I Am One of the Seraphim
It may not be perfect, but Sacred 2: Fallen Angel fulfills most of your random item hunting needs.
Published: May 28, 2009
Whether or not you enjoy the combat will determine if you can stomach the rest of the game. Combat is as simple or as complicated as you want it to be. Each of the game’s six classes have very different play styles, with the High Elf forced to rely on combat arts and the Shadow Warrior being more of a pound attack and forget about it character. When creating a character you assign them a deity, which gives you access to a special ability, be it for healing purposes or banishing undead. Whether you like ranged or melee combat and how deeply you want to get involved in the combat art system will determine which class you have the most fun with.
Combat arts are what really separate Sacred 2 from other action RPGs. There is no traditional skill tree or energy meter. Instead, you have cooldowns and regeneration. Every combat art requires so many seconds to pass between uses, and keeping track of which arts are available at any given time becomes very important. Every piece of armor you equip adjusts your regeneration rates, meaning additional protection comes at a price. You’ll find runes that teach you new arts and improve existing ones, which will increase their effectiveness but also the amount of time it takes to regenerate. It’s entirely possible to ruin a character by leveling arts too quickly and equipping armor well above your level, leaving you with overpowered attacks that take minutes to recharge. If playing a High Elf specifically, that could make life very difficult.
Every class has access to 15 unique combat arts spread across three categories. They are activated by being bound to any of the face buttons. When you run out of space, holding L2 or R2 gives you access to alternate palettes, allowing quick access to up to 12 combat arts. If you want to condense even further, or if you’re lazy and want to tie multiple arts to one button, then the combo system is for you. Combos allow you to link two to four combat arts to one button and are bound in the same way. You set the order in which you wanted them activated and away you go. The downside is that you’ll be locked into the animations until all combat arts finish and the regeneration times of all the assigned arts will be combined, making for a powerful attack that spends a lot of time recharging. Still, having one button to fires off three debuffs can be quite handy for boss fights.
Combat itself feels more or less automatic. If using a ranged weapon, pressing attack will start launching projectiles at the nearest enemy. If an enemy is behind a tree you’ll either fruitlessly try to shoot it down or automatically move to a clear vantage point. Attacking with a melee weapon will make you charge an enemy rather than just swipe at empty air. Throwing on buffs and just mindlessly swinging an axe is a perfectly viable tactic, as you’ll just hop from one target to the next. Variety comes in the way of weapon types, as a blowgun operates noticeably different than a short bow and a dagger feels more nimble than a pole arm. At any point you can press L1 to pick up all items in your vicinity. The problem is, every time you pick up an item the name of it appears in the middle of the screen for a moment. If you pick up five items at a time, that’s five messages overlapping your character and the enemies you’re fighting. Add a dozen enemies and even more drops and you can see how it could become distracting.
