Cheatbook: Sacred 2 Fallen Angel Preview, Cheats, Wallpaper and Screenshots

In a time where Diablo-esque hack-and-slash roleplaying games clog store shelves, the Sacred series managed to establish a strong name for itself. Despite its success, its dated 2-D graphics looked old in 2004, and even older in its 2005 expansion. Sacred 2: Fallen Angel will bring a fresh new look to the game, bringing a full 3-D graphics engine, where tall grass or wheat fields sway as creatures walk through them.

Set 2,000 years before the events of the original Sacred, elven races now dominate the lands, with their success and technology focused on a power source called T-Energy. However, a civil war looms on the horizon, hinged on a dispute over who controls the power. Players will once again have the chance to select a hero, battle against armies of monsters, collect loot and upgrade character stats and armaments. Sacred 2 offers two campaigns, one that follows the path of light, and the other darkness. Characters will not only have a huge variety of armor and weapons to choose from, but they will also have different types of creatures to ride on. Wizards can throw spells from atop a beast, or use the mount in battle.

Out of the game's six character choices, four will choose between the path of good or evil, while the other two represent either the light or dark. The Seraphim, an agile heavenly warrior class from the original Sacred returns, with winged armaments that glow and pulsate, illustrating both its mystic and technological background. On the other side will be the Shadow Warriors, humans trained to be elite soldiers. In addition to their combat prowess, fallen Shadow Warriors may be reanimated into powerful undead warriors, although doing so poses a great risk to the sorcerer performing the resurrection. Each campaign promises about 30 hours of play, equating to roughly 300 hours total if players choose to play each one through. Additionally, the game will feature randomized non-player character and monster behavior, so replaying campaigns will never feel the same.

Supported multiplayer modes include cooperative play on a LAN or online, with the ability to choose between strictly battling monsters or players fighting each other. Both the PC and Xbox 360 versions will release simultaneously, featuring advanced weather and lighting effects. However, the Xbox 360 version of Sacred 2 will be slightly more technologically sophisticated than its PC counterpart. All three cores on the 360 will be utilized, one for the game itself, one for particle effects and the last for streaming content to eliminate load time. Only quad-core PC's can handle those features, but not enough people currently own them.

Sadly, the game won't be ready until early 2008, but thus far, Sacred 2: Fallen Angel looks impressive. Expect more updates throughout the year.

by Steven Wong

Sacred 2 - The Story

The fast 3-D action, a multitude of effects, realistic physical features and beautiful animations of the intricate HiRes models create a huge, realistic game world, which does not require any reloading.

An innovative emotional system and the depiction of an authentic world give life to both friend and foe. A further striking component of the graphic presentation is the unique Gore Feedback, which displays the strength and power of the player's own game character.

"Sacred 2" is the superb 3D enhancement of the original Sacred and provides more action, more monsters, more scenes, more weapons and combos, and feedback for even more fun.