Developer: Ascaron Entertainment
Publisher: cdv Software Entertainment
Rating Guide: How I Review Games

Review:

Sacred 2: Fallen Angel is one of those games that I believe you’ll either love or really hate.  It’s an action RPG that does a few things well, a few things great and a few things wrong.  And the best part about this is that none of it will really matter because you’ll find yourself drawn to it regardless.

Gameplay, Graphics and Sound

Sacred 2: Fallen Angel is an action RPG set in the magical world of Ancaria.  You can choose between 6 different characters;  each of them has their own story to play out across Ancaria.  There is a Light and Shadow campaign that you can plunder through with the usual bells and whistles of hero and villain.  I can tell you now that it won’t really matter which side you choose because you’ll likely not give any thought to the game’s story.  (more on that later)

There are a variety of weapons, armor and Combat Arts at your disposal.  Combat Arts are your spells and skills.  The control scheme was one of the things in the game that I felt like Ascaron did a wonderful job with.  You can map up to 12 different spells, skills and weapons to use on the field for combat.

You travel around Ancaria by way of various portals and monoliths.  These are spread out around the map and it’s important that you remember how they work.  Portals are always active so you can activate them all.  However, monoliths are only active one at a time and it’s always the last one that you activate.

The environments and structures (temples, houses etc) are all highly detailed.  You won’t grasp exactly how detailed these things are unless you zoom in with the camera to see it close-up.  The description of the game boasts about individually textured structures and I’m in no position to argue.  Impressive is the word that comes to mind.  I wish I could share that same sentiment in regards to the characters in the game but I can’t.  For some reason, all of the details seemed forgotten when it came down to designing the character for you to play.  It’s like an original Xbox model dropped in the middle of a next-generation party.

For a game of this size, I think loading times were managed well.  There were the occasional stutters and framerate issues but they didn’t interfere with the flow of the game.  Most of the loading came while in a city looking for quests and most of the framerate issues cropped up when multiple enemies would be on screen.

This game can easily drain your life if you’re not careful.  The bad thing about that though is that you sometimes feel like you’re playing just because the genre calls for it instead of playing because the game is that much fun.  You won’t care about the story and what your business is in Ancaria.

I mentioned this above and I wanted to explain.  The only thing you’ll do with this game is loot and level up until you have to eat or use the bathroom.  That’s a good and bad thing.  I finished the main quest and I had no idea what I had just accomplished and in fact, I didn’t care.  My only thought was when do I loot and level up again?  It was such an abrupt ending with such a short cutscene to follow.  I then realized that I had completely given no attention at all to the story.  I didn’t know about any side quests that I had been on minus the Blind Guardian side quest in which you score some cool band themed weapons.   The Blind Guardian concert was awesome I must add.

Xbox LIVE Extras

Sacred 2: Fallen Angel is one of those games that is always connected to Xbox LIVE.  There are options for you to choose that will allow friends to jump into your game to experience your quest alongside you.  You can also create a game or a PvP battle.  It’s co-op action over Xbox LIVE with nothing new apart from co-op offline.  The good thing about it is that all of yours stats and progress travels with you across offline and online play.

There was a patch to the game recently that fixed a lot of problems that the game released with.  The biggest one for me was the co-op trading of items that seems to have been disabled.  Both accounts have to be Xbox LIVE Gold accounts in order for you to trade though.  But it’s all worth it especially when your friend has a set item that you want.

Conclusion

I could write about 5 or 6 pages about this game to properly prepare you for it but I won’t.  Sacred 2: Fallen Angel doesn’t do anything to define the genre on consoles but it does provide hours upon hours of gameplay that you can enjoy.  I doubt it will bring any new fans to the genre but for the existing fans of the genre it will surely be a fine meal.  There are countless side quests that you can complete after you’ve done the main quest.

Are they repetitive?  Sure, but I have a feeling that all the looting, customizing and leveling up you can do will make that a moot point.