Sacred 2 Preview (PC)

By Joe Haygood | October 12, 2008

CDV was nice enough to send over a preview disc for their upcoming title, Sacred 2, on the PC.  After playing for a few days and going through the storyline, I have come to the realization that anyone waiting for their Diablo III fix would be doing themselves an injustice by missing out on Sacred 2.

In 2004, Sacred dropped on the PC, and I have to admit that I skipped the game, because I just did not have an interest in the game, because at the time, I was really headlong into shooters.  Apparently, it seems that the game was highly received, and after four years, a sequel is finally being delivered to fans and new players of the series alike.

For those that remember the first Sacred, there are some changes as most of the classes this time around are new with the exception of the lone holdover, the Seraphim.  The new character classes are the High Elf, the Dryad, the Inquisitor, the Shadow Warrior and finally the Temple Guardsman.  I went with the Seraphim for my testing, as her skill set seemed to fit my play style.   Note that there are two paths in Sacred 2: a Light path and a Shadow path.  You can choose either path with four out of the six characters, but the Seraphim have to take the Light path, while the Inquisitor has to follow the path of Shadow.

The first thing that caught my eye with Sacred 2 is the fact that its world is a vibrant, colorful place that never has a feeling of dark and drab.  I am not sure if this was a conscious decision, or a swipe at the competition, but it was nice to see a game like Sacred 2 get away from the browns and grays that tend to dominate the Action-RPG genre.   Another thing of note is that Sacred 2 never seems to load.  No matter where I go, there are no loading screens.  I would assume that CDV has designed the game to cache data ahead of where the player is, but it just would seem to be a complex process to do, considering the free roaming environment presented to the player.

The controls for Sacred 2 were easy enough to pick up with the arrow keys providing directional control, while you left click on items in the environment.  Right clicking seemed to activate your go-to, or quick action spell.  I did not get a full grasp of the spell system during my play through as my main play style is the hack and slash my way through the enemy.

Sacred 2 offers several locations for the player to visit in their travels, complete with hundreds of monster types and bosses.  Some of the encounters you can expect to find include bandits, arachnids, elementals, werewolves, dragons and of course the undead, because would a game of this type be complete without them.  Boss battles are huge in scope and cinematic style, and will have to be encountered to finish each region, and of course to complete the main quest of the game.

Sacred 2, while having a solid story and lots of atmosphere, will always come down to its combat, and the preview build delivered with authority.  While traipsing around the earlier environments, I was routinely attacked by groups of wolves, angry peasants and rouges.  As with most games of this genre, Sacred 2 is all about clicking your enemy into the depths of death.  At the early stages of combat, you are never really challenged, but as you moved forward in the game, you start to run into large groups of enemies that will require you to prioritize threats.  Some creatures will only react to certain attacks, which will throw you for a loop as you are surrounded by a large group of foes. 

The final release of Sacred 2 looks to offer a large single player campaign, but will also give players access to a wide variety of multiplayer modes, including co-op campaign mode, co-op free play, multiplayer PvE Arena, and a multiplayer PvP Arena.  Players will be allowed to use the character they create in single player in any arena, saving all advances to that one player file.   Sacred 2 will also allow players to seamlessly transition between single player and multiplayer modes.

So far CDV looks to have another hit on their hands in Sacred 2.  You will be able to make your own judgments in November of 2008 when the game is released on PC, 360 and PS3.