Sacred 2 Remaster from THQ Nordic, SparklingBit, Jumpgate AB, Funatics, and Nukklear brings us a revamped take on an action RPG classic. Learn more in our Sacred 2 Remaster review!
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Sacred 2 Remaster from THQ Nordic, SparklingBit, Funatics, Jumpgate AB, and Nukklear brings us a revamped take on an action RPG classic. Sacred 2: Fallen Angel was released for PlayStation 3 back in 2009. It’s a prequel set 2,000 years before the events of the first Sacred, and it takes place in the land of Ancaria, where the T-Energy, a mysterious power source that was used for all life and magic, has now become corrupted. The T-Energy fuels conflict and chaos. The T-Energy used to be under the control of the Seraphim, but they ended up losing interest in Arcania and gave control of it to the High Elves, which allowed them to become the dominant race of Ancaria. This led to a war fueled by a power struggle between two factions within the High Elves.
We’re getting a new take on the classic, which features some improvements that are certainly appreciated for a game releasing in 2025. This includes smoother combat, a modern UI, and full controller support, enhancements to the game’s textures and lighting, as well as an increased draw distance. Oh, and this version includes all previous expansions and updates to the game, making this the best way to take on the definitive Sacred 2 experience.
The first step on this journey will be to create your character from the available archetypes. Your options will be Seraphim, Dryad, Shadow Warrior, Inquisitor, High Elf, Temple Guardian, and Dragon Mage. Each of the characters will have different values for their stats for health, attack, defense, strength, stamina, vitality, dexterity, intelligence, and willpower. Some of them will be seeking the favor of the Light Gods – Lumen, Kybele, and Forens – or that of the Dark Gods – those would be Testa, Kuan, and Ker. This will determine if you’re on the side of those who want to bring peace and prosperity to the land, or those who want to see everything burn.
After the intro cutscene is over, you’ll gain control of your character. You’ll move around each area by using the left analog stick, and you use the right analog stick to swing the camera as needed. Regular attacks are mapped ot the X button. This button is also used to talk with other characters and to interact. Combat arts are mapped to the Square button. Cycle between weapons by pressing the L2 button. Cycle between combat arts by pressing the R2 button. You can hold down the R1 button to collect everything within range. Open your map by pressing the L1 button. If you’re wounded, you can heal by using a potion by pressing the Circle button.
Trophy-wise, this game has a full trophy with a Platinum trophy for you to try to add to your collection. The list is a long one, and it’s split into 32 Bronze trophies, 12 Silver trophies, and a pair of Gold trophies for you to work on. What will you need to do for that shiny Platinum trophy? There are trophies for getting each of the characters to level 15 and getting any character to level 35. On top of those, you’ll be able to get some trophies for your collection for reaching a new region and taking on a quest there, completing the light and shadow story campaigns, completing 50% of all sidequests, defeating 25 bosses, exploring 50% of the map, visting 20 temples, reading 33 books, exploring 42 towns, owning 1,000,000 gold, wearing a complete set of armor, defeating 10,000 monsters, using a teleporter, and consuming 1,000 healing potions, to name some examples.
And now, let’s talk about the elephant in the room. Sacred 2 Remastered has… issues on PlayStation 5. Along with crashing a handful of times during the first hour of playing, the cutscenes were choppy, the audio was out of sync, and it even ended up cutting out completely at several points during my time with the game. This forced me to restart the game, and that’s only half of the problems. Trying to talk to other characters or opening a chest was a nightmare as well, with the game requiring me to step onto exactly the right spot where my character would be 100% facing the character or chest I was to interact with. This was hard to do since there were also framerate issues right from the start, with characters and enemies that limped their way through each area, as if they had one broken leg they had to drag around. The Day 1 patch did not fix this, at least not right away.
It turns out that Sacred 2 Remastered wanted me to give it the old “did you turn it on and off again?” routine THREE TIMES before the patch did its thing and fixed the framerate hiccups, audio issues, and broken leg syndrome. Having to reboot a console three times for a patch to work is far from ideal, and it’s something that most won’t end up doing, asking for a refund right after booting the game up for the first time. Mind you, rebooting my PS5 three times did the trick for me, but who knows if the finicky game and patch downloads will work this way for everyone, or if a single reboot will do the trick… or if no amount of reboots will.
Sacred 2 Remaster brings us a revamped take on an action RPG classic. Sacred 2: Fallen Angel was released for PlayStation 3 back in 2009. It’s a prequel set 2,000 years before the events of the first Sacred, and it takes place in the land of Ancaria, where the T-Energy, a mysterious power source that was used for all life and magic, has now become corrupted. The T-Energy fuels conflict and chaos. The T-Energy used to be under the control of the Seraphim, but they ended up losing interest in Arcania and gave control of it to the High Elves, which allowed them to become the dominant race of Ancaria. This led to a war fueled by a power struggle between two factions within the High Elves.
The game has some issues on PlayStation 5 for which this release got a Day 1 patch, but the patch itself is a bit finicky and requires that you reboot your console a handful of times before it sticks the landing. Even then, you might run into some crashes, framerate issues, and audio glitches that are far from ideal. Sacred 2 Remaster is out today on PlayStation 5 with a $29.99 price tag.
Disclaimer
This Sacred 2 Remaster review is based on a PlayStation 5 copy provided by THQ Nordic.
