Sacred 2: Fallen Angel - Remaster

Fallen Angel indeed.

Remasters have come in many forms over the years. Some are used to gauge interest in a potential sequel or reboot, while many are developed to bring the game to modern hardware. Others are pushed to market to introduce them to a whole new audience, hoping to capture that spark once again. However, some remasters can simply put a new coat of paint over the original, warts and all, giving little reason for their existence. In contrast, some attempt to play through the lens of nostalgia, modernizing the game just enough to play how you remember, regardless of how it actually was. There is a reason they say that nostalgia is one hell of a drug. 

Sacred 2: Fallen Angel was ported to the Xbox 360 back in 2009, and I was obsessed with it. It was one of my favorite games at the time and a title I still think about to this day. Hell, the Blind Guardian song, “Sacred Worlds”, has been on what phone I’ve had over the years. It was a title I adored then, and I was interested to see how 2025 me would react to the game after having not played it in nearly 15 years. Remasters have the ability to rekindle that sort of nostalgic magic, but in this case, what’s been done here is a huge disservice to what I loved about Sacred 2. 

Sacred 2: Fallen Angel on Xbox 360 featured two-player co-op as well as online play for up to four players. While co-op is present in the PC version of this remaster, it’s strangely absent from the console version, citing budgetary and development issues by the developer. While there are plans to eventually add it back in, I assume that will only happen if the title is a financial success. Given a glance at the reception of the game currently, I simply don’t see this update ever happening, causing this remaster to offer less functionality than its predecessor. 

The remaster was announced to have a revamped UI, controller support, improved combat, enhanced visuals, and more. When Sacred 2 launched on Xbox 360, it had a completely revamped UI to accommodate controllers, so why they felt a need to completely change the UI again to something more akin to Diablo falls apart the moment you try interacting with it via a controller. Not only is it frustrating to navigate your inventory, but small items are often unable to even be selected, depending on where they are placed in your inventory. There were times when I had to reorganize my items or sell most of my inventory off to access these small items at all. 

What makes matters worse is that there are almost no tutorials to illustrate how certain systems work, or even how to pick up items in the first place. Sure, you get the prompt to press A to open a chest, but not a single prompt on how to actually pick up the items. For a game that has a deep and rich progression system, it is bizarre that there are no instructions on how to actually use it. While fans of the original will likely find their way, newcomers will have to flock to wikis and online tutorials to even understand the most basic things the game should explain.

While the lead-up to release talked about improved combat, I just don’t see it. Combat still feels weightless and unresponsive, given the strides the genre has seen over the past 15 years. Characters flail around like they are swatting their opponents with flimsy pool noodles, as it is possible to spam the attack button fifty times and hit them maybe a dozen. Why the developer chose not to address the game’s notorious hit-detection is a puzzling one, especially after advertising that the remaster has “improved combat”. 

Enhanced visuals are also a huge pass as while the game is sporting a fresher and sharper resolution, everything that stands out for a game made in 2008 is on full display here. Character models are vastly out of date, textures still flicker from time to time, you can often see the seams in the same places as the original, and pop-in is present in this remaster of a 17-year-old game. Yes, the sharper image looks better and does allow the game’s colorful and vivid locations to shine, but more work could have been done here to age up some of the extremely outdated assets. 

Given the age of the game, it’s unlikely that many even remember this title. At the time, action RPG’s on consoles were rare and often limited to the likes of the Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance games and those developed around that era. However, Sacred 2: Fallen Angel had a lot going for it at the time. It was one of the few in the genre that allowed you to fully rotate the camera, and its open world was one filled to the brim with color. It also features a dark and light campaign, as well as multiple characters to pack the game with an immense amount of replayability, should you want it. Back then, I did. Today? Not so much. 

Sacred 2 is a high fantasy adventure, one that takes place in the land of Ancaria. Here, the land is being consumed by a volatile substance called T-Energy, which was once a source of prosperity. However, as the Seraphim have relinquished control of Ancaria to the High Elves, it has led to a civil war between the ruling classes over the control of this energy. The campaign sees you choosing one of several heroes that are attuned to either the Light or Shadow, or neither, and then either restoring the land to its former glory or fully unleashing chaos. While there are certain differences between the campaigns, they are not radically different when it comes to the major moments. 

As the remaster features all of the original content and its DLC, you now have a choice between seven classes, with the Seraphim and the Inquisitor locked to their respective “light” and “shadow” campaigns. You also have the Dryad, Shadow Warrior, High Elf, Temple Guardian, and the Dragon Mage. Each class has its own start to the story, their own cast of supporting characters that set them on their path, regardless of how flimsy and incoherent some stories begin. One oddity that I noticed is that the opening cutscene with your character is a completely different model until you can take control, causing a quick load of your actual character to pop in. And sadly, your character icon is the default face of that race.

It also doesn’t help that certain motivations are non-existent for why your character is either Light or Shadow, apart from those attuned to those particular paths. When I chose the High Elf, you are practising spells in a courtyard, and you use a powerful fire spell to kill the other student. Your teacher, shocked at what he has seen, attacks you, and in your defense, you kill him. But not before he claims that he saw a vision that he shouldn’t have trained you. That is all you get before you head out into the world. While I get the impact of how the Seraphim campaign starts, it almost feels like little to no care was put into enhancing the other classes’ motivations. 

Ancaria is a massive open world to explore, with hundreds of quests to take on. It really does shine in delivering a colorful and vivid world to explore. And, back in 2009, it was a wonder to behold. Today, it’s beyond commonplace, and the lack of anything to improve what was here feels disappointing and a missed opportunity. Side quests offer up little more than just being a fetch or kill quest, with poor tracking via the mini-map to resolve them. In fact, after comparing both the original and the remaster, the fog of war is removed entirely from the mini-map, at least in both of my playthroughs. 

Preserving the original is one thing, but not addressing its issues is another. Sacred 2, let alone the first title, needed a remake, given the nearly two decades since their release. Sacred 2 is charming for what it is, and you can have a good time here, but on console, you lack one of the best qualities of the game in its co-op. With Sacred 2 being backward compatible with the Series X, and peer-to-peer multiplayer still functional, I'll dive back to the original if I feel up to revisiting Ancaria.

While it was somewhat commonplace back then to overlook so many of the original’s issues, it is downright impossible now with the wealth of titles releasing every day. Sacred 2 deserved a much better effort, and this is frankly one of the most disappointing remasters in recent history. 

Developer -SparklingBit, Funatics Software GmbH, Nukklear. Publisher - THQ Nordic. Released - November 11th, 2025. Available On - Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, Windows. Rated - (M) Blood and Gore, Violence. Platform Reviewed - Xbox Series X. Review Access - A review code was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review.