Sacred 2: Fallen Angel (2008)
Ascaron's 3D Prequel Action-RPG Famous for T-Energy Lore and Blind Guardian's Virtual Concert
Sacred 2: Fallen Angel is a 2008 3D open-world action role-playing game developed by German studio Ascaron Entertainment. Set 2,000 years before the original Sacred amid a High Elf civil war over volatile primordial T-Energy, it offered separate Light and Shadow campaigns, exotic faction mounts, and a celebrated motion-captured side quest starring German power-metal band Blind Guardian.
Primordial T-Energy, Light and Shadow Paths, and Techno-Fantasy Classes
Set two millennia prior to the events of Sacred, Fallen Angel reimagined Ancaria at the height of High Elven civilization, torn apart when nobles and clergy war over T-Energy—the primordial life force once safeguarded by the angelic Seraphim that leaks across pipelines to mutate beasts and warp terrain. Rebuilt in a fully rotatable 3D engine streaming twenty-two square miles without outdoor loading screens, the campaign split into morally opposing Light and Shadow alignments. Six eclectic classes—Seraphim, undead Shadow Warrior, High Elf, voodoo-practicing Dryad, tyrannical Inquisitor, and the canine-headed cybernetic Temple Guardian wielding an arm cannon—rode giant spiders, sabretooth tigers, hellhounds, and mechanical monowheels into battle.
Blind Guardian's 'Sacred Worlds' Concert and Ascaron's Final Swan Song
Sacred 2 cemented its place in European gaming folklore through a collaboration with Krefeld power-metal legends Blind Guardian. Frontman Hansi Kursch and his bandmates appeared as quest-giving NPCs searching Ancaria for their stolen enchanted instruments; recovering them rewarded players with a full motion-captured open-air fantasy concert performing the six-minute symphonic metal anthem 'Sacred Worlds' before cheering orcs and skeletons. Despite shipping console ports on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 and selling strongly across Europe, the colossal cost and four-year technical strain of debugging the massive 3D world forced Ascaron into insolvency in April 2009, shortly before Studio II completed the Dragon Mage expansion Ice & Blood.