Sacred 2’s storyline – taking place two thousand years before the events of the original to be exact – revolves around a war that is ongoing to regain control over T-Energy. T- Energy is a material that is the source of life and prosperity, so it’s critical to gain control of it before it falls into the wrong hands as it did with the Ancient Elves who perished when they tried to seek power with the T-Energy. Now, all the races in the world are out to claim it for their own and prevail above all others.
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| You must hail me! | Messing with mounted characters is dangerous business. |
Starting out, players will have a choice between the following classes: Seraphim, Dryads, Inquisitors, Shadow Warrior, Temple Guardian and the High Elf. Several of these classes are eligible to go the path of “Shadow” or “Light” to mix it up a bit. Sacred 2 also boasts the ability to play through two parallel campaigns, along with hundreds of quests to embark on. Of the six classes, the Temple Guardian have the most unique look as they are ripped right out of a hieroglyphic from Egypt. But there’s no doubt about it that the developers have put a diverse set of classes into the storyline.
The most alluring feature that should entice gamers of open-world RPGs is Sacred 2’s no loading times in its 22-square-mile fantasy world. The foliage placed upon the environments is brightly colored and easy on the eyes. Graphically, it’s been said that Sacred 2 is optimized for the consoles and it shows as it doesn’t miss a step on the Xbox 360. The only thing that didn’t seem too attracting was the beginning enemies you encounter – they’re drab and uninteresting. Though, it must be said that in this preview build, the enemies’ behavior wasn’t fully implemented to see how intelligent they could be within a battle.
Facing off against bosses such as Stone Golems, Giant Krakens, and Dragons, Sacred 2 is bound to put gamers into tense situations with their life on the line. Even more interesting is that these bosses will often take up a majority of the screen to pose a much bigger challenge to heroes. More than a hundred monsters are incorporated into Sacred 2, so it’ll take dozen upon dozen of hours to encounter everything it has to throw at you.
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| Is that you Darth Sidious? | What's more unique? The ent-like creatures or the yeti. |
The question remains though; will Sacred 2: Fallen Angel attract the Xbox 360 gamers? Well, first off, it very well could if they are tired of shooters and want a change of scenery to the action-RPG genre. The game’s environments look lush in the preview build and should only get better with more development time. The controls weren’t too hard to grasp a hold of as the right analog stick controls the camera and the left analog stick controls the movement of the character. And with the addition of mounts, which weren’t properly working in the preview build, gamers should have a field day with countless traditional fantasy elements that Sacred 2 possesses.
Launching on March 24 for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, Sacred 2: Fallen Angel should arrive with high praise due to the lack of current representation of the genre on the consoles.
