When THQ Nordic had their show in August of 2025, I was extremely surprised by how many games I was interested in. They showcased titles that we thought were long forgotten: Darksiders IP with Darksiders 4, a beautiful Gothic 1 Remake, complete with a playable demo (which was awesome btw), and a Sacred 2 Remaster!
I was pumped! Of course I wanted to get my hands on Sacred 2 Fallen Angel Remastered as soon as it came out! I vaguely remember my experience with it on PlayStation 3. It was a huge and colourful world with interesting classes and mechanics that gave me the closest thing to a World of Warcraft vibe on console!
Sacred 2 Fallen Angel First Impression
So, let’s talk Sacred 2 on console! The original released on PlayStation 3 on 2009 and was met with an overall mediocre reviews, averaging a 70 on PS3 with 45 reviews. It was one of those ambitious action RPGs that didn’t fully deliver. A remaster could be the thing they need to accomplish what they missed on and succeed where they failed.
The remaster promises all expansions, updates, and quality of life improvements in one definitive package.
Did it Deliver?
Unfortunately, they did NOT. In fact, far from it, especially for console users. There is a reason why this is a first impressions instead of a review. We were fortunate enough to receive this game a week before release and I was more than happy to drop everything I was currently playing to return to the world of Ancaria. The state the game was in upon downloading it was unplayable. Think Cyberpunk’s 2020 release on last gen console levels of bad. Except, Sacred 2 Remaster is a 16 year old game. I refused to torture myself to play it in its current state.
To be fair, the game did receive a Day 1 patch, which is what I will be focusing on since it is the game that you folks would have access to. The game is now in a playable state, however, I am unable to confidentially say you should even spend any time on this.
The Gameplay Mishaps
Some may say that they did a good job at focusing on retaining the essence of the original; the visuals, the sounds, the overall aesthetic, and with that, I would wholeheartedly agree. The game looks dated, but it still looks good. However, there’s this misconception that bringing a game into the modern platforms in the form of a remaster, just means making it look pretty. SPOILERS: It’s not.
Bringing a game from 2009 to 2025 means “localizing” it to modern gamers. They promised quality of life improvements, but this game just feels extremely icky to play.
Let’s look at some of the controls and the options mishaps
- Horrible controller mapping & no option to change it
- Interacting with the world is inconsistent
- Menu feels horrible and unintuitive to maneuver
- Barebones Options (like POV control or stationary minimap options)
Horrible Controller Mapping
Yes, I know these games were made for PC. But the game originally released on PS3 and was played with a controller. One would assume that some lessons were learned in order to properly optimize gameplay for a game that is being remastered for consoles where a controller will be primarily used.
Using the left directional button once for buff 1, press it x2 for buff 2, and x3 for buff 3, is such a weird choice! Same thing was done for potions! Have they neglected to look at or play any other action RPGs for the last two decades?
To use multiple spells, you need to use R2 to shuffle between them and use Square to use it? Come on!
When you’re getting attacked by 10 bandits, the last thing I want to do it stare at my screen to make sure I have the proper ability selected.
Menu Feels Icky
Whenever I am in the menu, to equip items, look at my inventory, or equip combat arts, most of the time I am struggling to get my cursor to go where I want to. Again, it’s assuming I’m using a mouse and keyboard, with zero thought to the controller experience.
Playing the Game
We are one of 7 classes to choose from: Seraphim, Dryad, Shadow Warrior, Inquisitor, High Elf, Temple Guardian, or Dragon Mage. Mostly pretty typical classes for ARPGs. They didn’t change much; just premade classes, with no ability to distribute attribute points, that’s perfectly fine.
After you get to choose the campaign type: Light or Shadow as well as choosing a God which will give you a skill unique to that God.
Sacred 2 Fallen Angel is different in comparison to modern games because of its lack of “handholding” or basic in-game tutorials. There’s text you can read, but otherwise, you’re thrust into the world to fend for your self. Depending on the class you start with, you may even start the game already getting attacked before you even get your bearings!
Attacking enemies does NOT feel good
Not in a morality, I-feel-bad-for-them sort of way, but in a I-think-my-dude-has-his-eyes-closed way. Targeting enemies with your arts/skills doesn’t feel good and it doesn’t feel like you’re hitting them at all. Zero impact. When you use your basic weapon attack (X on the Dualsense), your character will swing their weapon, but will miss incredibly often, and with the lack of impact, you wonder if you’ve made a mistake and wonder if you’re targeting anyone at all.
This isn’t great, because the enemies are plentiful right off the bat and you will find yourself overwhelmed early and will die often.
There are some cool things I like about the gameplay!
Luckily there’s loot and the world looks cool.
A good ARPG thrives on good exploration and plentiful loot. My favourite part about Sacred 2 Fallen Angel Remastered is its area looting button and easily accessible and clear mini/map. When you press the R1 button, a circular area around your character will appear, looting everything within it. There’s even an option in the menu to filter what items you want auto-looted. Later in the game, you might not want to loot the white items anymore and perhaps focus on just items that are blue or better! I like that!
Speaking of loot, even though it looks dated, I like how the icons look in the menu and the variety of gear there are as well as how it looks on my character.
Another thing I like is the world design and its map. From the areas I’ve visited and the different starting areas of the game (based on what class you started off with), the locations looks great! It’s simple and dated, but the colours are vibrant and the assets looks good.
The map and mini map are easily accessible with a touch of a button as well as a toggable overlay exists. My only real gripe with it is that I wish there was an option to keep the map stationary.
You can also teleport from wherever you are to your last activated checkpoint and the load times are decent. This is a boon as it’s easy to get side tracked exploring the decent sized world and completing the many side quests you’ll be given.
The Bugs
This is the reason why this is a first impressions and not a review. I pride myself on having a thick skin when it comes to adapting to relatively broken games. If the foundation is there and the gameplay loop is entertaining enough, I will play through the broken parts. A game like Sacred 2 Fallen Angel and the ARPG genre is definitely one of those games that I will push through.
Unfortunately, the many bugs accentuate the already dated gameplay.
- Poor performance, constantly stuttering
- Inconsistent interaction with the world (NPCs with talk prompts with nothing to say or unable to open doors)
- Constant crashing resulting in lost progress
- Your character auto-targeting NOTHING
Those last two are the real kickers. Loss of progress due to death because I am being overwhelmed by rats in a cave is one thing, but constantly losing progress due to the game crashing is another. And it happened way too often.
The other weird issue, I think, is my character will sometimes auto-cast the same skill over and over. Often times, to enemies that don’t exist. Which means, I could walk into town to speak to a merchant, and my character will randomly walk away all the way into the wilderness to randomly cast a spell on grass… So I gotta walk my behind back to that merchant to attempt to complete my transaction, only for him to do it all over again. I know I don’t like talking to salespeople in real life, I didn’t know my in game character is the same as me!
This game is not for you, you console peasant!
I hate to say it, but this game is like a port just for the sake of a port. No effort was made to make this a game for gamers in 2025 or gamers that play on console.
Who knows, maybe this games was made for someone, I just don’t know who that person is. Was it for you? Did you buy Sacred 2 Fallen Angel Remastered and said “yes, this game is for me and I love it”? Was I too hard on it? I will probably force myself to continue this game, depending on how much I hate myself, but so far, this game isn’t it.
