Gothic 4 demo later this month

By Robert Purchese Published 9 September, 2010

Taste the RPG on PC and Xbox 360.

JoWood plans to release an Arcania - Gothic 4 demo on 24th September.

This will be available on PC and Xbox 360.

Up for grabs are the first two hours of the game, with the action beginning on tutorial island Feshyr. It's what gamescom 2010 attendees were shown.

Arcania - Gothic 4 marks a significant departure for the series. Original creator Piranha Bytes fell out with JoWooD and took off to make Risen. JoWooD, meanwhile, employed Spellbound to keep the Gothic series alive.

We'll be able to judge when the full game is released for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 on 12th October. Yes, that's a Tuesday.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (29) Latest comment 1 year ago

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  • Wheatley #1 1 year ago

    Well the bits with the club swinging and the bridge crossing look mighty fine.

  • menage #2 1 year ago

    Can't be as bad as Risen or Two Worlds right. These games always end up sucking.

  • YenRug #3 1 year ago

    No PS3 demo? :(

  • menage #4 1 year ago

    Delayed till next year I heard.

  • Haloboy #5 1 year ago

    Two Worlds Epic Ed was awesome. That is all.

  • YenRug #6 1 year ago

    @menage

    Seems a bit pointless when it's coming out 12th October, according to the article.

  • menage #7 1 year ago

    I heard the whole game was delayed actually on PS3. maybe I heard wrong.
    Edited by 1 at 09/09/10 @ 17:38

  • darc #8 1 year ago

    "Two Worlds Epic Ed was awesome."

    And so was Risen. Except for that ridiculous end boss sequence. The game would have been better if they'd simply omitted that and ended on a cut scene just prior.

    Psyched Gothic 4 is coming out. If it's so much as playable I'm bound to enjoy it, and Oct 12th is a perfect release date - a nice proper PC RPG to wile away cold autumn evenings.
    Edited by 1 at 09/09/10 @ 18:02

  • darc #9 1 year ago

    I must admit, however, that that first screen shot shows signs of JoWood-itis, with the shadows implying that the protagonist is hovering 6-12" above the ground. :)

    Ah, details.

  • Wheatley #10 1 year ago

    You wanna cross this bridge, huh? Well, tell me, what's the wind speed velocity of an unladen swallow?

  • KDR_11k #11 1 year ago

    Can't be as bad as Risen or Two Worlds right. These games always end up sucking.

    I don't see why you're bringing those games into this, Gothic is its own series, a long running and prestigious one.

  • SheffieldSteel #12 1 year ago

    @KDR_11k: Risen was made by Piranha Bytes, who did the previous Gothic games, so the comparison is relevant.

    Personally I am rather looking forward to this, although they really haven't shown us very much just yet. A demo sounds like a very good idea to me.
    Edited by 1 at 09/09/10 @ 18:56

  • Pastici #13 1 year ago

    I love these games, I've only got Two Worlds but I've liked the demos for Divinity and the like. More ambition than money will allow, so much charm.

  • menage #14 1 year ago

    @KDR 11k

    Because they're the same genre? And the last time I checked G3 was received very poorly. So I don't even think it's that prestigious.

    I really love these types of games, but sadly a lot of them overpromise and underdeliver on many fronts is all I'm saying. Name 3 (and you can say Oblivion so now you need 2) which were at least not fundametaly broken in the bug dep. or were halfway decent to actually want to play it for 120 hours? Those 2 I mentioned certainly weren't it. And I think that's all of them this gen.

    PC versions always fair better though, but console versions were disastrous at best. I want it to be good, but I'm cautious that's all.

    edit: Divinity as well indeed, but sadly, that wasn't up to scratch for me either.

    Edited by 3 at 09/09/10 @ 19:26

  • Demiath #15 1 year ago

    I've recently played through the entirety of Gothic 3 (heavily patched version) and I must say it was the most fun I've had with a hardcore RPG in years (am playing Risen now, which is also rather good). As for Gothic 4, well, let's just say Spellbound has never released anything remotely like a Gothic game before and the "real" Gothic guys over at Piranha Bytes are currently working on Risen 2, so it goes without saying which game I'm more excited about. G4 could still turn out alright somehow, though, so I'm not going to dismiss it beforehand.
    Edited by 1 at 09/09/10 @ 19:45

  • UncleLou #16 1 year ago

    Looking forward to trying it, but I am not optimistic after what (parts of) the German press said about the game after Gamescom. I'll be happy if it's as good as Risen (which I enjoyed quite a bit), and in heaven if it's anywhere near Gothic 1+2, but I certainly don't expect the latter.

  • darkmorgado #17 1 year ago

    Can't be as bad as Risen or Two Worlds right. These games always end up sucking.

    They were perfectly decent games if you owned them on PC.

  • Lord_Gremlin #18 1 year ago

    @YenRug: PS3 version is delayed, but later on PS3 demo is a must or no-buy.
    @darkmorgado: Risen is a horrid piece of shit. No, it looks and runs fine, the game itself is shit - combat, story etc.
    Edited by 1 at 09/09/10 @ 23:11

  • Kanjin #19 1 year ago

    My computer hates Gothic 3... so glad I'll get to be able to play the sequel trouble free on the Xbox! Well, you know, as trouble free as it gets on a Microsoft product...

  • mkreku #20 1 year ago

    I know it's Spellbound and not Piranha Bytes, but still.. I can't help myself from looking forward to this a LOT.

    Oh, and Risen 2 is going to be mind-blowing. So my psychic powers tell me.

  • freakster #21 1 year ago

    I dont get why they don't do more promotion for their games, this is the first I have heard about Gothic 4. Loved the other Gothic games and actually liked Risen, there is something very european about them. Just hope they don't try to do too much then leave it buggy like the last ones.

  • StonecoldMC #22 1 year ago

    That does look pretty good, will try out the demo before deciding to buy or not.

  • FortysixterUK #23 1 year ago

    First two hours?
    Thats good demo. Whilst I appreciate Risen ( the game written by folks who wrote Gothic 3 ) and Two Worlds ( another open world rpg) got slated on Xbox and PC, I really enjoyed them both and on both formats.
    These western open ended RPG's really pull me into their world.

    I hope some of the issues with G3 and TW are sorted. We need more BIG rpgs on Xbox.

  • Seehuusen #24 1 year ago

    Dear god dont put this on the console, it'll only end up making the PC version worse...

  • coomber #25 1 year ago

    Agree that they need to sort out their PR. I had no idea this was coming out so soon. (Oh, and for those discussing Divinity 2, I thought it was a good game - could have been amazing if it wasn't for the obvious budget limitations.)

  • peppergomez #26 1 year ago

    WTF can't they include a first person camera POV option? Grrrr.

  • darc #27 1 year ago

    @StonecoldMC:

    Pretty certain I'll be buying Gothic 4 - it would have to be an action adventure entirely devoid of RPG trappings for me to pass it by. What the demo will tell me is how long to wait, and therefore what price to pay. (I paid $50 to download Risen on the day of its release, whereas you can presently buy absolutely everything G1-G3 related as a $5-$10 bundle.)
    Edited by 2 at 10/09/10 @ 17:35

  • hazelam #28 1 year ago

    sweet, i'll give that a try

  • hazelam #29 1 year ago

    men only, figures, suddenly this game seems less interesting.