X360 Review: Sacred II: Fallen Angel
Sacred II: Fallen Angel can be considered many things; a “brainless” hack and slash, a Diablo-clone, a “loot-er” and a “core” RPG are feasible adjectives. The truth of the matter is Sacred II is also a hack and slash “core” RPG that fills the void of its kind on a console and never takes itself too seriously – making it, that much more of an enjoyable experience. As “brainless” as its gameplay may seem – it sure is one hell of a good time.
Developer: Ascaron
Publisher: cdv Software
Genre: 3D-Iso Action RPG
Rating: M (Mature)
Price: $59.99
Welcome to Ancaria – a world where T-energy, a blue liquid that seeps from the pores of the planet, is the source of all life and magic. As one would expect, the “good” and “evil” factions of Ancaria are fighting over control of the T-energy; causing [it] to morph into a destructive force that is destroying the entire world slowly.
As you should expect, you decide which faction will either bring peace or devastation to the land; nothing far from standard RPG fare. The stories of Sacred are, for the most part, average (at best) and are not its strongest point; fortunately, it’s not a necessity for the genre, so you shouldn’t feel like you’re missing out on anything.
Action RPGs, like Sacred II, aren’t necessarily known for exceptionally unique quests; don’t expect too much variation in quest design. While there definitely are a fair amount of interesting quests, many of them end up either “fetch-quests” or “fight-quests” (the true fun is in fighting hordes of enemies and traveling Ancaria, so moving to and from wasn’t a big issue with me). Weapons (from energy arm cannons to 2-handed fire axes and everything in-between), armor, relics, and enemies come in hundreds of uniquely designed models – while much of the NPC population in Ascaria falls to the hands of copy & paste. Magical and combat arts are all open for player upgrades as they see fit, and much of those arts can be combined, 4 at max, for hundreds of unique spells and attacks.
Seeing as Sacred II is at heart, a PC title, the lack of bump-mapped textures really didn’t surprise me. I, typically, play Iso-action RPGs zoomed pretty far out leaving me with visuals par for its kind.
Beautiful classical guitar and distortion laden metal riffs build the soundtrack for Sacred, and help make [it] feel outlandishly unique is comparison to titles in its genre. It’s also an effective way for the developers to lighten up the serious content.
To many, the gameplay of an action RPG becomes very monotonous, while others may find the hunt for loot and its grind to level 200 (yes, the level cap in Sacred II is 200!) nothing less than joyful. The amount of enjoyment you receive out of the experience boils down to how much brainless bashing of elven face your heart can concede, and how many unique weapons and armor you feel you need to own.
There are hundreds of hours of game to be played here both online and off, with 3 of your mightiest friends and Sacred’s online coop really makes it feel a lot like an MMO experience; while there are only 4 people to a party, the world of Ancaria stays persistent and all of its hundreds of side-quests are available for one, or all four, players to take part in.
No game is without flaws, and Sacred II has its share. Frame rate issue during giant battles, “glitchy” character animations, and texture pop-in are all occasionally relevant, but don’t occur often enough. I also had an issue with how Ascaron implemented battle music – fading in and out of different music snippets, encounter to encounter, pulled me away from the experience considering a lot of battle sequences are “kill, take 10 steps, kill”.
Like many titles, Sacred II: Fallen Angel isn’t for everyone. It’s clear the second the player drops into this universe that it is a “hardcore” RPG fan experience. With little explanation for anything in-game, an un-experienced player will feel lost in Sacred’s opening hours. That is not to say, curious gamers should stray away. If you enjoy dungeon crawls, looting, trading, fighting massive hordes of enemies and contributing hundreds of hours leveling up 1 of the 6 character classes there are to play in Fallen Angel – Sacred II is your game.
Games like Sacred are rare on consoles. Traditionally, the PC is where its fans rest their fingers – and to have a title, of its kind, on an X360 is super exciting. It has become cliché to call many action-RPGs Diablo-clones, mainly because it’s not another developer’s fault that Blizzard put together a great gameplay formula that became standard to the genre. Call Sacred II: Fallen Angel what you want – as long as you include “wicked” and “awesome” somewhere as adjectives. (B+)
-Jeffrey d
3 Responses to “X360 Review: Sacred II: Fallen Angel”
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I think I will try to recommend this post to my friends and family, cuz it’s really helpful.
Had the game for about a month now, on my x box 360. I like the game exept that, my game profile is always corrupt. Why? i don’t know. Do you have an answer for this?
I only have two characters created, and I play multy player with the same to friends.And I’m not connected live .
Thanks: Eric
Eric, Multiplayer currently has a file bug that doesn’t finish overwriting saves. Try to stay away from MP for a bit till it gets patched and make sure to contact Asceron via e-mail – make a complaint to push along the process. Hope that helps.