Game is fun to play and I the bugs seem to be fixed.
1: Bugs
2: Similarity to the original
Because of the low scores I put off buying the game until April of 2009. At this point the bugs seem to be fixed since I've only crashed once in 20+ hours of play and I haven't had any quest issues or other problems with the game. I did a game session last weekend of 8+ hours and didn't crash at all.
As far as this game being similar to the original, I have to say that it is definitely a version 2.0 (no surprise I guess) but that is a good thing since I liked the first one. I think Dawn of War 2 went off the road too far trying to be new and I am happy that Sacred 2 still stays true to it's original concept.
So what is good about it?
: I enjoy the new classes such the Temple Guardian. That is a fun one to play. I also like the inquisitor and the undead fighter.
: Having a Light and Dark campaign gives the game more dimension. I like playing the inquisitor.
: The graphics are very nice and, while not the most important issue, it makes it more fun to explore through each area.
: The addition of a shared area in your chest where you can exchange items between characters is also nice. Maybe this was in a later patch in the 1st Sacred or Underworld, I don't know, but either way it is a great thing to have.
: The quests are not too involved and are fun to play.
: Lots of different loot.
If you don't like Diablo/WoW style RPG games you probably won't like this one. If you find that type of game boring then I doubt you would find Sacred 2 any different. However if you do like that type of game I think you will enjoy Sacred 2.
I can certainly understand being upset about bugs and I am SOOOO glad I waited to buy this game, but now that it has matured I can definitely recommend it. I'm actually playing this instead of WoW for a change.
I think this is the only game of this type I've ever played where I've explored the different character types as much as I have. Usually I'll play through with one char type like a wizard of fighter and then be done with the game. Currently I have four different character types between level 8 at 15 and I enjoy switching between them and trying them out.
One final note - you will definitely want to read the manual or look for a Sacred 2 Wiki. It takes about 5 minutes to get all the info you need on the interface and game play, but without it you will probably miss a lot of the character enhancements and/or other game features that are available.
Oh, and don't forget the 2.4 patch.