Comparing Sacred 2 to the Diablo series shouldn’t be taken as a dismissal — it’s actually a statement of fan love. Action-RPG fans haven’t had a new Diablo game since 2000 (sob!), and CDV’s Sacred sequel looks like it might finally scratch that old itch. Six unique characters — some on the light path, some on the dark, with appropriately different goals and missions — set out in a medieval fantasy world some 22-square-miles huge, hacking and slashing their way through 100 core campaign quests… along with about 650 (!) side quests. The critical path should take about 25 hours, but who won’t want to wander and explore some of those extras? Especially considering that each character can buy mounts to help them get around — dark-path Inquisitors, for instance, ride on the back of a giant spider, while the cyborgian Temple Guardians tool around in a giant mechanical wheel. (It looks cool in motion, trust us.)

The game is still a good six months out, but the early version we saw running on 360 debug hardware looks pretty nice so far. Aside from the attractive graphics and impressive handcrafted animations, Sacred 2's cooperative multiplayer could be the old-school edge the game needs to stand out. In addition to four-player Live matches, the game supports two-player same-screen play, where the second player can drop in or out at will without interrupting the game. That’s a couch-friendly feature many 360 gamers have been missing.