Sacred 2 Remaster Review – Missed Opportunity

Sacred 2 remaster review

Many gamers love to replay their favorite games the way they remember them. The emulator market is booming for a reason. I, on the other hand, appreciate today's games with more responsive controls, better graphics, and at least sometimes great storytelling and execution. To some extent, splitting the difference, Sacred 2 Remaster retains what made the 2008 original so innovative while making a few welcome updates.

Ancient history

Without a doubt, many gamers have no idea what Sacred 2 is or was. Following on the heels of isometric ARPGs such as Diablo and Titan Quest, Sacred (2004) and Sacred 2 were fantasy ARPGs on the same field. Sacred 2 stood out with its rotating camera, huge explorable world, and colorful palette. He also had a sense of humor and refused to take his somewhat opaque narrative too seriously. Sacred 2 featured some pretty deep modernization and combat, as well as unique dark and light mechanics.

But the 2008 version also had some problems. First of all, it was technically very rough around the edges. Movement and combat were clumsy. The game's voice acting was either charmingly amateurish or just plain bad, depending on how charitable you felt. Sacred 2 Gold didn't really fix any of these issues, but it did bring the base game and DLC together. Also notable is that Sacred 2 also arrived on the Xbox 360 in 2009, making it one of the first isometric ARPGs to hit consoles and controllers.

Go to 2025

There are remasters that are so thorough that the original becomes unrecognizable. Sacred 2 Remaster is not one of those games. In many ways this is not enough, but we will get there.

Sacred 2 has a pretty decent – if not terribly original – fantasy narrative premise. It takes place in the country of Ancaria. The ancient race of Seraphim lost control of Ancaria to the High Elves, who split into two warring factions: the clergy and the nobility. At stake is the manipulation of a supernatural force called T-energy. During the campaign, the player encounters several races fighting for control of Ancaria's T-energy, which is wreaking havoc on the land.

One of the best features of Sacred 2 is that players can choose between the Light or Shadow campaigns, each with their own storyline and objectives. There are six starting classes in total, but two of them are campaign-specific. Seraphim should play the Light version, and Inquisitor should play the Shadow campaign. There are many points where the two campaigns, as well as many of the NPCs and side quests, converge, so the two arcs are not completely different.

The six starting classes are a bit customizable at first, but become truly unique once they start using a variety of weapons and martial arts. All classes have access to some kind of magic, and the game has a fairly extensive range of weapons and skills. The depth of the systems was impressive in 2008 and remains so in the new version.

Around the world

Ancaria is a large place built on many colorful and different biomes. Most of the map is open to the player from the start, and while players have mounts to help them travel a little faster, there's unfortunately no fast travel system. The game especially features vertical and underground areas to explore. Unfortunately, the camera struggles in some of these more challenging areas. Overall, Sacred 2's environments are colorful, vibrant, and fun to explore. Some attention has been paid to improving the fidelity of textures, character models, and the world in general, but character movement—in and out of combat—feels incredibly dated.

While it will certainly make you appreciate how far video game combat has come, Sacred 2 Remastered only makes minor improvements over the original. Nostalgia is great, but it doesn't make up for the terrible hit detection, lack of accuracy, slow controls, glitchy gameplay, and dumb enemies. It's a shame that the combat system hasn't been completely overhauled. The world is interesting and the systems have depth. But the fight is just unpleasant.

The game's writing and voice acting were not affected. In 2008, a fantasy RPG that poked fun at itself and its conventions was a welcome antidote to the too-serious dark gothic worlds of games like Diablo. But in Sacred 2 it's not very good.

Error

I retain the strengths of the classic game. What I don't understand is fixing the old game's technology. Releasing a remaster of a 17-year-old game with texture pop-in, freezes, glitches and bugs is more than a missed opportunity. Sacred 2 includes some graphical tweaks that the original couldn't have dreamed of. Unfortunately, this doesn't come close to providing a smooth experience, even on high-end hardware.

Sacred 2 Remaster does several things. It reminds us that the original was ambitious and forward-thinking in many ways. Sacred 2's wide open world and deep progression system have proven themselves well. Sacred 2 Remaster is also a reminder that the original's technology and combat leave a lot to be desired. Despite all this, people liked the 2008 game. To enjoy the Sacred 2 remaster is to ignore them again.

***PC code provided by publisher for review***