Sacred 2: Fallen Angel takes place 2000 years before the original. War is brewing among the various races of Ancaria, over the precious resource called T-Energy. Once a source of light and hope, years of bloodshed and ruin mutated the T-Energy into a malevolent force. How this story ends is up to you. Choose the Light Campaign and save Ancaria from total chaos, or plunge it into eternal darkness by playing the Shadow Campaign. If you don’t want to follow the main storyline choose Free Mode. This gives you immediate access to the whole map, a whopping 22 square miles—fortunately you have several modes of transportation, such as teleportation, boats, and mounts to tool around in this enormous world.

There are six playable classes: Seraphim (the only carryover from Sacred), High Elf, Dryad, Inquisitor, Shadow Warrior, and Temple Guardian. Although some classes such as the High Elf bear the same standard characteristics found in many RPGs, others are more unique. I was especially intrigued by the Temple Guardian, mainly because of its Anubis-like appearance. Oh yeah, and did I mention that it’s a cyborg? Of these classes, only four can choose a campaign: the Seraphim can only stick to the Light, while its polar opposite the Inquisitor must stay in the Shadow. Each class has a specific mount. The High Elf for example, rides a tiger while the Shadow Warrior rides a hellhound. Not only is mounted combat available, but you can train your mounts to fight as well. The standard horse mount will kick at enemies. I can't wait to see what the hellhound can do...

For my test character I selected the Shadow Warrior, a melee class that uses undead magic. The Shadow Warrior is what might have happened to Russell Crowe in Gladiator had he been resurrected instead of receiving a proper soldier’s death. I was dismayed to find that I couldn’t customize my character’s appearance at all, not even the gender. It would be nice not to look exactly like your teammates if you’re in multiplayer mode. You may still be distinguishable from your friends though, by the various kinds of armor sets available. But in the grand tradition of fantasy RPGs, the female classes wear very little armor.

One of the first things that jumped out at me is the method in which your character is controlled. For some reason developer Ascaron eschewed the familiar WASD keys in favor of the mouse (editors note- CDV let us know that WASD will be available in the final Build. *huzzah!*). To navigate your character you must constantly hold down the left mouse button and drag the mouse in whatever direction you want to move. It felt odd for my left hand to sit idly by while my right hand did all the work. Even after an hour of playing, I never really got used to it. I also wasn’t too crazy by the limited capabilities of the camera. Yes, you can zoom in and out, but you can’t zoom in to first person point-of-view, nor can you tilt the camera’s angle. It's not a deal breaker, but just a bit odd.

One major plus is the ease of transition from single player to multiplayer. At any time your friends can pop in and join you, whether online through the internet and Xbox Live, or locally via a second controller. With 600 quests, it’d be nice if your friends kept you company on some of them. I didn’t play multiplayer on the PC version, but on the Xbox 360 if there’s more than one person onscreen the camera automatically zooms out to accommodate the new player(s). Similar to X-Men Legends, you can’t ever stray too far from your pals since you won’t be able to move on until they’re onscreen as well.