Most console gamers have never even heard of Sacred so Sacred 2 kind of went unnoticed. Which is a shame because this Diablo-esque game is quite fun for fans of dungeon crawling world exploring, loot collecting games you can play online either PVP or Cooperative with up to 3 friends. That was a mouthful so real quick lets explian what kind of game Sacred 2 is not. It is not a long winded RPG with a deep story. It is not a hack & slash. Well then what is it you say. Fun I say. The kind of midless hours of your life sucking away fun you can only get by killing hordes of nasties with cool weapons and magic. You gain experience you collect gold you go on side quests the world is VERY big. The baddies are dumb ass all hell but can be tough in large numbers. The draw here is grinding for the next best set of armor or sword and exploring the enormous world that Ascaron has made.
Most PC gamers have played a game like Sacred we all call it Diablo II. In Sacred 2 there is no central hub, depending on what class of character you choose your starting point is a little different. There are 6 classes of character and a shadow or light campaign element for each of the classes with the exception of the Seraphim can only play on the light side and the Inquisitor can only play on the dark side. Direct character customization is limited to a few hairstyles and colors for the female characters. The custimaztion comes in the form of the hundreds of swords, bows, axes, laser guns, magic staffs, …… and armor parts you collect on your journey. Collecting a complete set of armor will net you special bonus abilities and attributes. Exploration is limited only by your patience you can easily spend over 100 hours playing the game or only 15 or 20 to complete the main quest. (On the Xbox360 there is actually an acheivement you can score for completing the main quest without uncovering too much of the map). Being that there are two sides to the story you may even decide to play through 2 times or if you are a completionist play through 10 times to experience every plausable aspect netting around 1000 hours of gameplay for $60. Not a bad deal.
Sacred is not without issues so lets break the game down into everyone’s 4 favorite catagories:
- Graphics: The game looks good, but it does look like last year’s PC version. There are a few frame-rate hiccups as well. The camera works well enough as you can zoom in and out of the action. The animation on some of the characters could be better too. There are some nice touches however the detail is very nice, the seas of grass move and shift as you walk through them and there are some nice ambient effects that look good as well and the magics look nice as well. 7/10
- Sound: A band called Blind Guardian lends its metal chops to the title song and somewhere else in the game as well (I dont want to spoil anything it is kind of cool in a cheesy way) The dialog suffers from a little localization issues and some repetition. Each character has there own incidental music which is a nice touch but all in all a forgettable sound track. The sounds you will remember most are the quips and dying quotes from the Kobolds and other silly monsters. 7/10
- Gameplay: Here is where the console version learned from the PC game. The controls are very well done for a game with so many quick changes that need to be made and with all the spells you have etc the use of the triggers is welcome for having multiple weapons/spells equipped since you cannot pause the game (even in offline mode for some reason). The game plays out in a quasi-realtime battle system meaning each press of the button is not a sword swing or a fireball more you press the button adn the target gets a ring around it and you hold the button down and your hero will keep swinging, shooting whatever until the target is dead and then will reacquire a new target automatically and continue to attack. The targetting system could be better as you will swing at nothing if the enemy is outside your range and the enemies are downright dumb. Each character is similiar in that they can use some form of close and ranged weapons and all have magic of some sort. The Shadow Warrior is your best bet for your first journey but my personal favorite is the Temple Guardian because he gets a custom mount to ride on that is very cool that is like a giant wheel but he can use his combat arts while seated in it where ther other mounts have different abilities. Each character gets a custom mount you can acquire or you can buy horses from various merchants. 7.5/10
- Yes but will I want to play it for 100+ hours?: Oddly enough despite all the little quirks and seemingly simplistic nature fo the game it is very addictive and more fun with a few friends. If you are looking for fantasy fun while waiting for Dragon Age to hit consoles later this year (fingers crossed) look no further than Sacred 2. 8/10
Overall I give Sacred 2 for the Xbox 360 and PS3 a 7.5 out of 10.
Having had 24 releases in Japan Ys Books I&II and one of the most hallowed titles in Action/RPG history. It has been 19 years since an official release of these games hit the US and 22 years since its 4-bit ancestor first graced the the NEC-PC8001 in Japan. Most people who have played Ys remember it from the TurboCD version, which blew most people away with its anime cutscenes and stellar soundtrack, which is still one of my personal favorites to date. There was also a version of Ys Book I: Vanished Omen released for Sega’s System III or Master System as it was known in the US. Other sequals hit the selves YsIII for the TurboCD and Super Nintendo, YsIV never made it to the US and YsV did not either, The recent success of Ys VI: The Ark of Naphistim was short lived and came at a time where the next gen was making it’s entrance so was lost. It was a decent game but all the sequals never had the magic of the original.
6/10