Sacred 2: Fallen Angel spreads its wings

Above: All low level High Elves must fight for their lives in exotic swimsuits, which are sometimes referred to as 'cloth armor' in RPGs like these

But despite it's new look, new classes and over a hundred hours of stuff to do, there's something familiar about Sacred 2: Fallen Angel. Yellow question marks and exclamation points aplenty mark NPCs in need of a good mouse click for quests, which will inevitably charge you with left-clicking many monsters to death as you click your way on to explore far and distant lands. Kill monsters. Find loot. Upgrade your gear, and briefly enjoy how truly uber your character has become before the urge for even better items sets in. Even if you've never played the original Sacred - which was great - you've probably already played a game that's a lot like Sacred 2. It starts with the letter 'D.'


Above: The Shadow Warrior will get the most uncomfortable looking mount we've ever seen. But it's also the coolest

But it's exactly this kind of familiarity that makes us really want to play Sacred 2. Remember when killing lots of monsters for treasure repeatedly wasn't called "grinding" and was actually really fun? It feels like the rise of the MMO genre has somewhat dulled our senses to the joys of loot lust and boss runs, making us forget how nice it sounds to hear gold drop and how fun picking new skills after you level up can be. There haven't been enough great action RPGs in the past few years and we're hoping Sacred 2 will help make up for time lost.

A Hardcore mode that rewards you with better item drops and punishes you with tougher enemies and permanent death, online co-op and PvP only sweeten the deal. If you have any love for games like Diablo or Titan Quest, we recommend keeping an eye on Sacred 2: Fallen Angel when it releases later this year. It just might make left-clicking for loot fun again.

Feb 21, 2008

GamesRadarTylerNagata