, and Niobium requiring a Platinum campaign to be beaten.

The gameplay is very simple on the surface, but when you look deeper, it's quite complex. There are a Light and Shadow campaign and 6 classes to accompany this. A Seraphim (Female), who can only play on the Light side, an Evil Inquisitor (Male) who can only play the Shadow side, a Dryad, a Shadow Warrior (Male), a Temple Guardian (Male), and a High Elf (Female). Contrary to most games, one character is not forced into a single role. For example, a Seraphim could be made into a tank, a melee damage dealer, or a caster. Then there's hybrid builds to talk about.

There are attributes asfollows:

Strength: Increases melee weapon damage and hit chance except mage staves and daggers

Stamina: Decreases the regeneration time of Combat Arts

Vitality: Increases max HP and HP regeneration rate

Dexterity: Increases hit chance, and defense value. Increases damage by melee and ranged weapons.

Intelligence: Increases the chance a spell hits the target with full force. Mage staves and spells will increase the damage.

Willpower: Increases resistances to spells and detrimental effects.

Abilities in this are called Combat Arts. There are Attack and Buff Combat Arts. Certain buffs are permanent once put on, others lasting only a short duration. You can increase these with runes found. If you do not have the proper runes, take them to a Rune master and change any 4 runes for 1 rune that you want.

The UI is pretty simple. In the top left, you have your mini-map. In the top right, your character portrait, level, HP, EXP bar, and buffs. In the bottom right you have your skill keys which can be configured directly to your triangle, square, X, and O and more skills mapped to hitting R2 and L2 first, then any of the face buttons. Potion keying goes to your D-Pad.

There are portals around the world to make getting around easier once you've activated them. Use them via world map by clicking on them. Also there are resurrection monoliths. Only one of these can be active at a time, and when you die you go to them. The one active can also be teleported to at will, via world map.

There are blacksmiths that can enhance your gear that have sockets with rings, amulets, and other items.

There are basic mounts which any character can ride, and then upon taking a quest, each class can buy their unique mount.

There are Unique, Legendary and Set items ala Diablo style. These will keep loot hoggers (like myself) busy for endless hours.

For the Oblivion fans, there is a massive 22 square miles world to explore, and over 500 quests to complete

The game does suffer from a few minor bugs, but nothing game breaking, and nothing detrimental to the score hence the 10/10. A few bugs are freezing, small framerate issues, quests bugging rarely (But can be fixed by leaving the game and entering back in), but nothing terrible.

I think that about sums up the gameplay.

Story: 1/10

Really, don't judge this game on the rating I gave the story. I've never read a single main-story quest I've been given. Noone plays these games for the story. It's all about the combat, and loot gathering.

Graphics: 8/10

For the vast world, and the fact that it's on a console this game gets an 8/10 from me. It's not the best looking game, but it's a very good looking game. The character detail is quite remarkable, along with the equipment.

Sound: 10/10

The sound I find to be amazing. It helps that the music is composed by the German band "Blind Guardian" which makes it top notch. The sound effects when using skills and slicing away at baddies are spot on. Each character also has some quite funny remarks they will say if you stand still for too long, or after slaying a beast. A personal favorite of mine is the Shadow Warrior yelling out "I am the Barbarian!" It sounds corny, and it is, but that makes it great.

Playtime/Replayability: 10/10

The max level is 200, and there is a TON of loot to gather. Many builds to try out with just one class, so you could spend 2,000 hours never playing more than one character. Really, this game is endless if you want it to be. Much like Diablo II.

Final Recommendation: Get this game if you're a fun of Diablo II and/or The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. A rent is not worth it. The game is simply too massive to take in on a rental. Just buy it.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 05/29/09

Game Release: Sacred 2: Fallen Angel (US, 05/11/09)