
A clever paper doll system satisfies our loot whoring vanity by way of a camera that simply zooms in closer to the player's avatar when it's time to play dress-up. The breadth of the menus and pages can be intimidating at first but becomes a breeze to navigate after a couple hours of play.
#Sacred 2 fallen angel pc gamepad series
Item categories and character stats are separated within a radial menu and each section is sub divided into a series of pages and lists. Inventory and character management is a big deal in RPGs and here Sacred 2 also does not disappoint. By pulling the left and right triggers players can access additional sets of face button mappings, totalling 12 abilities that can be accessed directly through trigger and face button interactions. For one, the interface has been retooled quite thoughtfully to accommodate the gamepad, allowing players to map the bulk of their special abilities to the face buttons. The Xbox 360 version sees some console-specific improvements that are worth noting. The mounts are back, the angel-like Seraphim is back, the same skill system is back and the amazingly convenient "travelling equipment chest" is back, too. It takes concepts that seemed progressive back in 2003 and, for fear of screwing up a good thing, merely repeats them with very little refinement. The reason why I went into so much detail with the first game is because we are a good six years past its initial release and the sequel, Sacred 2: Fallen Angel, is essentially the same game albeit with a new coat of paint. Supplement this feature with a fairly intuitive interface, a unique take on skill systems, unorthodox player classes (a vampire anyone?) and of course, endless piles of treasure, and you can begin to see how Sacred attracted its devoted fan base.

The ready availability of mounts made getting around even easier. Sacred also introduced the concept of mounts which were used not only as a means of transportation but also for battle. The first Sacred progressed through main chapters too while still offering up an immense world to freely explore and hundreds of optional side quests to embark on at your leisure. Diablo never nailed this down, instead choosing to railroad you through a linear string of chapters and building their worlds around a central hub and randomly generated dungeons. While it didn't do anything that came close to revolutionizing the genre, Sacred immediately grew a loyal fan base with a number of technical refinements.Ĭhief among these refinements was the inclusion of a massive open world environment completely open to the player from the very first level. Developed out of Germany by a small outfit called Ascaron, it came out of nowhere really, arriving onto the scene when the Diablo II clones were finally beginning to taper off. The original Sacred came out for PC in 2003. But now we're in 2009 and the tried and true formula is (finally) beginning to get old. From my early days with SSI's Eye of the Beholder through to the genre's golden age in the late 90s and early 00s with Blizzard's Diablo games, I've been in love with grinding loot and leveling characters. If my review introduction felt a little glib, it's because I am myself a huge fan of action-RPG dungeon crawlers despite my opinion of them as textbook examples of lowest common denominator design. If you're not convinced that this is an informative enough review, then please read on! Pray tell, did I mention anything about the PHAT LOOTZ? And depending on your moral stance towards the Diablo series of games, you will gleefully repeat this cycle for approximately 20 to 50 hours. You will improve your character's killing efficiency with said loot.

You will make agonizing skill point decisions. You will improve this character through countless battles. You will pick a character based on one of six available class types. It's a shameless loot-fest, loot-grind of the highest order. OMG I just completed my armour set!"Īnd that, folks, is probably how I could leave my review of Sacred 2. Unified by a common bond, strengthened through battle and forged in steel, our saviours will stop at nothing to. They ride as one, scouring the countryside, slaying monstrosities, defending those in need and upholding the justice of the land. Six brave warriors have answered the call. Its people call out for a hero to save them from the menace of T-Energy.

It gives life but also destroys it, seeping into the soil and warping all that it touches into a grotesque mockery of nature. The mysterious T-Energy has spread through out the land. The peaceful kingdom of Ancaria is under threat.
