Traditional role-playing is about to hit Xbox 360 with a wave of fantastic-looking titles, among them Sacred 2. Shown for the first time at Game Developers Conference, Ascaron is bringing its much anticipated PC role-playing game to Xbox 360. Naturally, Sacred 2 promises to fully take advantage of the console with awesome visuals and a range of Live-enabled features. What has us impressed most from our short time with the game is the incredible amount of depth offered in this truly next-generation role-playing game.

Sacred 2 takes place two millennia before the events of the first game in a time when the Elven race commanded the realm of Ancaria. Disputes over the control of magical energy are opening rifts within the race, leading to the outbreak of civil war among the Elves. With Ancaria plunged into war, you’ll become a key figure in shaping its future toward peace or further conflict. The story splits into two separate campaigns, one aligned with Light and the other Dark. Ascaron claims each campaign will offer upwards of 30 hours of gameplay, not accounting for multiple levels of difficulty and cooperative play with a friend.

Along with choosing a campaign, you’ll select from six different customizable characters. The seraphim returns from the original game, joined by the inquisitor, shadow warrior, high elf, dryad, and temple guardian. Each character possesses unique attributes, skill sets, and special abilities. For example, the seraphim is a master of armed combat and light magic, whereas the dryad specializes in dark voodoo magic and ranged attacks. Once you’ve chosen a character, you can tailor its appearance by tweaking a few simple options. Even if you’re limited to choosing from pre-set characters, the differences among the six are distinct and the ability to modify their appearance adds to the variety.

Like any traditional role-playing game, you’ll engage enemies in combat to gain experience and develop your character. All combat in Sacred 2 occurs in real-time with melee, ranged, and magic attacks executable on-the-fly. Mounts can be used in battle, both engaging in combat themselves and allowing you to ride during the fight. As you collect experience and level up, your character earns ability points that can be assigned to their core attributes or toward new abilities. You can also learn combat arts, martial arts-like action abilities that are fully modifiable. Choosing one of the game’s six deities, you’ll also gain access to a combat art specific to the god your worship.

Making the jump to Xbox 360, Sacred 2 will boast a nice slate of features designed for Xbox Live. Cooperative play through both of the campaigns can be done with up to four players online. You’ll be able to use your character from the single player campaign and can even trade items online, swapping pieces of armor or special weapons. A special multiplayer arena allows you to join up with other players to gain experience killing enemies; additionally player-versus-player combat will also be supported in a dedicated online space. Leaderboards for both multiplayer arenas will be tracked, as will statistics related to both single and multiplayer modes. Rewards will come for spending time online, as about half of the game’s achievements will be set aside for multiplayer.

Slated for release early next year, Sacred 2 already looks solid running on Xbox 360. Advanced graphical effects, such as volumetric foliage, dynamic lighting, and beautiful particle effects for spells, were apparent in the early build. Ascaron promises no loading times thanks to data caching in the background; although, some loading will be required when leaving the over world for a dungeon. Artistically, Sacred 2 is impressive with gorgeously rendered characters and hand-drawn animations.

While what we’ve seen is still rather early, the game promises an incredible amount of action-packed play across its wealth of single and multiplayer modes. A ton of options for customizing and developing your character ensure plenty of depth in this prequel. We’ll have to wait at least three months following the release of the PC version of Sacred 2 before it comes to Xbox 360, but the wait should be worth every rich role-playing minute.