Archive for June, 2009

Sacred 2: Fallen Angel is almost difficult to review just because of the sheer amount of content in the game.  You can play for hours and hours and still not really make a dent in the overall scope of the game, but based on the amount of time I've sunk into the world of Ancaria I think I'm well equipped to dish on my opinion of the game.

Sacred 2 is, at its most basic form, a callback to the classic PC RPGs of yesteryear.  For the most part if you're a fan of games like Diablo, Diablo II, Dungeon Siege and Neverwinter Nights you'll have a good time with this game.  You get to choose one of six character classes with unique traits and skills, and play through either the dark or light side of the main story campaign.  Make sure you're careful to pick a character you really like though, because the level cap maxes out at a staggering 100, so you'll have a lot of time to bond with your digital self.

As with most RPGs the main gameplay is as follows: travel from town-to-town picking up quests from villagers and other NPCs, go bash in the skulls of some monsters, and return to said NPC to get experience to advance your character's level and gain some loot.  The items you receive are rated on a star scale up to 5, with each additional star signifying an ever better item with more powerful attributes.  The reason this is important is because, as we all know, dungeon crawler RPGs are all about the loot.  If you don't have a propensity for acquiring trinkets to maximize your character's abilities then this game (as well as the entire genre) isn't for you.

The graphics are somewhat discouraging for next-generation title.  The closest thing I can relate them to is Titan Quest on the PC, but that's a 3 year old game.  Still, the comparison is apt as both the camera angle and character movements in both games are very similar.  Given the fact that the world of Ancaria is huge it makes sense to give them some leeway in the graphics department, but still there are better looking games out there.  The audio is another aspect that I have issues with - it's very repetitive.  You'll hear the same bits of music everytime you have an encounter with an enemy (a scenario which plays out roughly every 30 seconds) so you'll probably be tired of the sound aspect of the game within a few hours of play.  The voice acting is also hilariously bad, but one could almost chalk that up as a feature of the game since it brings some nice comedic relief every now and then.

Where this game truly shines is in co-op multiplayer.  You can jump into an instance of the game with up to 3 of your friends and progress through the story as you would if you were playing the game alone.  Like most RPGs this is the way the game was meant to be played.  You're able to jump in and out of games no matter what your progress is in singleplayer, given that you characters are no more than 10 levels apart.  From here you can progress through the campaign as you would normally, working through quests and generally helping each other out and once you finish up the session your character's experience progress, items and loot are carried back into singleplayer.

My biggest problem with Sacred 2 is the platform.  As I mentioned above, it's a traditionally PC RPG experience which has been ported to the console, and I think the Xbox 360 doesn't do it justice.  Being able to use a keyboard and mouse instead of a controller probably would have made this game much more enjoyable to me, if only because clicking on the screen to have my character move is much easier than using an analog stick.  The game also chugs a bit when you're in towns which may be a symptom of limited console hardware.

If you're looking for an action RPG on the console then I'd have to say give Sacred a shot.  I know a lot of people have been much more glowing about it than myself.  However, I don't think this is the type of game that someone who isn't familiar with the genre will be into.  In the end I'd say that Too Human pulls off a console adaptation of the genre better than Sacred 2, so if you're going to try Fallen Angel consider picking it up for PC instead.