Sacred 2 Fallen Angel is one of those games which makes for a very tough review. On one hand, it does a ton of things well and, on the other, has a ton of stuff to be improved on. We shall explain…
At the start of the game, you must select from quite a few options, each of which will tweak the gameplay experience somewhat. For openers, you have to select one out of six different characters to play as. Each of these characters is a different class and, as such, will directly affect your play style. For instance, the cyborg Temple Guardian character focuses on ranged combat with an energy weapon but also has a bladed weapon for close-quarters combat while the Shadow Warrior is strictly a melee-combat class. The cool thing about these characters is that they are well-developed and different enough to make you curious as to how each plays. Each character has a unique voice and personality of their own to boot, from the Temple Guardian who makes cracks at the expense of the game itself to the Shadow Warrior who’s gravelly, dry delivery of one-liners while he dispatches enemies reminds me of a campy Schwarzenegger flick (in a good way). You can select between a ‘good’ and ‘evil’ campaign mode (of the six characters, only three can partake in either one) as well as select a God to worship, each of which shall imbue your character with a special godly ability. For instance, worship the evil god Ker and you will be able to summon a nasty Sakkara demon to help you battle the forces of good, although the god’s hold on the demon doesn’t last long and then you will have to face off with it yourself.
After selecting a character you are treated to the opening cutscene explaining about the T-energy which emanates from within the planet and is the source of conflict in its inhabitants (people fighting for fuel? no way!). This pre-rendered, expository cutscene will give way to an in-game cutscene which introduces your character. After some introductory quests in the gameworld you are let loose to go about your business. Now, we have to say that the world of Acaria is gigantic and will surely provide you with hours of exploration. The environments are generally pleasing to look at with all manner of flora and fauna going about their lives.
As far as gameplay mechanics go, there really isn’t anything unique here. If you have played the aforementioned Diablo II or Titan Quest, you will be able to jump right into Sacred 2. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing, as the formula lends itself nicely to these hack-and-slash games and if it ain’t broke, why fix it! Sacred 2 does offer a couple of nice additions such as a button which will auto-loot everything within a pre-determined radius from your character, and the previously mentioned unique ‘god ability’. Characters will gain experience and levels and as they do you will be able to customize them further with unique skills and abilities.
Unfortunately, the narrative of the main quest just gets really lost in the game world and you will find yourself mainly spending your time hunting creatures and performing mundane quests all in the name of getting better gear and leveling your character. If this is not your cup of tea, you may wish to avoid this one. However, if you are a fan of multi-player gaming and love doing those things with your buddies you are in luck as Ascaron has included some great multi-player modes. There are PvP as well as PvE modes, and players can jump in and out of each others games. Spending a couple of hours with your mates killing mobs is a lot of fun and we have to give kudos to Ascaron for their attention to the game’s multi-player features.
While the game looks very nice, it is definitely suffering from some optimization issues. Our test rigs can run Far Cry 2 as well as Crysis (the original) at extremely high detail settings and get 50 to 60 frames per second. In Sacred 2, we are definitely seeing some slowdown. It is not unplayable by any means, but we are hesitant to see how it would run on a lower-end system without turning the detail way down. In addition, there were several times we would crash out of our single and multi-player games for some unknown reason. Then there is the game’s camera, which allows you to zoom in and out and rotate around your character. The problem is that the trees and other structures do not fade or become transparent when looking through them so it is easy to lose your character and select enemies if they are behind or under them.
Sound design is excellent in the game, with realistic ambient noises which really help sell the game world. Unfortunately, the voice acting in the game is often down right wooden. Now, the version we played was localized for the US, so we do not know if the original German actors were more natural-sounding.
Thankfully, none of this will really matter should you choose to play Sacred 2 Fallen Angel in a casual manner with your mates in multi-player. To us, that is where the game really stands out and is a lot of fun. It provides just enough narrative to keep things interesting and plenty of loot for your party to obtain. Unfortunately, the single-player mode can become very monotonous as you do not have the companionship of your mates to help you see past the game’s shortcomings. In addition, we hope Ascaron will continue releasing patches (as they have been) in order to fix the game’s instability and performance issues as the title definitely has a good deal of potential.
