2008 PS3 and Xbox 360 RPG Returning Next Month With New Remaster

A 2008 RPG, released during the PS3 and Xbox 360 era, is returning next month, on November 11, with a new remaster via PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X. On the former, it will cost nostalgics $20, while console players will have to fork over $30 for a rush of 2008 nostalgia, or 2009 nostalgia if you played it on PS3 and Xbox 360, as when it first debuted, it was a PC-only game.

The game in question is Sacred 2: Fallen Angel, an action RPG originally developed by Ascaron and published CDV Software Entertainment as a follow-up, and prequel, to 2004’s Sacred. What most don’t know about the forgotten RPG is that Bob Bates was involved, a pioneering game designer instrumental to the early game development scene. Now, it is returning via SparklingBit, Funatics, and THQ Nordic, though with a catch. While the PC version of the game will feature both multiplayer and single-player content, aka the whole original game, the console version will only have the single-player content, which is odd because it costs $10 more.

What’s New

With the remaster, there is now “smoother” and “more respsonive” combat, a modern UI, full controller support, enhanced textures, improved lighting, improved draw distance, better stability, and “community-driven fixes.” Meanwhile, all DLC and expansion content is also included. As you can see in the trailer above, this is very much a remaster, not a remake. To this end, the 2008 game still looks like a 2008 game, and presumably plays like a 2008 game, but there are some noticeable improvements.

The Original and Legacy of the Series

What’s a little odd about this new remaster is that it is coming before the first game, which was both more popular and better. Not to mention, it makes more sense to begin at the start of the series. That said, as a 2004 PC game it’s probably a more challenging remaster. Meanwhile, there is the newer Sacred 3, which was released in 2014, but the third game was receieved poorly. The first two games didn’t light the world on fire, but they had their fans. This was not the case with the third game, which set the series into dormancy, where it has been since. This new remaster is presumably to gauge interest in the series to determine if it is worth making a new installment after all these years.

It’s also possible it’s simply to cash in on PS3 and Xbox 360 nostalgia, a growing strategy of many developers and publishers. To this end, just last month a new remaster of another Xbox 360 and PS3 classic was leaked.

All of that said, and as always, feel free to leave a comment letting us know what you think or join the conversation over on the ComicBook Forum.