Sacred 2 Remaster Review — Holy Moly

The Sacred 2 Remaster is a few things to a few different groups of people. Before you consider buying the game, it’s important that you understand what it is to you.

If you’re a brand-new player who has never played Sacred or its sequel in the past, then you’re very likely to find the game to be a product of its time. It’s not simply that Sacred 2 released in late 2008, predating nearly twenty years of development in the RPG sphere, but even in its heyday the game was a bit corny. I’ve seen the original Sacred 2 described as a B horror movie of the RPG genre, and I think that’s a pretty accurate description. The game has cheesy dialogue, noticeably bad voice acting, and a super sexy, not super fleshed out setting that likes to dip its toes into humor more than more serious elements, and more often than not doesn’t succeed.

The dated mechanics alone are reason enough not to get into the Sacred 2 Remaster as a new player. Dramatically unreliable hit percentage mechanics, awkwardly balanced encounters, and an archaic respawn system that has you dying on loop to tough enemies only to respawn a five-minute walk away from the quest had me thinking about turning the game off and booting up Baldur’s Gate 3 as early as level 2.

If you’re looking for a new RPG to captivate and inspire you to sink an unreasonable amount of hours into, the Sacred 2 Remaster probably won’t be it. There are simply better games, fueled by two decades of advancement in technology, writing, and budget, ones which take themselves more seriously than Sacred 2 ever did. That’s not to say that no fun is to be had with it, but you’re likely going to feel the age and reputation of the game, and for new players it just doesn’t hold up that well.

The other audience that might find themselves interested in this game are nostalgic players of the original who picked up Sacred 2 during the game’s lifespan and are looking to return to the game with remastered graphics and quality of life improvements to relive their memories with a bit of polish.

For that audience, I’m going to have to also say that I don’t recommend the Sacred 2 Remaster.

To be clear, much of what you probably enjoyed in the original is still there in the Sacred 2 Remaster. The original gameplay, janky as it ever was, is well preserved in this remaster, and it does have the promised graphical update. In those regards, the remaster is probably just what you’ve been looking for.

There is, however, a second promise to the remaster that remains unfulfilled: an improvement in quality of life. The game not only features very little, if any noticeable, quality of life improvements, but it is also a buggy mess that can at times be downright unplayable.

From NPCs getting stuck in the terrain, my own character clipping through the walls inside caves, and constant crashes to desktop, the Sacred 2 Remaster has left me feeling like it’s the Pandora’s box of spaghetti coding. The game crashes when opening the storage box, when talking to NPCs, and sometimes even just when respawning.

There are so many glitches, crashes, and issues still present in the title nearly ten full days after the game’s release that I cannot, with good conscience, recommend the title in the current state it’s in.

The truth is that many of the myriad problems in the Sacred 2 Remaster were present in the original, a defense I’m sure some fans of the game will use to say that the remaster isn’t quite so bad. That’s kind of the problem, though. When remastering a game, it’s usually expected that the original problems would be addressed and fixed. Without doing so, the Sacred 2 Remaster simply feels like a half-hearted attempt to market something based on player nostalgia.

Not only that, but many features from the original game are outright missing in the Sacred 2 Remaster, including some levels, co op playability, and difficulty options. The only thing that the Sacred 2 Remaster really offers is new graphics and a new UI, but even with the new UI, I ended up having issues. One particular bug that kept occurring was an inability to buy potions from merchants, as the button to do so simply wasn’t there.

If you wanted to play Sacred 2 with better textures, then the Sacred 2 Remaster is right for you. However, beyond better graphics, the game doesn’t really offer much that you wouldn’t already get in Sacred 2 Gold. As a matter of fact, a community-made mod for Sacred 2 Gold fixes many of the bugs and issues present in the remaster, so I can earnestly say that it would be a better use of your money.

I didn’t get far in my playthrough, as the constant bugs and issues kept me crashing, dying, and losing interest in mere hours.

The truth of the matter is that the Sacred 2 Remaster fails to do anything for either of its possible audiences. For new players to the franchise, the game will feel dated, buggy, and cheesy compared to everything that’s come since, and I doubt it will hold your interest for long. For nostalgic fans, the Sacred 2 Remaster doesn’t do what a remaster should, giving you very little reason to play it over Sacred 2 Gold beyond a new HUD, which has its own set of problems, and updated textures.

Try Hard Guides was provided a Steam code for this PC review of Sacred 2 Remaster. Find more detailed looks at popular and upcoming titles on our Game Reviews page! The Sacred 2 Remaster is available on Steam, Xbox, and PlayStation.