Sacred 2 - Preview @ Eurogamer

Eurogamer is the next to take a look at the latest pre-release presentation of Ascaron's sequel to their well known action rpg, Sacred 2: Fallen Angel:

The basic story is, at least, something of a departure from the usual Farm Boy Accepts His Destiny And Fights World-Threatening Evil schlock. The idea is that a divine power called T-energy has accidentally been released into the mortal world, giving its users the capacity for great technological advancement - but also causing nasty, dangerous mutations in areas where the power is tapped from underground and bubbles to the surface...

...There are six playable characters in the game, and interestingly, only two of them have their main storyline set out for them from the outset. There are two major quest lines that run from start to finish of the game; the Light campaign, which sees you returning the power of T-energy to the gods and removing it from the world, and the Shadow campaign, in which you harness the power to become a powerful ruler.

Moreover, Ascaron has focused heavily on customisation. Never mind the choice of which quest to follow with your character, the choice of how to develop your character's skills is the real meat on Sacred 2's lovely bones...

Sacred 2 goes beyond most such games by also giving you choices about how you progress individual spells and attacks. The aim is to create a game with so many combat options that it'll be rare for any two players to have the same character and play style...

The previewer also seems  impressed with the multiplayer design:

 The game has, you see, been designed as a multiplayer game from the ground up - to the extent that when you're playing single-player, you have effectively started a Sacred 2 server on your own machine, on which you're the only player. The good news? At any point in the game, you can invite a friend to bring his character over and join you - perhaps to defeat a tough boss, or just to blast through a dungeon together. Finish up the quests, divide the loot, and your pal (or pals - this works with up to six players) can head back to his own version of the game, having gained XP, gold and loot in your world.

This, we'd argue, is exactly what we've wanted from an action RPG for ages - a fully featured, dip-in, dip-out co-operative play mode, which takes place in a completely fleshed out game world rather than in restricted co-op specific maps. The game auto-balances to take account of your levels, much like Oblivion did (you may love or hate this - we're agnostic on that front), and also reworks the balance when you add more players to the mix, so there should always be a challenge there.