To be specific, it's a Vista issue inherited by Win 7. And that's been known since it was first encountered.

The problem isn't so much running the game. Once you've managed to install it (all the installation problems are definitely caused by the developers choice to forcefully install outdated software), everyone should be able to run it -- as in play for a little while at lowest settings with PhysX disabled, etc. The problem really is getting it to a state where it can be run without crashing at high settings with PhysX. Now that's marginally easier with the expansion pack as that specifically did address some of the Vista (and ultimately Win 7) related issues.

And naturally, as more people have now encountered this, people have found easier ways to install it. But when I first tried installing it on Win 7, it took several hours to get it all working. Nowadays, I can probably get it up and running in under one simply because I know what to expect.

Well that's reassuring to know. It's a game a might consider picking up later if it's cheap and I've run out of aRPGs

I didn't knoe Sacred 2 had an expansion, voted.

I also voted on the Gold Edition, it would be nice if it arrived with the expansion in the same "installation". However, this game had a loot of issues altough many of them were connected to actually getting the patches to install. If GOG would get the rights and sell the Gold Edition with the latest patch (there's a community patch as well) it would be just great.

33 votes when I put it there and considering Ascaron went banckrupt sometime after the release of the sequel I can't see this popping up anytime soon (unless Deep Silver gets a studio to actually make Sacred 3 and it gets some commercial success).

I have the boxed version of Sacred 2, its really buggy and crashes all the time, patching is also a nightmare with it. There is no all in one patch, it has to be done in increments, problem is though there are localised patches so making sure you get the right ones is a pain.

Once patched though the boxed game works just fine on Windows 7

I see what you did there. Nice pun but this isn't RPS :)

My best unintentional pun so far!

Anyway, I took a peak at GamersGate and they have Sacred 2 Gold Edition for 30$~ with a 20% discount (I'm not sure if the discount is global though). If someone wants this game badely it's a decent value especially if you live in the US where the Ice & Blood isn't legally allowed to sell (which I assume you will need to do some work around like using a european VPN and buy the game or something like that). The closed, online servers shutdown in early 2009 so playing the actual game shouldn't be an issue though. :)

I never even knew it had a sequel.

You don't play budget games often. I do. :P

Yeah, it's one of those games that is worth the trouble to get running smoothly =)

Pretty sure Sacred 3 is currently in development, which is part of the reason why the S2 servers were shut down.

The servers were shutdown earlier this year, not in 2009 (at least for the non-US version).

Looks like Sacred 2 in its entirety is region restricted. Even the vanilla version does not show up on the site when I search from a US IP.

EDIT - Whoa, they don't even have the first Sacred/Sacred Gold anymore!

He's probably thinking of the servers for Sacred 1, they did shut down some time around the end of 2009/beginning of 2010, though for a while you could still access the official servers via IP address.

Not a fan of these clicky-clicky action loot hoarding games but I would buy Sacred 2 with expansion just because it had a large pretty world to explore. I is shallow.

So how is the respawn rate in 2 compared to 1? Given the various issues with the PC version I've been toying with the idea of getting it for PS3. Kind of expensive, though.

Hmm, I thought they shutdown earlier. Perhaps it was the first game then. I tried to play there once (I live in Sweden, played on Europe) and man, they were laggy and even closer to release there hardly any people and sad for me, most of them don't prefer to talk in english.

Kodeen@ It was a while since I played both but I never recall having that kind of issue. The sequel (or prequel chronologically in-game) suffers from some nasty difficulty issues. The game is basically tough the first 5 levels then it's pretty easy until level 50-60 just before you enter later difficulties (like in Diablo with normal, nightmare, hell). After that the game becomes quite hard and then closer to the end ridiculously hard.

Most abilities in early levels don't gain anything in increasing them except for a cooldown penalty that will drive you nuts as well.

About PS3 version, I would never recommend an isometric view game without mouse and keyboard so I can't really comment on that. I would get the PC version because I've read the 360 and PS3 suffers from worse bugs and issues that is harder to avoid but no experience myself.

Edit: What is up with the quotes?