Sacred 2 is a loot fan’s paradise, breaking urns and boxes gives loot, slain enemies drop loot, and even defiling graves gives you loot (as well as the occasional zombie). Desecrating cemeteries became a rather disturbing habit for me. No matter what I was doing if I came across a graveyard I would immediately ransack every grave within it. My motivation for doing so wasn’t just for the loot, but the sometimes hilarious inscriptions on several of the graves. For example, one teased me by saying “Maybe you’ll get a secret reward for reading every grave, and maybe not!”, another said “Reserved for critics”, and my favorite was a lonely grave that stated “The cake is a lie”. If you’re not familiar with that last one you’ve lost all your gamer cred and you need to go check out The Orange Box. I probably spent way too much time in these cemeteries, but not only were they fun to plunder, they also showed the extreme amount of love and dedication the developer’s invested in this game (as well as their great sense of humor).
At first I was somewhat worried about the game’s visual polish, as the main menu and character customization (or lack thereof) is dreadful. The menus aren’t very aesthetically appealing, and the inability to change anything but your character’s hair color and style is disappointing (for some classes even this option isn’t available). My concern only intensified once I started the game only to be met with some of the worst graphics and voice acting I’ve seen this console generation. The dialogue didn’t match the character’s lips, they were looking blankly at walls and ceilings, and the acting was way over the top. The good thing about this is that it doesn’t last very long, and the voice acting gets better (or at least less noticeable). I was very surprised when I saw the visual polish change drastically between the “cinematics’ and the actual gameplay. Usually the former looks best, but in Sacred 2’s case it’s the other way around. The environments are lush and vibrant, the character animations improve, and the game looks much better. This is a very good thing as you’ll be spending most of your time exploring the environments rather than the cut scenes.
This game boasts many hours of gameplay, whether you want to play it alone or with a friend (or friends if you’re popular) it’s definitely possible to drop 100+ hours into this game. The main story isn’t terribly epic, and the side quests are your standard RPG fare (kill this person, find this item, empty this dungeon, etc.) but this game is loaded with content and a plethora of items and abilities you can use to really customize your experience. There’s enough variety in the lush environments, mounts, enemies, and items to keep the game from getting repetitive, and Ancaria is a pretty cool world to explore. The future technology fused with a fantasy setting and an auto lock-on feature reminds me of Too Human (in a good way), and that’s a nice change from the typical elves and knights formula (though they’re in it too). This is the type of game you’ll turn on to play for a short while but instead you’ll end up playing it for four or five hours (this happened to me many a time).
A+
Sacred 2 is an excellent game that excels in many aspects while not doing anything terribly new or innovative for the genre. The biggest selling point is definitely the game’s abundance of content, which can keep you busy for a very long time, and the ability to play with friends makes this experience even more worthwhile.
Page 2 of 2