Sacred 2: Fallen Angel Review
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Let me be clear - Sacred 2 won't be winning any originality contests. It is a straight action-RPG in the grand tradition of Diablo, whose lineage includes games such as Diablo II, the original Sacred, and Titan Quest. Sacred 2 has taken elements from all of those games and improved upon its predecessor in nearly every way. The game is still played from an isometric perspective, but the engine is fully 3D and as such you get much more control over the view. You can zoom in and out, rotate, tilt and so on.
Sacred 2 is a huge game - in terms of content as well as size. The world is open and you can go anywhere just like in the original and the size is estimated at 22 square miles. The main quest reportedly contains over a hundred quests, with hundreds of side-quests available to any character, as well as character-specific quests and quests related to the chosen deity. While I did not go through and count them all, the sheer volume of quests listed in my log gave me no reason to debate these numbers. Generally the quests are simple and straight-forward - go there, get this, kill that - but occasionally there are multi-stage quests. The range of types and difficulty of quests is also very satisfying. I can't over-state that, because in a game that is all about the kill-loot-quest-advance cycle, it is easy to slide into boredom. Fortunately the quests and the NPCs handing them out are varied and keep you engaged.
Character development is also done much as it was in the original, but the interface has been streamlined - but in a good way. Skills are spelled out more completely and the skill tree works very nicely. Weapons are slotted in the same way as the original, which allows you to improve them with items you find along the way. New skills and spells are learned using runes you will find as you adventure, and finding multiples will allow you to gain more levels. Everything is specific to your character - so if you are playing a Seraphim and find a rune for an Inquisitor, you can simply sell it off. This sets a fairly tight box around the way you gain active skills, but given the limitations to how you can advance and learn passive skills it actually works quite well.
