Sacred 2 - Review @ Worthplaying

Worthplaying gets their review up for Ascaron's recently released action rpg, Sacred2:Fallen Angel, with a score that falls into line with most other reviews we've seen so far: 7.2/10:

Diablo has cursed every other title following its formula by having the unfortunate privilege of being compared to its accomplishments. One of these was Ascaron's Sacred, which took the radical route by dropping that formula into a continent-sized sandbox. It apparently did well enough for a sequel, and Sacred 2's updated sandbox has never looked better, but there are unexpected rocks buried beneath its deceptively pretty surface.

The reviewer also has mixed feelings about the voice acting:

Most of the acting sounds as if it were read off cue cards, but there are a few gems in there to keep it from completely crushing the experience. Unfortunately, my choice of a Seraphim made me wish that Sacred 2 had a silent hero instead of a talkative one, as I wasn't sure if the actress was told to mock the Goody Two-shoes aspect of the class, or if that really was how the character is supposed to sound. When I first heard her "battle cry," I was nearly convinced that an NPC had died on-screen and I had missed it, until it happened again and I realized the horrible truth.

Conclusion:

There really is a lot to like about Sacred 2, but only as long as you are willing to put up with the constant need to micromanage your journey with a high tolerance for FedEx-type questing. For players who can't get their fill of killing hordes of monsters and collecting loot no matter what the local NPC may ask them to do for it, opening the nearest portal to Ancaria's past might just be …the perfect distraction.

More information.

It's a good game, I like it. Funny how they mention the fedex quests as a negative, but honestly how many action rpgs don't rely on that…diablo sure did.

yeah i agree, i`m enjoying it very much, i`m a big Diablo, and Titan Quest fan, and i`m loving Sacred 2, been experimenting with different classes, and i`m getting settled on my dart-using, - bark-skinned Dryad, loving every minute so far.

Plater

Play.com has Sacred 2 PC UK for only 9.99 GBP. Including free shipping to most European countries.

Originally Posted by Gorath
Play.com has Sacred 2 PC UK for only 9.99 GBP. Including free shipping to most European countries.

I saw that hmmm, how are people finding it?

Originally Posted by woges
I saw that hmmm, how are people finding it?

Well, after having a few problems with the latest patch 2.34 (i think) - after d/l it i got an error message and couldn`t run the game, i had to delete and reinstall… not good i know, but if you can get it patched correctly, theres a mammoth of a game here. I`ve not really checked the S2 forums lately, so they may have corrected the issue, but recently running very smooth, no crashes, no problems, a great gameworld to explore, i have one gripe… the game map, can be a little confusing, in the fact that its a little difficult in finding where to go next, but thats the name of the game, i guess, exploring…. all the reviewers giving it a low score, hav`nt given it a fair chance, imho, but maybe thats just me being biased
great game.. no shortage of class skills, things to do, quests etc.

Plater

I can't undestand those low scores. After the patches, it is the best aRPG ever. Huge gameworld, hundreds of quests, paralel good and evil campaign, class related questlines, etc.
It delivers the simple kill-loot-upgrade aRPG formula on 100%, so what is the problem?

I did love it for a while, but it did get a bit tedious. The awful dubbing, and 'humour' have really spoilt it.

The DRM system has also really killed the interest in the game for other people. Wouldn't surprise me if the team behind Sacred 2 go bankrupt.

I actually found some of the humor pretty funny it reminds me of some of the older games that did that as well….

Originally Posted by Barghest
Wouldn't surprise me if the team behind Sacred 2 go bankrupt.

They won't. They have a large variety of successful franchises and also some publishing operations (in the UK and elsewhere) under their belt. But, yeah, Sacred 2 is pretty awful as far as I could tell from the demo .

Well, the install process for this game is brutally long - and the patch process was just infuriating beyond belief.

There are no excuses for this sort of QA and DRM bullshit. They do NOT deserve to be let off the hook for this at Ascaraon.

Now, that horrendous out-of-box debacle aside, this is a gem of a game and I am really damned impressed with it so far. I say so far, as I have not got very far into the game and I do not purport to have seen enough of it to agree or disagree with the review - but my very early first impression is slanting to 8.5 or 9 out of 10.

The voice acting IS very uneven though. I agree with that. The map features of the game and the full 3d make up for that - and are deserving of comments and praise.

More to say about this game later when I have enough experience with the game to make more informed comments.

One more thing, I found the game engione actually quite impressive, would be awesome if they would use it for a traditional rpg. Really reminds me of ultima 7(without all the interactivity.)

got it as a christmas present, and it's on the back burner atm, but I'm excited about it - sounds like a good action rpg. I can say that I was kinda shocked to see it having the biggest HD req's Ive ever seen in a game - 20 gig minimum. 25 recommended. Holy Shiite…

Waiting til I get done w/ Fallout 3 & TR:Underworld

Let us know how it goes when you finally install, Sammy. I'm kind of put off by the sys reqs and the DRM thing atm. I have 40 gig HD and a lot of it is occupied.

Originally Posted by magerette
Let us know how it goes when you finally install, Sammy. I'm kind of put off by the sys reqs and the DRM thing atm. I have 40 gig HD and a lot of it is occupied.

I have a new PC so the sys requirements were of no consequence to me (indeed, I sort of looked forward to putting the new muscle machine to use, as it were).

In fairness to the hard drive requirements, 1 TB hard drives were on sale in my local computer shop for $99.99 CDN to $119.99 today. Hard drive space is excessively cheap. Do try to keep that aspect of the requirements in perspective.

Diablo has cursed every other title following its formula by having the unfortunate privilege of being compared to its accomplishments

To the point.

I'd even write it as cursed, in bold letters.

I think the humour kept me playing Sacred II longer than I'd played it otherwise. Shadow Warrior for example has, IMO, very funny comments. And laughed out loud, when I saw the trailer guy on the island with medieval RV!