NIDZUMI+

Pop-culture journalists have an odd knack for waffling on about subjects only vaguely related to the supposed subject of the article. From Rolling Stone right up to modern gaming magazines like PC Gamer waxing lyrical before getting to the point has become a tradition It would be rude to break this tradition so here goes…

Back in the mists of time, when Vista was a pipe dream and people still happily ran games using Windows 98 and 32MB of video ram we had two competing styles of RPG. There was Baldur’s Gate, Bioware’s D&D magnum opus, a long and extremely deep game which was light years ahead of anything that had come before it. Long before Blizzard decided that Warcraft was the perfect concept for an RPG they publisher Diablo. This was a frantic hack and slash dungeon slogger with an addictive, yet frustrating multiplayer mode that is still played by gamers all over the world today. Both titles are now legendary and still influence today’s RPGs in droves.

The sad thing is that most games that have tried to emulate the success of these two giants of the genre have fallen flat on their faces. Diablo’s legacy has been particularly badly represented most recently by the depressingly repetitive Too Human – a game that was thoroughly squashed by it’s own hype.

Now, in the lead-up to Christmas there is one title buried deep in amongst copious amounts of sequels beginning with ‘F’ that shows the potential to rival the quality of Diablo one or two.

Sacred 2: Fallen Angel, to give it its full name, is positively dripping with influences from both Baldur’s Gate and Diablo and yet dares to be an exciting title in its own right.

What Sacred 2 does so effectively is combine the storytelling and humour of Baldur’s Gate with the action and item collection of Diablo. This is a major achievement and it elevates Sacred 2 from just another hack ‘n’ slash to one of the must-have titles on the PC this Christmas.

The control system is fantastically simple. The interface is a selection of carefully positioned icons allowing access to everything from maps, to inventory to class abilities. Left click on an opponent inflicts a standard attack and right click engages your chosen class ability. The wheel allows you to zoom in and you from your character and holding it down and moving the mouse left or right will rotate the camera around the character.

Along the bottom of the screen is a quick bar with your compass in the middle. On the left are your quick slots for weapons and on the right is your quick slots for class abilities. You start with one slot each for weapons and class abilities but this number increases as you level up. It allows a lot of options to be immediately to you without cumbersome menu and is clean and unobtrusive.

One of the most interesting features of the game is the chance to create combos from your class abilities. There are five slots for combos in which you can chain up to five of your class abilities together to create unique attacks. It makes for a very flexible and deeply customisable selection of attacks.

Sacred 2 is a massive game and there is a lot of travelling and exploring required. In order to try and make this a little more interesting, developers Ascaron have introduced unique steeds for each of the six characters. They have very much designed the steeds to complement each character perfectly. They certainly help speed up some of the longer journeys and are also very useful in combat.

The sheer size and scope of Sacred 2 can be overwhelming but the game is so well crafted that it is hard to get bored. In fact it is all to easy to get side-tracked with exploring the game world that you forget about the quests in your log book.

Sacred 2 also has the a multiplayer designed in the true spirit of Diablo and all the options are accessible from pop-out menus on the left-hand side of the screen. Again it’s all neatly tucked away and unobtrusive and yet another testament to just how much thought has gone into the interface. Play itself is every bit as fun as you’d want from a Diablo clone although it seems unfair to define Sacred 2 like that because the game is has so much going for it in its own right.

In a season where the choice of games is so good it is difficult to choose where to invest your hard-earned cash. Sacred 2 is definitely a title that stands head and shoulders above the plethora of AAA titles out this Christmas. Whether you are waiting for Diablo 3 of you are just dying for a new RPG to get your teeth into Sacred 2 will not disappoint.