My first impression playing this game back in 2010 was pretty special. I started a Dryad (hey, they looked hot and I love Druids) and watched the fairly epic cinematic, after which I was placed on a beach with a kind of a mentor beside me. I guess the gods didn't smile upon him on that day though, because somehow I ended up having to tutor myself. First thing I noticed when gaining control was the graphics. One word. Wow. They are incredible, and the attention to detail is pretty much un-parallelled. Leaves being side swept, a little bird making his nest - hundreds of small things that leave you with a warm and fuzzy feeling inside. Even now in 2014, it still looks great.

I still have that Dryad - but I specced her so badly that she is broken beyond repair. I highly recommend using the Sacred 2 Wiki for help with builds. There is no respec option, and if you find yourself wanting to play it all the way to Niob, your spec pretty much needs to be perfect.

The sound is good as well, although the voice acting is bad. Not terribad but bad enough that you treasure the fact that only the main quests have voiced dialogue.

Moving on; most of the classes in the game are innovative and fresh. Whoever saw an ancient Egyptian-inspired Anubis-like robot thingie before as a class? Packing an alien blaster along with his hammer no less. Very fresh, very fun. You diversify a bit by choosing a god and one of two campaigns (good or evil), which adds a good deal of replayability. Rather annoyed by the fact that you can't select gender for the classes though. Some years ago I never touched any female class, for some reason. Thankfully I outgrew it, or I would have missed out on half of this game.

The story is fairly weak, but the focus doesn't really lie there either, as it gives you hundreds of side quests left and right. In fact there are so many, I find myself skipping half of them. Many of them are kind of like MMO quests in a sense. Very generic; a silly story behind it and mediocre rewards. But it works, somehow. In one early side quest though, you are pitted against the game's first boss. This was a pleasant surprise - as once you engage a boss monster, the camera centers on the boss and the game spits out some cool music. He took a serious pounding too, so it was a good moment.

The map is gigantic; as far as I know it has the biggest world in an action RPG, ever. I have still not explored everything after well over 100 hours of play (played it on a disc version most of the time), and there are several optional bosses where you can see how good (or bad) your build is. Bosses can be incredibly punishing, but they are also a lot of fun. Keep your thumb on the spacebar.

The difficulty level when playing Bronze is extremely easy the first 2-3 hours. I considered re-starting several times and selecting Silver instead. But it's gotten more challenging. This really depends on the class and spec you want to play. I have one character in Platinum; a Seraphim, and I still find the class a lot of fun. I have chosen to spec her both with Sword / Shield and Ranged (for BeeEffGee). This'll likely hurt me quite a bit if I reach Niob, but for now it works well. I like being able to change things up now and then.

Multiplayer is dead, unfortunately. Seems Ascaron went and got themselves bankrupt, and was forced to shut down their US servers. EU servers still worked when I started playing it back in 2010, but I believe they are shut down as well.

All in all though, great game. Sort of a diamond in the rough but if you can see past some bugs, crashes and general hiccups, you may find yourself in love with this game, like me. I've played it for about 120 hours; I am on my third version of the game now, and after experiencing just one in-game crash in 14 hours of playing, I can finally, after many years, recommend this game. On the previous versions it probably crashed between 2-300 times in 100 hours of playing.

Since I wrote the review the game has crashed 7 times in 28 hours of play. Still not too bad, considering I've had PhysX enabled all that time.

This is my favorite action role playing game! A huge map to explore with various landscapes and many hidden places. There are 7 different classes with different ways to skill. But the most addictive part for me is the hunt for massive loot... set armors, unique weapons and random roled rare items.
But its highly recommended to install the latest Community Patch. It brings more content and is fixing some of never solved bugs by the bankrupt vendor.
Negative points are tricky camera handling and the very instable source code. Its often crashes because of memory leak.
Multiplayer is only possible with LAN mode. If you want to play online use VPN tools like Tunngle.

If you like ARPG's like Diablo combined with a large open world so go for it!

8.5 of 10 points!

I must say this is awesome RPG..

+Large open world
+Interesting story
+Lots of quests
+Many different variations enemies
+Large scale of different weapons
+Nice combat mechanics
+You can buy horse and ride it
+Graphics are nice too

- There is some bugs in basic game.. (I recommend download Community Patch)

Community patch also add some extra content (weapons, quests etc..)

The graphics are really good and the PhysX are amazing. There are hundreds of quests and thousands of items too. But on anything lower than medium the grass will be REALLY bright and hurt your eyes, The camera angle is also bad so you have to adjust it, But even adjusted the camera angle is still kinda bad because this game feels more like a 3rd person RPG, Not the top down RPG that it is. The guards also dont seem to care if enemies just roam around towns, Meaning that the enemies dont hurt anyone but you.

There also is no human class so your stuck with flashy females or some brutish zombie guy or an old creepy guy or even the robotic temple guardian.

Its also optimized like total ♥♥♥♥ so you need a decent graphics card to run it or else your stuck with the settings below medium, Meaning ultra bright grass.

Other than that its a really great game.

A good game for fans of Diablo or the original Sacred. I can't say it does a great job of drawing you into the story, but there are a lot of fun things about the gameplay nonetheless with character classes you aren't likely to find anywhere else (like a Seraphim or Anubis) and the ability to create skill combos, as well as a good variety of weapons including some unique ones like energy pistols along with the typical medieval sorts. Tons of quests, monsters, and loot will keep you occupied for hours.

Sacred 2 is a Diablo-style action RPG set in a truly massive world. Its largest selling point is probably just that – this game is almost excessively huge. Sacred 2 features an incredible world packed with nearly 600 quests and a sprawling map that you’ll be unlikely to have seen even a quarter of in 20 hours. Every building is able to be entered (many with multiple floors), every NPC speaks, and most containers have loot stashed away in them. As typical of the genre, Sacred 2 offers multiple difficulties to unlock for even more replayability.

Looting is another huge draw – practically every enemy will drop loot, all with different stats and colorations. If one enemy doesn’t drop anything, you’ll soon have another 10 or more on screen anyway. Monsters, animals, and humanoids alike creep in every corner, waiting to swarm your character. To cope with this, you’re given a wide range of distinctly different player characters, each with an array of different armor, weaponry, special moves, and unique mounts (although all may buy horses as well).

Combat is fast, though oftentimes mindless, fun. No matter the character, you’re always open to many ways to play, from magic, to ranged, to multiple forms of melee (sword & shield, dual wielding, axes, clubs, etc.). Your mount, whether unique to your class or a horse, also opens up another combat style with its own unique stats and, for some, attacks. Enemies range from normal humans to mythical beasts such as harpies and werewolves, each with variations in stats, attacks, and appearances, guaranteeing you’ll have plenty of new monsters to slay your entire journey.

Sacred 2’s saving grace to the argument of it being “just another clone” is that it’s already fully aware of being a clone filled with various clichés. The game doesn’t take itself seriously; one moment you have men in bunny suits attacking you, another moment you’re fending off mutated sheep who’ve decided you should be food instead. Sacred 2 plays on its light-hearted silliness with quests such as those, jokes galore (cemeteries house plenty in particular), and fourth wall breaking moments – for instance, the Seraphim is fully aware she can’t proceed without the player and will make her grievances known quite vocally if you leave her standing alone for a short while. This both saves it from coming across as a simple clone and gives it plenty of character of its own.

It has its flaws, like all games. The biggest irritant might possibly be its camera, which attempts to be both isometric and standard 3rd person at the same time, often leading to it spiraling around awkwardly. Another point to make is not necessarily a flaw, but could be a massive turn off for some: the bright colors, voice acting, and purposeful ridiculousness of Sacred 2 could easily put off someone looking for a serious RPG, or possibly come across as poor quality before it becomes more apparent the game is using its clichés as a joke.

Overall, I’d happily recommend it to fans of Diablo style games, particularly those who love to explore, as you’ll have a lot to see, and hours and hours of combat-filled gameplay. Sacred 2 is truly an overlooked gem.