Sacred 2 XBOX 360, My First Impressions...

[warcrow 0]

This is being posted at the request of gogoblender over at the official forums

 

 

Although I was only able to spend about an hour playing the game yesterday, I feel like I have a few noteworthy remarks about the console release of Sacred 2. Take my feedback with a grain of salt but with that being said I'll do my best to describe what I experienced. At the very least this will provide a morsel of information out there about this highly (for some) anticipated game. Also to confess, I've not played the PC version more than about an hour so I'm not overly familiar with the game in it's many iterations--but I do love dungeon crawlers of any kind like Diablo I & II, Titan Quest, Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance 1 & 2, and Champions of Norrath.

 

The installation of the game took as long as any other 360 game--roughly 8 minutes. The installation improved load times significantly. I don't mean to imply that loading levels is non-existent but they do load with in seconds.

 

I decided to play as a Shadow Warrior and check out how melee is handled in this game. You have the option to choose to play the Light or Dark campaigns and select an applicable deity to worship. The Shadow Warrior begins his saga in a tomb and my initial impressions was "cool, a dungeon! There's bound to be lots of loot around here!" I ran around a bit and everything looked well enough. It certainly wasn’t mind blowing but it definitely looked better than the games I mentioned above.

 

Unfortunately, once outside the tomb the frame rate took a little bit of a hit. Not severe enough to make the game unplayable, but I think people who are really sensitive to a slight drop in frames and tearing will be put off by this. Personally, I thought it was a little annoying--but not annoying enough to ruin the gameplay. If I had to guess I would say it dropped < 30 fps.

 

The fighting was a little strange for me. I felt a little disconnected when fighting (melee) because you don’t mash a button. It's not similar to the Baldur's Gates or the Champions of Norraths where you hit a button to attack. Instead you hold down the button and direct your attacks towards the enemies. It works--and I imagine it takes some getting use to--but for me I would rather mash on a button and feel more involved with attacking. It felt a little too passive but I am only an hour into the game. I imagine this is a mechanic that will feel more natural (and perhaps for connected?) in time.

 

Loading up on loot in these games is always something I look forward to--don't we all? In Sacred 2 (console), looting is done automatically when pressing the LB. Again, you feel a little detached when loot is magically transported into your inventory and where's the satisfaction when you don't get the feel of snatching it up? At least you see it on the ground and know you have to pick it up so the process isn't as drastically passive as Too Human where goodies didn’t even fall on the ground but jumped into your inventory. I am sure this sounds totally trivial to a lot of you but for me, I enjoy picking it up and hearing the "clinks", the "clanks" and the "cha-chings" of the gold pieces. For those of you like me, a little thing like that is hugely missed.

 

I did notice that weapons, abilities/skills and magic can be bound to any of the 4 face buttons. The LT and RT act as a "shift" key so you can bind up to 8 more items for quick use. It looks really effective and I think it's a smart way to handle diversity in combat methods.

 

In the inventory, I noticed that comparing items is as easy as pressing a button so it does look like Ascaron made an effort to create as console-friendly game. Again, these are very early impressions of a ginormous game. There are still many many things left for me to see and find and get used to. Knowing some of you are as eager as I am for first-hand impressions of this game on the console -- feel free to ask if you have any questions!

 

There is more here for anyone that's interested.

[gogoblender 3,070]

Great review. And thank you for coming here to post this Warcrow. And ayup, I do have some questions. There was some talk on the xbox forums and at sif that the Smith skill is not functioning regarding being able to "smith" items in the field rather than at a smithers. Have you found a way so Smith items in field yet?

 

As well...lol, how does a console player take game pix?

 

I also heard that the inventory screen we have in pc sacred 2 has been replaced in consoles with a "list" function. How does this work, and is it as useful as what the pc users have?

 

And that the worth by color system in pc has been replaced by worth by number of stars...how does this "feel"? Does loot still feel like loot? Do you really think they changed it so that color blind people can access the game better?

 

 

gogo

[warcrow 0]

Great review. And thank you for coming here to post this Warcrow. And ayup, I do have some questions. There was some talk on the xbox forums and at sif that the Smith skill is not functioning regarding being able to "smith" items in the field rather than at a smithers. Have you found a way so Smith items in field yet?

 

As well...lol, how does a console player take game pix?

 

I also heard that the inventory screen we have in pc sacred 2 has been replaced in consoles with a "list" function. How does this work, and is it as useful as what the pc users have?

 

And that the worth by color system in pc has been replaced by worth by number of stars...how does this "feel"? Does loot still feel like loot? Do you really think they changed it so that color blind people can access the game better?

 

 

gogo

 

Thanks for bringing that up! No, I've not found a way to smith in the field despite getting the skill. Also, there are two buttons when looking at items in your inventory. The RB brings up details about the item you've highlighted and the LB "compares"--but the problem is both buttons do the exact same thing (details, compare isnt working). Anyone know what's going on with that?

 

I haven't spent a lot of time with the PC version of the game (plus, it was back in Nov of last year), so I dont know if I'm the right person to compare the differences between the two. But to answer part of your question--yes the console uses a list-type for your items and equipmnent and it works just fine.

 

The star system vs the color system is fine and I see no persevable differences between the two. I'm wondering why it was actually done, but to be honest it's all trivial to me. If it was indeed to better suite the color blind gamers then I think it's a smart change.

 

Loot is now feeling like loot. At first I was a little disturbed bu the "Catch all" RB collection system but now it feels pretty good.

[warcrow 0]

Updated my blog with some of the information I posted above and some additional information.

 

 

Sacred 2 has this way of luring you back for more--even with its faults!

 

It pleases me to say that after becoming a little bored with the Shadow Warrior--with it's monotonous melee--I decided to create a different character, a Dryad, and give Sacred 2 another shot. It's not that I dislike Sacred 2, it's that it's got so much potentoil and it's first impression was spoiled! Hey, I love these dungeon crawlers ok?

 

So I headed in another direction and went with a ranged class to see how differently it would play. The Dryad class can use melee weapons like the Shadow Warrior, but really, it's built for ranged attacks. I have to say, after playing for several hours, I really enjoyed my time playing the Dryad. Sure, chalk it up to personal preference perhaps but it really feels like this game was built for bows-and-magic on the consoles (not the PC.) Come’on, this is coming from a guy who hated the “push-the-stick” melee in Too Human but loved the Marksmen class.

 

With the class change I dutifully played a few more hours of the game (roughly 4). Unfortunately with in that time I noticed a few more obtrusive issues with the game. Thankfully none of these are deal breakers, atleast not for me. But before I get to those I want to reiterate—I am now enjoying this game, it’s just that it’s not as refined as I would like it to be.

 

With that being said....

 

I cannot find a way to blacksmith in the field despite obtaining the skill to do so. I've checked around on several forums, asked a few people and it appears that this is a common issue amongst players. It’s a nice skill to have as Blacksmiths just aren’t prevalent in the game.

 

When browsing the inventory there are two options available to you—“Details” and “Compare”. "Details" allows you to—are you ready for this—see more details about a particular item! "Compare" allows you to....see more details about an item! Yes the problem is--both buttons do the exact same thing. This is another very useful feature that would make life easier when upgrading and selling items. Anyone know what's going on with this?

 

In my previous post I complained about the act of Looting. I'm happy to report that the "catch all" collection system now feels really good and makes my little pavlovian brain salivate with it's "Cha-ching" sound effects.

Just to note--and not to complaint--gone is the color system the PC version of the game uses to identify power level and importance of items and weapons (a la Word of Warcraft) and replacing it is a star system. It works well and I see no real difference between using the two. I'm wondering if perhaps the change took place to better suite colorblind gamers?

 

Overall—this game is beginning to win me over and I'm excited about that.

 

Anyone up for some coop?

[gogoblender 3,070]

Wish I could join you in coop, but I'd have to find someone else's piggy bank to raid I like the writeup, and am enjoying your slow adventuring through the realms. Dryad was my first toon, and have fallen in love with her ever since. Her ranged speed is just fantastic. I've never played an rpg game like this with that kind of power and speed.

 

Any way to get screenies off a console and onto a forum or website?

 

 

gogo

[warcrow 0]

Wish I could join you in coop, but I'd have to find someone else's piggy bank to raid I like the writeup, and am enjoying your slow adventuring through the realms. Dryad was my first toon, and have fallen in love with her ever since. Her ranged speed is just fantastic. I've never played an rpg game like this with that kind of power and speed.

 

Any way to get screenies off a console and onto a forum or website?

 

 

gogo

 

Not in an appealing way unfortunately. No capture devicec here.

[Helscry 0]

First time poster. Never heard of this game before but 3 of my friends all bought it since we needed a new co-op game to play so picked it up and I am so far very happy with it. Although when Diablo 3 finally comes out, it may get traded in...

 

Responding to OP: if you think the tearing and FPS hit is bad now, wait till you get into a 4 player game where your buddies thrive on pulling at least 3 packs of mobs together and AEing them down... I HATE the High Elf blizzard spell already. Can't see what I'm doing. We've also run into several I'M STUCK bugs. (I've found that refreshing your buff or otherwise casting some spell or another will free you up) From my observations it seems to happen when a mob dies that you were in the middle of casting something at or not finished an attack animation on it or something similar. Also had a few total freezes or blackout screens where we lost SEVERAL CombatArts runes. For some reason the game auto-saves when you give someone something in a trade but not when you receive it. So remember to save if someone ever gives you something! Plenty of bugs still to work out but for the most part it's pretty stable. Just really really needs that patch to come out.

 

Also your question about the difference between LB and RB. RB just brings up details. LB does the same, but if you scroll down and hit LB again on another item it'll save the previous LB so if you keep hitting LB it'll swap back and forth between the items you're comparing, thus it's the Compare button.

 

I skipped blacksmithing on my first char because I just assumed I could make an alt to pick it up and smith whatever I needed into my gear. But when I made said alt I couldn't find anywhere to bring up a blacksmithing screen so I'm thinking that will be patched in at a later date. Any of you veterans fill me in on whether or not this is a good idea? (the saving of a skill slot by making an alt blacksmith)

 

As far as PC vs Console. I imagine the PC version has it's advantages with mouse clicking your ground targetted spells while console has the advantage of fluid movement from fight to fight. The listing of loot method in the inventory seems to work just fine. However the item name generators kind of bug me. Dragonslayer weapons aren't exactly dragonslayers... And shoot me if I think that if something says "of Ice" that it should have some sort of +Ice damage or Fire resist on it somewhere. Also I am not sure where they get the stars from. Many times I've taken 1 star items over 3 star items. I could also maybe not quite have all the game mechanics down yet so I may be missing something about the %% values on items and what they're worth compared to +skill level effects.

 

After it's all said and done I am very pleased with this game and fully expect to sink the majority of my free time into it at least until Diablo 3 hits the shelves. I thoroughly love the fact that the game is simple enough that pretty much anyone can hack N slash their way through it while there's also the complexity there for someone like me to figure out all the mechanics and create a true powerhouse.

Edited May 19, 2009 by Helscry

[Helscry 0]

Also one more tiny complaint I have while I'm here. Alchemy skill and potions in general.

 

As far as I can tell there is no way to see if the effects of a potion are still on you unless you have an eagle eye and can see the sparklies around your character. There needs to be a buff icon and have it slowly blink out or something. Also the Trophy items that you can only use if you've taken up the alchemy skill only last 30 seconds and YOU CAN'T HOTKEY THEM! What a huge pain it would be to open up your inventory, scroll over to Misc tab and find the trophy's you want to use before running into a pack of mobs... Hope that gets patched as well.

[gogoblender 3,070]

Also one more tiny complaint I have while I'm here. Alchemy skill and potions in general.

 

As far as I can tell there is no way to see if the effects of a potion are still on you unless you have an eagle eye and can see the sparklies around your character. There needs to be a buff icon and have it slowly blink out or something. Also the Trophy items that you can only use if you've taken up the alchemy skill only last 30 seconds and YOU CAN'T HOTKEY THEM! What a huge pain it would be to open up your inventory, scroll over to Misc tab and find the trophy's you want to use before running into a pack of mobs... Hope that gets patched as well.

 

 

Are you sure you can't hotkey them? We can in PC in a way... we can drag a trophy into any of the potion slots and then assign keys to them that way. Is anything like that possible for console?

 

And glad to see you're having so much fun with the game Helscry

 

Welcome to the forum

 

 

 

gogo