This thread is about a game that is available on multiple formats. This discussion may be based on a different format to the one you expected. If required, you can go back to pick another thread.
|
"Life int a DPS race"
Staff Moderator
Send a message
on 18/07/2009 at 2:05:42PM
Total Posts: 1434 |
----Overview-----
Sacred 2 is developed on the back of the successful Sacred title. I believe the main intention was PC based, but it soon found its way on to other platforms.
The game itself is described by Ascaron (the developers) as such "In SACRED 2 - FALLEN ANGEL you assume the role of a character and delve into a thrilling story full of side quests and secrets that you will have to unravel. Breathtaking combat arts and sophisticated spells are waiting to be learned. A multitude of weapons and items will be available, and you will choose which of your character's attributes you will enhance with these items in order to create a unique and distinct hero.
Wheras I would describe it as Diablo like. Simple as really. Although a lot more in depth and thought inspiring.
----Gameplay----
This is where the real test lies. Sacred 2 plays like Diablo but with enough variety and depth to seperate itself from the genre.
You can play either good or evil and the campaign based play changes. The only noticeable difference is the missions and their outcomes however. You still visit the same places and do the same things in reality.
The 6 classes that are available certainly give some form of variation, albeit doing the same thing, just in different ways. The level of detail that has gone into the character creation is immense. Having levelled a Shadow Warrior to 64 now I can say that it truly is deep.
The basic feel is a hack and slash, run here kill that, collect this. And whilst this may get rather mundane there are enough varieties of quests to keep some semblance of new content.
Overall the gameplay is much as you would expect from this genre, so its a resounding 8/10.
----Graphics/Enviroment----
The game itself is huge. And I mean that in every sense. The world map spans over huge landscapes including deserts, jungles, urban build ups and mountains. All the classics.
The first chapter (the game is split into ten) sees you in a rural but build up area which is huge. It contains a huge city and vast areas of plains and small forests. There are countless quests and it is extremely overwhelming in chapter 1 to be honest. However as the game pans out the enviroments stay the same in size, but quests start dropping. If you did everything in chapter 1 it would takes you say, 7/8 hours. No other chapter comes even close to that, perhaps 3/4 hours at most, (chapter ten lasting 20 minutes tops) .
What this does however is create a kind of....I dunno, race towards the finish. You start to become more streamlined towards completing the campaign and achieving your goal.
The graphics throughout this all are actually rather good. You can zoom increcibly close (though why you would want to is beyond me) or far out. For such an incredibly large game the attention to detail is quite incredible. Not the best by any means but certainly good.
The best bit about this is when you kill an enemy you can sometimes react with them afterwards. I'm not talking anything strange, but like using your mount to push them over the side of a cliff and watching the corpse bounce like a slinky down a set of stairs.
Overall 8/10
----Sounds/Music----
All you can expect from this sort of game is the usual hack and slash grunts and death cries. Sacred 2 proves very fruitful in fulfilling this goal.
Charge into a large group of evil dryads on your mount and unleash a front arc of AOE pain and hear them moan like some sort of 4 on 4 womens tennis final in a 30 degree heatwave, and you will see what I mean.
Strangely the game decided on using some decent soft "peace" based music throughout which is different per zone. This is nice.
Then they use actual music from a metal band called "Blind Guardian" whenever you get into a fight....with anything. A rabbit is strolling past, hear the music roar into life at the peril you are now in. This would even be ok if it was slightly different each time. But it is not, 60 hours+ of gameplay and I turned the music off after 2 or 3.
A rather pleasant touch is when you complete the Blind Guardian quest, and get to watch a FMV of a gig played out by characters representing the real band members. I can only assume the band members are part of the team, or are in a serious love affair with them.
Sounds 8/10, Music 5/10
----Ease of Use/Nerd-ability----
I have to be honest and say that whilst I found the game easy to adapt to I do believe it may have crossed that fine line between being accessible to all and to those who prefer to believe that the world would be better place if magic existed and ogres roamed the north (not that don't already eh?)
The character set up and method for learning skills is quite complex and you have to track so many stats at once to be effective, especially in the higher difficulties.
Basically no problem for hardcore stat game players, but unfortunately not so "average gamer" .
----Difficulty----
One of the things the game does right. There are 5 difficulties. Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum and Niob. You start on bronze realise quickly that a child with no arms could play it and swiftly move onto silver. You then move up based on your level on your character.
The mobs all level up with you as you progress, and drops do too. So this in itself keeps the game challenging. Some of the bosses can be annoyingly hard, on higher difficulties but the same method of hacking them down works eventually if you keep plugging away.
----Online----
One of the more advertised aspects. You can go online and creat a group of 4 to challenge harder missions. Although in reality its just the single player with 4 of you on it.
This in itself is brilliant though as you really do not need much more. Get online with a few mates and the game becomes something completely different whilst being exactly the same. Odd but you have to try it to see what I mean.
----Flaws---
I would bold this whole section if it was feasible. There are many.
Some quests are unfinishable because of stupid glitches. The game often crashes (7 times in 2 weeks for me), and forces you to reset your PS3 via the main switch. Something that is not advised.
There are even claims that it breaks your PS3. Where I do not believe this is strictly true, it certainly causes stress to the hardware system.
----Summary----
The game is not without flaws but is addictive to the right type. If they release a fix patch sooner rather than later happy days. I will score rather strangely
I would give it:
6/10 with flaws, 9/10 without
Normal gamer score:
3/10 with flaws, 7/10 without
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Warhunt
"Life int a DPS race"
Staff Moderator
Send a message
on 20/07/2009 at 8:52:57AM
Total Posts: 1434
|
|
Garin wrote:
> So disappointed over all. I really liked the first one, but
> this one seems a bit of an unfocused mess. Too many bugs, not
> enough variety and depth (yes the opposite of what Warhunt said)
> and poor interface design.
Not really the opposite of what I said to be fair. It is buggy as hell and did say that for the right person its good and in depth. If you actually read the quest information and get involved then most (ok some) of the stories are actually funny and decent.
Although I mostly agree with you, if you enjoy reading the detail then there is enough depth to keep you going.
And Chapter 3 is like 3 hours in :S Trust me it gets more streamlined. Although not less buggy or more varied :(
|
|
|
|
Garin
"Devil in disguise"
Regular
on 18/07/2009 at 5:33:57PM
Total Posts: 2072
|
|
I've been playing the PC version recently, so here is my quick overview from my perspective.
It came out a while ago but given that Sacred 1 was a buggy mess for the first 6-12 months of its life I thought it wise to wait. :)
Sadly Ascaron dont seem to have learned many lessons from what happened with Sacred. Theres quantity but without sufficient quality. The game world is immense but at the same time bordering on absurd. Its so over populated with randomly spawning enemies its insane. And consequently all the hack & slash required gets very boring, very fast. I've absolutely no clue what the main quest is about (on the 3rd chapter at the moment with a Seraphim) as the game totally fails to engage you in the world. Theres about 5 billion side quests, but with so many of them naturally they are low on variety. And given that the game scales opponents to your current level anyway you're only ever doing them for the few quests that yield unique items.
So disappointed over all. I really liked the first one, but this one seems a bit of an unfocused mess. Too many bugs, not enough variety and depth (yes the opposite of what Warhunt said) and poor interface design.
|
|
|
|
Warhunt
"Life int a DPS race"
Staff Moderator
Send a message
on 18/07/2009 at 4:44:34PM
Edited: 18/7/09 16:45 Total Posts: 1434
|
|
Look at the time :D
Nah I had it email'd as I was bored last night. Its fine though I'm not after the GAD just thought I would submit something for Sacred 2 seen as its undersold online at the moment.
And cheers guys. I was going to write in true Oli Williams style Sacred 2 IT GONNA BE FUN!!!!
|
|
|
pete_21
Regular
on 18/07/2009 at 3:40:15PM
Total Posts: 1892
|
|
Agree with Chris,its a really good review.
Hope you didn't write it in work though ! :P
|
|
|
|
Sonic Chris
"It's Spelt Jersalem"
Regular
on 18/07/2009 at 3:32:52PM
Total Posts: 935
|
|
Awesome review warhunt :) Worthy of a GAD ;P
|
|
|
|
Warhunt
"Life int a DPS race"
Staff Moderator
Send a message
on 18/07/2009 at 2:05:42PM
Total Posts: 1434
|
|
----Overview-----
Sacred 2 is developed on the back of the successful Sacred title. I believe the main intention was PC based, but it soon found its way on to other platforms.
The game itself is described by Ascaron (the developers) as such "In SACRED 2 - FALLEN ANGEL you assume the role of a character and delve into a thrilling story full of side quests and secrets that you will have to unravel. Breathtaking combat arts and sophisticated spells are waiting to be learned. A multitude of weapons and items will be available, and you will choose which of your character's attributes you will enhance with these items in order to create a unique and distinct hero.
Wheras I would describe it as Diablo like. Simple as really. Although a lot more in depth and thought inspiring.
----Gameplay----
This is where the real test lies. Sacred 2 plays like Diablo but with enough variety and depth to seperate itself from the genre.
You can play either good or evil and the campaign based play changes. The only noticeable difference is the missions and their outcomes however. You still visit the same places and do the same things in reality.
The 6 classes that are available certainly give some form of variation, albeit doing the same thing, just in different ways. The level of detail that has gone into the character creation is immense. Having levelled a Shadow Warrior to 64 now I can say that it truly is deep.
The basic feel is a hack and slash, run here kill that, collect this. And whilst this may get rather mundane there are enough varieties of quests to keep some semblance of new content.
Overall the gameplay is much as you would expect from this genre, so its a resounding 8/10.
----Graphics/Enviroment----
The game itself is huge. And I mean that in every sense. The world map spans over huge landscapes including deserts, jungles, urban build ups and mountains. All the classics.
The first chapter (the game is split into ten) sees you in a rural but build up area which is huge. It contains a huge city and vast areas of plains and small forests. There are countless quests and it is extremely overwhelming in chapter 1 to be honest. However as the game pans out the enviroments stay the same in size, but quests start dropping. If you did everything in chapter 1 it would takes you say, 7/8 hours. No other chapter comes even close to that, perhaps 3/4 hours at most, (chapter ten lasting 20 minutes tops) .
What this does however is create a kind of....I dunno, race towards the finish. You start to become more streamlined towards completing the campaign and achieving your goal.
The graphics throughout this all are actually rather good. You can zoom increcibly close (though why you would want to is beyond me) or far out. For such an incredibly large game the attention to detail is quite incredible. Not the best by any means but certainly good.
The best bit about this is when you kill an enemy you can sometimes react with them afterwards. I'm not talking anything strange, but like using your mount to push them over the side of a cliff and watching the corpse bounce like a slinky down a set of stairs.
Overall 8/10
----Sounds/Music----
All you can expect from this sort of game is the usual hack and slash grunts and death cries. Sacred 2 proves very fruitful in fulfilling this goal.
Charge into a large group of evil dryads on your mount and unleash a front arc of AOE pain and hear them moan like some sort of 4 on 4 womens tennis final in a 30 degree heatwave, and you will see what I mean.
Strangely the game decided on using some decent soft "peace" based music throughout which is different per zone. This is nice.
Then they use actual music from a metal band called "Blind Guardian" whenever you get into a fight....with anything. A rabbit is strolling past, hear the music roar into life at the peril you are now in. This would even be ok if it was slightly different each time. But it is not, 60 hours+ of gameplay and I turned the music off after 2 or 3.
A rather pleasant touch is when you complete the Blind Guardian quest, and get to watch a FMV of a gig played out by characters representing the real band members. I can only assume the band members are part of the team, or are in a serious love affair with them.
Sounds 8/10, Music 5/10
----Ease of Use/Nerd-ability----
I have to be honest and say that whilst I found the game easy to adapt to I do believe it may have crossed that fine line between being accessible to all and to those who prefer to believe that the world would be better place if magic existed and ogres roamed the north (not that don't already eh?)
The character set up and method for learning skills is quite complex and you have to track so many stats at once to be effective, especially in the higher difficulties.
Basically no problem for hardcore stat game players, but unfortunately not so "average gamer" .
----Difficulty----
One of the things the game does right. There are 5 difficulties. Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum and Niob. You start on bronze realise quickly that a child with no arms could play it and swiftly move onto silver. You then move up based on your level on your character.
The mobs all level up with you as you progress, and drops do too. So this in itself keeps the game challenging. Some of the bosses can be annoyingly hard, on higher difficulties but the same method of hacking them down works eventually if you keep plugging away.
----Online----
One of the more advertised aspects. You can go online and creat a group of 4 to challenge harder missions. Although in reality its just the single player with 4 of you on it.
This in itself is brilliant though as you really do not need much more. Get online with a few mates and the game becomes something completely different whilst being exactly the same. Odd but you have to try it to see what I mean.
----Flaws---
I would bold this whole section if it was feasible. There are many.
Some quests are unfinishable because of stupid glitches. The game often crashes (7 times in 2 weeks for me), and forces you to reset your PS3 via the main switch. Something that is not advised.
There are even claims that it breaks your PS3. Where I do not believe this is strictly true, it certainly causes stress to the hardware system.
----Summary----
The game is not without flaws but is addictive to the right type. If they release a fix patch sooner rather than later happy days. I will score rather strangely
I would give it:
6/10 with flaws, 9/10 without
Normal gamer score:
3/10 with flaws, 7/10 without
|
|
|
|
|
|
