With so many RPGs out these days, it’s hard to find one that breaks through the mold or even steps out of the shadows from such RPG juggernauts as Final Fantasy or Elder Scrolls: Oblivion. So much has been done with the genre that is truly becoming more and more difficult to innovate the genre significantly. With the release of Sacred in 2004, Ascaron Studios hoped to add their own twist to RPGs by offering up a game with a strong theme of customization and roots in the classic dungeon crawler. While fans were lucky enough to have the sequel released on the PC a year ago, we have had to wait until this year to play Sacred 2: Fallen Angel on the Xbox 360. As I have not yet played the original Sacred, this review will be based on Sacred 2 as it’s own game, not as a sequel.
Story
Set 2000 years before the events of the original Sacred game, we find the world of Ancaria in the grips of a power struggle. Two factions of High Elves are fighting over an unusual force known as T-Energy: a force responsible for all life and magic in this fantastical world. Much like the ring of power in Lord of the Rings, he who controls the T-Energy becomes the dominant power and soon the other races of Ancaria begin to want it for themselves. As the conflict continues, the T-Energy begins to evolve into a violent and destructive force, corrupting or destroying everything in it’s path. Choose to heal Ancaria or spread the carnage around: it is entirely up to you.
Something tells me a can of Raid isn't gonna work here...
Gameplay
Sacred 2 boasts two impressive features which will make most gamers very happy. First off is the sheer enormity of the game world. This game offers you many, many hours of game play with a wide variety of quests and a seemingly unending landscape to explore. No matter how far you venture into the wild, you will always find a substantial part of the map yet to be uncovered. With the massive number of quests even outside the main quest, you will soon find yourself being a little more selective on who you decide to help out just so you can advance. The scope of the the world and different opportunities for adventure is reminiscent of Elder Scrolls: Oblivion despite being a remarkably similar in style to Blizzard’s popular Diablo series.
The second major bonus of Sacred 2 is the customization for your character. There are 6 playable classes you can venture through Ancaria with: Temple Guardian, Inquisitor, Shadow Warrior, High Elf, Dryad and Seraphim (the only race returning from the original game). While most characters can be played in both the Light and Shadow campaigns, the Seraphim is restricted to the Light path and the Inquisitor is limited to the Shadow path. But no matter the character and no matter the class, you will have endless customization options. So many skills, weapons and spells to learn, so little time. Once you have found the the weapons and skills that best suit your desires, you can assign your abilities to the face buttons of you controller and even develop powerful combos. The possibilities are seemingly endless.
Shall we just file this under 'Bitten off more than I can chew'?
But with the good sadly, comes the bad. One of the most frustrating aspects of this game was the menu interface, which is even more troublesome for anyone unfamiliar playing games with this level of customization. Navigating these menus is so awkward it definitely becomes evident that the controls were not properly adapted for the console from the PC version. Example: to reach the inventory menu from the main menu hub, you must hold the right shoulder button down while using the left analog button to point at the inventory section. While most games would leave the area you selected highlighted, these controls require that you awkwardly hold the analog in that position until the menu pops up.
Another disappointing part of this game ties in with one of it’s best features: the size of the game world. Many a time, you will find yourself at a loss for where to go next. You will follow a seemingly obvious route to reach my next objective only to find your path was blocked by a thick treeline, impassable hill or stream a short distance from my destination. No matter how shallow the brook, you cannot wade through it. No matter how small the hill, you will only be able to go so far up it. With other epic games which offer equally immense worlds but more of an explore-friendly landscape, Sacred 2 leaves you wanting. This immense world also brings up some frame rate problems as well. While normally not enough to make game play completely impossible, it is very frustrating and detracts from the fun that hacking and slashing little fantastical beasties normally brings.
All you ever wanted to be and more
Graphics
The opening cinema of Sacred 2: Fallen Angel will definitely get you excited. The opening sequence full of elves, wizards and Jason & the Argonauts style skeletons will have you gripping your controller in anticipation and hoping that the in-game graphics are closely on par with it. Sadly, this is where the graphical pluses end. There is no beating around the bush here: the graphics of Sacred 2 are not so hot. Limited and weak texturing plague Ancaria, taking away from the experience and joy of seeing your customized armour and weaponry on your character. Even a large portion of the environmental animations were weak and seemed to have been directly ported (and undeveloped) from games released several years prior. The water splash animation when running in puddles, for example, had no fluidity and you could see the pixelated makeup of the effect with every step.
Audio
The musical audio of the game is definitely one of it’s stronger points. The opening cinema theme actually stands up as one of the better game intro songs of recent years, especially since metal music in games usually tends to go down the cheesy hair band avenue. Composed by self described ‘German symphonic fantasy metal’ band Blind Guardian, this song will have you pumped to get into the game within the first few bars. It was as if Metallica and Queen collaborated to make the ultimate bad ass rock opera. What’s not to like? The regular game music itself was of high quality on it’s own, adding great dimension and life to Ancaria. There is no theme here that will get stuck in your head but you will not be disappointed by the music the game does offer up.
Not exactly a lap cat
The weak aspect of the audio is the voice acting. While the dialogue sometimes had you wondering if the comedic line delivery was deliberate or unintentional, there were many moments where the acting was just painful. The irritating tone and delivery of character dialogue particularly after a battle victory is almost cringe worthy. The ambient and weapon effects were pretty solid although there were a few animal and environment sounds that just seemed a little off.
Multiplayer
Take one enormous world, add nearly limitless customization and throw in a little multiplayer and you have yourself one fun online experience. Although there were not too many people playing Sacred 2: Fallen Angel on Xbox Live during my review window, I definitely found it to be a more satisfying game experience online. You can share items and strategies and team up for some satisfying online battling. But the main advantage of the online play was getting help from other players. People unfamiliar with playing epic-sized world games may wonder if their need for an ingame GPS is because of their inexperience but there are many an online gamers in the same predicament. Having others to co ordinate and troubleshoot with definitely gave the multiplayer an advantage over the single player campaign.
One admirable feature of the multiplayer was the ability to import your single person campaign character into the online game without compromising your original game. Leave the one player adventure behind for a while to battle online with your friends and you can still return to your single person game with no adverse changes to your character.
Emperor Palpatine would be proud
Reccomendation
There are some major ups and downs throughout Sacred 2: Fallen Angel. While the huge game world and immense customization opportunities make for endless different ways to play and many hours of playability, a combination of weak graphics and poorly translated controls among other things make for a proportionally frustrating and disappointing experience. While there are those who are willing to accept a game’s shortcomings in exchange for a few admirable aspects, it is a shame that given how far games have come, we can’t always expected a well rounded and completely polished game.. The good does not entirely outweigh the bad here. Had Sacred 2 delivered decent graphics and smooth gameplay with well translated controls in addition to it’s current merits, it would definitely be a force to be reckoned with. For Diablo-style game fans and Sacred fans alike, you will find there is still much fun to be had in Ancaria. For those want a game that doesn’t feel unfinished, take your adventure by way of the rental.
Sacred 2: Fallen Angel
Systems: Xbox 360, PC, PS3
Developer: Ascaron
Publisher: cdv Software Entertainment, Deep Silver
Find: Gamefly, Amazon , Goozex
All reviews are based on final retail code unless otherwise noted.
Get the XBOX 360 Controller for $11
