I have to say, I totally judged this book by its cover. One glance at the wannabe LOTR backdrop below the generic-looking characters and I thought ‘wow,what a piece of crap this must be’. But after being hooked for the first few hours of Sacred 2 (which passed fairly quickly), I came to realize that this may not be the best looking game out there, but it’s absolutely huge. And although it doesn’t push the genre into new territories, there is still enough here to keep busy those who can look past the really bad packaging. Bad, awful packaging. Just awful. Anyways. Click zer link yeah?!

The leveling is par for the course. The controls are a definite plus.  The ease offered here makes the controller an invisible thing that you forget you’re even holding. The multiplayer ranges from a straight PvP competition to going it alone with an occasional friend (or stranger as it were) dropping in to join you – which gives this game a huge amount of replay value. Voice overs range from incredibly cheesy to outstandingly funny with dialog that constantly calls out the genre.  It’s always nice to see a game not take itself too seriously. German metal band Blind Guardian does the soundtrack, which is cool for about oh, one hour; they play the same riffs over and over again. And wow, when you realize that, you kill the music pretty damn quick.

Sacred 2 has its share of downsides of course. The graphics are a blend of unimpressive character design and gorgeous specials – so zoom your view out as much as possible. The convoluted story is very ‘blah, blah, blah’ since there is a huge lack of continuity. The combat is pretty stiff. You just sit there, hold a button down and hack away until the job is done or have to move. A teleportation system is in place, but a lack of gating means that you have to hoof it just about everywhere, which makes the game drags ridiculously. That and the repetitive mission objectives, Oi. The world is simply too big for it’s own good sometimes. Then there is the terrain. You’ll see where you have to get to, but you have to walk for an inordinate amount of time to actually get there because of some tiny incline that’s in your way – don’t get me started on the small rivers. The lack of any mana/magic point management system remains a small mystery. Overall these issues don’t drag Sacred 2 down that much -  they plague the entire the genre.

So what this all comes down to is how much do you miss Diablo? This may not be the best clone to come out, but it’s one of the better ones to be sure. If you’re someone who wants an involving game with some bang for the buck that will chew up lots of time, than this is for you. Pick up a copy of Sacred 2 and say goodbye to friends and family for the next few months. You will be missed. Probably. Maybe.