Arcania: Gothic 4 Review

By Al Bickham Published 21 October, 2010

Drugdeons and laggards.

Version tested: PC

In the time-honoured RPG tradition, I've been collecting swords.

Not to use, necessarily – Arcania's endless kill-and-loot cycle so rarely throws up compelling gear, it's almost a joke – but to sell. Gold is required to buy crafting blueprints from the smithy, so I can tinker up some interesting magical weapons of my own. These blueprints are astronomically expensive, but I've been collecting for some hours now. Let's see what the shopkeeper thinks of my wares.

32 swords, nine crossbows, 19 bows, 17 shields, a dozen orcish maces, a couple of hundred arrows and a magical warhammer nearly twice my height called Cold Hatred. I wait for the trader's reaction to my titanic haul. Seriously, I'm like Doctor Who, cheerfully jogging an endless string of first-division players out of the Tardis in front of a baffled Fabio Cappello.

Does he stagger back in amazement at the implausibility of it all? No. He tosses me a pittance, which nudges my funds the tiniest pico-increment towards affording something truly useful. This scene illustrates the lack of balance that permeates Arcania.

The fourth instalment of the Gothic RPG series has fallen to German developer Spellbound after the original studio, Pirhana Bytes, split from their publishing deal with JoWood in 2007. It's familiar territory for fans of the series – at heart, it's a trad hack-and-slash RPG – but after three years in development (and with some obvious areas of excellence we'll come to) you might expect something a little more rounded, a little more intelligent, a little more... developed.

1

There's no denying Arcania's elaborate and intricate world-design.

Take the visuals. In many regards they're spectacular and evocative. You'll see some breathtaking vistas in Arcania; looking down from a high mountain across acres of woodland, with snowy peaks rising in sharp, blue-white relief in the far distance, you might make out a temple nestling among the crags and, with a feeling of warm anticipation, realise you'll probably end up there soon.

Sunrise and sunset can be times of wonder. An early bow-tutorial quest sees you hunting deer at sunset in a woodland glade. Excellent use of high dynamic range lighting creates a contrast between deep, shady greenery and the honeyed richness of the setting sun, which paints its way through branches and boughs to colour the terrain in a terrifically atmospheric way. It can be heart-stoppingly beautiful.

But in the same breath, the graphics also disappoint. For instance, dialogue sequences, which use the in-game engine, fail to show off the superb character skins, as high-res textures often don't resolve and those crisp, steely suits of armour slump into drabness. The commendably intense levels of foliage draw in and out of the middle-distance as you wander the world and this really breaks the spell every time you notice it.

2

The clickfest of melee shares more with Diablo than Dragon Age.

The worst assault on the senses comes courtesy of whoever decided to apply tree-sway animations and, seemingly drunk on a dream of dancing foliage, turned the dial to 11. Trunks and branches take on a rubbery life of their own and, in certain parts of the world, entire woodlands sway and lurch sickeningly. It's as though you're stalking through a nightmare landscape of leafy cartoon blancmanges – a sad undoing of somebody's hard work that butchers the suspension of disbelief.

The sense of simultaneous success and failure is felt everywhere. Take the quests. They're prolific, and there's a great incentive to do them, as it soon becomes apparent that completing quests is a far more efficient way of levelling than grinding your way through monsters. But fetch-quests and kill-quests are all too frequent, and the machine-shop repetition soon leads to the kind of RPG ennui we've all felt. But it's the critical-path quests, which should feel big, meaty and important, which form the greatest source of irritation. Here's how they work, every single time.

You enter a new area of the world, with a single objective for the storyline. You meet an NPC. He tells you what must be done to drive the story onwards and get you closer to your goal. Then he throws in a complicating factor – essentially a storyline sub-quest. Can you maybe go and get this thing for me?

You trot off into the wilds to complete the innocuous sub-quest. You return to the NPC, you ask him about the big objective again, and he says something else now needs to be done, which involves someone else. Another sub-quest. A new NPC to talk to. Mission complete, you ask the new NPC about your key objective. He says he can help, but only if you do something for him. Could you maybe...?

On and on it branches. Arcania consistently highlights important objectives down the road, then clutters your path with a series of busywork roadblocks. And really, that's nothing new; RPGs do this all the time. But it's a question of presentation, and a sense of performing worthy activities.

Fallout 3, for instance, gives you overarching goals, but it never boxes you into feeling that the in-between steps are obstacles to progress or simply irrelevant. Each step feels like a big step, a worthy step, a uniquely world-changing step. Staggeringly, Arcania's main character starts getting shirty with NPCs at this constant series of interferences. It's like a guilty acknowledgement from the scriptwriters.

At one stage I was on the trail of two mages, the only characters in the world who could help me to reach an utterly crucial location. One key NPC on the trail demanded I head back into that awful bloody wobble-forest, which I'd already criss-crossed numerous, bilious times on other minor tasks, to find his lost hat.

3

Some orks are good, some orks are bad. These are the good guys.

Let me get this straight. I'm wearing more metal than a commercial airliner, there's fire dripping from my fingertips and I'm brandishing a polearm the size of a tree. I'm a walking war-god on a quest to save the world, and you're asking me to find... your lost hat?

How about I pull your head off? Then you won't need your hat.

Combat and character development are simple and competent enough, and the obvious specialisation pathways are there: archery, melee and spellwork. A career in the magical arts lacks any real intricacy however, as there are just three combat spells: fire, ice and lightning bolts. This actually makes you less versatile than a dedicated archer, who has access to a wider range of effects through special arrow-types. However, keen attendance to side-quests sees you level frequently, and the proliferation of skill-points means that you can just about get away with being a jack-of-all-trades.

It's worth reiterating that the loot is frequently paltry. Every now and then you'll slay a named NPC, and he'll drop something useful with a neat effect. Everything else is cash-trash, and you'll cart wagon-loads of it to the traders who, woefully understocked with interesting gear themselves, will give you a pauper's fee for your swag.

4

There's a pleasing sense of composition to the landscape.

Alchemical crafting can be useful, as the wide range of elixirs and potions you can make really do have an impact on your combat effectiveness. Weapon crafting, however, seems largely pointless. In 17 hours of play, no craftable weapon I found blueprints for beat what was strapped to my back, and the grind required to locate the correct combination of materials sealed the deal. For all its faults, even Two Worlds had the carrot-and-stick of quality loot to help you feel like you were making some meaningful, empowering progress.

What Two Worlds and Arcania do share is the same grade of voice direction. Arcania's menagerie of gabbling harridans and campy village idiots, with their laboured regional accents and daft intonation, make it sound for all the world like an episode of Horrible Histories. A really cut-rate episode.

Beneath Arcania's often outstanding art direction and technical achievement lies a dry spreadsheet of must-have RPG elements, none of which is sufficiently developed to compel and all of which fail to balance against one another. But its ultimate failing is that it treats you like a heel. It neither mentally nor materially rewards the player, which is absolutely fundamental to an enjoyable RPG.

4 / 10

Arcania: Gothic 4 is available now for PC on Steam. The PC and Xbox 360 versions will be available in shops on 29th October. The PS3 version is due in early 2011.

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Comments (74) Latest comment 11 months ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Shikasama #1 2 years ago

    You trot off into the wilds to complete the innocuous sub-quest. You return to the NPC, you ask him about the big objective again, and he says something else now needs to be done, which involves someone else. Another sub-quest. A new NPC to talk to. Mission complete, you ask the new NPC about your key objective. He says he can help, but only if you do something for him. Could you maybe...?

    That's how every RPG functions. DA, KOTOR, Fallout all followed exactly the same thing in the majority of cases.

    Let us not even mention MMOs.

  • Bertie Verified Senior Staff Writer, Eurogamer.net #2 2 years ago

    Al! Great review. I had secret high hopes for this. I was wrong.

  • lonelyfrenchy #3 2 years ago

    OHHHH my god !
    and I was expecting this one ...
    how those Germans bashed this licence to this point ?
    the Marketing Director asked for an easy game ... in order to get more"casual" gamers ?

    well.... at least we have fallout new Vegas...

  • midnight_walker #4 2 years ago

    Let me get this straight. I'm wearing more metal than a commercial airliner, there's fire dripping from my fingertips and I'm brandishing a polearm the size of a tree. I'm a walking war-god on a quest to save the world, and you're asking me to find... your lost hat?

    That's always how it is, though.

    Anyway, I'll probably give this at least a rent. With a bit of luck it'll be bargain bin soon. Risen and Divinity II absolutely blew me away and this seems to tread a similar path. Unfortunately it won't take priority over Fable III and New Vegas.

  • SlapLaB #5 2 years ago

    Ah, good.
    One less RPG to play \o/

  • TILT #6 2 years ago

    Quite so. I fondly remember a PA comment on a similar behaviour in WoW...

    "After seven blissful levels of wondering why I ever quit WoW, I ended up on some featureless beach in Feathermoon waiting for some stupid, almost nonsensical drop. After that, I talked to a Goblin whose most pressing concern (in a world whose very crust was cracked by perpetual War) was his tremendous thirst. Would I go and get something for him to drink? I've got water, but he doesn't want it. He only wants to drink the glands of some twelve-foot tall plant man. It's like, listen. This is why people don't like Goblins." http://www.penny-arcade.com/2008/01/14/

  • Darren #7 2 years ago

    The demo was OK but it was clear that this game was never going to be anything special even from that brief dip. Bland dialogue and lifeless characters coupled with stale linear quests do not a good game maketh. Looked quite pretty though. On the PC this game can be bought for under £20 which makes a reasonable consideration if you really must play a new RPG that doesn't have Fallout in its title! Bet it is less buggy though... ;)

  • NewbieZilla #8 2 years ago

    Shocking. The demo really seemed like a 10.

    Bazzinga.

  • Macdory #9 2 years ago

    The rview is about spot on - lots of inane quests and not a very good story. I enjoyed the combat more as a spellcaster or with a bow, rather than melee. Melee is way too easy and therefore a bit dull. The graphics engine is quite nice, butthe lack of depth and the difficulty of games like Gothic 1-2, Risen, etc is badly missing - even on Gothic difficulty it isn;t very hard. I do however prefer the new combat mechanic over the old Gothic 1-2 mechanic. I'm about 7 hours in now, and I just can;t be arsed loading it up to complete one more "collect 10 badger arses" quest ...

    7 hours is almost double the single player experience of MOH though, and it is pretty good as a game in its own right, rather than being compared to the previous Gothic games ... so on that basis I would have scored it around a 6. But a 4 means it's as good as Mafia 2, which I quite enjoyed :p

  • rivuzu #10 2 years ago

    Anyone could of predicted this score if they played the demo. It was shockingly awful.
    Good writeup though, some bits made me laugh.
    And whilst some commenters have noted that some of your complaints are the bread and butter of the genre, I can only imagine doing so elsewhere atleast has a break from the repetition and makes the experience somewhat more enjoyable, as opposed to undiluted dredge.
    Shame though. Had high hopes for Gothic.

  • berelain #11 2 years ago

    Ouch, 4/10 seems a bit harsh. I found it fairly entertaining for a while, at least. link for anyone interested. As a linear action RPG, its good fun, its just not really a Gothic game.

    Plus, I thought the visuals looked pretty stunning... though I played the PC version. Yes the story is a bit bullocks and the dialogues wooden.. but not every game has the budget to be Mass Effect. Dragon Age had equally wooden dialogues, but nobody minded that. In fact, I seem to recall everyone liking them for being 'traditional'...
    Edited by berelain at 21/10/10 @ 08:47

  • des #12 2 years ago

    Disaster...
    :(

  • jidnffc #13 2 years ago

    I think the criticism with the subquests is fair though it's a common theme. Games like Oblivion, Dragon Age, Fallout, hell even stuff like Red Dead Redemption has that aspect to it. The important thing is how they feel. If they're just seemingly random bizarre quests that serve little purpose other than extending the game, as seems to be the case here (don't know for sure haven't played the game) then they're to be avoided. If the missions all feel important and relevant like they do in the other examples I mentioned then it's less of a criticism.
    Still I'm disappointed. The more RPGs the better, and having been let down by Risen I had high hopes for this as console RPGs have been slim pickings recently.

  • EmiliasHorse #14 2 years ago

    I wanted to like the demo but found myself wishing I was doing something else, even the dishes.

  • Quint2020 #15 2 years ago

    I appreciate this was played on the PC but it looks bloody atrocious on the 360.

  • SAMagic #16 2 years ago

    The demo was fun, but nothing remotely spectacular and I think that was based on me not having played a decent fantasy RPG for a few months. The dialog and characters were horrendously generic and the draw distance at one moment actually worked inversely (I approached a bush and it disappeared as I got closer - WTF?).

    Regarding the quests, I don't mind when an NPC sets you off on some innocuous trial, only for it to become fiercely complicated (Just talking to a man on a bridge in Arcanum begins a large quest line involving ogre half-breeds on a secret island) but it seems like Gothic 4 doesn't do that. Maybe the developers should have done what Rock Star did in GTA4 and Red Dead Redemption - trivial quests are clearly marked as 'stranger' missions, so the player knows not to expect much from them other than a mere diversion.

  • ChthonicEcho #17 2 years ago

    @Shikasama

    Look at the next paragraph:

    On and on it branches. Arcania consistently highlights important objectives down the road, then clutters your path with a series of busywork roadblocks. And really, that's nothing new; RPGs do this all the time. But it's a question of presentation, and a sense of performing worthy activities.

  • Big-Swiss #18 2 years ago

    saw a tv review the other day, it looked not so good. Well, it did look shit, but I figured perhaps they just chose wrong parts for the TV review. Now I know it really is like that;((

  • berelain #19 2 years ago

    @SA Magic - the disappearing foliage when you get close isn't a bug, its a feature... supposed to make it easier for you to see whats going on around your character, but it does look weird. On the PC version you can thankfully turn it off, not sure about console versions though.

  • mkreku #20 2 years ago

    Did the reviewer play the previous Gothic games? I saw no mention or comparison against the three former episodes in the series. I was particularly interested in how Arcania holds up compared to Piranha Bytes previous work, but I guess that doesn't really matter as it seems Arcania is a bad game either way.

  • Load_2.0 #21 2 years ago

    Its all about the phat lewt for me. While I appreciate that genuinely kick ass items should always be very difficult to obtain it sounds like the trade and craft mechanic is pants.

    Nothing worse than lugging tonnes of merchant junk about only to get ripped off.

  • GreyBeard #22 2 years ago

    What a terrible, useless review that was.

    I learned nothing about the title, its storyline, world, combat systems, scope, etc. Just that it features a great many traditional RPG tropes that the reviewer can find fault with.

  • SAMagic #23 2 years ago

    @berelain : Ah, the Microsoft excuse! It breaks any sense of immersion, that's for sure.

  • SteveHolt #24 2 years ago

    @jidnffc: agreed, especially about RDR: the problem with this "quest design" is that, after a while, you completely lose track of your grand-objective. After 10h playing RDR, I had completely forgotten about Bill Williamson... And it makes your main character look like a moron, since he robotically accepts every nonsensical, meaningless task thrown his way (the irishman, the grave-digger, among others).

  • systems #25 2 years ago

    Anyone who did want this and want what it should have been should go out and get Risen (by Piranha Bytes, the real Gothic team). It had middling reviews at the time but it was a masterpiece compared with this.

  • DrR0b3rts #26 2 years ago

    I might like this tbh. If it's a well rendered world, I'll play it like a 'roam around a nice fantastical landsape' simulator.

  • Shikasama #27 2 years ago

    Cthonic - Yeah I read the review, but the complaint is still a bit...floppy. Most games do exactly the same even they polish it up better. in KOTOR, the greatest console RPG of all time, you can't save the Jedi Order and bring down the Sith unless you....find some parts for some guys spaceship. IN Warcraft, apparantly the crucial step to defeating the Lich King is to collect some mouldy meat from level 3 monsters.

    We could get examples from every RPG that has been released, apart from some truly standout ones like Eve maybe that work on different rulesets. Hell, my favourite RPG of the gen, Nier, is ripe with it.

    Now if this game in particular does an even worse job of it and manages to disguise the objective as much as the guy who wrote the article things, fair enough, thats bad work, but the complaint in itself is just a little daft because anyone playing the game who has experience of the genre should see it as mostly standard fare.

  • levitate #28 2 years ago

    The graphics look good.

  • berelain #29 2 years ago

    @Shikisama +1 for loving Nier. That game gets far too little love.

  • TruSmiles #30 2 years ago

    Having played the demo, this review does sound accurate. The storyline and characters were laughable, don't even mention the voice acting. The world looked pretty if you were standing still; it just didn't feel right when you were walking through it. The gameplay was damn boring too. I was really interested in trying it, but that demo was a nightmare.

  • Darren #31 2 years ago

    @systems - Comparing demos, I found Risen far more tedious and banal than ArcaniA, not that I have any interest in playing either game in full anyway. There are enough good RPGs available and forthcoming to avoid the middling ones like these. With The Witcher 2 and Dragon Age: Origins 2 due next year and Fallout New Vegas available now why settle for mediocrity?

    I suspect personally that Two Worlds won't be much either but it'll definitely be a massive improvement on the original because that was so broken that it couldn't possibly get any worse!

  • miiiguel #32 2 years ago

    Bah... I realy liked Divinity (@ 360), was hoping this to be as entertaining. Maybe this Al fellow is wrong.

    /Denial mode.

  • Xardan #33 2 years ago

    Ugh god. No surprise really but its such a shame. Why are so many of these types of games so crap?

  • spekkeh #34 2 years ago

    Most games do exactly the same

    So you agree with the reviewer that this game is tired and derivative?

  • nocutius #35 2 years ago

    A score of 4 suggest the game is crap. It is not. It's average on the better side. It's just not Gothic anymore.

    I mostly agree with the review but i still think the score is just a bit too harsh, I'd give it a 6 or something around that mark.
    A 4 makes perfect sense if you're a Gothic fan, but since this is not Gothic anymore as the title of the game is Arcania: Gothic 4 and not Gothic 4: Arcania a score of 4 is too harsh.

  • TheSnotGoblin #36 2 years ago

    Risen on the PC can look awfully pretty; I understand the console ports were graphically atrocious though. And Risen is certainly more like the old Gothic games so if that's the type of vibe your after it's worth a play though it does descend into linear dungeon hack towards the end (Alec Meer wrote a Risen Diary over on RockPaperShotgun that's worth reading).

    On to ArcaniA; as a Gothic sequel it fails totally. They were obviously chasing the wider market (Understandable) and have managed to produce the most average game I have ever played as a result. You pretty much get shuffled through linear zones - complete a fetch quest to clear whatever's blocking the road this time is standard unlike Gothic's [in theory] roam anywhere approach (You'll get your head bitten off but you can still roam anywhere). There's none of the hidden surprises you come to expect in a Gothic game either; wandering off the beaten track was always rewarded in the older game, here you just discover invisible walls.

    The big deal for me though is that most of the 'simulation' elements are gone (Though a lot of the animations are still there oddly enough). NPCs routines are far more basic, you can no longer fight anyone you like and when you do you can't choose to beat them up or kill them, but there's no reason to get in fights anymore because people don't object to you rooting through their things (Compared to Gothic 3 where even if you were sneaky about your stealing NPCs would realise stuff was going missing eventually and blame the outsider i.e. you). There are fewer skills and you no longer need to find a trainer to learn them (Which was always a good source of interesting side-quests) and there's no pickpocketing anymore. Crafting has been reduced to hitting 'C', picking the recipe and pushing the craft button; no more using the in-world workbenches, campfires, grindstones or frying pans (Though all these items and associated animations are still in the game; they just have no result)

    So basically it's just a linear slasher with FedEx quests and poor dialogue.

  • freakster #37 2 years ago

    I think if you like Gothic, you will find this ok, from the demo it seems like more of the same, which isnt really a bad thing, just better looking.
    Is anyone else confused by the way this is being released? You can get it now from Steam, but its not available from play till March, but from Amazon it says December?

  • Shikasama #38 2 years ago

    Spekkah - Only if you level the same complaint at every other game in the genre. I don't disagre with the score or the sentiment of the interview, just with that particular complaint. I take the point about the presentation, but most games have you doing batshit mundane stuff under the pretense that its what you need to advance the story.

    I don't recall the same complaint being levelled at Dragon Age, Mass Effect or other games. it's just the inconsistancy that bothers me.

    Although I suspect the other negatives associated with the game exasperated the problem, where in the cases mentioned above the positives of those games outweighed the problem. I guarantee this complaint won;t be levelled at Warcraft: Cataclysm though, and it'll have a lot more of it.

  • FilthyPhoenix #39 2 years ago

    I'm quite enjoying the mindless hack and slash, preparing for Diablo III. it deserves more than a 4 at least 6.

  • bad09 #40 2 years ago

    An EG 4/10? All of a sudden I'm interested, all the good games get 4/10 on here!

  • Korpers #41 2 years ago

    Let me get this straight. I'm wearing more metal than a commercial airliner, there's fire dripping from my fingertips and I'm brandishing a polearm the size of a tree. I'm a walking war-god on a quest to save the world, and you're asking me to find... your lost hat?

    How about I pull your head off? Then you won't need your hat.

    Dude, I just choked on my cornflakes at this bit. Very funny indeed.
    Edited by Korpers at 21/10/10 @ 11:19

  • PlugMonkey #42 2 years ago

    "I don't recall the same complaint being levelled at Dragon Age, Mass Effect or other games. it's just the inconsistancy that bothers me. "

    I would level the same criticism at Dragon Age. It's the reason we've given up on it, in fact. I don't remember it so much from Mass Effect, or Fallout 3 where my impression was much more that I was getting distracted from my quest, rather than my quest being littered with meaningless chores.

    Now, there may be some specific example that you can cite, but if the impression from Arcania is very different from Mass Effect or Fallout, then that's very much something I'd like to hear about.

  • Whooey #43 2 years ago

    Spot on review. Should have mentioned that the melee combat is completely broken though, you can stun lock enemies into oblivion.

    It's even worse than the old Gothic's combat, which is saying something.

  • spekkeh #44 2 years ago

    Although I suspect the other negatives associated with the game exasperated the problem, where in the cases mentioned above the positives of those games outweighed the problem. I guarantee this complaint won;t be levelled at Warcraft: Cataclysm though, and it'll have a lot more of it.

    That was actually what I figured too. Fetch quests have been called annoying for about 10 years now; that some games can get away with it is probably because their other merits outweigh the annoying qualities. That doesn't mean it's not worthy of complaint. Additionally, being a lot like other games is not a redeeming quality either. If a new movie is pretty much a rehash of other stuff, movie critics will likely give it a 2/5 star rating too; you'll have a pretty ok time when it's shown on the telly, but don't go to the theater. I'm kind of ambivalent on whether movies and games arer comparable enough to liken the ratings, but I can see where this reviewer is coming from.

    By the way, do completely agree with you on Warcraft fanboyism.

  • Rajin #45 2 years ago

    I Really enjoyed Risen(especially how difficult it was) Had high hopes that this would follow in similar waters but with a better graphics engine(no way denying it, Risen looks mediocore on the highest settings)
    Edited by Rajin at 21/10/10 @ 12:42

  • AlistairUK #46 2 years ago

    I think the review is broadly about right, but there's a strong focus on levelling and loot - when have Gothic games ever been about loot? What made you think that's what this one is supposed to be about? The criticism of the quest presentation is spot on though. The technical issues mentioned - foliage and texture pop-in - are absent on the PC as far as I can tell, 37 hours in. You really need to play on a harder difficulty if you're not part of the casual audience. The PC version also (wonderfully!) lets you turn of all the exclamation marks above heads, and minimap quest markers etc. Does the console version do that too?

    That hat quest is not as ridiculous as it's presented here incidentally. There is a reason the hat in particular is needed! In general the problem is not that your obtsacles are insufficiently weighty, it's the awful imagination-free way NPCs just dole them out. They're like Soviet customer care reps. They give out the quest. They don't do acting.

    I'd say it's a 6 if the writing makes you curl up and die inside and an 8 if that stuff is transparent to you and you just want to launch fireballs at minecrawlers in tunnels and watch all the spangly new texture and lighting stuff happen.
    Edited by AlistairUK at 21/10/10 @ 13:24

  • glaeken #47 2 years ago

    That review spent a little too much time criticising the RPG mechanics virtually every RPG ever has had. I am not actually entirely sure why it ended up with a 4 once you take out those criticisms which it seems like you can if you like RPG's.

    There was actually nothing in the review that put me off it so I will most likely pick it up when its cheap. It sounds like it might make a good bargin bin buy to me.
    Edited by glaeken at 21/10/10 @ 13:29

  • Kain201 #48 2 years ago

    OHHHH my god !
    and I was expecting this one ...
    how those Germans bashed this licence to this point ?
    the Marketing Director asked for an easy game ... in order to get more"casual" gamers ?

    well.... at least we have fallout new Vegas...

    The "Germans" responsible for this piece of garbage are actually Austrians. Just like JoWooD where responsible for the shortcomings of Gothic 3 as well.

  • PlugMonkey #49 2 years ago

    @glaeken

    RPS said more or less all the same things.

    Yes, almost all RPGs give you quests and side quests. Some of these often involve fetching things, or killing things.

    However, some do this very well so you feel swept along in an adventure, some do this very badly and it feels like a list of chores.

    It would appear that Arcania is one of the latter, and I thought this review did a pretty good job of highlighting this and why it is the case.

    I don't really understand the confusion this is causing some people. It would appear that they are saying "Of course the game is a tedious list of chores! That's what all RPGs are!". Are they? Not in my experience they aren't.
    Edited by PlugMonkey at 21/10/10 @ 13:56

  • FortysixterUK #50 2 years ago

    The expected response for EG.

    I'll play the game a while and give my opinions. I tend to find I'm more open minded.

    To date the ONLY time EG and I have agreed about a negative game review about a game I owned was a WW2 shooter called " Hour of Victory".

  • glaeken #51 2 years ago

    @plugmonkey I dunno I can spot a fetch quest at a mile these days even if the writing is good. I am not exactly leaping to the defence of the game as in truth I was not even aware of it until I saw the review I just think it sounds like it might entertaining enough for me if the price is right as its not like we are drowning in RPG's these days. By the time I buy it I will probably get it for less than £10 so at that price I think I could extract some fun from it.

    I guess I would have liked to hear a little more about the rest of the game play in the review rather than it concentrate so much on the unimaginative RPG structure.

  • Lord_Gremlin #52 2 years ago

    I'm almost glad - this series is supposed to die.

  • PlugMonkey #53 2 years ago

    @glaeken
    Fair enough. He could have gone into more about the combat I suppose, but for me, the laundry list quest structure and loot grinding were enough to let me know that it was shaping up to be a pretty joyless experience.

    Crappy loot seems to be something of an epidemic in recent RPGs. You either find mountains of rubbish to sell for a pittance, or an incremental improvement over something you've got. You need to be finding loot that makes you think "Oh. My. Fucking. GOD!". Otherwise, it's not really loot. It's crap. A lot of crap.

  • uknortherner2000 #54 2 years ago

    JoWood's decision to go with SecuROM 7 and a three-installation limit was reason enough for me to ignore this game. If I want to be treated like a criminal, I'll rob a bank. I certainly don't expect to be penalised for forking over my cash to play a damn game.

  • mkreku #55 2 years ago

    I just realized that Risen got a 4/10 on here too, and that turned out to be my Game of the year! Maybe this isn't so bad after all? Hmm.

  • Seoh #56 2 years ago

    Wow, i've actually been really enjoying Gothic 4. The story is simple but quite early you are given your mission and everything you do is to get you one step closer to your goal.

    The thing is about the fetch quests, your character actually starts get impatient and becomes quite annoyed and sarcastic about the whole thing, but i suppose understands the universal rule of "you scratch my back ...."

    If you like RPG's and if you can get passed the comedic voice acting then its a pretty enjoyable linear romp, not finished yet and it may wear thin if it goes on too much longer. PS the main game is significantly better than the demo with much more interesting places to visit and open areas with hidden places to find.

    6/10 for me
    Edited by Seoh at 21/10/10 @ 15:55

  • darc #57 2 years ago

    The demo set off alarm bells right away, eg. the moment I saw the first yellow exclamation point hanging over someone's head. Another poster indicates that these can be turned off, but it was still an immediate indication that the "tone" of the series had been sacrificed in order to make this appealing to a new generation of RPG players. The exclamation points are really just the tip of that iceberg, though - the whole sequence in the intro town felt like a sitcom compared with the immediately darker context of previous Gothics, and of Risen.

    The second alarm bells had to do with pacing, and I'm not sure whether this applies to the final release, but my understanding was that the demo was supposed to be the first 2 hours of the final release. What I noticed playing the demo through to completion was that the game seemed too eager to please, and as a consequence sort of played its hand too early. I mean, what the hell was I doing wearing plate armour in any kind of serious RPG after two hours of play, with a character who was still being introduced to game mechanics?? It just left me feeling like, "OK, but where are we going from here." Turns out we were going to meet one very campy witch.

    And yeah, the acting is terrible. This really is a let down for me as acting did so much to bring Risen to life. The posts here indicating that Risen was "mediocre" grate a bit (though of course different strokes...) I thought the game, for all its faults, was brilliant if only by virtue of the writing, acting, and the absolutely masterful pacing. Of course the graphics were a mixed bag (great vistas, terrible characters and interiors - I think the team didn't really understand the importance of light sources in closed spaces), and the end game was a complete joke, almost a mini-game, really.

    Last comment - I can't help but read "If you like the other gothics than you'll like Gothic 4" as a slant on the early gothics, but perhaps that was not the poster's intention? Did you even play Gothic 1-3?

    So far the best thing about Gothic 4's release is it's got me playing through Risen a second time. I'm even starting to eyeball my old (unfinished) Gothic 3 game saves! :)
    Edited by darc at 21/10/10 @ 16:35

  • peppergomez #58 2 years ago

    Poor poor Gothic. The redheaded stepchild of the fantasy RPG series. Will they ever get it right? I'll just stick to Oblivion TESIV modded to the hilt (FCOM, etc. etc.) until a) Fallout New Vegas is actually patched and modded enough to be worth buying, b) TESV comes out and is, you guessed it, patched and modded enough to be worth buying, c) until Deus Ex: Human Revolution comes out and is, you guessed it, etc. etc.
    Edited by peppergomez at 21/10/10 @ 17:45

  • AlistairUK #59 2 years ago

    darc - the demo is not the beginning of the game. It was a specific demo version. In the full game armour is about as scarce as it was in the oringinal games, and the initial quests in that area have about a 75% overlap with the demo I guess.

  • darc #60 2 years ago

    Thanks Alistair, that's something of a relief. Gothic 4 is still on my radar, but there are so many products vying for my attention right now (including stuff I already own), I doubt I'll wind up buying it at its current price. Maybe in a few months I'll check it out.

    As with Fallout NV, trying to decide on PC vs. XBox, i.e. are the improved graphics worth sitting at a desk vs. the living room...

  • DrMGinius #61 2 years ago

    Other sites gave this game sevens and eights, claiming it was rubbish, boring, glitchy... but still giving them those scores. You, the merciless, honest Eurogamer... you can identify a generic game when you play one, a game with almost no creativity put into gameplay, desing or thematics, and give it the score it deserves. That is why I prefer this site over other gaming ones, not because im from Europe.
    Edited by DrMGinius at 21/10/10 @ 18:28

  • apoc_reg #62 2 years ago

    I think i like Eurogamer then i read an RPG review....

    after Risen I thought you couldn't do a worse job but this is it!

    Not that arcania is a good game but the review barely even mentions the prior games and whats changed or anything else relevant in the current trends and the fact this is trying to be Fable 2 but failing while also not being Gothic..!

    Poor review.

  • uk_john #63 2 years ago

    If this was the review for Elder Scrolls IV, of Fallout: New Vegas, or Dragon Age 2, with all the same problems, it would have got a score of at least 8.5! Gaming media always go after the smaller publishers in a big way and the larger publishers always get 'the benefit of the doubt' - in effect we have a immoral and biased gaming media! This game deserved a 6 or 7 and a 4 just show the bias of this site againsta smaller publishers, not the state of the game.

  • Ternon #64 2 years ago

    Is Risen a better game?

  • Ternon #65 2 years ago

    Is Risen a better game?

  • apoc_reg #66 2 years ago

    Morning after... I can only assume this was a console review????

    Seriously 4/10 is an absolute joke.

    Its not a great game by any stretch and is way behind Risen and other Gothics but still easily a 7/10.

    Great world, some nice effects, entertaining if limited combat and some nice story parts (if lacking choice).
    Edited by apoc_reg at 22/10/10 @ 09:40

  • darc #67 2 years ago

    Another absolute mystery neg above. Did I upset someone by mentioning I sometimes sit in the living room?

  • darc #68 2 years ago

    Ternon, I have no idea why you were negged above, but for what it's worth I (and a few others who post here regularly) really love Risen. Some have said that the XBox version was a little ugly compared w/ the PC version (and I would think controls and inventory management were probably a little clumsier, too) so if you have the choice, check it out on PC. It's down to like $30 on Steam. It's an odd game, brilliant in many ways and very unpolished in others - in long-standing Gothic tradition LOL. The graphics, for instance, can swing from remarkable to remarkably ugly from moment to moment.

    If you liked Gothic 3 but thought it was a little too long, or too buggy, or too poorly acted, then you'll love Risen. It's basically a distilled version of G3. Try and check out a demo.
    Edited by darc at 22/10/10 @ 14:32

  • peppergomez #69 2 years ago

    Guess I hurt the feelings of some Gothic fans, hence the negging? But really, who would want to play something like Gothic 3 (I tried, and wanted to like it, but couldn't) when some investment in a modded Oblivion yields a superb RPG playing experience?
    Edited by peppergomez at 22/10/10 @ 15:48

  • TomRay #70 2 years ago

    I completely disagree with the review. I bought this from Steam on release day and have been playing it for around 12 hours since.

    Ok, so the story is not stellar, and the missions are somewhat bland but the world, crafting and the loot is great! If you enjoy exploring, and collecting loot then this game is for you.

    7/10

  • frazzl #71 2 years ago

    I got the following two paragraphs from Eurogamer's review of Gothic 3 (an 8/10 albeit from a different reviewer):

    "In order to set the scene, let's go back to the first couple of hours in Piranha Byte's third-person swords and goblins adventure and take a gander at my mission list:

    * - Collect ten wolfskins
    * - Take care of group of bandits
    * - Kill pack of aggressive wild boar
    * - Retrieve missing fire chalices

    Yep, you guessed it. Such well-worn tasks so early in the game can only indicate that we're back once more into a comfortable, traditional role-playing territory we know like the back of our hand. In essence, it's a sequel that's returned home from a stressful term at university, older and wiser, prepared to spend a week snuggled up in its Transformers duvet as the smell of its mum's home-made macaroni cheese wafts under the bedroom door."

    It seems to me that not much has changed with Gothic 4 and I have had a pretty decent time with it thus far. Sure fetch quests aren't particularly exciting and the graphics on the 360 version are pretty rough (the PC version is obviously the one to get), but I find the game to be both strangely relaxing and addictive. The landscapes are vast and well designed (they're a lot more organic than the ones seen in Oblivion), combat is simple but effective (think Fable 2), and on the hard difficulty the game feels just right in terms of how taxing gameplay is. It's definitely not for everyone, but if you want to have a relaxing go at a game you can't finish in a single day then this might be worth investigating.
    Edited by frazzl at 25/10/10 @ 03:00

  • BrenoAndre #72 2 years ago

    I'm almost finishing, and enjoyed every minute. Dont let the review scare you.

    If you're looking for a fun, relaxed RPG, buy the bloody game.
    Edited by BrenoAndre at 23/10/10 @ 07:49

  • jena_plissken_ #73 2 years ago

    Fabio CAPPELLO ??? :D ahahahahahahahahhahahahahaha please....

  • mmagic1 #74 11 months ago

    I have to strongly dissagre with this review (bad, bad, bad review!!)
    This game is awesome. I start with its stronger point, it has stunning graphics for our time (i played PC with everyting maxed out anti aliasing and morphological filtersin) and a very enjoyable story; playing this game was not borring at all and I have been imersed a lot.
    The battle fells great, I played with a dualhand sword the seconds skill maxed and with lightning spell maxed to paralyse the oponents and the battle where very dyanamic and satisfying; I had to start the battle by getting in a safe position to charge the lightning spell then rush to the enemy with no weapon in hand to get faster to them then I will draw the weapon and kill them until the shock effect draw off. First focus mages, then archers, then melee fighters.
    The exploration is great I have found lots of strong weapons/rings/amultes by carefully exploring all corners, lot's of beliar, inos statues.
    I feel the game does not let you totaly ruin a character, later item's are realy strong, later I had a sword that was stealing life, and decend damage 40 ( I got it by exploring the monastery where you have to pass the test to beliar and innos) what can you wish more ???!!

    I also played as fire mage but the fire is kinda weeak I don't know maybe I should have combined fire with lightning spells(to paralyze oponents ) as the problem was the archers and melee could hit me easy.

    I'm not a hadcore rpg player, i'm somehow cassual player but I'm a gamer for 20 years and I have finished/played tons of games and the game was a great experience, totaly recommend that to anyone.

    The sound are very good, they immerse you, voices are realy good and cinematics look very well.
    This game had very few bugs, the only bug that annoyed me was that being over exploring character I sometimes got stuck because the game tries to not let you fall of clifs but this feature also makes you stuck sometimes.

    I have enjoyed the autosaving features or autosaving on quests and keypoints.

    If Fable III oversimplified dumbed style of socializing, iritating back voice and rulling the kingdom got a score 8/10 on this site.
    Then Arcania deserves a 10/10.