[PC] - Sacred 2 Hands on Impressions

[bapenguin]

Title: Sacred 2
Platform: PC (also on 360/PS3)
Developer: Ascaron
Publisher: CDV
Site: Sacred2.com (http://www.sacred2.com/)
MSRP: $49.99
Editor: Nicholas 'bapenguin' Puleo

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3016/2615826853_e5ef999433.jpg

Having never played the original Sacred from developer Ascaron, I didn't know what to expect when I fired up Sacred 2. After creating a Seraphim, a female angel like character, from the list of six characters and choosing one of the two paths, it was off to the world of Sacred 2: Fallen Angel. The world of Ancaria is filled with grassy fields, lush forrests, sandy deserts, as well as plenty of towns. The best part about all of it? It's completely seamless as their is no loading between any areas, indoor and outdoor.

The gameplay is pretty standard in terms of traditional click and attack RPGs. What's unique about Sacred 2 is the really deep skill tree. Your character will start out with a full set of skills, but each skill has it's own sub-skill tree that can be upgraded through levels and experience. Whether your skill is how you swing your sword, or how you cast a meteor down from the heavens, they are all upgradable to multiple levels. On top of this there are temporary and permanent buffs your character can earn. Of course in a game like this, it's all about item collecting, and there's plenty of loot to be found. It's found everywhere; in barrels, crates, thieves, and of course rats. For my Seraphim I absolutely loved the fact that I could pick up different sets of angel wing armor.

Like I said previously, Sacred 2 is an incredibly gorgeous game. Immediately upon firing it up I was greeted with one of the most gorgeous looking environments I've seen since first firing up Guild Wars. With bright colors, sharp textures, and plenty of life to the gameworld this is a game you won't get tired of looking at. The weather effects are particularly impressive, especially as they change over between the rain and sun. I know I'm gushing, but honestly it's been a while since I've been so generally impressed with the look, feel and sound of a game. Yes, the full Dolby Digital 5.1 sounds really great with some deep atmospheric and ambient effects.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3024/2616653726_0d9f854cd7.jpg

While what drew me to the game was the promised 16 player co-op mode, we were unable to get it working in the preview build. Honestly, 16 players sounds a bit over the top, I can't imagine things going smoothly and/or being organized. I guess it works in a lot of MMORPGs, so theoretically it could work in this. Aside from the co-op mode, there's a few online vs. modes available, again these were not available in our preview build.

The PC version of Sacred 2 should be available in about 2 weeks, with an Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 version later in November. While the latter two versions don't support 16 player co-op (they support 4), it'll be interesting to see how they play on a console.

[Goronmon]

Good stuff, this looks like it might be a good game to get a bunch of EvAvers together to wack stuff.

[AspectVoid]

BaP, I've not had much of a chance to look at this game, though I enjoyed what little I got to play of the first one. What were the other classes available besides the Seraphim? I haven't seen anything that says what all the classes available are.

[Gorvi]

I'm really hoping the PS3 version of this turns out good. If it does, my wife and I have our co-op game set for a long time to come.

[TrackZero]

Nick, how was the questing?

[biosc1]

Hmm...I was debating getting Titan Quest to quench the click/kill urge, but I think I may hold off and wait for this game. Pretty graphics do tug at my heartstrings...

[OldeWolf]

Hmm...I was debating getting Titan Quest to quench the click/kill urge, but I think I may hold off and wait for this game. Pretty graphics do tug at my heartstrings...

Hold off from getting Titan Quest, it's too damn linear.

And Bap,
My biggest question, of course, is this: Subtitles??? :D

Second question is, is the game a sandbox game?

[valis]

Titan Quest (and Immortal Throne expansion) are one of the best games in this field. If you enjoy them and have not played it, I highly recommend it.

I enjoyed the first sacred and it's huge world. It had an excelled leveling mechanic where on bronze monster levels were fixed, and on silver, gold, and platinum? they increased with you -- forcing you to level your skills ahead of the curve. This is a day one buy for me.

Oh, Christmas, you are so cruel to the working man. Maybe I'll quit my job.

[Pluvious]

I also highly recommend Titan Quest and the expansion pack. Next best thing to Diablo on the market! A real great game with many many hours of replayability(sp). You'll probably find it on the cheap by now as well.. 5 out of 5.

[karak]

LOVE the first. Thanks for the preview man.
So stoked for this.
The first 1 did skills right and creature leveling you could chose.

[Kelegacy]

PS3/360 version? Hell yeah, that's sick. I haven't seen it in on the list on Gamefly, though. Will have to add it to my queue.

[ElfShotTheFood]

What's the monster spawning like in this? It was ridiculous in the first game (which I still enjoyed quite a bit, regardless).

One thing I read that was kind of stupid is that you if want the high-resolution textures in the PC version, you have to buy the more expensive Collector's Edition.

[ElektroDragon]

Good stuff, this looks like it might be a good game to get a bunch of EvAvers together to wack stuff.

Sign me up, huge fan of Sacred, played the original, and I even own a Sacred 2 t-shirt! :D I will buy it for 360 and PC. Not for PS3 though.

[Deadend]

My big question... how buggy will this game be? As Sacred was reallllllyyyyy buggy.

[baz]

I really like sacred, until my character couldn't go through doorways anymore. Like just couldn't go through any doorways.

Buggy game, but really satisfying when it was working, hopefully they've had more time to polish sacred 2.

[Wyrm]

Loved the first Sacred. Console versions though? I'd love to see how that works.. If the co-op is good, that's a surefire way to get me to pick it up.

[SilentScreams]

I recently bought the first Sacred on Steam. I also bought it retail when it first came out and really didn't like it.
I bought it on Steam because of people on here raving about it. I thought I must have missed something, or maybe they'd patched it up to a good level. They haven't.

The game in general isn't terrible, but the control scheme is one of the worst I've ever seen. There are control schemes that take a bit of adapting to in order to overcome, and then there are control schemes that sap my will to persevere with the game. Sacred's was the latter.

With that said, the potential was there, and that's enough to make me pick up Sacred 2. Let's see what they've done with all those years.

[Strider]

(...)I thought I must have missed something, or maybe they'd patched it up to a good level. They haven't.(...)

That's what I am always raving about! Is everyone blind or what? Did the show-stopping bugs only occur to me and a few friends?

Sigh... a year after release Sacred 1 was still having critical issues in lan coop. Since Ascaron is known for not-the-best quality regarding bugs, I can only warn on picking Sacred 2 up too soon.

Also Titan Quest might be linear, but I agree it's the best we currently have, and quite good.

[ProfPuppet]

Really, REALLY stupid question here. In the screens above, the character is standing next to, respectively, a hill and then a steep hill edge leading down, and another leading up. Can the character travel over these, or do they just slide down uncontrollably...? I'm curious how linear they've made the outside world.

Also, how much is randomly generated? Just dungeons? Outside world too? Towns/NPC havens?

I barely played the first Sacred- there were a few other games out at the time, and it just didn't snag me. I dimly remember either getting way too many or way too few quests, not being sure where to go... Maybe the haze of passed time has distorted my memories, though. Honestly, I can't even remember what the big bad was supposed to be, or any sort of plot.

[SilentScreams]

Well there's a demo up on Fileplanet at the moment. It's in German, but it should be good enough to get an idea of the gameplay.

[Bonecrusher]

I want to ask a question bapenguin.

I played the first game. It was a classic/cliche hack&slash. But something bothered me. Creatures were infinitely spawning. It doesn't matter you cleared a zone or not. Creatures according to the zone level were popping up. For example, I am a lvl 30 character, and I am in a lvl 10 creature zone. So let's say I am going from left to right, then turning back, going from right to left. In this path, I have to encounter the creatures two times.
This was annoying especially enemy mages slows you down and enemy warriors zergs you. You always need to stop, kill them all and continue the road.

The question is, has Sacred 2 got the same annoying problem?

[ElectricMonk]

I thought the first one was ok but eventually it was clear that there was going to be severe grinding ahead so I stopped around that time. Hopefully sacred 2 has a bit more content/grinding ratio.

[Grifter]

No offense but why would you play a Diablo clone if you don't like grinding? That's the whole point of these games kill shit get loot, kill more shit get more loot untill you beat the game then you start over on a harder difficulty level and do it all over again.

[SilentScreams]

No offense but why would you play a Diablo clone if you don't like grinding? That's the whole point of these games kill shit get loot, kill more shit get more loot untill you beat the game then you start over on a harder difficulty level and do it all over again.

QFT.

You can beat Diablo 2 by about level 25 if you really want, and yet there are 99 levels on the game. I mean, by level 25 you haven't even unlocked all your skills.
And yet Diablo 2 is still the pinnacle of the genre and a damn good game to boot. It's not about how much grinding there is. It's about how fun that grinding is.

[Grifter]

QFT.

You can beat Diablo 2 by about level 25 if you really want, and yet there are 99 levels on the game. I mean, by level 25 you haven't even unlocked all your skills.
And yet Diablo 2 is still the pinnacle of the genre and a damn good game to boot. It's not about how much grinding there is. It's about how fun that grinding is.

Exactly! and in my opinion nothing has done it better than the first Diablo. Diablo 2 was obviously close but I think a few level design issues keep it from being number one. Titan's Quest came close and almost captured that atmosphere that Diablo had but fell a but short and also lacked the replay ability. It's probably just me but besides atmosphere and that magic X factor that Blizzard manages to put in all their games the one thing that made Diablo funner than the rest was level length. They were long enough to make you feel like you accomplished something but short enough that grinding one more level for that last piece of loot wasn't going to be some huge undertaking.

Thinking back I would love to see an update to Diablo, keep the game itself exactly the same (music, voises, controls, etc.) just update the sprites and give us up to 1920x1200 resolution. Hell! I'd probably pay another $30 bucks for that.

Sorry about that, rant over just one more thing, you guys should try out Silverfall and it's expansion if you want a descent hack and slash to tide you over for a couple of weeks.

[SilentScreams]

I'd totally forgotten about Silverfall...I bought it a long time ago but it ran like crap on my PC. Now I have a new PC I might have to give it another go. It looked to have some good ideas.

[Grifter]

I'd totally forgotten about Silverfall...I bought it a long time ago but it ran like crap on my PC. Now I have a new PC I might have to give it another go. It looked to have some good ideas.

It does and has a very cool steampunk/high fantasy theme going on which is pretty sweet. It's also been patched a few times so it runs much better. It still has it's issues and I can't see doing multiple play throughs but it's definitely worth a go.

[bapenguin]

I want to ask a question bapenguin.

I played the first game. It was a classic/cliche hack&slash. But something bothered me. Creatures were infinitely spawning. It doesn't matter you cleared a zone or not. Creatures according to the zone level were popping up. For example, I am a lvl 30 character, and I am in a lvl 10 creature zone. So let's say I am going from left to right, then turning back, going from right to left. In this path, I have to encounter the creatures two times.
This was annoying especially enemy mages slows you down and enemy warriors zergs you. You always need to stop, kill them all and continue the road.

The question is, has Sacred 2 got the same annoying problem?

Doesn't seem to. To be fair, my character is only level 11.

[bryan]

I gave up on the first one after about ten minutes. I got out of town and I ran into invulnerable kobolds, which didn't have any AI so I just stood there trying to kill them for 5 minutes straight. After that I thought to myself, "This does NOT bode well for the rest of the game." and I uninstalled it.

[drakkarim]

Exactly! and in my opinion nothing has done it better than the first Diablo. Diablo 2 was obviously close but I think a few level design issues keep it from being number one.


i'd go further and say diablo2 had none of the spirit that diablo1 had. i think part of the loss was in the fact that diablo1 was quite a new experience, it was one of those 'first time' moments.

diablo2, by nature of being a sequel, could never deliver on that same feeling, so instead, they delivered on the gun/run/mp stuff, basically a mashup of diablo1 and quake.

personally i thought diablo2 was a pile of shit, since it had none of the depth/story/quality/wow of the first one. but i know i'm in the minority on that thought.

i just hope diablo3 returns a little to its real roots and delivers some quality/wow/polish in addition to the gun/run/mp stuff that the vast majority want.

anyway..........

sacred 1 was great, the expansion sucked, sacred 2 is looking good, hopefully it plays so as well.

silverfall.... couldn't get into it after multiple attempts, i think the camera stuff just got annoying too frequently.

[SilentScreams]

i'd go further and say diablo2 had none of the spirit that diablo1 had. i think part of the loss was in the fact that diablo1 was quite a new experience, it was one of those 'first time' moments.

diablo2, by nature of being a sequel, could never deliver on that same feeling, so instead, they delivered on the gun/run/mp stuff, basically a mashup of diablo1 and quake.

personally i thought diablo2 was a pile of shit, since it had none of the depth/story/quality/wow of the first one. but i know i'm in the minority on that thought.

i just hope diablo3 returns a little to its real roots and delivers some quality/wow/polish in addition to the gun/run/mp stuff that the vast majority want.

anyway..........

sacred 1 was great, the expansion sucked, sacred 2 is looking good, hopefully it plays so as well.

silverfall.... couldn't get into it after multiple attempts, i think the camera stuff just got annoying too frequently.

I actually played Diablo 2 first so it had that "wow" factor for me because it was the first of it's kind that I played.

I tried to go back and play Diablo, but I just couldn't do it because to me it felt like a huge step backwards. Every 5 minutes I was noticing things that I liked about Diablo 2 were missing.
I have no doubt that if I'd played Diablo first, I would have liked it.
I tried to go back to it not so long ago but I couldn't get it to work, presumably because of Windows XP.

[Grifter]

i'd go further and say diablo2 had none of the spirit that diablo1 had. i think part of the loss was in the fact that diablo1 was quite a new experience, it was one of those 'first time' moments.

diablo2, by nature of being a sequel, could never deliver on that same feeling, so instead, they delivered on the gun/run/mp stuff, basically a mashup of diablo1 and quake.

personally i thought diablo2 was a pile of shit, since it had none of the depth/story/quality/wow of the first one. but i know i'm in the minority on that thought.

i just hope diablo3 returns a little to its real roots and delivers some quality/wow/polish in addition to the gun/run/mp stuff that the vast majority want.

anyway..........

sacred 1 was great, the expansion sucked, sacred 2 is looking good, hopefully it plays so as well.

silverfall.... couldn't get into it after multiple attempts, i think the camera stuff just got annoying too frequently.

While I didn't think D2 was a pile of shit I do agree with you on pretty much every other point.

[FearTheReaper]

I actually played Diablo 2 first so it had that "wow" factor for me because it was the first of it's kind that I played.

I tried to go back and play Diablo, but I just couldn't do it because to me it felt like a huge step backwards. Every 5 minutes I was noticing things that I liked about Diablo 2 were missing.
I have no doubt that if I'd played Diablo first, I would have liked it.
I tried to go back to it not so long ago but I couldn't get it to work, presumably because of Windows XP.

Yep, you've pretty much summed up the same experience I had with D2 and D1. I'm not denying that Diablo isn't a good game, merely that I prefer Diablo 2 over the first for the improvements made in the sequel.

[karak]

I'd totally forgotten about Silverfall...I bought it a long time ago but it ran like crap on my PC. Now I have a new PC I might have to give it another go. It looked to have some good ideas.

It's a very enjoyable game with some differences that others like it don't have. The expansion is also well done.

[ElectricMonk]

No offense but why would you play a Diablo clone if you don't like grinding? That's the whole point of these games kill shit get loot, kill more shit get more loot untill you beat the game then you start over on a harder difficulty level and do it all over again.

There's good grinding and then there is boring grinding. If you can gain a level and skill or cool item every 15 minutes or so then it is good. But if you grind for an hour and the only thing you get is 3% better at blocking then that is not enough to hold my attention.

[drakkarim]

finally had a chance with the english demo, must say it felt exactly like the first one, in a good way. but with much better graphics/stuff.

[GoGamer.com - Jason]

For those that may be interested in Sacred 2. Should be arriving very soon. Sorry the box art image is broken at the moment.

http://www.gogamer.com/viewproduct.htm?productId=52278120&extid=Sacred2

Jason

[OldeWolf]

Hold off from getting Titan Quest, it's too damn linear.

And Bap,
My biggest question, of course, is this: Subtitles??? :D

Second question is, is the game a sandbox game?

:confused:

[TheBigL]

There's good grinding and then there is boring grinding. If you can gain a level and skill or cool item every 15 minutes or so then it is good. But if you grind for an hour and the only thing you get is 3% better at blocking then that is not enough to hold my attention.

Ever played Diablo II?
You could grinde all day long and kill act bosses many times just to get...
NOTHING!!! Unless you die... Then you lose exp and money.

It doesnt matter if you don't get anything for a long time. Its the excitement that you feel when you finally get it and the fun you have while looking for it :)

[Reverend Meta]

I loved the first Sacred. Despite it being a bit generic, it was awesome how you could go pretty much anywhere, including on the back of a horsie, and I liked the characters. Angelic lady for the win!

I am super-jazzed this is coming to consoles. It looks way better than I thought it would! Thanks for putting up this preview.

[DSSJ]

Great Hands-On Bap. I got the game yesterday and after a few troubles with Vista got it working.

One thing I found interesting is that there are armors/weapons which are linked to skills.

It looks like this:

Seraphim wings of OMGPWN
Armor: 2
Max shield shieldcontrol

Now I didn't have the shieldcontrol skill at first but when I leveled and trained it the item had Max shield +5.

So certain items seem to get more powerful if you got the matching skills trained up.

Hope that made sense....