Sacred 2: The Consolization

Yall

OK - This is my first game-on thread, so be gentle.

Sacred 2:

What is it?

So it's this game that's like Diablo but sorta like Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance too. There are items, monsters, quests, etc. You probably get the fucking picture, so enough already. This is why you are here:

360 Gamertags of People playing this game:

Yall
JHamilto
intelnavi
Vacorsis
Redcat Rising
Comrade Nexus
Nitsua16 XFORCE
Xander51
Sheeeeeeep
Mastrius9087
conkiller117
Darth Vandale
Laonar
FortyPants
cncaudata
Macca420
WorldClassHack

PS3 people playing this game:

liquidlogan - Dryad
Bamelin
Xander51
Tekko88
kaseius
serris_mark

So please add your gamertag, handle, whatever, and I'll do my best to keep the OP up to date and add pertinent info and links as I have time. Here is a link to another thread about the game if you are curious:

http://forums.penny-arcade.com/showthread.php?t=71104

Sheep

WANT

liquidlogan

I am pleased with this thread.

Also, it's PlayStation Network ID.

So, add me for PS3.

liquidlogan - Dryad

GogoKodo

What is playing the Temple Guardian like? Cyber dog = cool, but I want to know if the character is any good.

cncaudata

Please convince me that I should buy this game. My worry is two-fold I guess. Is the interface on the console horrible, and does multiplayer suck? If neither of those is the case, I am all over this.

GogoKodo

cncaudata wrote: »

Please convince me that I should buy this game. My worry is two-fold I guess. Is the interface on the console horrible, and does multiplayer suck? If neither of those is the case, I am all over this.

I haven't played yet, but from reading, the multiplayer seems cool because there are several different modes.

Dashui

Sign me up! I just got paid and I'm picking this up for the Xbox 360 tomorrow. I get off work at 6:00 PM CST so I'll be able to play then. My gamertag is Vacorsis.

Dashui

GogoKodo wrote: »

cncaudata wrote: »

Please convince me that I should buy this game. My worry is two-fold I guess. Is the interface on the console horrible, and does multiplayer suck? If neither of those is the case, I am all over this.

I haven't played yet, but from reading, the multiplayer seems cool because there are several different modes.

The interface is apparently better than the PC version! A number of people in the previous thread and in reviews have said that, and that gets me excited. And there are indeed several multiplayer modes. The two big modes that I know of are the campaign co-op and the free play. They're the same except one allows you to do campaign quests online and the other does not. Side-quest rewards are different in free play, I believe.

If you didn't know already, in the game offline or online, you have an absolutely gigantic world to freely explore and slay monsters with over 600 side-quests to complete. There are also mini-bosses and gigantic extra bosses for you to find and kill. All in all, that sounds like some good multiplayer fun.

Redcat

Please add Redcat Rising to the 360 gamertag list.

I've mellowed a bit on hating the graphics as it certainly gets more entertaining to play as you advance. I have a level 16 dual sword Inquisitor moving along and I'm saving up the best stuff I find for others.

Voro

I'm also on the 360 version as Comrade Nexus

Has anyone messed around with the "Level Range" setting in multi yet? Supposedly you can get up to level 200, so that's going to be a little limiting when I want to mess around with friends. Haven't found a way to turn it off, and I don't know if manually inviting allows someone to ignore it.

Dashui

Alright, I just called the closest store and they have three copies in. I'll pick it up tomorrow morning, and then I have work. I'll jump on right away when I get home after 6:00 CST for some Sacred 2 multiplayer on the Xbox 360. Is anyone going to be on to play at that time?

Darmak

Say, is this game going to have local co-op or is it online and system link only? I may buy it anyways but local co-op is always something I look for.

RainbowDespair

Darmak wrote: »

Say, is this game going to have local co-op or is it online and system link only? I may buy it anyways but local co-op is always something I look for.

It has both; 2 player local & 4 player online.

EDIT: As a huge Titan Quest fan, I'd love to pick this up, but money's tight so I'll probably just get it a few months down the road through Goozex or from a used game rack.

Darmak

Awesome, are the characters I start up on single player or local co-op transferable to online? That would be cool too (I would try and get my fiance and/or my roommate to play with me locally but I would also like to go online with the same character if possible).

Bamelin

Played local offline with my wife last night. Much fun and hilarity ensued.

Game is a winner in my books.

Toxic Pickle

I was sorta curious when I saw this for the console, but only mildly... I played the PC demo and I must say, it sucked.

Anyone played both and able to compare the two? I really didn't like the fixed camera perspective that meant I couldn't see very far ahead of me. Plus there seemed to really be far too much silliness for me to really take it seriously (and thus be immersed in the game).

Yall

I'm going to be on at a few different points this weekend. Any friend requests will be accepted, so if you want to try some co-op, holla.

edit: Toxic - the camera does kind of suck, but so far it's my only complaint.

Nitsua

I'm in on 360 - Nitsua16 XFORCE

Redcat

I'm gonna jump in a few minutes and send out some friend requests. I have a level 18 and a level 4 and can easily make another character or two to start off.

Delzhand

Yeah, the camera is abhorrent. In local coop, it's so far out you can't recognize your character, in single player you can zoom in and out but the camera tilts so you can never see any further ahead than a few meters.

Also, the voice acting... ugh.

I played this as a rental with my wife. She got bored after an hour or so. The gameplay is fun, but it was like WoW quests all over again. Find these doodads, talk to this guy, kill X goons. We were both expecting something closer to Secret of Mana.

Edit: That sounds pretty negative. I didn't mean to shit on the game. It honestly isn't bad, and I'm sure online multi is a lot of fun. But you can tell it was designed for PC.

lostcawz

This may be more of a xbox live general question than one related to just Sacred 2, but if I only have a silver account how hard is it to find and be found by friends? I'm getting the game tonight and am excited by couch co-op but would get into some online sessions if it isn't going to be a chore.

Dashui

I'm glad this thread was at the top of the page. I just got off of work with my brand new copy of Sacred 2 waiting for me. I'm going to go sign onto Live in a minute and start adding people to my friend list. Does anyone want to play now or later today?

Darmak

lostcawz wrote: »

This may be more of a xbox live general question than one related to just Sacred 2, but if I only have a silver account how hard is it to find and be found by friends? I'm getting the game tonight and am excited by couch co-op but would get into some online sessions if it isn't going to be a chore.

You can't play online with a Silver account, you need to pay for a Gold. You can still find and talk to friends I think but can't join them.

lostcawz

Doh! I didn't realize you couldn't even play at all with a silver account. I thought it was just fewer friends/matchmaking options.

Hahnsoo1

The main thing is that they cleaned up most (but not all) of the bugs from the PC Sacred 2 in the console version. The interface is actually markedly better, in my opinion (they follow a "Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance"-like inventory). While it has your generic RPG sidequests (escort, courier, assassinate, etc.), the sheer number of them and the size of the game world is the selling point. There is literally over 100 hours of content to plow through on your first playthrough, if you explore every little bit of Ancaria and do all of the side quests. If you just follow the main story, though, you can reasonably get through the campaign in 30 hours at the lowest difficulty. The quests are linear, but the world is fairly non-linear... you can reach the Isle of the Seraphs, for example, way before you should be able to because of their ship/port system.

It's a dream to play with 4 people online, by the way. You can teleport instantly to anyone else on your team, and there are sufficient challenges (mostly the fat bosses) to stand in your way. You can also just explore on your own, or share waypoints (with the instant teleport) with your friends. The trade system sucks, but it's pretty standard for a Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance game.

They also do the thing where higher difficulties isn't just higher levels... they add more facets of difficulty to the game (similar to Diablo 2, where it's the same quest, but you lose -40 resists in Nightmare and -100 resists in Hell, and bosses get more than one special ability, etc.). You can go through the first two difficulties without caring much about elemental armor types, but later difficulties, you really need to tailor your armor types (using the easy Relics tab) to the situation.

If you are a hardcore fan of Sacred, you'll find that the same cheesy system involving attaching runes to weapons/armor as opposed to "eating" them exists here, although the benefit has been toned down a bit. I personally like the "no mana points" cooldown system, but I will admit that it takes some getting used to if you are used to other similar games. When playing Sacred, I found that my main motivation was finding bigger and better mounts throughout the game, and that was pretty much it. Sacred 2 is the same way, but they tack on a more enjoyable and balanced game to that mount-quest.

JihadJesus

I'm interested in this but haven't been able to decide based on the descriptions and there's no demo. What I REALLY loved about D2 was the dozens of character builds for each class; most games I've played since then have had one or two killing skills per character and haven't had that level of customization. Will I be able to make tons and tons and tons of different builds until I finally get tired of it and then start screwing with odd-ball combinations (like my Sacrifice based paladin or my virtually un-killable titan damage reduction beserker).

Dashui

JihadJesus wrote: »

I'm interested in this but haven't been able to decide based on the descriptions and there's no demo. What I REALLY loved about D2 was the dozens of character builds for each class; most games I've played since then have had one or two killing skills per character and haven't had that level of customization. Will I be able to make tons and tons and tons of different builds until I finally get tired of it and then start screwing with odd-ball combinations (like my Sacrifice based paladin or my virtually un-killable titan damage reduction beserker).

There's a PC demo you can try out. And yes, there are tons of builds you can make. When you reach certain levels, you choose various skills which you then further allocate points into. As such, there's a fairly large level of customization.

Anyway, I'm starting the game up now and going to send out friend invites. If anyone wants to play, send me a message.

Shyfted

For those wavering on it, I have to say that I've thoroughly enjoyed the PC version and have definitely gotten my money's worth. Also, start on Silver instead of Bronze. Unless you're really horrible at the game then there's no reason to start on Bronze. You just need to play a bit more cautiously until you get your first few levels and get the skills you want.

Really, the biggest complaint I have is the lack of description on the various skill/weapon mods. If it wasn't for other people doing some trial and error then I really wouldn't know what mods were worth taking, which were useless, and which ones you could go either way with depending on play style.

There really is a lot of customizability as far as character creation goes. I'd recommend having one of your first characters take the Bargaining skill as it will really help you with getting +skill/Combat Art rings and amulets.

Sacred really is different from most other RPGs you've played because just because you can level a skill doesn't mean that you should read more than a single rune for over 50-100 levels. It's all about keeping your regen time low enough to spam.

Dashui

Yeah, the Bargaining skill is great (but not all classes have access to it, by the way). Basically, money is actually WORTHWHILE in this game. A lot of you great gear you can buy straight from the stores. Bargaining increases the item quality in the shops, increases the rate of special deals showing up, as well as giving you better prices.

brynstar

Hahnsoo1 wrote: »

The main thing is that they cleaned up most (but not all) of the bugs from the PC Sacred 2 in the console version. The interface is actually markedly better, in my opinion (they follow a "Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance"-like inventory). While it has your generic RPG sidequests (escort, courier, assassinate, etc.), the sheer number of them and the size of the game world is the selling point. There is literally over 100 hours of content to plow through on your first playthrough, if you explore every little bit of Ancaria and do all of the side quests. If you just follow the main story, though, you can reasonably get through the campaign in 30 hours at the lowest difficulty. The quests are linear, but the world is fairly non-linear... you can reach the Isle of the Seraphs, for example, way before you should be able to because of their ship/port system.

It's a dream to play with 4 people online, by the way. You can teleport instantly to anyone else on your team, and there are sufficient challenges (mostly the fat bosses) to stand in your way. You can also just explore on your own, or share waypoints (with the instant teleport) with your friends. The trade system sucks, but it's pretty standard for a Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance game.

They also do the thing where higher difficulties isn't just higher levels... they add more facets of difficulty to the game (similar to Diablo 2, where it's the same quest, but you lose -40 resists in Nightmare and -100 resists in Hell, and bosses get more than one special ability, etc.). You can go through the first two difficulties without caring much about elemental armor types, but later difficulties, you really need to tailor your armor types (using the easy Relics tab) to the situation.

If you are a hardcore fan of Sacred, you'll find that the same cheesy system involving attaching runes to weapons/armor as opposed to "eating" them exists here, although the benefit has been toned down a bit. I personally like the "no mana points" cooldown system, but I will admit that it takes some getting used to if you are used to other similar games. When playing Sacred, I found that my main motivation was finding bigger and better mounts throughout the game, and that was pretty much it. Sacred 2 is the same way, but they tack on a more enjoyable and balanced game to that mount-quest.

Not only is this is a great comparison of version differences, but your description of the Sacred games as "Mount Quests" has cracked me up. I salute you!

I'm playing this on both platforms, though I only have a 360 headset. My username is Xander51 on both.

Dashui

I was just in a game where the player was MORE than ten levels above me. What's up with that? He said it is possible to play with people at higher levels, which is a good thing, since you could do that in the PC version.

Foreverender

So, a friend and I were playing this offline co-op, and couldn't figure out a way to trade between each other. Are we just dumb?

Glal

Hahnsoo1 wrote: »

When playing Sacred, I found that my main motivation was finding bigger and better mounts throughout the game, and that was pretty much it. Sacred 2 is the same way, but they tack on a more enjoyable and balanced game to that mount-quest.

Damn straight. 8-)

Toxic Pickle

Despite how much I didn't like the demo, I think I'll at least move this up on my Gamefly queue and see if I can't score it in the near future. I guess it's worth a second look, especially since playing with you jerks can make a game much more fun than it has any right to be at times.

intelnavi

Hit me up if you guys want to play online. I'm hooked. It's definitely my choice of filler until D3. The skill system is pretty complex with different levels of spells, modifications for those spells, attributes, and of course items and skills that affect the spells. It took awhile for it to all make sense to me having never played a Sacred game and if you can hop on Live and ask someone questions it's a bit easier. The skill system makes you able to become very OP pretty easily which is great fun with 30 enemies on the screen. Plus runes are pretty random so characters turn out differently every time and holy jesus there are a lot of talent choices most of which are permanent. It takes a bit of work and some drops to customize the character to your playstyle but after gaining some experience on how to manage it all, I had my lvl 6 one-shotting elites.

I just started so my highest lvl toon is in the early teens (with his special mount already, mounted combat and travel ftw) but I have some alts in the single digits that are pretty fun to play. The nice this is you can give runes that you can't use to your alt class so once you make an alt, you already have 8 runes ready to go.

I do need some help trading somethings to my gf's toon as it doesn't let you trade if you are on the same console. I have like 8 seraphim runes she needs. Supposedly it's to prevent duping (which is good because the economy is pretty spot on), and they are working on a patch to fix it.

My main is in shadow campaign, but if I'm playing with my gf I'll be in a light campaign. Hit up intelnavi if you want to play some multiplayer. My game is almost always online.

OptimusZed

How much ass does this game kick? Because, it looks like it probably kicks ass, but I'm not sure if it kicks $60 for a new copy ass.

Nalouto

as someone who just dropped 50 on Steam for it:

it kicks ass. Sacred 2 will hold you(us) over until D3.

Sheep

So, after bumming 20 bucks to get into a poker game last night, I came away with more than enough for a new copy of this and some gas for next week.

Add me to OP please!

Sheeeeeeep

YodaTuna

Forever Zefiro wrote: »

So, a friend and I were playing this offline co-op, and couldn't figure out a way to trade between each other. Are we just dumb?

No the game is dumb. You cannot trade in local multiplayer, which is something like the most retarded decision that has ever been made.

OptimusZed

YodaTuna wrote: »

Forever Zefiro wrote: »

So, a friend and I were playing this offline co-op, and couldn't figure out a way to trade between each other. Are we just dumb?

No the game is dumb. You cannot trade in local multiplayer, which is something like the most retarded decision that has ever been made.

Ok, fuck that. I think my decision has just been made for me.

I can play with the wife, but we can't trade gear? This just dropped into the "I'll buy it when I can find it for $15 used" bin.

Foreverender

YodaTuna wrote: »

Forever Zefiro wrote: »

So, a friend and I were playing this offline co-op, and couldn't figure out a way to trade between each other. Are we just dumb?

No the game is dumb. You cannot trade in local multiplayer, which is something like the most retarded decision that has ever been made.

Fuck.

Also, when we were playing, I couldn't pick up a lot of things. I'd run all on it, and nothing, then he'd come and pick it up just fine, and it'd be like some boots that only I could use.

Is it whoever killed the mob is allowed to pick up the drop? It seemed more like a bug