XBOX Reviews

Sacred 2: Fallen Angel Players: Offline 1-4; Online 1-4 Other: Co-op multiplayer; HDTV 480p, 720p, 1080i; 16:9 widescreen; In-game Dolby Digital sound.

6 stunning character classes. View larger.

Battle using brute force & steel. View larger.

A massive weapons inventory. View larger.

Master the lore of the ancients. View larger.

Classic RPG character leveling. View larger.

The Story
T-Energy has been flowing through Ancaria since time immemorial. This mysterious power forms the beginning of all life, is the source of all magic and the origin of all thought. For eons the angelic Seraphim watched over the T-Energy and therefore over the fate of the entire world. But eventually tiring of their burden, they passed their knowledge on to the High Elves. T-Energy helped the realm of the High Elves to experience an unimaginable boost of prosperity, making it the reigning culture in Ancaria. But a force as powerful as T-Energy carries great dangers. Not taught how to deal with this, no sooner did the Elves take control, then a heated dispute erupted among them as to how and to what purpose the T-Energy was to be used. Dispute morphed into irresolvable conflict, then rift and eventually to a civil war among the High Elves, where all participants were losers. Their realm collapsed and with it the entire power structure of Anacaria. In the turmoil all the peoples of Anacaria coveted the right, either openly or in secret, to wield the power of T-Energy and in the end, unmanaged, the T-Energy raged out of control warping creature and lands alike. Can anyone regain control over the T-Energy. And if so, will he/she strive to prevent the world from lapsing into final chaos, or deepen it?

Gameplay
Gameplay in Sacred 2: Fallen Angel in divided into two campaign paths: Light and Dark. As the game begins players choose and customize their character and choose the path they will follow. This choice determines the ultimate goal and intentions of their character, and as the game progresses through literally hundreds of quests and side quests, the paths of different characters intersect at different junctions. Choose one way and you may be tasked to defend a town and its people, while another path could result in you attacking the same town. The choice is yours and the fate of the world and your well-being are at stake.

Key Game Features:

• A massive, seamless and dynamic world delivering hundreds of hours of freeform exploration.
• Two deep campaigns: play as the ‘Light’ or ‘Shadow’ side, complete with distinct skills, rewards and story-elements tailored to the chosen path.
• Six exceptional, playable characters, each with a distinct look, capabilities and in-game motivation.
• Modifiable combat arts: change, upgrade and link together your alter ego’s combat skills to match your playing style.
• Fight effectively from the back of a number of mounts under your control; equip and upgrade your character’s unlockable special mount.
• Deities offer unique combat disciplines and unlock additional quests.
• Seamless transition between single and multiplayer gaming modes via Xbox LIVE.
• Captivating online modes of play challenge gamers in cooperative, PvP and PvE play.
• Extraordinary, cutting-edge graphics and Dolby 5.1 channel surround sound utilize the latest technologies for a truly immersive experience.

Character Classes
In Sacred 2: Fallen Angel players assume the role of one of six characters — five of which are new to the franchise — and delve into a thrilling story full of side quests and secrets that you will have to unravel. Breathtaking combat arts and sophisticated spells are waiting to be learned. A multitude of weapons and items will be available, and you will choose which of your character’s attributes you will enhance with these items in order to create a unique and distinct hero.

	Seraphim Often referred to as ‘Fallen Angels,’ these mystical and angelic creatures are the oldest inhabitants of Ancaria. Fast, elegant and acrobatic warriors from a technological future they fight with light to medium weapons and, if required, with massive technological support. Players can assume the role of a Seraphim and protect the world from chaos.
	Shadow Warrior Shadow Warriors were originally humans trained as elite soldiers in service to the High Elves. Upon their death their souls were stolen by an Elven general, bound to lifeless bodies and imbued with T-Energy. Now free, they travel between this world and the next as undead beings with only the desire to return to the peace of the golden halls of Elysium.
	High Elf The best student at the ancient academy of magic in Thylysium, the High Elf character lives and breathes magic. Her hunger for adventure and her insatiable desire to increase her personal knowledge and the influence of her once-powerful house are the driving forces as she sets off into an Ancaria boiling over with turmoil.
	Dryad Masters of the hunt and akin to the Elves, The Dryad are in tune with nature and are equipped with the strength of the forests. The most powerful and the strongest among them are knowledgeable of the dark art of voodoo and were chosen in order to save their peoples from extinction. All are expert with the bow, traps, poisons and lore of the forest.
	Inquisitor The Inquisitors are the High Priests of the High Elves. Arrogant and deadly, they are only committed to themselves and their ultimate goal of assume control over the T-Energy. Proficient in close combat and able to gain increasing power as damage is taken, their manipulative spells make them powerful fighters from the shadows.
	Temple Guardian Since the beginning of time the purpose of Temple Guardians were to maintain and protect the Great Machine, so that it could keep the world in balance. Neither fully flesh or mechanical, they are half human and half machine. Propelled by T-Energy and devoted to protecting it, they are part of the Great Machine and so able to use the T-Energy for their purposes.

A Wide Variety of Mounts
Across Ancaria you will find many horse dealers. They offer all kinds of animals, from the simple nag up to a real war horse. You can equip a war horse with bridle, saddle and even special armor. These special items can be found in the game just like player items, ranging in quality from regular to rare and even unique items. In addition, every character also has a unique mount created specifically for their character class. This mount not only fits the personality of the character, but also complements the various aspects of the character’s playing style perfectly. All character classes can fight from a mounted position using a variety of tactics that the player chooses depending on the terrain and battle conditions.

User Ratings and Reviews

4 Stars Bugs and Game Design cause 2 fall short of greatness
This game is tons of fun to play but there are a bunch of irritating bugs. Before I get into them I just want to mention that anyone calling this a “huge, expansive free roaming world” is a moron. This is a path game, its strives to seem alinear by being so big, but pretty much you are restricted to paths and roads with narrow corridors on either side. It is not like Oblivion or Fallout3!

Bugs: I bought my mount in co-op offline then tried to play single later on. My mount was there, wonderful, then I went back into multiplayer and it was gone. Now I can only use it in single player. Also, sometimes stores won’t let you buy stuff randomly and you cannot trade offline! THIS IS RETARDED!!!!! My brother keeps getting runes I can use, and I get ones he can use but we don’t have XBOX Live so we can’t trade. Thus we are both high level but really weak magically.

Also, you can only have one mount at a time, only one sex per class. I like seeing naked chicks as much as any guy, but this game just gets ridiculous because all the female characters are clothed in thongs and bras despite the decidedly dangerous nature of their lifestyles. This is so absurd and impractical. If they wanted to sell sex in the game they should have actually put sex in the game while making armor actually cover the vital parts in battle. As a result of this, I a 21 year guy am playing a 20 something high elf magic babe wearing a thong, sandals and bra with a humongous spiny helmet fighting dragons and giants 10 times my size with spells 10 times weaker than they should be.

Still its fun and Dragon Age: Origins isn’t out yet, ugh…

3 Stars Good, but needs work.
I played this for a while, the controls are very good, and the typical hack n slash momentum is there. Add mounts and some other good tidbits and the game is a real contender. However, I bought this game specifically for offline coop, and let me tell you the camera stinks. Even if you are playing on a 50″ LCD, your characters are so small it makes it very difficult to play. The controls when you are fighting will not let you move your character around if you are mashing buttons frantically. You actually need to stop mashing buttons to redirect your character in another direction. Most action/rpg games let you move the character around a bit in between the button presses. Not in this one. The map is HUGE. I’m pretty sure this is a 100 hour plus game. Anyway, it’s decent for the single player and online pvp, etc. But they really needed to give you the ability to lock the camera in place so it doesn’t zoom all the way out.

5 Stars Open World RPG
The good:

- Best thing about Sacred 2 is by far the Open World. Similarly to Sacred 1, from the very first moment of the game, you have access to most of the world, so – if desired – can travel anywhere. While there are risks with traveling in areas with high level enemies, there is also the reward of getting a lot of experience and unique items. Enemies level up with you, but not at the levels they did in Oblivion or Morrowind.

- Second best thing: the ability to play co-op on the same screen is unbeatable. I played this with my spouse and we both enjoyed the game tremendously. In co-op, the camera is fixed at a certain height (zoomed out), but can still be rotated. This is a great plus, because it avoids the camera jerking seen in other games.

- Gaming experience is excellent. In terms of gameplay – closest this can be described is as a clone of Diablo 2. Basically, you have the 3 sets of skills for each characters, each with 5 (or 6?) individual skills. You also have the unique items – here rated between 1 and 4 stars. You also have the socketed armors and weapons where you can add different other skills or improve your current ones. You also have 3 different quality levels between the sockets (bronze to gold). Same goes for the classes too – everything is covered from the High Elf (manual states that this is your sorceress), to other similar classes from Diablo 2. Oh, and yes, you can also recruit other characters in your party.

- There is an insane amount of improvements over Sacred 1, biggest one being graphics. Game is fully 3D – you will travel to huge cities with detailed architecture, dungeons, islands, all type of terrain. Camera can be a bit of a pain sometimes (in single player), but works great for co-op. You can still ride different things, with each class having a specific ride.

- Huge replay value! Many classes and a huge game. In co-op, we have put around 40 hours in the game and still going. In terms of XP, you can gain a maximum of 200 levels for the Bronze Difficulty, but there are additional difficulties that get unlocked, similarly to the ‘other’ game.

The bad:

- Clearly, Ascaron could not straight out copy the Diablo 2 menus and skill sets, so they had to reformat them, to look original. This was a tough thing to do, because Diablo 2 had the best menus from the very beginning. Thus, browsing through the Sacred 2 menus continues to be complicated – at least for the first hours of the game. Basically – I do not think there is a controller button left untouched, every time you need to get in the menus. Maybe the Back button?

- While there are easily hundreds of quests to be done, there just isn’t enough to the story to keep you interested in them. After a while, we stopped following the quest purpose and concentrated on XP. If story is what you are interested in – then Lost Odyssey is probably the best (J)RPG on Xbox.

- The game had to be patched, but there still are minor issues here and there. Sometimes the menus do not work right, other times the texture redraw is not quick enough. Not a major issues for us, but may bother other people.

The ugly:

- Ascaron is bankrupt, so the chances of getting a Sacred 3 are slim to none.

Bottom line: this is a great game for fans of Diablo 2, Sacred 1, Titan Quest and Baldur’s Gate / Dungeons and Dragons games. While difficult in the beginning, the more you play the more fun it will become.

3 Stars Good, not great…
Sacred 2 is a Diablo 2 clone in the strictest sense. It is not highly innovative, it doesn’t do anything incredibly new or innovative. But, those looking for a good, long, dungeon-crawler grind-fest, you don’t have many options on next-gen consoles in the first place.

I’m going to be honest, I don’t mind a good dungeon-crawler. There’s something about leveling up a character, improving armor, weapons, and magic spells that excites me, even when the action itself is pretty repetitive.

Let’s talk graphics, many professional reviewers shun the graphics for being poor, I have to disagree on this point. If you zoom the camera in as far as it will go, some of the textures are certainly lower-res than at first glance, but since you’ll be playing with the camera zoomed out I think that argument does really work, (even zoomed in it looks good). Character models, weapons and armor sets are all modeled in great detail, and when it comes to character animation it does seem stiff, but works well. The games graphics are impressive enough, and certainly get the job done. I think the overall design of the world of Ancaria is good, if not a little uninspired–you will still feel like you’ve been here before if you’ve played any of these games in the past.

On to sound: Voice work is pretty laughable at best most of the time, from the things that your character says to the main plot pieces that are voiced are pretty bad–like almost Dynasty Warriors bad… Sound effects are functional and for the most part work just fine. Music is actually pretty good and serves as a nice backdrop for the world.

Speaking of the world, it’s huge! I’m pretty sure there isn’t any way I’m going to be seeing it all. There are some drawbacks to this game though, again, it can be repetitive, it has some framerate issues–especially in large cities or when there’s a lot of action and characters and magic spells on-screen. And let’s not forget the bugs. This game is pretty finicky, that’s putting it nicely. Frankly it’s not a fantastic game, but I still really enjoy it, and the ability to play with another person on the same console is fantastic. Better yet, you can play with 4 other people online over Xbox Live in any combination of players local and over Live. So you can have two people play on a local Xbox 360 with up to two other players over Xbox Live. This feature alone nearly makes the whole experience worth it. I have yet to take it online so I can’t comment on the network code and whether that is laggy or buggy or not.

Overall, if you are looking for a good 3rd-person action RPG for the Xbox 360 or PS3 you won’t be disappointed with Sacred 2. In fact, it might surprise you just how fun it really is!

5 Stars A great game being braught down by human operation errors.
Sacred 2 is a great game that plays exactly like the old Diablo for the PS1(if you every played it, it was fun). You play one of six different character classes, and choose if you are going to play a good campaign or an evil campaign. You are allowed to have up to 8 different characters at a time. The cool thing with this is that there is a hero box in the cities that you can put items that you find into it with one character quit with that character and load up one of your other characters and retrieve the item you just put in there with your other character.

First thing first, let me post about some of the earlier reviews of the game. One of the previous review posts(This is where the Human error comes in). The 1 star review for not being able to save for not being connected to or having an XBL Gold account. I am currently deployed to and serving in Iraq. I have absolutely no internet connection for my XBOX 360 in my room. I have no problems saving my game either. It does however at the very start of the game loading up ask you and tell you that you are not connected to XBL and will not be able to take advantage of certain XBL features please choose a storage device to save on. If you do not pay attention to this and rush through it and hit the (B) button you will get the remark stating you cannot save your game. I accidentally did this and just restarted and continued playing. SO to close this bit. YOU CAN SAVE WITHOUT XBOX LIVE OR A GOLD ACCOUNT.

For the fatal save error that is a system problem not a game problem.

Another review I read said that they took the game back because they could not read what was on there screen due to the letters were horrible or they had to small of a TV. I am running a 19″ non high def LCD TV in Iraq and I can see everything just fine. Again it may be the LCD that clears the picture up a bit but I can read everything just fine on my TV.

Now back to the game. The graphics are beautiful in this game. In the XBOX 360 version you have complete camera control. Your left thumb stick moves your character around and the right thumb stick will rotate the camera left and right or zoom in and zoom out. You play from a angleed top down third person perspective like you would in Diablo. Sometimes the view is not great but it worls really well for the game. I only wish I was home to play this on my 52″ 1080p LCD widescreen TV and my digital surround sound. The ambiant sounds and the music for the game are very fitting and bring you even deeper into the game. The story is there but you have to really look for it and pay attention to it. But it is just as vague as any other MMO/hack and slash style game. Then again the devs paid more attention to game play and other features over story which is fine with me.

The game does have it’s faults however. But in my honest opinion they are minor nit picking gripes that plague any game out there. For starters the camer angle does limit you on the distance that you can see but it is the nature of the game type that makes it that way. Some of the character models look funny when they run but that is a minor nit pick. You cannot choose to be a different sex for each of the different classes. But I do understand why they did that. As stated earlier you have to dig and pay attention if you want to understand the story. A map would have been an excellent addition to the game. And my only real personal gripe is that there is no system link.

Overall the game is very fun and time consuming like most games that fall into this catagory. So as far as the story goes you can completely lose yourself and forget what the story really is(I did this as a matter of fact) by running all of the side quests that you can possibly do in the game. So if you are looking for a game that is going give you the bang for your buck and you enjoy an open world(sandbox style) of grinding, looting, searching for better armor, weapons, and gear to create the nastiest character ever I highly recommend this game.

Hope this helps a bit. I am sorry if it is confusing but my brain is just trying to vomit all of this information out and can’t control where it is flowing.

JD

Sacred 2: Fallen Angel Players: Offline 1-4; Online 1-4 Other: Co-op multiplayer; HDTV 480p, 720p, 1080i; 16:9 widescreen; In-game Dolby Digital sound.

Climb aboard a variety of mounts. View larger.

Battle using brute force & steel. View larger.

Master the lore of the ancients. View larger.

Face unimaginable creatures. View larger.

Challenge terrifying bosses. View larger.

The Story
T-Energy has been flowing through Ancaria since time immemorial. This mysterious power forms the beginning of all life, is the source of all magic and the origin of all thought. For eons the angelic Seraphim watched over the T-Energy and therefore over the fate of the entire world. But eventually tiring of their burden, they passed their knowledge on to the High Elves. T-Energy helped the realm of the High Elves to experience an unimaginable boost of prosperity, making it the reigning culture in Ancaria. But a force as powerful as T-Energy carries great dangers. Not taught how to deal with this, no sooner did the Elves take control, then a heated dispute erupted among them as to how and to what purpose the T-Energy was to be used. Dispute morphed into irresolvable conflict, then rift and eventually to a civil war among the High Elves, where all participants were losers. Their realm collapsed and with it the entire power structure of Anacaria. In the turmoil all the peoples of Anacaria coveted the right, either openly or in secret, to wield the power of T-Energy and in the end, unmanaged, the T-Energy raged out of control warping creature and lands alike. Can anyone regain control over the T-Energy. And if so, will he/she strive to prevent the world from lapsing into final chaos, or deepen it?

Gameplay
Gameplay in Sacred 2: Fallen Angel in divided into two campaign paths: Light and Dark. As the game begins players choose and customize their character and choose the path they will follow. This choice determines the ultimate goal and intentions of their character, and as the game progresses through literally hundreds of quests and side quests, the paths of different characters intersect at different junctions. Choose one way and you may be tasked to defend a town and its people, while another path could result in you attacking the same town. The choice is yours and the fate of the world and your well-being are at stake.

Key Game Features:

• A massive, seamless and dynamic world delivering hundreds of hours of freeform exploration.
• Two deep campaigns: play as the ‘Light’ or ‘Shadow’ side, complete with distinct skills, rewards and story-elements tailored to the chosen path.
• Six exceptional, playable characters, each with a distinct look, capabilities and in-game motivation.
• Modifiable combat arts: change, upgrade and link together your alter ego’s combat skills to match your playing style.
• Fight effectively from the back of a number of mounts under your control; equip and upgrade your character’s unlockable special mount.
• Deities offer unique combat disciplines and unlock additional quests.
• Seamless transition between single and multiplayer gaming modes via PlayStation Network.
• Captivating online modes of play challenge gamers in cooperative, PvP and PvE play.
• Extraordinary, cutting-edge graphics and Dolby 5.1 channel surround sound utilize the latest technologies for a truly immersive experience.

Character Classes
In Sacred 2: Fallen Angel players assume the role of one of six characters — five of which are new to the franchise — and delve into a thrilling story full of side quests and secrets that you will have to unravel. Breathtaking combat arts and sophisticated spells are waiting to be learned. A multitude of weapons and items will be available, and you will choose which of your character’s attributes you will enhance with these items in order to create a unique and distinct hero.

	Seraphim Often referred to as ‘Fallen Angels,’ these mystical and angelic creatures are the oldest inhabitants of Ancaria. Fast, elegant and acrobatic warriors from a technological future they fight with light to medium weapons and, if required, with massive technological support. Players can assume the role of a Seraphim and protect the world from chaos.
	Shadow Warrior Shadow Warriors were originally humans trained as elite soldiers in service to the High Elves. Upon their death their souls were stolen by an Elven general, bound to lifeless bodies and imbued with T-Energy. Now free, they travel between this world and the next as undead beings with only the desire to return to the peace of the golden halls of Elysium.
	High Elf The best student at the ancient academy of magic in Thylysium, the High Elf character lives and breathes magic. Her hunger for adventure and her insatiable desire to increase her personal knowledge and the influence of her once-powerful house are the driving forces as she sets off into an Ancaria boiling over with turmoil.
	Dryad Masters of the hunt and akin to the Elves, The Dryad are in tune with nature and are equipped with the strength of the forests. The most powerful and the strongest among them are knowledgeable of the dark art of voodoo and were chosen in order to save their peoples from extinction. All are expert with the bow, traps, poisons and lore of the forest.
	Inquisitor The Inquisitors are the High Priests of the High Elves. Arrogant and deadly, they are only committed to themselves and their ultimate goal of assume control over the T-Energy. Proficient in close combat and able to gain increasing power as damage is taken, their manipulative spells make them powerful fighters from the shadows.
	Temple Guardian Since the beginning of time the purpose of Temple Guardians were to maintain and protect the Great Machine, so that it could keep the world in balance. Neither fully flesh or mechanical, they are half human and half machine. Propelled by T-Energy and devoted to protecting it, they are part of the Great Machine and so able to use the T-Energy for their purposes.

A Wide Variety of Mounts
Across Ancaria you will find many horse dealers. They offer all kinds of animals, from the simple nag up to a real war horse. You can equip a war horse with bridle, saddle and even special armor. These special items can be found in the game just like player items, ranging in quality from regular to rare and even unique items. In addition, every character also has a unique mount created specifically for their character class. This mount not only fits the personality of the character, but also complements the various aspects of the character’s playing style perfectly. All character classes can fight from a mounted position using a variety of tactics that the player chooses depending on the terrain and battle conditions.

User Ratings and Reviews

2 Stars Fallen Angel deserves being cast out
Too many clumsy and irritating flaws in the writing and in the design to create any feeling of wonder or immersive engagement. Particularly irritating after a few hour’s playing are the following.

1. The inability to view ahead as you navigate. To avoid loading distant world elements, the camera limits your world view, so, despite the maps, it’s hard to get your bearings.

2. The text-based, on-screen dialogues are just tedious text boxes. Return to “talk” to the same character and you get the last thing said without any context. This has not been thought through.

3. The humour (where you can find it) would make a four-year-old groan.

4. Offering endless, pointless quotations as immediate rewards for opening containers (statues and graves) is tedious enough, without at the same time providing author attributions (to “Benjamin Disraeli”, for instance) to further draw attention to naive, disruptive and clumsy elements.

5. The strange devotional interjections (such as “Thy Will be done” every so often) make the “sacred” tones all very tacky.

6. On-screen feedback appears and disappears at a very odd rate and is not always legible, so that, by the time you notice it, it’s disappearing and can’t be retrieved. The colours used for onscreen information elements, equally, sometimes obscure rather than draw attention to what is important.

This is not this not an integrated, well-crafted and user-friendly product. Perhaps one may grow to like it, but, given my initial impressions, why should I give up more time?

2 Stars Ambitious Failure
I bought the game mostly for the multiplayer. The multiplayer works OK even with the lack of trading items (offline), no pause feature, and only 1 player in their inventory at a time (a major disappointment and hindrance to learning this complex game).

Overall I am most disappointed with the gameplay. Let me briefly compare it to Champions of Norrath an action RPG for the PS2.

1.) Graphics – The graphics in S2 are detailed and impressive at times. The ability to seamlessly move into buildings and adjacent areas is nice. The character figures are slightly blocky and do not reflect all of the items you might be wearing. You cannot really examine your character’s representation except at the start of a game. In multiplayer the figures are quite small (especially the females) and all 3 of the people that I have played it with sat very close to the screen so that we might see the action (42″ HD TV).

The graphics in CON are overall superior. The detail is not as great in the overworld, however the areas you can travel in are more clearly delineated, the character representations are detailed and larger in multiplayer, and most wearable items are reflected in your character’s appearance.

2.)Gameplay- S2 fighting is weak in multiplayer because of the size of the characters and the apparent loss of detail. I often did not even pay close attention to where I moved and to how I attacked with very little change in gameplay. The quests are quite boring (i.e. fetch this, kill that, pay this etc.) Quests are isolated islands not really adding anything to the overall story. Lots of text that I do not think anyone should take the time to read. The main story is almost non-existent.

The gameplay in CON is substantially better. Obviously, this same engine was successfully used in many other games (Fallout BOS, CON, RTA, BG, BG 2, Justice league heroes, etc.). The size of the characters is acceptable and actions are more clearly tied to the players controller performance. When there are quests they are substantial involving bosses and linking actions that show an overall goal and process.

3.)Inventory – S2 inventory functions are OK albeit non-intuitive. It is a knockout blow to me that the game only allows one person at a time in their inventory in local co-op.

CON inventory is very intuitive and easy to use for two players simultaneously. If 3 or 4 players are playing it becomes more difficult.

4.)Overall – S2 is a tedious game to play. Many things are not explained and most interactions are not intuitive. The size of the world and the complexity of player statistics do very little to assuage the sheer boring qualities of the gameplay and quests. It is a game that is difficult to enjoy

because of its glaring flaws and unfriendliness.

CON – This is a great game that honors the best ideals in action role playing games. Whether its spinning my character on his pedestal and appreciating a new weapon or battling a vicious boss deep in a dungeon – now this is a game that is satisfying and far better than anything S2 has to offer.

Final thoughts: Can S2 be fixed with patches? Probably not. It just seems to be too broken all over. I’m sorry about this because after all I spent $60 in hope of something more playable.

5 Stars outstanding!
this game,is great this is one of the best games ever made! i look foward to a part 3! keep up the good works

4 Stars Not bad, seen worse…
I won’t add a whole lot to what other people have been saying about this game, just throw in my two cents. First off, when you first start playing this game it seems kind of… Clunky. After an hour or so of bumbling around getting used to the controls and the quasi-PC like environment, it seems to get better. Second, this game is very different from Oblivion or Fable II. Sure there are similarities, but it would be difficult to try and hold this game up to the same standard as the afore mentioned titles. It just isn’t as good as either of them. I’ll sum it up like this: If you are kind of bummed about the games that have been comming out recently and want something to pass the time until the fall, try this game. I just wouldn’t get your hopes up for the game of the year or anything.

3 Stars Not Bad, But Not Great
I played Sacred 2 for several hours in single player on the PS3. Overall, not bad, but it has a few issues. The story could use some work, but it’s kept me interested so far.

The good:

- Interface. I come from PC gaming and thought I would miss my mouse and keyboard for this genre. In this game I don’t. It all works pretty well.

- Graphics. Some stuttering, but it’s so effortless to zoom in and out, you can go from an overall view to close tactical. Some have had issues with dizziness playing this game, but while I completely understand how it could be a problem, I haven’t had any issues.

The bad:

- No PAUSE! Let me say that again more clearly, you cannot pause the game! If your wife starts talking to you, your kids call you, your phone rings, then you had better hope you are in a safe area or you will likely die. While this makes sense in a multiplayer game, it’s horrible for single-player. It lost a star for that alone.

- Weak voice acting. I’ve only played a Seraphim and her tone does not match the action going on. This detracts from my suspension of disbelief.

- The inventory system needs work. Swapping between a merchant and your inventory gives inconsistent results. Using the compare button gives inconsistent results. Select a sword in your inventory, switch to the merchant’s offerings, then switch back and you may not be looking at the original sword. Makes comparing items difficult.

- Documentation is weak. I still don’t entirely understand how the “tech tree” works. Can’t find anything online to clarify. What do the stars mean next to inventory items? How can I get “alchemy”? It’s probably all relatively simple, but not intuitive and a better explanation would help dramatically.