Sacred 2: Fallen Angel

GC '07: Sacred 2: Fallen Angel Hands-On

LEIPZIG, Germany--We recently got to play Sacred 2: Fallen Angel at the Leipzig Games Convention. Fallen Angel is the sequel to the original Sacred, a popular hack-and-slash RPG in the same vein as Diablo. Sacred 2 will follow similar lines, but take a unique online multiplayer approach. First, you will pick from one of six classes (though only four were on display: High Elf, Shadow Warrior, Seraphim, and Dryad), then you'll enter an area with all the other players.

Here, you will fight not against your competitors, but against computer-controlled enemies. The player who slays the most foes wins the round, but to do that you'll need to pick up treasure, armor scraps, and new weapons along the way to make yourself into a more capable slayer. In an interesting twist, the health potions we picked up in the game were rendered as cans of Red Bull as a promotion. While Ascaron's representatives assured us our dryads wouldn't be drinking Red Bull in the final game, it was certainly surprising to see the cans on the battlefield. They may not have given us wings, but the health was helpful.

Once five minutes are up and players have slain all the beasties they could get their swords on, everyone is teleported to a small arena where they duke it out. The person with the most kills wins. However, the player who slew the most artificial foes gets a buff, and chops through the competition with ease. Unfortunately, we were not that player, so we got to experience the difference from the chopee's perspective. It wasn't pretty.

But it was unusual. While we aren't entirely sure how Sacred 2: Fallen Angel's unorthodox online mode will fit into the scheme of a single-player campaign, or an overarching online experience, we can say it's an interesting hack-and-slash RPG that will try to wow you with interesting ideas, rather than fancy graphical effects, when it ships sometime in the first quarter of 2008.

Gamespot