Review | Sacred 2: Fallen Angel

Format: Xbox360 / PS3 (ported from PC) | Genre: RPG | Publisher: Deep Silver | Developer: Ascaron | Out 5/6/09: £44.99

By Paige Barclay

Ascaron unleashed Sacred in 2004, to later release a prequel in the name of Sacred 2: Fallen Angel last year. Both games were PC-exclusive, but that’s now changed with this console port of Sacred 2. In the past this move has occasionally worked well, but occasionally… not so well. So how exactly does Ascaron’s move fair?

Fallen Angel takes place 2,000 years before the original Sacred game and features a power struggle between the High Elf factions of Ancaria over a substance called T-Energy. This energy is a rather valuable substance as it is responsible for the creation of all magic and life of the world, thus meaning whoever possesses the T-Energy has vast power. However, other races have entered the chase too, looking to gain control of the energy themselves and therefore initiating the opportunity to play in either light or dark campaigns.

//Choosing your path
Character appearance was the one thing I had to think through before I started on my adventure. Upon my TV screen there were six possible characters waiting in line, politely informing me of their race’s background and each eager for me to pick them. You could tell just by glancing over them that some were good, others evil. One of the possibilities stuck in my mind was the Inquisitor, who dressed in a dark robe and instantly sent my mind back to Darth Sidius from Star Wars. Going by just the Inquisitor’s appearance it was obvious he wasn’t the ‘good guy’ and offered only a dark campaign, while most other races offered a choice of both. The light/dark choice will affect the player’s ultimate goal, but paths may intersect at points – you may be tasked with defending a town, or being the one attacking it.

Unfortunately, genders are fixed, but there is the ability to change hair style and hair colour at the very start of the game. The usual role-playing customisation follows, as you equip your character with armour and weaponry for battle, and generally increase your skillset as you level up.

//Grind away
There’s plenty to do in Sacred 2. Quests are scattered across the map and there’s definitely no shortage of them. Whether it’s a simple collecting quest or perhaps slaughtering a group of pests for the locals, there’s always something for you to be getting on with. Unfortunately, you won’t feel too pushed to be getting along with things in the way of the main storyline, which feels uninteresting and somewhat incongruous to the game itself: it’s rarely made clear which quests are directly linked with progressing the plot. Many of them seem present just to increase your stats, which can begin to wear down on the player and become repetitive, especially for those looking for an instantly compelling experience.

Impressive, though, is the sheer size of the world. Opening up your map shows you just how much of your gaming time will be spent exploring this place. However, with such a massive game there’s bound to be a fair amount of loading going on. This is no exception to Fallen Angel, but at times the loading frequency and time can slide past the norm and descend into being downright annoying.

There’s another drawback from having such a big space to roam, and that’s quickly getting from one place to another. I speak for every gamer when I say that there’s never a more annoying situation than having to travel to the opposite side of a map, no matter what the reason. Luckily, Ascaron already had this figured out. At each reasonably-sized town or village, you’ll find a ‘Resurrection Monolith’ which enables the player to teleport to any they’ve activated. However (there’s always one) the way this has been designed is that each gate is deactivated every time the player dies. This then means you have to trudge through the game world once again to activate the gates; or decide you’d rather avoid the hassle and not bother, taking us back to the previous travelling predicament.

//Fighting against it
With combat proving to be so prominent, players are likely to feel let down. Each button on the controller is a slot for a weapon of your choice, so whichever weapon’s right for the job, you have it at your fingertips. This would work extremely well if the response time between you tapping – say – Y for your bow to A for your trusty sword was a hell of a lot quicker. By the time the game seems to realise you wish to switch to a shorter-range weapon as the enemy hurtles towards you, precious health may already be lost. The attacks seem to register pretty slowly and this in turn can make fighting a very frustrating experience.

I imagine it’d be quite torturous to shine every part of the map until it’s nothing but a sparkling diamond, so it’s no surprise Sacred 2’s environment isn’t the most beautiful we’ve ever seen on the consoles – thought there has definitely been a lot of work put into the finer details each character’s appearance. Audio quality is equally mixed: each situation is accompanied by a suitable soundtrack, with fight scenes causing more of an uproar in terms of sound – as it should be; the voice acting, however, is rather low-grade and repetitive. And repetitive aspects should be exactly what Fallen Angel should strive to avoid with such potential for longevity.

Sacred 2: Fallen Angel brings a distinctly PC-oriented RPG to the console masses, taking an enormous gaming world with it. But it’s definitely not short of problems. A less than compelling storyline, an irresponsive combat system and some technical mishaps mean it’s a game suited to only the most hardcore of RPG fans.

6/10

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