Cabal 2

Cabal 2 Classes

Warrior – front-line melee bruisers built around heavier swings and wide-reaching AoE skills. They typically wield two-handed weapons (or chains) and wear plate armor, but without a shield they rely more on offense and positioning than pure sturdiness.

Wizard – the classic high-damage caster with strong burst potential and utility. Wizards are fragile due to cloth armor and lower durability, but they make up for it with damage spells plus control tools like immobilizes, alongside buffs and debuffs.

Force Blader – a flexible hybrid that fights with force-enhanced sabres and emphasizes speed. Force Bladers wear leather armor and can mix close-range pressure with ranged options, letting them adapt to different combat situations.

Force Shielder – the main tank archetype, using a one-handed weapon paired with a large shield. With plate armor and shield-based defenses, they boast top-tier survivability and stamina, making them especially valuable in group content even if their damage is not the focus.

Force Archer – ranged combatants using force-infused bows and a toolkit designed to manage space and tempo. Archers bring snares, damage-over-time effects, cleansing, and roots, but their effectiveness depends heavily on correct skill timing, so they can be less forgiving for new players.

Priest – supportive spellcasters centered on healing and party enhancement rather than pure DPS. They share the cloth-armor fragility of Wizards and use slates (spell books) and crystals to channel their magic and keep allies alive through tougher fights.

Cabal 2 Review

Cabal 2 is a 3D fantasy MMORPG from ESTsoft (also listed as ESTGames in the West), and it was positioned as the next step after Cabal Online. It first appeared in Korea earlier, then arrived for North America and Europe with an open beta launch on July 2, 2015. This release framed expectations around a familiar formula, but with a more modern engine, improved visuals, and combat built to emphasize coordinated chaining rather than purely solo combo mastery. The NA/EU service ultimately ended, with the game shutting down on April 18th, 2018.

One of the biggest immediate shifts is tone. Instead of leaning into a more techno-styled identity, Cabal 2 commits to a conventional fantasy presentation, complete with sweeping landscapes and orchestral flavor. The setting is Ektensia, where reports of unusually gifted children vanishing across the continent drive the central conflict. Your character is a mercenary pulled into the crisis through a personal hook, searching for a missing sister whose fate appears tied to the broader pattern of disappearances.

Exploring Ektensia

From a pure presentation standpoint, the CryEngine 3 foundation does a lot of the heavy lifting. Zones look dense and textured, and even routine moments, like standing in a busy city hub, benefit from lighting and environmental detail. Combat visuals also land well because the game’s effects are designed to be seen frequently, with many skills producing bright, readable animations that make it clear when a chain is progressing.

Character models are detailed for the era and include small touches that add life, such as visibly tracking targets. Audio is competent throughout, with a musical direction that fits the traditional fantasy shift, relying more on orchestral tones than the harder edge some players may associate with Cabal Online.

Getting Started and Building a Character

Early on, Cabal 2 does a good job of establishing your role through class choice and customization. You pick from six classes and then move into a character creator that offers a surprisingly broad range of sliders and presets. Some presets look grounded, others are exaggerated, but the overall toolset is more robust than many MMORPGs that launched in a similar period.

The first moments also make it clear that Cabal 2 likes to use cinematic beats. Cutscenes appear frequently, and the opening quickly pushes you into combat before transitioning you into the beginner flow. If you enjoy story framing, this structure helps keep the leveling path feeling guided. If you prefer uninterrupted grinding, it can feel like the game pauses often to set the stage.

Questing and Narrative

In terms of feature set, Cabal 2 checks the expected boxes, quest hubs, instanced dungeons, crafting, mounts, pets, and PvP options. The questing itself leans heavily on standard objectives (killing targets, collecting items, and traveling between NPCs), but it presents them as chains that culminate in a larger payout rather than constant small turn-ins.

Where it performs better than average is how often those tasks tie back into the main storyline. The missing-children mystery and the more personal motivation of searching for family give the narrative a clearer throughline than the usual abstract “save the world” setup. The pace of reveals through quest chains also helps maintain interest, even when the moment-to-moment tasks are familiar.

Combat, Combos, and Battle Mode

Cabal 2’s combat is the main attraction. It plays quickly and looks stylish, but it is also shaped by tab targeting and a redesigned combo approach that feels different from the original Cabal Online. Movement is handled with WASD, and the F key functions as a general action button for interacting and looting, which keeps basic play comfortable and reduces friction while moving through quest routes.

Skills are primarily used through hotbar inputs, but the system encourages chaining. Certain abilities can open a timed follow-up window where pressing the same key again triggers the next action in a sequence, known in-game as Consecutive Skills. The result is a combat flow that can sustain long chains without requiring an overwhelming number of separate keybinds, and it makes the rhythm of combat feel like maintaining momentum rather than firing isolated cooldowns.

Battle Mode adds a periodic power spike once Astral Weapons are unlocked. It temporarily grants stronger skills and can swing tougher encounters, especially boss fights or moments where you need to push through a dangerous pull. Enemy durability is also on the higher side compared to many MMORPGs, which gives the combo system room to breathe. The downside is that overpulling can punish you quickly, grabbing more than a couple of mobs tends to end badly unless your class kit and positioning are on point.

PvP Options

PvP is present in a couple of key forms. For quick fights, players can initiate duels without much setup, which is convenient for settling friendly disputes or practicing matchups. One important practical detail is that your health does not automatically reset after a duel, so it is easy to get caught out if monsters are nearby.

For larger-scale PvP, Cabal 2 includes Battlefields, its battleground-style mode. Access is gated to higher-level characters (Level 40+), and at the time the feature set was limited, with only a single 18 vs 18 map being the commonly referenced option. That restriction makes PvP feel more like a side pillar than a fully built endgame ecosystem, but the framework is there for structured play.

Business Model and Cash Shop

As a free-to-play MMORPG, Cabal 2 relies on microtransactions, alongside optional packs, and uses an in-game shop that sells items for e-points purchased with real money. The shop selection focused on convenience and cosmetics, including consumables like stat resets and appearance changes, plus mounts and pets.

At the time described, the shop did not lean heavily into overt pay-to-win power sales, which helps the game feel more approachable for players who want to progress through play rather than purchases. Like most free-to-play setups, the long-term health of this balance depends on how the shop evolves over time.

Final Verdict – Great

Cabal 2’s strongest qualities are clear: it looks impressive for its period, its combat presentation is consistently satisfying, and the combo-forward design keeps moment-to-moment gameplay engaging. The story also stands out more than you might expect from a genre often content with generic stakes, largely because it anchors the plot in something personal and mysterious.

Its weaknesses are mostly about familiarity. The fantasy framing is comparatively standard, and the overall MMORPG structure does not radically reinvent the genre. Still, if you value responsive chaining combat and high-production visuals, Cabal 2 made a strong case for itself during its run, provided your PC could keep up with the engine demands.

Cabal 2 Links

Cabal 2 Official Site
Cabal 2 Source (Fan Site)
Cabal 2 Insider (Fan Site)
Cabal 2 Subreddit

Cabal 2 System Requirements

Minimum Requirements:

Operating System: Windows XP / Vista / 7
CPU: Intel Dual Core 2.5 GHz / Athlon 64 X2 2.5 GHz+
Video Card: GeForce 9500 GT or ATI Radeon 4000 Series+
RAM: 2 GB
Hard Disk Space: 25 GB

Recommended Requirements:

Operating System: Windows 7 / 8
CPU: Intel i5 / AMD II X4 Phenom+
Video Card: GeForce GTS 250 / Radeon HD 4850
RAM: 4 GB or more
Hard Disk Space: 25 GB

Cabal 2 System requirements say 25 GB is needed, but the game is about ~10-12GB installed.

Cabal 2 Music & Soundtrack

Cabal 2 Additional Information

Developer: ESTsoft Inc.
Game Engine: CryEngine 3

Open Beta (NA/EU): July 2, 2015
Closed Beta Date (KR): November 2011 (1st Korean Beta), October 2012 (2nd Korean Beta)
Open Beta Date (KR): November 2012 (Korea)
English Server Closed Beta: December 2014 (Focus Group Test)

Shut Down Date: April 18th, 2018

Development History / Background:

Cabal Online 2 was first revealed in October 2010, prior to G-Star 2010 in Busan, South Korea. Although it had been playable in Korea for a long time, the English-language release aimed at Western audiences did not arrive until 2015. By moving to CryEngine 3, Cabal 2 delivered a significant visual upgrade over Cabal Online (2005). The NA/EU version entered open beta on July 2, 2015, and the service later ended when Cabal 2 shut down on April 18th, 2018.