One of the best (and unique) things about the Sacred games, is the mount system. That alone is something that Diablo and other action-rpgs have totally turned a blind eye to. Give people mounts so they can travel faster, avoid mobs if wanted, attack from their mounts, use them as backpacks, etc. It's a no-brainer, in a fantasy game mounts are always a good thing.
While the mounts in Sacred were handy, the variety of mounts in Sacred 2 are where it's at. You have special mounts exclusive to the individual classes, and standard horses (tho they are anything but "standard" in their abilities)The class mount is a giant monitor lizard for the Druid, and that's both cool thematically and because combat abilities, spell, and what have you can be used while mounted, unlike on horseback. However, on my "Charger" horse, I can attack but cannot use buffs or combat abilities, but the horse itself has certain abilities. Charge (runs fools over), can rear up and kick enemies (decent damage), and can leap over obstacles. Control of the horses are decent as well.
I thought I'd find myself only using my class mount, but they make the standard horses viable options too, which adds a fun dimension to the relatively shallow gameplay options arpgs generally provide.