XBOX REVIEW | Sacred 2 Remaster

The rate of nostalgic remasters and remakes of classic RPGs and ARPGs being released recently is astounding; some are fantastic, some break the mould, and some are… Well, let’s get into that a little later, shall we? Sacred 2 was a game I used to enjoy playing years ago, and when a remaster was announced, I was looking forward to checking it out. Enhanced graphics, a new UI and more were promised, and all of the DLC as well? ‘Sign me up,’ I thought. Ok, so let’s get down to the basics before I continue with my review, shall we?

Sacred 2 Remaster is what might be considered an entry-level RPG these days, with a simple premise and some ready-made characters to play around with. You are tasked with saving the world of Ancaria, which has fallen into chaos and war due to the mysterious T Energy being used for corrupt reasons… And that is basically the plot, other than a myriad of side quests. Now, shall we journey through the highs and lows? Ok, let’s go, warrior.

Things I liked!

• Nostalgia | My one saving grace for Sacred 2 Remaster is that it got me to download the Xbox 360 version to play again. If you don’t own the original but do remember playing it back in the day, then at least you could possibly go into this one with rose-tinted glasses on, at least for a short amount of time. Nostalgia will only take you so far, though, and I really am stretching to make this a good point as well.
  
  
• Story | One of the only other saving graces for Sacred 2 Remaster is that they didn’t mess around with the storyline. For newcomers to the game, that should give them a glimpse into the storytelling tropes of the time, and for people returning to Sacred 2, it should potentially feel like slipping into a comfortable pair of old slippers. If you enjoy a bit of swords and sorcery that isn’t overly complex to understand, then it might be worth going back to play the original version of the game.

Mixed & disliked!

• Soundscape | Sacred 2 Remaster is a mess; the sounds of swinging lights or possibly windmill arms just don’t stop even when you are in a cave, the voiceovers sound like it has been created with an extremely old text-to-speech program, and the music is just dull, lifeless and monotonous. I would have hoped with a remaster that there would have been improvements over the original, but it just honestly feels like a copy-paste from the original, which, while still awful, was a product of its time.

• Graphics | The so-called improved graphics honestly look like nothing more than a slight smoothing of the old graphics; there is nothing pretty about this game compared with the old version. In fact, there seem to be a lot more glitches, such as disappearing objects, enemies and even sometimes parts of your character as you play. I honestly don’t know what they mean by improved graphics if this is all they have to offer.
  
  
• Bugs Galore | Sacred 2 Remaster is a buggy mess, and that is not an understatement. I have had the game crash on me multiple times while mid-mission, which has made me have to backtrack through sections of the game which were quite frankly dull. The sound files repeat themselves, as I mentioned earlier, and enemies and objects disappear from the world but are still physical entities. I could go on for pages, to be honest. Apart from the crashes, one of the more annoying issues is that you cannot always interact with quest items, as they are just out of reach or an NPC is standing in the way that cannot or will not be moved, no matter what you do. If you are trying to get anywhere in this game, you might have to do the quests more sparingly than you want to. That is, of course, if you can get through a whole quest without being returned to the Xbox home screen.
  
  
• Controls | I will admit Sacred 2 Remaster has slightly improved controls for console users, but that, in all honesty, is like saying a fork with smaller gaps can be used as a substitute for a spoon. There are tonnes of RPG and ARPG games out there that have amazing control systems set up for consoles that could have been used as examples of how to do it. Did the developers actually play this game themselves before releasing it, or did they just cross their fingers and hope for the best? I’m sorry; I’m just annoyed that a game that could have been amazing as a remaster has been released in a state like this. The controls are basic in the worst way, and there really isn’t much more I can say other than I hope in a future patch that something is done to change it. It still feels like a mouse-and-keyboard-only game but slightly worse than the original version, which, to be honest, had some pretty awful controls.
  
  
• Combat | Please let Sacred 2 Remaster at least have fixed the combat issues… No such luck, I’m afraid. On hard mode, you will die pretty quickly to extremely easy enemies if you don’t know what you are doing, and on the only other mode, which I will call ‘insanely easy’, you basically are a tank. The enemies generally gang up on you, running faster than your character could ever hope to move, and before you can muster your strength to swing your sword, you are on the ground at a resurrection tower. If, like I mentioned, you go into the easy mode (if the game lets you), you will find yourself holding attack and not doing much else. I honestly don’t know if it would be better as a turn-based experience these days because it just feels awful to play; even using ranged weapons is dull.

How long did I play the review before publishing? 3 hours 40 Minutes
How long to beat the story? 25 hours
How many Achievements did I earn before publishing? 1/46
How long to achieve 1000G | 100 – 150 hours
You’ll love this game if you like these | Sacred 2: Fallen Angel, the Diablo series

CONCLUSION

Score: 29/100

There is nothing angelic, fallen or otherwise about Sacred 2 Remaster; the game is a mess of bugs, bad design choices and even more bugs. I couldn’t get a good enough run at the game without it crashing to even attempt to push my way further into it, and to be honest, by the time I reloaded it for the (no exaggeration) 56th time to try and progress, I just wanted it out of my system. If the developers and THQ Nordic don’t fix this game soon, then it is going to be a huge loss for them.