Sacred 2

[ianoid]

Anyone looking forward to this release?

 

Here are some links.

 

It was programmed by a member of the AA community.

 

I'm actually debating pre-ordering it for $10 off at Amazon, but I'd like to make sure it reviews ok. I wish there was a planned demo. I just want something like Baldur's Gate DA to play.

Edited April 24, 2009 by ianoid

[JamesD]

I purchased Sacred and Sacred Gold for the PC for $9 at WalMart and it's a great game. Since this is a port from the PC and Sacred 2 has been out a while I don't see how it could be bad.

My concern is multi-player. If it works like Sacred it could be pretty cool for coop.

[JamesD]

Yeah, Baldur's Gate is pretty cool. I liked Champions of Norath as well. That's why I bought a PS2. (my brother got me addicted)

 

I and some friends have been looking for something similar for the 360, hence my multi-player comment.

[moycon]

I've checked this game out and thought it might be interesting.

I've way too many games I haven't played yet in my collection now. I'll probably pick this one up when it hits $20-$30

Who from AA help program it?

[16-bit]

Looks pretty good. A friend of mine is a big Baldur's Gate fan. I'll have to tell him about this one.

[2600Lives]

Who here programmed it? The first Sacred was a pretty good little game, and if this has online multiplayer, I'm there!

[+swlovinist]

There needs to be more of these styles of games for the consoles this generation. I may wait for a price drop on this one, but it looks decent.

[ianoid]

It's weird that the originals in these series sell well, and the sequels not so well, and then they die. Champ of Norrath and BG:DA both did much better than their sequels. Considering it can't be that tough to make these games, aside from the art production (I would say new monsters are more important than new scenery), and there is good sales potential, why don't they just churn them out, Dynasty Warriors style? I mean, who is buying those games they they are on Dynasty Warriors 42 in the US?

 

So I have my hope up for this game. I like button mashing with a little skill involved. I love hack n' slash fantasy RPG. And I hate combo systems. My fingers are sooo crossed for this title.

 

Why doesn't someone just take those old D&D modules and translate them into a hack n' slash environment? Well, on a console at least. I don't play PC games, so I'm missing out on the whole Neverwinter and Diablo scene. I'm actually hoping Diablo 3 gets a console release. At least one that's better than PSX Diablo.

[JamesD]

It's weird that the originals in these series sell well, and the sequels not so well, and then they die. Champ of Norrath and BG:DA both did much better than their sequels. Considering it can't be that tough to make these games, aside from the art production (I would say new monsters are more important than new scenery), and there is good sales potential, why don't they just churn them out, Dynasty Warriors style? I mean, who is buying those games they they are on Dynasty Warriors 42 in the US?

I played the originals and the sequels of BG and Champ. The sequels feel like just more of the same.

 

So I have my hope up for this game. I like button mashing with a little skill involved. I love hack n' slash fantasy RPG. And I hate combo systems. My fingers are sooo crossed for this title.

Yeah, I have a group I dungeon crawl with and we've all gone 360 but with no game to move to.

[MetalSlime23]

I bought it this week when it came out. I plan on logging several hours this weekend.

[ianoid]

Check www.cheapassgamer.com for the cheapest deal, but it's $42 at gogamer.com right now. It says "(I)" which means import, but I got a copy and although the cover says 'pal' it works just fine on my 360 (US) and has English only instructions.

 

It is a lot like BG:DA and CofN. I just love that game play style, and the hunting for junk part of it too.

 

I started the game at Bronze, which is way too easy if you're a seasoned gamer. I need to restart at Silver to get a little more challenge. I've been playing for 2 hours and haven't had to use a single potion.

[+Random Terrain]

I started the game at Bronze, which is way too easy if you're a seasoned gamer. I need to restart at Silver to get a little more challenge. I've been playing for 2 hours and haven't had to use a single potion.

Do you think it's worth playing? I can't tell from this review:

 

http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/action/sac...ary;read-review

[Marc Oberhäuser]

I started the game at Bronze, which is way too easy if you're a seasoned gamer. I need to restart at Silver to get a little more challenge. I've been playing for 2 hours and haven't had to use a single potion.

Do you think it's worth playing? I can't tell from this review:

 

http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/action/sac...ary;read-review

 

 

A bunch of tests: Gameranking

[Lord Thag]

I have it. Yes it's worth playing, with some caveats. First off, the plot is beyond stupid. Blah blah evil wizard blah blah giant menace blah blah only you can rescue blah. The voice acting is also quite horrible. The warrior guy sounds like a bad William Shatner impersonator. Character designs are right out of some juevenile kids saturday morning fantasy. Angel chicks in lingerie, dryads with giant boobs etc.

 

Now all of that said, the actual game is really fun. And freaking GINOURMOUSLY huge. Like, it takes you six hours to walk across the map big. And it's all chock full of caves, critters, things, whatchits, and doodads to find and kill. Multiplayer is good too. Monsters are dumb as a box of hair, but die in droves, and you have lots of things to fiddle with leveling up.

 

In short, it's a incredibly huge diablo-style dungeon romp with lots of stuff to do, a decent level up system, and absolutely no storyline worth even ten minutes of your time. Like running around and finding crap for your character (and 200lvl cap btw) and killing stuff with your buddies? If so, I'd recommend it. Want the next Fallout 3 or Bioshock? Steer Clear.

Edited May 29, 2009 by Lord Thag

[moycon]

Sounds kind of like Two Worlds.

I'll LOVE it!!!!

[+Random Terrain]

In short, it's a incredibly huge diablo-style dungeon romp with lots of stuff to do, a decent level up system, and absolutely no storyline worth even ten minutes of your time. Like running around and finding crap for your character (and 200lvl cap btw) and killing stuff with your buddies? If so, I'd recommend it. Want the next Fallout 3 or Bioshock? Steer Clear.

Thanks. Sounds like it will be worth it if you can get it for less than 20 bucks. I love diablo-style games when I'm in the mood to play that kind of game.

[JamesD]

Character designs are right out of some juevenile kids saturday morning fantasy. Angel chicks in lingerie, dryads with giant boobs etc.

You say that like it's a bad thing.

 

Anyone play this in multi-player?

I hear you can have two people play on a single 360 and connect over xbox live to have two more on another 360 in your party.

Is that true?

 

Actually, it would be ideal for me if 2 could play on 1 360 and another 2 could play on their own 360's.

[Gabriel]

Anyone play this in multi-player?

 

Yes.

 

I hear you can have two people play on a single 360 and connect over xbox live to have two more on another 360 in your party.

Is that true?

 

Actually, it would be ideal for me if 2 could play on 1 360 and another 2 could play on their own 360's.

 

Allegedly, you can do this. I haven't tried.

 

I think all profiles involved have to have gold accounts.

[potatohead]

I've been gaming with my wife on this one.

 

To the AA member here, who worked on that game:

 

Thanks!! We are having a great time! Somewhere I hope you are having a cool one this weekend, knowing a lot of people are exploring that big game world, laughing at the humor sprinkled throughout the game. That's a nice touch --that and the unexpected rock concert. KICK ASS! Loved the tune, and just laughed at being able to whack on Kobolds with a flaming guitar!

 

Potatohead Review: I give this one 4 out of 5 stars!

 

First the bad:

 

On the 360, some game areas don't render well. In the wetlands area, with the lizard people, the web shooting spiders generate polygons that flash on the screen, distracting the player. No big deal, as this area can be avoided.

 

Would have been nice to have some alternative camera choices. The camera is hard for some people to get used to. My wife had trouble with this at first. I think semi transparent text overlay, and an alternative font size and type choice would have been good. At times, this is distracting, but not very often.

 

Story could have been a bit more rich, but that's offset by the sheer number of little things to go see and do. All in all, I would take this in a second over those games with better stories, but leaving the player on rails.

 

At times, the sheer number of enemies and the repetitive nature of dealing with them can slow game progress.

 

There are a LOT of items with interesting attributes. On the flip side, getting some of the good ones really requires some seat time. This could have been a bit less onerous without significantly impacting the game.

 

The marginal:

 

Would have been nice to have some less gender stereotyped character role options. This is just me, so this is just a comment, not anything negative or positive about the game.

 

The good:

 

Graphically, the game is just excellent. There is a lot of detail, and the game world map is freaking huge and is filled with lots of interesting things. If you like exploring, there is a lot to explore here. The number of distinctive in game characters is very high, and they are nicely detailed. The various game world areas are very differentiated, each with their own flavor, enemies, sounds, and such. I can't say enough good things about how this was executed. I've really enjoyed the game because of this.

 

I'm going to put a lot of items in the good column too. It's fun to check out all the things, and build up the character. Where there is a weakness, there almost always is some combination of runes and items that can address it, but you've got to work for it. Perfect balance, IMHO.

 

Characters: They are distinctive and each well balanced against one another and the game enemies. Truth is there are many different styles of play possible in this game, and which character you choose, it's diety and how you build it significantly impact that. WELL DONE! This adds a huge replay value in that exploring the different characters and their best case play mechanics is a lot of fun. What I think is brilliant is the addition of all the little side quests. Once a player has finished the game, on both the dark and the light paths, the side quests are numerous and there to give the player something to do while building characters.

 

(Of course, that's how I found the rock concert!)

 

The game interface is well designed too. Typically, these kinds of games require some serious interaction with the controllers. Often this ends up being laborious, particularly with a game like this where there is just a lot of options and things to manage. All in all, I found most things possible to do and manage in a way that was not bad. This could have easily been a lot worse, and not too much better. I am often frustrated with how camera and player motion ends up on dual analog controllers. (why we don't get keyboard mouse options on these new consoles is beyond me) The learning curve on this game is quick. Mastery of the controls is important, and it didn't take long at all to get there on this title.

 

I happen to love the audio!! Usually, voice overs are annoying. These are freaking great! Each character has a clear attitude, and very clear and distinctive voice overs. There is an element of humor in these that I think was very difficult to pull off. Ambient sounds are nicely associated with with what the player is actually seeing, showing an attention to detail there that shines just as well as the overall world map detail does.

 

Character special effects (magic) are lots of fun, and each character has it's own feel. This really impacts the play mechanic, like I wrote above. What I do like about these is their execution is simple, and there are several options for both group attacks (necessary in this game), and single enemy power attacks. Magic effects have a regenerate time, and also attribute classes. The player is presented with great choices at all times as to how to build that up and have it all add value to their particular character and it's style of play.

 

This is challenging enough and just flexible enough to allow people to bend a character over to a play style that was not really intended, but still possible.

 

It is not possible to build a "can do everything" character too. Nicely done. There is a game element in this alone that adds replay value. It's not possible to really understand all the dynamics between the character classes, magic, and diety without running through a few character scenarios. For multi-player, this really adds a nice dimension to things. Just because you see a high-elf, or Inquisitor, doesn't mean you know how they are going to present in the game. Cool!

 

Enemy voice overs are funny as hell most of the time. Go to an open field and torch a bunch of Kobolds, and just laugh! On the flip side, character voice overs make sense in this context too. Surrounded by spiders? Playing one of the female characters? You will hear them squeal just like most women do. My wife loved this and said that was a nice touch. Just one example of many good voice overs in the game.

 

I like the overall theme, "This World Is Sacred". It's a nice message, and one could build a game off of much worse!

 

Quest management is very well done. If you want to, the game can hold your hand, and it does present enough options to just knock them out. Or, you can dig in a little deeper and explore at random. There really are no rails, and there are two innovations worth a mention:

 

Quests have states and a log. This is nice because you can trigger a few of them, then go and do your thing. Activating an old quest brings the user interface focus to that one, limiting confusion. If a player does things out of order, this isn't generally a problem as some game elements are simply not present until the right things are done. A few quests can just happen as you are exploring. I completed one or two, just because of where I was at and what I did. Nice variety there.

 

The other is the excellent graphical feed back as to where a quest activity is. With such a big game world, it would be so easy to just get lost, frustrated, etc... This game presents your options with clarity enough for this not to be a worry.

 

I've not played multi-player yet. My wife and I enjoy larger scale RPG games because we can chip away at them and just enjoy sharing the game. This game is ideal for that as there is lots to do, and the game state isn't fragile, or on rails, which makes the many distractions in the game just fun. It's possible to be on a quest, or exploring toward some goal and bump into cool stuff and just go and do that, returning when it makes sense. Very cool, IMHO.

 

I love how the game map was implemented. There are hints as to what might be where, meaning a player can look at the map and go, "hmmm... I'll bet the way through is this way" and see some success. As areas are explored, the mini-area map fills in, and the larger world map does as well. I like this a lot. It is possible to know where you've been in an instant, and with such a big area to explore, that's a must. A+ on that.

 

Summary:

 

All in all, this game is worth every penny. Where we see so many 10 and 20 hour, short games, this one is a pleasant surprise! I've really enjoyed some Final Fantasy games because of their size and free roaming nature. This game is a lot like those, with it's own distinctive play style. If you want a game that you can just return to, off and on, and continue to do stuff off line, this is your game. I imagine multi-player would be kick ass, and I'll eventually go there.

 

The core elements of the game are well executed and fun. Technical elements, such as loading time, clarity of visuals, controller, audio, etc... are all up to par, or above par. Really, this is the kind of game one doesn't expect to see on a console. The only reason I give this one 4 out of 5, is that I think some gamers with set expectations are not going to like this game because of the camera. In fact, that's the only negative comment I've seen that is consistent. I understand why it is the way it is, and if a person plays for more than an hour, they will too. Non issue. So the lower score isn't because the game isn't great --it absolutely is. It's simply that not everyone will see the greatness for what it is. Factor that out, and it's 5 stars ok?

 

Highly Recommended.

[moycon]

What I think is brilliant is the addition of all the little side quests. Once a player has finished the game, on both the dark and the light paths, the side quests are numerous and there to give the player something to do while building characters.

 

(Of course, that's how I found the rock concert!)

 

I found it also and I have to say it was frickin SWEET!!! Nothing like that in Diablo that's for sure!!

[potatohead]

Yeah, it was a treat for sure.

 

Completely unexpected! Nicely done guys!

[moycon]

Yeah, it was a treat for sure.

 

Completely unexpected! Nicely done guys!

 

You know, I think I saw it or at least heard the song prior to playing (like maybe a video on gametrailers.com), months and months ago, but yeah it still caught me off guard and the goodies you get from completing the quest!?? In a word...AWESOME!! That alone elevated the game for me.