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Sacred 2 Impressions Shatter The Language Barrier
Posted by Mike Fahey at 10:20 AM on August 26, 2008
The main problem with seeing a game on the show floor at a consumer-friendly gaming convention in Germany, is that everyone speaks German. It makes sense, considering 99% of the people coming through to play their games are German, but boy does being in that 1% other bracket suck. Case in point, Ascaron's Sacred 2: Fallen Angel. I've been dying to get my hands on the isometric action RPG for more than a year now, and when I finally have it cornered it turns out to be the German language version. Rather than let the fact that I couldn't read any of the text get me down, I decided to pretend that I could instead. With a cheery grunt-nagen I got my 10 minutes of Sacred 2 on.
When the demo kicks off, you get to choose between five different characters, the Seraphim, Shadow Warrior, High Elf, Dryad, and Temple Guardian. While three of them are relatively attractive women, I instead went with the Temple Guardian, since he looked a bit like an undead robot Anubis, Egyptian god of the living impaired.
Upon selecting my avatar, I was dropped in the middle of a small village, surrounded by folks with various icons over their heads. Vendors, crafters, and...AHA! Someone with a question mark over their head. I had managed to find a quest giver. This was going to be easy!
Turns out the quest giver wanted me to spriegel the schmitzel wertzen or something to that effect, which seemed to indicate to me that he wanted me to wander off into the woods and kill many, many wolves. Wolves are the rats of the isometric action RPG. My undead dogman came with a scepter for melee attacks, as device that seemed to shoot lasers when enemies were out of melee range, and a right mouse button attack that called forth a swirling mass of ether that would then shoot forth a glowing tendril, damaging the enemy. From the moment I discovered it, every enemy got the swirly gate treatment. You can't go back to regular melee attacks after delivering an ethereal energy enema to a mutated wolf.
After the wolves came a gaggle of human bandits, who went down relatively easily. Having no real direction, I wandered randomly throughout the countryside after that, killing more wolves, more bandits, and getting frustrated that I couldn't kill the rabbits or cows. You cannot put a cow into an action RPG and then not let me kill it. If Sacred 2 bombs completely, mark my words - it was because of the cow issue.
Towards the end of my 10 minutes of pretending to read German proficiently I ran into another quest giver, who wound up following me around everywhere I went. I guess he wanted me to do something, and apparently that something didn't involve killing wolves, bandits, or standing in a field bitching about cows. At least I found it fulfiling.
Abortive cow tipping attempts aside, the game is very pretty to look at no matter how close you zoom into your character, combat is exactly what you've come to expect from this particular RPG sub-genre, and was quite capable. The voice acting needed some work, but it's nothing that switching to a language I can actually comprehend wouldn't fix.
Once my 10 minutes was up the PC restarted the demo automatically, and a nice woman directed me towards the exit, leaving me with these words of wisdom: "If you seek buy game, click on tombstones. So funny!"
Well at least she tried.
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
Darky
Posted August 29, 2008 8:53 AM
Well, you obviously didn't run into me ;) I was there, but I guess not around when you showed up. I explained like 10-15 people how the game works, translated every little bit into "normal"-English. ;D Was fun most of the time. Still I hope you enjoyed it! And see you soon!
VladMalice
Posted 10:52 AM 26/8/08
Sounds great! (except for not being able to mutilate the Cows of course)
I cannot wait any longer for this game!!!
VladMalice
Gantz: Your Trusted Friend in Science.
Posted 10:44 AM 26/8/08
Click on Cow, No Cow for You! So Funny!
Gantz: Your Trusted Friend in Science.
nitromic
Posted 10:41 AM 26/8/08
@Thassodar: This game is nothing like Infinite Undiscovery. The original Sacred was made to be a replacement to Diablo. It probably would have been too, if it didn't end up being a horrible crashing mess. Also some decent multiplayer would have helped as well. Lets just hope this one doesn't have the same failings as the original. At least it looks to be better than Too Human, which dropped the ball on the Action RPG genre.
nitromic
Eltigro
Posted 10:34 AM 26/8/08
Fuckin' cows.
Eltigro
Darthvinder
Posted 10:31 AM 26/8/08
You are a funny man, Fahey.
Darthvinder
the_answer
Posted 10:30 AM 26/8/08
yeah, what's wrong with sacred 2?.. in diablo 2 you can slaughter a whole herd of cows, plus beat up The Cow King
the_answer
Thassodar
Posted 10:28 AM 26/8/08
I've seen the game and I'm not really impressed, especially with so many other RPGs coming out so soon. If Infinite Undiscovery turns into crap and I need my RPG fix, this may be my choice over Too Human. Unless Fable II comes out before this.
Thassodar
hammerhand
Posted 10:25 AM 26/8/08
Looks good. I loves me some action RPG's. That the only screen?
hammerhand
Datheron
Posted 11:07 AM 26/8/08
@sir_carrot: Same thing happened w/ Titan Quest, although I think they still have a pretty decent following. Even "getting" the Diablo formula for some reason isn't enough; dunno if any game other than Diablo III will rejuvenate the genre...
Datheron
sir_carrot
Posted 10:58 AM 26/8/08
Ah. Nothing like the comedic language barrier.
I remember the first Sacred getting a lot of buzz because it was a Diablo clone that didn't suck. As much as the others.
Tried it myself but didn't find it entirely fulfilling for some reason.
I'd like this to be an entertaining Xbox title, but so far - ahh, I'm not sure.
Will have to wait and see.
sir_carrot
taftsearlobe33
Posted 11:45 AM 26/8/08
@Datheron: Titan quest was really good and I would say I like it about the same as Diablo 2 perhaps even a little more only due to the fact that Diablo 2 hasn't aged too well. But I am looking forward to this and Diablo 3
taftsearlobe33
GnatB
Posted 11:38 AM 26/8/08
I like action RPG's....
I don't like the random items with random prefixes and suffixes that suffice for loot generation that seems to have absolutely infested the genre.
Hopefully this game won't be like that... (though I'm not holding my breath, I think the last action RPG that didn't try to emulate Diablo with the "massive amounts of randomness" was The Bard's Tale.
GnatB
dv8godd
Posted 11:36 AM 26/8/08
I've actually been quite interested to see how this would turn out as I enjoyed the first one. I'm probably more interested to see how the console versions come out in the end, but good to hear the PC is at least competent through its unintelligibility.
Thanks for taking one for the team, Fahey.
dv8godd
Kral2
Posted 12:12 PM 26/8/08
The first Sacred was great, it was much better than Diablo or Titan Quest. Been hoping they don't screw Sacred 2 up for a while. Diablo 3 doesn't worry me seeing as D3 is Blizzard which means it's a good 10 years away still.
Kral2
Jayge
Posted 12:12 PM 26/8/08
I'm looking forward to Sacred 2 a lot. What a glutton I am. Too Human and Sacred 2, all in a 6 month span. Oh, if only there were more...
Jayge
nitromic
Posted 12:11 PM 26/8/08
@taftsearlobe33: Titan Quest would have been amazing if it had a closed Multiplayer option. Battlenet made Diablo 2.
nitromic
rianfrost
Posted 12:09 PM 26/8/08
this is kind of a dark horse for me, but i am incredibly hyped for this one. I played the original, but the gameplay had a flaw, it always degenerated into a mass of enemeies on me, and i pretty much skillessly whapped them down over and over, usually using the multi-hit power over and over. It got pretty repetitive, so one feature im thrilled about is that now hordes of enemies will have lieutenants that you can kill to debuff the minions or send them running, that will fix a lot of my problems with sacred.
rianfrost
notoriousEIC
Posted 12:32 PM 26/8/08
@Thassodar:
Agreed. I've been waiting for a next-gen game like those. I was hoping Too Human might be like that, but it just doesn't play very well.
notoriousEIC
Ettie
Posted 12:29 PM 26/8/08
@Thassodar:
The wife and I played the crap out of all those hack n slash games for PS2/Xbox. Would love to see more in the vein of...
Gauntlet: Dark Legacy
Guantlet: Seven Sorrows
Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance
Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance 2
Champions of Norrath
Champions of Norrath: Return to Arms
Dungeons and Dragons Heroes
These had relatively no innovation and were formulaic at best, but I miss them :(
Ettie
Thassodar
Posted 12:17 PM 26/8/08
Speaking of Action RPGs what ever happened to Champions of Norrath and Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance? Those games were fun as SHIT back in the day.
Thassodar
wax.
Posted 12:58 PM 26/8/08
words from a beta tester (not me! ;D i swear!)
the beta so far is stable and damn gorgeous.
gameplay is really straight forward and easy to pick up.
the english translation is pretty good and the voice acting was surprisingly good.
i enjoy co-op more than anything else in game like these so i haven't put in a massive amount of time playtesting. but i am looking forward to playing release with my friends.
as for the tombstones, they are cute for about 2 seconds, then you're annoyed because you have to click on each of them and then click the "ok" button on the bullshit flavor text. just gimme my loot! i dont care about hasslin' the hoff!
wax.
Talleyrand
Posted 1:11 PM 26/8/08
I am sad the vampiress didn't make the cut.
Talleyrand
Talleyrand
Posted 1:10 PM 26/8/08
Lol, great article.
Talleyrand
Zant
Posted 5:57 PM 26/8/08
Sacred 2 is from Gütersloh (my neighboring town). Eat that, german-o-phobic Kotakuites! ;-)
Zant
Deenight
Posted 6:41 PM 26/8/08
i played sacred 2 on the ps3 for 10minutes and i was more than dissapointed... everytime i looked at the pc versions behind me, i wondered why the pc version looked so much better... it was so colourful and all and the ps3 version looked like it was made on the ps2... i cant say if it plays better on the pc but i had no fun at all with the ps3 version... i was glad when the "thank you for playing" showed up and i could get my energy drink and leave this sacred place :p
i loved sacred 1 but my heart was broken within 10minutes and i will be not stalking this game anymore...
Deenight
slight
Posted 7:56 PM 26/8/08
Isometric? How is this isometric?
slight
Mr.DuckSauce
Posted 9:37 PM 26/8/08
@slight: The View is isometric if you had played games like this.
Mr.DuckSauce
slight
Posted 11:59 PM 26/8/08
I just looked at a bunch of screenshots for it and none of them were isometric, hence my question :)
[www.sacred2.com]
All standard 3D projection, no isometric projections.
slight
echo4mike
Posted 1:03 AM 27/8/08
Dude,
"Undead Robot Anubis" is one of those phrases that makes me glad I'm in the videogame industry.
echo4mike
dv8godd
Posted 1:12 AM 27/8/08
@slight: I think the confusion is in the difference between "projection" and what is in layman's terms considered a "view". The "top-down from behind the character" is, albeit errantly, called "isometric" by many simply because all true isometric projection games use that angle.
Until someone comes up with a more succinct way of saying "above and behind the character"... I think you're stuck with people calling the "angle of view" isometric, even if the technology creating the screen isn't really isometric projection.
dv8godd
dv8godd
Posted 1:41 AM 27/8/08
@dv8godd: Why "third-person perspective" never occurred to me as the proper term when I wrote that, I don't know.
Still... isometric has a fancier ring to it, and any game that has at least a few screens that remind someone of Baldur's Gate and its ilk are likely to draw the comparison.
dv8godd
Silverbackne
Posted 4:16 AM 27/8/08
"Turns out the quest giver wanted me to spriegel the schmitzel wertzen"
"Wolves are the rats of the isometric action RPG"
Fahey you're the best, man.
Silverbackne
slight
Posted 6:07 AM 27/8/08
@dv8godd: Point taken, though I'd disagree with third person, because it's not necessarily at that particular angle.
From what I've seen of Sacred 2 though, it doesn't even seem to be set at that angle you refer to, although Sacred 1 was isometric in the proper sense. I haven't seen vids so I could be wrong, the screenshots may be showing in-game cutscenes, but it seems to me this is really just a 3rd person game.
slight
dv8godd
Posted 6:43 AM 27/8/08
@slight: From what I've read and seen on it previously, the angle of "above and behind" seems up to the player's discretion. You're probably not getting much of that as they might be zooming in for screenshots to show the level of detail.
The first trailer I had seen showed action at a variety of perspectives... it's actually the last item on the video page...
[www.sacred2.com]
It's a bit choppy, and you don't really see gameplay until about 60% through the vid, but you can see a number of different angles for gameplay action. Some are close to the point where the character looks to take up most of the screen... but there are definitely others that look much more akin to it's fully isometric precursor.
dv8godd
ShineyBlueShoes
Posted 10:56 PM 27/8/08
Wonder if they have pro-cow laws in Germany as well? If that's the case let's hope for the peoples sake that no one makes a game about nazi cows.
ShineyBlueShoes