Sacred 2 360 Hands-on
The console version is put in the spotlight.
by Erik Brudvig
June 4, 2008 - Publisher cdv Software Entertainment is branching out. The traditionally PC focused developer is looking for new markets to expand into and it starts with the Xbox 360. Sacred 2, concurrently in the works for the PC, is targeting a November release on Microsoft's home console. We got our first look at the Xbox 360 version at a cdv press event in San Francisco today with a guided demo and a brief test run of our own.
He looks friendly.cdv began the demo with the PC build to show off a few different areas and discuss some of the role-playing features Sacred 2 offers. That's all well and good because the content across the PC and Xbox 360 versions is identical. The changes only enter into the picture when you start to talk about the multiplayer options and the game's interface. More on those later.
If you haven't been following coverage on Sacred 2, we'll catch you up. The game's big selling point is its massive, load free world for players to explore and hack their way through. When we say massive, we're talking 22 square miles in size with 12 major regions to explore. It will take you roughly six hours to walk from one end of the land to the other, though you won't always have to go on foot. Each character class has its own unique mount (my favorite of the bunch was the saber tooth tiger) to go with the set of generic mounts like horses and there will also be fast travel methods such as teleportation and boats.
The gameplay is pretty standard action-RPG fare if you're familiar with the history of that genre on the PC, though these types of games are much rarer on the console. The game is all about exploring, finding and completing missions, taking down waves of enemies and collecting loot to outfit your character with. Oh, and there are some pretty massive bosses to contend with along the way. We got a look at a massive fire demon, a golem, and a giant squid. Each one was 10 to 20 times the size of the little hero on screen.
Guys like these offer up quests for you to complete.The major difference between the PC and 360 versions is the interface and inventory system. While the PC fellows have a traditional menu setup filled with windows and checkboxes, things have been kept simple on the 360. Sorting options have been added, such as the ability to automatically select the best weapon or armor set. Inventory and skills are all managed through a series of menus that can be flipped through with the triggers after pausing the game. We didn't have a chance to really dive into these, but it looked easy enough to do anything from swapping weapons to customizing your controls.
Sacred 2 is built on a system where there is no tech tree to drill through before you can unlock all of your skills. From the start, based on choices you make when creating your character, you get 15 skills plus an additional five based on your which deity you align with. Leveling up allows you to improve your overall stats and specialize those skills. A lighting bolt spell might begin as a simple blast, but at level two you can decide whether to make that bolt do more damage or reflect around to hit multiple enemies.
This limited number of skills with many specializations plays into the Xbox 360 controller setup quite well. Each of the four face buttons can be mapped to any skill you want. Pulling the left trigger brings up an additional set of commands, again all customizable by the player. The right trigger (you guessed it) adds four more for a total of 12 moves that you can hotlink. You won't be able to have every skill, attack, and item use hotlinked at once, but you won't have to ignore too many either.
Games in the vein of Diablo like Sacred 2 scream for multiplayer options. Don't worry, Sacred 2 has them. The PC version will allow 16 players to join up simultaneously but that number has been limited to four on Xbox 360. You can play with two players offline confined to a single screen, or hop online to roam anywhere and play alongside a few others. And yes, you can play online with two players on the same box. Extra players can be added on the fly and drop out whenever they want seamlessly, too, and the game automatically scales the difficulty to match it.
cdv hasn't finalized how the player vs. player options will work on the console, or if they'll definitely exist at launch. The PC version will have separate servers and arenas to do battle with real people on. We'll let you know as soon as we hear how this will play out on Xbox 360.
Sacred 2 still has a ways to go before its November ship on Xbox 360, but the team has already added some visual bells and whistles. The team was eager to point out the way it implemented multiple light sources, some great fur detail on the aforementioned tiger, and a nifty diffraction effect when peering through warped glass. Stay tuned for more on the progress of this RPG as we lead up to E3 and on to the game's release this fall.
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