Arcania (Aka Arcania: A Gothic Tale or Gothic 4)

Soooo, from the sounds of it, looks like i'll be over looking this game and awaiting Two Worlds 2 instead. Shame that no one has matched the epicness of Oblivion which had many faults and now graphics are dated but i love first person rpg idea and its AI hasnt been touched by virutally any game.
more than anything, i just want a really deep, epic, open world first person RPG set in a more natural, varied landscape where i don't see the same things over n over.

 

The demo is a custom version of the introduction area / tutorial but the ending of it (After the witch part I would guess.) is all unique, nearly, those who read the journal entries at the end would see the ending parts of the actual game (Unsure if it has multiple endings.) as a oversight in the quest log from Spellbound, whoops.

DX11 is what this engine (Vision7) can do but it's a framework engine for licensing just like with Gamebryo and Oblivion (Or UE3), DX9 was the only API ever supported and used by Spellbound as they explained.

I hope the invisible barriers are due to this starting island and to avoid / hinder the player from reaching things he isn't meant to (Unfinished farm area.) but that can't be said for certain until the game is released, as you say though fall damage is very minor and overall the game is somewhat simplified and easy.
(Difficulty controls damage received and damage dealt and not much else apparently.)

EDIT: Not that I think it needs to be clarified but I agree with most other points made, I'll enjoy the game as Arcania and not "Gothic 4 Arcania", original name "Arcania: A Gothic Tale" would have been fine as well.

There is some room for exploration though, Oruks shame for example many seem to miss.
(Two handed mace/staff that deals 22 damage, cave in the dark forest region, has it's own description, same with certain differences like killing the sheep you are supposed to tend though this is very minor at best.)

(Of course in terms of equipment in the demo the one handed leech ability hammer, shock scrolls, plate mail and shield perform much better along with the crossbow for backup.)

 

Spell Bound had confirmed sometime last year that the game would use invisible walls and impassable NPC barriers to block the player from higher level areas until they complete certain quests. So it's not just for the demo. Of course to what degree this is used out of the tutorial is obviously yet to be seen.

One of the biggest selling points of the Gothic series however has always been it's sense of danger. You could always find very high level enemies at beginning sections of the game, enemies that would destroy you completely if you tried to put up a fight. So hopefully Spell Bound doesn't use these walls to keep players completely cradled.

The AI that walks in a 10' square talking about mud crabs?

 

Yeah, this is a no for me, too. Again, let down. Gothic 3 was junk, this is too. All of the negative points above are correct. Allow me to beat the dead horse, too; this is no Oblivion. Not that I want another Oblivion, but it set a high mark, and this colossal pile of dog poo is nowhere close to that mark. The controls are clunky, stupid roll-out instead of block(why the HELL do I have a shield then?), there is no open world here, and so on and so forth.

I will wait for Elder Scrolls V.







I wish I had four hands, so I could give this game, four thumbs down!!!

 

@Isidore Gosh, of course. But teh publisher is what really matters with such AAA-title. If producers really care, they never let the devs screw up the selling features. There is such thing as quality control, you know... However, I gotta admit, in this one it's better than in other JoWood recent titles like Painkiller: Resurrection

@Jonas I'm sorry, but they've specifically promised us DX10 back in a day.

 

I think it's far better than Oblivion. I do however think Oblivion is one of the absolute worst RPG's I've ever had the misfortune of owning. They simply took Morrowind and simplified it in almost every single possible way, then added fancy graphics to it to draw in customers. Not to mention it uses the single worst leveling / enemy leveling system in gaming history.

 

Sure, Oblivion wasn't perfect, but it got more right than it did wrong, I can't say the same for Gothic 4. There are work-arounds and fixes for many of the Oblivion issues. I also am a bit jaded, had a sh!t experience with Gothic 3, and now I will write-off this company and series in particular. It's just a bad game. My opinion, of course.:nerd:

 

hehe, it had its faults, but i was reffering to things like individual sleep/wake cycles, stealing, going to work, traveling...things like that, sure it could use some tweaking but it beats the usual stiff A.I. that does scripted things, the randomness made for some funny and suprising situations.

A.I. is the single slowest progressing technlogy ever. Even many decade old games had AI that could hear and duck behind cover, sadly it hasnt changed a whole lot.

 

Oblivion was... hm... doubtful in classic RPG terms, but it had something that no other "big RPG" had reproduced ever since - the real vibe of a huge, living world with hundreds of unique, "local" places which were still a part of something bigger and complete. Not to mention magnificent atmosphere (mostly, thanks to soundtrack). Also, it featured an epic randomness (by all means, hehe - 1hr dungeon quest to obtain a copper ring and kitchen knife in a random chest, flawless). This and this alone justified any other flaws for me. That is what I've missed most in all RPGs that followed.

@PhatKat U look nice on that pic

 

well yeah, you are right..dx10!? never heard of that news until now.. they announced that they won't make it a dx10 title? maybe the full version is gonna have a dx10 version with some extra visuals..

Developers are getting lame..seriously they still develop dx9 titles even now when we have dx10 and dx11, they're f*cking with us..i know it's a console port, but even so, they should have worked a bit on it, and at least add something for us who invest money into new gpu every year..

 

Ok people this isnt Gothic 4 at all. Forget about all this Gothic thing and it will be decent rpg to play.

Gothic series ended after second game and thats it.

 

@Indeo

Gothic 3 Soundtrack - Exploring Myrtana This is the music you hear while exploring Myrtana, outside of towns etc..
Gothic 3 soundtrack - Fight
Gothic 3 soundtrack - Exploring Nordmar Music you hear while exploring snowy Nordmar
Gothic 3 Soundtrack - Exploring Varant - Night
Gothic 3 soundtrack - Omnious Woods Night
Gothic 3 Soundtrack - Dark Presence
Soundtrack Gothic 3-Trelis Liberate After liberating towns from Orcs.

Oblivion's soundtrack doesn't come close. Not even to Gothic 1. And how does anything in that plastic and generic Oblivion look unique to anyone. I wonder really.
Just fire up gothic 3 and walk through Myrtana, Varant and Nordmar to see what "unique" means. How environment and soundtracks should be made. And what vibe of a huge, living world, really is.

continuing with my thoughts on the demo.

Gothic 4, judging from the demo, still has that "hand crafted" Gothic style environment. With even better effects, lighting, models and nice background music.
Leveling system is different, but really good. Weapons and armor look amazing as do spells. And finally a game where bow/crossbow are actually useful.
Also, anyone who has been following Gothic 4 development, in the last year or so, would know that it is DX9 only game. As the devs said in a number of interviews.
Yeah, It would have been nicer to see DX11. But they said DX9, and DX9 it is.

 

UnrealGaming
Gothic 3 is something special, but music is epic and I add these tracks
Gothic 3 - Geldern Night
Gothic 3 - Myrtana at Night
Gothic 3 - Northmar

 

Gothic 3 had a nice soundtrack, but had so, so many flaws. What did me in wasnt the crashing, the scripted, bland AI, the horrid animation, no it was how horrible the first person view was, every fight i'd get knocked down and kicked out of first person view, it never felt right anyway and dunno if it was ever fixed but i stopped careing before it was and tossed it in the trash.

Add your own tunes to Oblivion, along with some mods and its a heck of a game, though its pregenerated landscape is repetitive and boring as heck.

 

Amazing. Anyone who hasn't played Gothic, should hear this.

Gothic 3 - Geldern Night
Just add crackling sound of campfire, and faint whispers of people talking in the night, while you're passing through the small town of Geldern.
And that's the atmosphere of Gothic.

 

You actually played Gothic 3 in 1st person ? OMG! All gothic games 3rd person. You can scroll to 1st person... but its never meant to be played like that !

 

Yep gothic 3 music is one of the best game soundtrack I've ever heard, and hearing it while playing the game was great.
Too bad it (the game) had so many "game stopper" bugs when it came out.

This gothic 4 game looks fun, although it's clearly visible that it's not a real gothic game. For me gothic 2 was one of the best if not the best rpg of this kind that I've played.

Forgetting the "gothic 4" label, arcania seems fun enough for me, while waiting for some news about the next pyranha bytes game.

 

I might try Gothic 2 one day... Gothic 3 was too buggy unfortunately, even with all the community patches. But I like these RPGs, Risen was great. It's just unfortunate for Gothic 3...

I pre-ordered Arcania after playing demo. It ran so smooth with awesome lighting and post processing effects that I had to support the devs for that... lol

 

You do that! I dont bealive someone dint played Gothic 2 (best in the series)