Have to get it all out, pros and cons about Sacred 2

[Erling 3]

So, I complained a bit about Sacred2 a few weeks back abot how it was such a huge grind and how fast things could get boring, I found a way I enjoy the game more. Which I decided to write as a few others seemed to have the same problem.

 

I think the root of my problem with sacred2 was that I compared it with sacred1 from the start. in Sacred1 we could overpower combat arts, overspawn and go to places like sakkara nest for fast lvling and killing. I got rather unpatient fast as I.. well imagined sacred 2 would be sacred 1 with better graphics

I had the feeling that Ascaron tried their very best to not make it possible to level fast.. which went against what I expected and then I guess I felt a bit dissepointed.

 

So well.. I was a bit grumpy for quite a while about the game until I finaly decided to TRY to like it one more time

 

so I stared quite a while at the diffrent combat arts, skills and classes until I ''awakened'' and realised I had to start from scratch.

 

what I found out.. kinda late:

-Unlike in sacred 1 where most builds were based on 1 maybe 2 combat arts, the combat arts in sacred 2 fits togheter if you look on mods on diffrent Combat arts on diffrent aspects. So a build is more like a puzzle with rigth mods to make the diffrent combat arts fit together. this alo gets alot more fun when you find perfect matches. (like [in my opinion] forest fligth and goldenglade touch) <- just to make an example

-For me playing with others online.. not just on the server but in party have gotten very important, its so much more fun and enjoying to play with others than roaming around alone in such a huge game.

 

Anyhow, its still some very small.. maybe not important things but things that annoy me.. alot

and that can be changed without to much trouble.

I want compass on the minimap

I want the sets to more unique! (very fired up on that one) Most of the 3 main sets are.. well unique enogh I guess, but the mini sets really annoy me.. they are just a random pick of other set tiems with a little colour change. (take a look at all the sets for Dryad )

all that god stuff.. diety... imo its just stupid... as I said party playing is much more fun, and making this evil and good think in multiplayer to be unable to party.. even in a free game is laaaame.

 

 

 

 

kinda had to get this out..

-Erling

[gogoblender 3,071]

First off, have to say Erling, you've got talent as a writer. You've always had that "touch" and this topic is great example. It's funny, I was reading this thread at work, and I wanted to jump in right away and start posting on it, but I wasn't able to get the post button to work

 

 

My words on what you've said:

 

I think I pretty much agree on almost everything you've said. When I think about it, almost all the dissapointments I experienced with this game all happened because I was comparing it to sacred. I was, like you were, looking for the fast leveling and very soon discovered that there was just too much to learn all over again before I could even begin to think about that. My pacing with this game has really slowed down, and I'm taking it much easier these days...just taking it all in as I'm encountering it, and let me say...there have been more than a few frustrations.

 

One of the things I did was come to rely upon easy builds like the Dryad which were incredibly overpowered and super easy to construct. I'd come to forget all the work I had to do in old builds like with my seraphims from the old game, and was thinking that this game was just plain old "broken"

 

Well, a little while later, the game's fitting a little easier, and...like you said... the community is a huge part of it. I don't think this game would be anything without all the friends we're all seeing almost nighty these days, and it makes me almost forgive all of the things I had been so angry with the game about.

 

But... as this is Ascaron...there is always more patches huh

 

Thanks for the read, and I hope to see more of you in game as always. Yes, having the gang when we're playing is a huge part of this game, and as you said, it may just take a bit of time to appreciate it.

 

 

gogo

[gial 2]

Just this weekend I got my characters up high enough to get some good equipment, finally, and to get the mods on my Combat Arts. What a difference in play that made.

 

Got the 3rd mod to Ravaged Impact, my unique mount and the Enui's Swift String virtually all at once. The orcs and trolls just started melting like butter on a hot griddle.

 

The complexity of character build is enormously greater here than in Underworld. It's hard to grasp that at the really low levels when you just grind away with minimal damage. It's a better game than I had thought, and getting better daily, now. Erling, your puzzle analogy is exactly on target -- the abilities are much more complementary. It takes more thought to use them optimally.

[Cthulhu 0]

Heh... yeah, I agree on the combat arts + mods. They did a good job at giving you the ability to customize them to work in tandem with various builds / combos.

Edited March 12, 2009 by Cthulhu

[stubbie 21]

I'm finding Sacred to be a lot like diablo was for me.

 

When diablo was released I thought it was fantastic. Greatest game I had played.

When diablo 2 was released I felt let down as it just wasn't like diablo 1.

So I stopped playing.

I then started playing diablo 2 sometime later with an open mind and it ended up being better for me than the first one.

 

I played sacred 1 and it too ended up being the greatest game I had ever played.

I then played sacred 2 and quickly thought it wasn't as good as the first so I gave up for a little while.

I have since come back to it and no longer compare it to sacred 1.

I'm having a much better time with it now and its really fun to play.

 

If only they would allow the servers to merge and let dark and light toons play together in free games.

[Schot 407]

I completely agree with the "initial" feeling of being let down. My experience with Sacred 1 really made having a fresh open mind difficult in Sacred 2. I was bitter and angry when I first played Sacred 2, lol. I had felt let down on several fronts all because of my experience with S1. Some things were in Sacred 2 from S1 that I did NOT want and some other things were not that I DID want. That was my biggest issue with Sacred 2. That delay and separate servers issues I can eventually accept but there were a lot of things that made me frustrated because it wasn't quite like S1. Now that I'm beginning to forget about S1, *sniff*, I'm having much more fun with Sacred 2. In fact I've nearly reached the addiction I had for S1 in Sacred 2.... Help!

 

What's really making Sacred 2 work for me is by far the Kamikaze and party play in general. Party play was the one thing we didn't really have or do because of the Closed MP Proximity bug. We did still party in S1 but it was riddled with problems. Sacred 2 party play for me is sooo smooth. There's plenty of new modifiers as well that add a great deal to Sacred 2. Oh! And I am in love with my custom camera setup.

 

So for me Sacred 2 was a bumpy, grumpy start but it just gets better and better. Really nice topic Erling and I'm glad you posted it.

[Little Faith 24]

I'll chime in with a somewhat different perspective.

 

Se I really tried to like Sacred 1. I thought the characters and their respective skills were interesting and liked the conceptual framework of the character with skills balanced by timers and a finite amount of skill choices to customize your character. I also liked the general emphasis on exploring and the way the story (though mediocre) was told In-game instead of via cutscenes and NPC monologues.

 

But the game kept letting me down. The everpresent bugs, the abysmal documentation, that fact that the game rewarded overspecialised one-trick pony builds (though you could still do a kickass archmage), even a little thing like the inabilty to customize keyboard commands. But most of all what made me give up on the game was the monsters. Particulariy the lack of variety. Dragons for example: Big unique boss monsters you were supposed to look forward to facing in battle (with a slight bit of dread mixed in for good measure) were essentially copies of each other only with different colours and resistances.

Even worse at a certain point at the game where your build have matured and you have had the chance to assemble one or more of those delicious occasionally plain old overpowered sets the difficulty would take a nosedive as you begun to effortlessly one-shot supposed boss monsters.

 

Sacred 2 in comparison kept and strengthened a lot of the aspects I liked and did something about a lot of the turn-offs, especially monster-wise. There are still some annoyances left though. The game is still a bug-ridden mess (Diablo set the sad standard for the genre in this regard I guess). The documentation is still lacking and occasionally outright misleading it's just not so egregious.

 

Things I like about Sacred 2:

 

The world is generally more lush and fun to explore. Small touches count here such as the amazing amount of thought that actually went into fleshing out the world and the voiced gossips are great. Overhearing the High Elves trade underhanded insults is hilarious (though they do grate a bit with time).

The monsters matter more. Regular monsters aren't pushovers late-game anymore. Bosses have unique skill-sets and different behaviour. They even seem to have mixed up the monster pools a bit more avoiding Sacred 1 mistakes such as the Goblin Lawn or the bandit-infested barony of Mascarell. You still do get positively sick of kobolds and rats after a while.

 

It still needs work though. There are bugs that needs to be quashed yet. They need to do something about the Temple Guardian. An ARPG can survive a few mostly unused gimp skills, but an entire gimp aspect is another matter. Especially when it is supposed to be a major selling point for one of the characters (I am talking about Lost Fusion here obviously).

They need to acknowledge the US-server fiasco and at very least merge it with International.

Ascaron would also earn a great star with me if they did something similar to what Blizzard did with the Arreat Summit. A site with more detailed information on characters, skills and items. Right now they still seems to have left this responsibility to the fan community who, while willing, does not (or are at least supposed not to) have any knowledge of the actual "guts" of the game and can only work with inaccurate gameplay observations. Would aid bug reporting a huge deal if we actually knew what stuff was actually supposed to do.