Sacred 2

[Sho'Nuff]

So, Sacred 2 was released yesterday. Anyone pick it up yet? I am contemplating waiting until the collectors edition is released in the U.S. (it doesn;t seem to be available yet, becasuse it would be nice to have the high resolution textures. Any of you UK folks have the CE and feel that it is worth the wait?

Also, I know this game uses securom and frankly, I don't care. I've never had an issue with copy protection because I have always legally purchased my games and generally don't intall them on more then one pc. So, unlike the other Sacred 2 threads on this board, please do not derail this thread by focusing on the copy protection.

 

[MarcVenice]

I've played it for a couple of weeks allready. The game is 'decent', but need(ed) a lot of patches, and right now I still think it's a bit buggy. Performance was also subpar on my computer, which got some kind of annoying stuttering, especially in bigger towns. Weird thing is, my little brothers laptop has no such stuttering, granted he plays with lower settings, but my desktop > his laptop by a factor of 5 GPU wise ... Maybe it's Vista 64x, maybe it's my 2gb of ram?

Not sure if the high res textures will make such a big difference, my review version was the non CE version, and it still looked very good ... If you liked sacred, you will like sacred 2. Pro's, all characters are pretty diverse, and there are 2 campaigns, although not completely different, they are different enough to be worthwhile of playing. The game easily takes 20 hours or more to complete, and after that there's plenty of online action to keep you busy. I do recommend playing on a closed net server though! Con's, a character using just 1 rune will be better then a character who uses several runes and diversifies his spells. For example, you can build a dryad ( ranger ) who can shoot 5-6 arrows in a 180 degree arc, which do a lot of damage, and the reload time is .5 seconds. Spam it, and your DPS will be huge. There's more, but I might as well finish my review, hehe.

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

I didn't know it was even in the plans. This is something I'll have to pick up--I enjoyed Sacred a lot. If it is anything like Titan Quest, I'll be happy.

 

[Sho'Nuff]

Thanks for your comments, MarcVenice. I really enjoyed Sacred 1, and if Sacred 2 is a bigger and better looking version of Sacred 1, I will be very happy. I played the demo and had fun with it as well. Performance seemed a bit slugish on my computer given the level of detail (and the fact that I have a 280GTX), but it ran well enough. In fact, it reminded me of the performance of the game Legend, Hand of God, which was recently released and has similar visuals (and was a surprisingly decent, though somewhat unfinished game).

 

[Sho'Nuff]

So I picked Sacred 2 up yesterday, and so far I am having a good time with it. Started with a shadow warrior, and I thought the introduction to how your character came to be was interesting. There doesn't seem to be much of a story so far, but I think that is because the "tutorial" area takes ~ two hours to go through if you do all of the side quests. Indeed, my character was almost up to level 10 by the time I left the tutorial area.

So far I think the visuals are good, in particular the magic effects, lighting effects, and loot textures. The voice acting is sub par, but I don't really look for good voice acting in a game like this. The quests are somewhat interesting/funny as well (e.g., one was called "Of Cows, men, and virgins").

My biggest complaint so far is that the game is a bit user unfriendly. Perhaps my issues stem from the fact that I bought a digital version of the game (from Steam) and haven't looked at the manual, but it seems like the developer could have put in quite a few helpful features, e.g.:

-the ability to rebind keys and change video settings without having to save and exit to the main menu;

-an icon based indicator to show what buffs have been applied and how long they will remain in effect (ala WoW);

-a compare function that provides a side by side comparison of an inventory item to an equipped item so that you can quickly determine if something you picked up is better than something you have currently equipped (ala Titan Quest Immortal Throne);

-the use of a larger font for higher resolutions. I usually don't have a problem reading text, but it seems like at 1680x1050 the text is in about 6 or 8 point font, which is small for anyone.

-in the tutorial, there should be a section introducing you to the nice, but relatively complicated user interface, and it should include references to key bindings (particularly because you can't hit esc and look up key bindings if you happen to forget that "U" drinks a health potion and "F" is the inventory key.

Other than the above (and relatively minor) issues, I think the game is a lot of fun. It certainly appears to be a loot-fest, and I generally love those kind of games. Hopefully there are not any horrible that ruin it.

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

Best Buy didn't have this game. That was rather unfortunate.

 

[coloumb]

The demo was pretty good [and lengthy]. I did find the training to be lacking - as if the developers assumed I already played Sacred 1 and knew what I was doing...

The only thing I didn't like about the demo was being limited to playing only 1 character - would've been nice to let me try all 3...

 

[Sho'Nuff]

Originally posted by: coloumb
The demo was pretty good [and lengthy]. I did find the training to be lacking - as if the developers assumed I already played Sacred 1 and knew what I was doing...

The only thing I didn't like about the demo was being limited to playing only 1 character - would've been nice to let me try all 3...

There are 6 characters, and two full campaigns (light and dark).

 

[theAnimal]

Slightly OT, Sacred 1 is free on Gametap right now.

 

[Molondo]

I played the demo on sacred 2. They should seriously include a better tutorial on how to play that game. I literally gave up because i didn't know how to operate the game.

 

[Glavinsolo]

Originally posted by: Fullmetal Chocobo
Best Buy didn't have this game. That was rather unfortunate.

Steam has it

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

Originally posted by: Glavinsolo

Originally posted by: Fullmetal Chocobo
Best Buy didn't have this game. That was rather unfortunate.

Steam has it

I'm trying to avoid Steam if at all possible. Still bitter about Portal not working. :|

Was this game released on Steam only?

 

[skace]

Pretty sure I saw it on ebgames.com. Go check.

However, whether Portal worked for you on Steam versus Sacred 2 working for you is pretty irrelevant. Steam is a distribution medium, whether the game works is based on the engine. If Portal didn't work for you, I'm guessing you have a problem with the Source engine. If Sacred 2 doesn't work for you on Steam, the CD copy won't either. And it should be noted that Sacred 2 has it's fair share of issues.

 

[Elcs]

Originally posted by: Fullmetal Chocobo

Originally posted by: Glavinsolo

Originally posted by: Fullmetal Chocobo
Best Buy didn't have this game. That was rather unfortunate.

Steam has it

I'm trying to avoid Steam if at all possible. Still bitter about Portal not working. :|

Was this game released on Steam only?

If you cant find it in America, contact someone from Europe and see what they can find.

Looks like I could get it for £15 ($22.50) off Ebay or £25 ($37.50) from a reputable store. Can take 6-10 days from post to receipt from the UK.

Just PM me if you want to explore that option.

 

[skace]

Be careful, where you purchase the game locks you into which online server you are on. I have the UK version so I can only play on the UK server which has a lot more people that do not speak English than I would have expected. Only way I can play with US gamers right now is over Hamachi/BattleLan.