Plagued by bugs but not enough to diminish its appeal
For two nights, I chased an early quest called Pesky Pirates before learned that the two different waypoints I was being shown on the minimap were both the incorrect locations and stumbling upon the true location of the quest objective. I have experienced the waypoint for the main story quest jumping locations in similar fashion. In some cases, characters will freeze in place unable to move. It may take using a combat art (the game's analog to spells) or possibly initiating a trade with my co-op partner to free the frozen character. On a single occasion, a quest was shown in the failed quests section of my quest log when there were in fact still objectives remaining. As a result, I could not set it as the active quest to reveal its location on the mini-map. This game has a lot of bugs. A couple of them are fairly annoying.
With that out of the way, we can get on to what I really think of the full experience. In a lesser game, bugs like those would serve as little reminders of the pain of playing. In Sacred 2, they serve only to slightly detract from an otherwise fantastic game experience while at the same time creating a stark contrast between the overall quality of the experience and the apparent lack of QA from which the title suffers.
Sacred 2 has started with the foundation of Diablo/Diablo 2 and built on top of that many of the refinements World of Warcraft made to the formula (less the massively multiplayer aspect, of course) constructing an addictive and massive dungeon crawl.
Subtle refinements have mostly overcome the limitations of the console controller while maintaining the depth of a robust PC action RPG. The controller's face buttons can be mapped to weapons, shields, or combat arts while the trigger buttons act as shift keys for the face buttons. Pull a trigger, and you are accessing an entirely new set of face button mappings effectively tripling the number of available keys. All loot in your immediate vicinity can be collected with the left bumper eliminating the tedium of trying to step on loot or point to it in some way. Loot is automatically divided using some voodoo algorithm eliminating the need to roll for it. To target an enemy for an attack or spell, point the analog stick in its direction and push the face button corresponding to the desired action; there's no need to lock onto enemies. The play mechanics are all there, but they are much more accessible.
The world map is quite large. Traversing it is sometimes difficult as obstacles may force the player into long detours to reach a given destination. The in-game world map does a decent job of showing many obstacles but neglects others. The mini-map will point you in the directions of your currently active quests. Unfortunately, this does not always correspond to the immediate direction the player must walk to achieve them due to the occasional obstacle blocking a direct path.
Although I have not tried online multiplayer, co-op on a single console is a joy. Some players may complain that they must share a single screen with other players, and it admittedly can get frustrating when everyone needs to sell, manage inventory, and slot combat arts (i.e. assign them to the face buttons) as only one of these actions can take place at a time. However, being tied to a distance of no more than a couple dozen feet from your cohorts feeds the players' feelings of being part of one cohesive unit.
This game could seriously benefit from a guided tutorial. The game thrusts you in with nothing to get you acclimated. There are quest called "tutorial" quests, but, as best I can tell, that means the quest-giving NPC is important in some way and will be accessible once the quest is complete. The quest itself is no different from the others, and there is very little guidance given upon completion of the quest as to how to utilize the newly unlocked NPC. The manual will get you some of the way there, but it is still lacking.
Anecdotal evidence suggests this is a great game for couples. It has action elements but it is more relaxed than a twitch game. Characters will have different strengths and weaknesses meaning everyone can contribute something of value. You'll soon find yourselves collaborating on combat strategies, trading equipment, and giving your two cents on which potions to slot.
If I had known the extent of the bugginess before I bought the game, I probably would have avoided it. I'm glad I went into it a little bit blind. I'm now enjoying a game that my significant other and I both want to come home every night and sit down for an hour to play. The loot satisfies some deeply ingrained affinity for collecting, and it appears it doesn't have to end any time soon. Pick this up along with a stress ball to get you through the bugs. You won't regret it.
