Sacred 2 Gold

I bought this back on CD and put in enough hours to beat the game twice. Once as Seraphim and once as Temple Guardian. Trust me, it's a lot of hours. I bought it on Steam when it was available and I'm buying it again here, just because I love it so much. I'm hoping this copy actually plays on my Windows 10 laptop as the Steam version doesn't. It did on my old desktop, but not this laptop. This game is an open world ARPG that looks like Witcher 1 but has a story as big as Witcher 3. Your choices don't matter much. In fact, you really only have two choices: light or dark campaign, either stop or hasten the end. And those are restricted by class / race. Speaking of, the class / race choices give you access to a variety of playstyles. I was partial to the Temple Guardian (light campaign) because you get a ranged and a melee weapon at the same time. And his mount/ vehicle is the coolest. Each class / race has its own starting place and its own initial story before blending into the main quest and the light / dark campaigns have their own questlines that are diametrically opposed. One of the nice things about this game is that gear and weapons can radically change your appearence. Another nice thing is the incredibly customizable combo system where you can stack whatever you want out of your available skills. The game is so long, y'all. And all the content is fun, even reuniting a metal band for a concert. This review was written sort of stream of consciousness because I just bought it on GOG and haven't had a chance to install and (try) playing it again. Like I said, getting it to work on Windows 10 is a chore, which is why it isn't 5 stars. Also, we don't talk about Sacred 3.

Sacred 2 is one of those games that's often praised, despite being extremely mediocre in it's own genre. In fairness, it is not a *bad* games by any means, but it is nothing more then a functional Hack-n-Slash. The biggest problem being the fact that, even for a game of this type, the actual combat isn't particularly good. The animations are average at best (and more often then not subpar). Attacks feel floaty and lack any weight or impact. This goes for both your character and the enemies being hit. This, combined with how basic, bland and limited the combat system is creates a recipe for monotony. Compared even to Diablo 1, the combat is distinctly unsatisfying, which isn't good considering that's all Sacred 2 really brings to the table beyond a massive, but completely generic, fantasy world. Sacred 2 came out when there was something of a drought in decent games of this type, and that's the only reason I can imagine for some of the praise that's heaped on it. At the thing it does best, at it's best, it's average. At everything else, world building, story, character interaction, voice acting, it's well *below* the standards of the genre, and those standards are really, really low, being a hack-n-slash. Lastly, the loot. There is loot. There is much loot with cool stats, but again... the bland visuals, dull combat and weak spell effects take much of the joy out of it, beyond the raw damage and stat numbers attached to each piece.

I play it for 11 years now. - There is still some loot left to be found! :-D If you're a collector and like trading/hoarding/crafting loot, want to be an explorer of a mostly open large world and like easy but addictingly funny and charming quests, and lots of other ingame jokes, try this. It's not a thrilling game in the way that out of every bush an enemy ten times your level can pop out and will hunt you to a staggering death. Instead, with every choice of character and character modification, you can give yourself the challenge you want. It can be a comforting hack'n'collect, perfect after some long work hours, or a hard fight. I like it for the atmosphere, the large, large world, portals, and that it has bird's perspective view option (yeah, I don't like first person or looking over someones shoulder). So grab your sword, bow, guitar or whatever you found in your enemies' remains - and have a nice trip in Ancaria. "This world is Sacred!" (werewolves howling)

Sacred 2 Fallen Angel was the last game that German developer Ascaron Entertainment made. During the development of the expansion Ice & Blood they filled in for bankruptcy and are now gone. The rights went to Deep Silver, which ain't a good thing. They decided to drop support for Sacred 2, came up with this Citadel garbage and later with Sacred 3, which is nothing like the games of Ascaron. Sacred 2 itself is a good game and definitely not a bad game, as even stated in a gogmix. It has a history of bugs yes and until Ascaron fixed it with patch 1.34 it was a bugfest. I've bought myself the dvd version and later also bought the expansion. Sacred 2 differs from it's predecessor Sacred 1 and Underground. It's a prequel to the first game. The style also got changed. Where Sacred 1 liked alot like Diablo, Sacred 2 is more 3D and also more rpg. It is still a hack 'n slash rpg. When starting you pick one of the five fixed characters and the expansion adds a sixth one. Every character is unique, even their lines and voices. You will also have the ability to ride an unique mount for each char. There are tons of quests and enough loot to pick. However, the drops could have been better. And some sidequests are annoying, especially escort quests (most annoying is hold up, which even starts as you approach). Atmosphere is great and every region is also unique. It has great music made by Blind Guardian. There is this time a shared stash, which means you can swap items between chars. The expansion Ice & Blood is a faillure however. It was rushed, probably because of the bankruptcy. It even introduced new bugs to the maingame, which were never fixed by Deep Silver. There is the CM patch which fixes that. Ice & Blood adds 2 new regions and also some new mounts plus also the dragon mage. Some items got an overhaul as well. Sacred 2 is a good game, but it takes time to understand it's mechanics.

I picked up both Sacred - Gold and Sacred 2 - Gold without knowing too much about either or being that into ARPGs, just like that style of fantasy setting and games fitting that niche, though had mostly stuck to RPGs. Then, that day came where I was looking through my games collection for something different genere wise from the last game I'd been playing and gave Sacreed 1 & 2 a fair shot at things. Really glad I did do because after completing a number of the early quests, things started to click and I began to see the depth, love and care the team behind the titles had put in there. What is really impressive to me is the world itself seems full of life and not just running to and from endless battle after battle. There is also within this world, factions vying for power, plenty of humour, surprises with quests that alter dependant of your alignment along with random events, seems like there's always something new to see. There's some indepth game mechanics powering it all under the hood, with runes, gear sets, combo powers and character builds. At first I had no idea on any of this, infact found it overwhelming. Overtime, slowly learning these systems through playing without much of a clue, the game becomes more and more addictive and fun, in a way I haven't really seen in current titles. Now at the point where have reached the mid thirties in level with a couple of characters and seeing synergy between skills i've put points in. Feels like had so much enjoyment yet looking at the map, there's a vast amount undiscovered. Can highly recommend both games, when they do click, you realise how special they are. Also discovered there is a Mod to resolve Sacreds original screen resolution. With this both games can stand up against anything else with the whole feeling of the living world the game is set in putting it up there with The Witcher series even. Finally Blind Guardian in Sacred 2 ! Epic.