Sacred 2 Remaster Review – Better Back Then Than Now

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It seems another classic action RPG from a bygone era has received a remaster, and Sacred 2 is a tricky one to review. This remaster plays it safe, sticking very closely to the original game, perhaps a little too faithfully.

“It’s an open world that really lets you loose to explore it.”

Ascaron’s original game was innovative for its time, offering a unique world and letting players create interesting strategies. All that creativity and fun is still available to experience today. The game features a large, open world where you’re free to explore, with main objectives serving more as suggestions than strict paths – there are plenty of interesting things to discover along the way.

Here’s the positive side, and now the negative. Those distractions push you towards a simple combat system that doesn’t hold up over time. While it might have been acceptable at first, the awkward hit detection and stiff animations were immediately discouraging, and I quickly lost interest in the gear and skill progression as a result.

The remaster looks better, as it should, but I wish they’d rebuilt the game completely. It really needs a remake because the gameplay, world, quests, and characters all feel quite old-fashioned now.

Some enemies need you to get very close before they notice you, while others can detect you from a long distance and immediately attack.

Even the game’s visuals have problems. For example, during the opening cutscene with The Inquisitor, objects appeared suddenly and late, and the sound didn’t match the animation, creating a rough and unpleasant beginning to what should have been a familiar experience. This, ultimately, is why I couldn’t connect with the game.

The game has a lot of enemies, and their detection ranges are all over the place. Some won’t notice you unless you’re very close, while others will attack from a distance. This inconsistency makes fighting feel repetitive and frustrating after a short time.

The awkward controls are a major reason this game needed a complete overhaul of its combat. Even using special moves isn’t very satisfying because the animations look flat, and enemies fall apart unrealistically when defeated, making battles feel unengaging.

The combat feels repetitive because there aren’t enough different enemy types, and most of the skills and spells you unlock aren’t very exciting. They don’t feel unique – they only differ in how far they reach and how quickly they attack. This is disappointing, especially considering the game’s promising setup for challenging and frightening enemies, and great potential for fun combat.

The game’s combat feels repetitive because there aren’t many different enemies, and even when you unlock new abilities, they aren’t very exciting to use.

The system for managing items and dealing with vendors feels a bit outdated, but it generally works well enough to help you organize your gear. Quick travel and storage access are useful for managing your inventory and moving around the world efficiently. However, many of the game’s bigger issues likely couldn’t have been fixed with simple improvements to these areas.

When Sacred 2 first came out, it was exciting because it offered something new. Now, though, the open world feels old and familiar. Most of the quests involve simply collecting items, and the world itself isn’t very engaging due to its outdated graphics and overall style.

To make things worse, my Inquisitor character started glitching, getting stuck in a repeating dance-like movement that was really distracting as I was already struggling to stay engaged with the game. Still, I wanted to see as much as possible, so I started a new character and decided to try and find my glitched Inquisitor within the game’s world as a Shadow Warrior.

Surprisingly, the same problem started happening with my Shadow Warrior character! I called it a foot issue, and it seemed my Dragon Mage – a character class added after the game launched – was the only one unaffected. Armed with a staff and powerful spells, I began playing again. I also discovered that the problem didn’t occur when I played on a different gaming console.

Even the best game developers can only improve a 17-year-old game so much without essentially building it from scratch.

Okay, so I’m a big fan of the Sacred series, and even though Sacred 2 doesn’t look amazing these days and the fighting can get a little repetitive, it still has a lot going for it. The world they’ve created is really engaging and well-written, and if you’ve played the previous games, you’ll definitely want to come back for more. Plus, the soundtrack by Blind Guardian is just epic – seriously, it’s full-on metal and adds so much to the experience!

Helping the band recover their instruments and then seeing them play was a really enjoyable experience. That playful, unexpected touch is typical of the game’s world and one of the reasons Sacred 2 is so much fun. It’s always amusing when your character acknowledges you directly—like commenting on your slow pace—if you set the controller down for a bit.

Honestly, I was so relieved they kept all the original game’s humor and personality intact! And playing on the PS5 makes everything incredibly smooth and fast – getting around the world feels great when the controls actually work. That said, while it’s a remaster, it could definitely use a little more refinement. You can only do so much to update a game that’s almost 17 years old without basically rebuilding it from scratch, and it shows in places.

While playing Sacred 2, I mostly enjoyed the nostalgia, remembering when my expectations for games weren’t as high. However, the game itself didn’t offer much that was new or exciting, and it quickly became repetitive. Because of this, I can’t really recommend it.

If you already love the Sacred 2 series or the original game, you’ll likely enjoy this remaster. However, if you’re new to the franchise, it’s probably best to wait for a discount. The remaster does what you’d expect – it faithfully recreates the original – and highlights what made the original game great. Unfortunately, that’s not quite enough to make this remaster stand out as one of the best available.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 5.

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2025-11-14 22:42