This game is like playing an MMO during off hours when no one else is online. Sacred 2 has a large and lovely world with lots of fed-ex quests but with little or no cohesive storyline. You'll feel like an MMO player playing solo. You won't experience any of the human interactions that make an MMO either interesting or infuriating which may be perfect for people who find the interactions infuriating. But I need a cause, a story, and story driven goals. Most of all, I need to feel as though I've improved when I level. Unfortunately, the Sacred 2 designers made a huge mistake when they chose to have enemies scale to your level. This feature might seem like a good idea since it keeps any area of the map dangerous for the duration. But for many folks, it's a game killer. This feature diminishes one of the most satisfying experiences in any character-leveling game: the feeling of defeating an enemy that kicked your butt in prior encounters. For example, in Gothic, I was actually raising both fists in the air when I at last killed a shadow beast. In S2, it's not only annoying to have all those little kobolds that you fought off at level x keep re-spawning but then you discover that after you've worked so hard to earn level x+3 all those same kobolds are also level x+3. It significantly deflates the leveling process. I recommend S2 to people who like to solo in MMOs, who like aRPG-style combat (although many have said S2 doesn't do this all that well), low-stress quests, and exploring a lovely open world. There is nothing wrong with wanting this from a game. But if you like a colorful story, character driven goals, richly plotted quests and a strong need for accomplishment I'd would not recommend you buy this game. Since I'm in the latter camp, I can only rate this game with 2 stars.
