Gaming Arcania: Gothic 4 Review

http://www.bit-tech.net/gaming/pc/2010/10/25/arcania-gothic-4-review/1

 

Is there only easy difficulty? I've played first and second game but both of them have really tough beginnings.
Gothic games were always a bit strange - their beauty derived from how broken and difficult they were.

 

Shame, this game had peeked my interest.

BTW, the game is listed as a PC exclusive but it's also on your Xboxes and Playstations. Might explain the hack-and-slash nature of the combat.

 

Amusing review.

I actually quite enjoyed the demo and it ended at a point which left me wanting more. However, I've resisted the urge to buy the full game because I had a sense that I'd probably seen all the game had to offer in terms of quest variety. The demo also offered very little challenge.

Does look pretty though... and it is only £20 at Amazon...

 

Been really trying to love this game with the amount of time I've spent playing but no luck yet I was hoping this game would turn out like Risen but some how better. The voice acting and lip syncing is what really ruins the game for me and there isnt really any tactics in combat

 

As a player of all the previous Gothic games, I can safely say this one doesn't deserve the name.

The whole attraction of the Gothic games was that each NPC had an agenda and a routine - you could watch them get up in the morning, go for a piss, sit down by the fire and cook their breakfast, before heading off to their post or shop or whatever. If you so much as drew your sword in town, people would react negatively - stealing was a skill that came late on, so strolling into someone's house and opening their chests was out of the question.

In this game, you feel absolutely nothing for either your hero or any of the other characters. The cut-scene when our hero realises his whole village, including his fiancé, has just been butchered, is so abrupt that for the rest of the game you're left thinking, why am I doing this again? Oh yeah, they killed Ivy.

Great review, although I would have given it a more appropriate 4. If you've not played any of the Gothic games before, this may be worth a gander - think of it as Oblivion, but easier and with no plot. If you've played any of the Gothic games, avoid this one if you cherish your memories.

 

"To make matters worse, each of these quests is delivered using the worst voice acting ever in the history of computer gaming"

Spot on with that comment Joe.

Being a Gothic fan, I was looking forward to this. Thankfully I tried the demo first, and that saved me from buying it. Although I did consider trying it in a different language (I know Spanish, and could even get by with French) because the voice acting in the demo was almost literally ear rape.

Anyway, good review Joe, thanks.

 

Thanks Wildthing, but the article was actually by David Brown. Just noticed I messed the credit up, but it's fixed now.

 

And no magic, and no thievery, and no... loads of stuff.

 

it's not much better than gothic 3 then

 

I had forgotten that they were making another one. Going to try and re-forget this.

 

I've only played the demo - free on Steam - and I thoroughly recommend it for the voice acting alone. I was in stitches. It also looks stunning. Thankfully I didn't buy the game put off by the voices, which were already wearing. After you've finished the demo, like me, you can delete the content safe in the knowledge that you've had the experience and it didn't cost you a penny...

 

I think Gothic 3 is better in almost every way. And even that wasn't very good.

 

you did watch the video didn't you?

 

That crappy video above? Didn't tell me anything I didn't already know. I played that game myself. Nearly completed it.

 

Review came in too late for me .
Fair rating of 5/10.
Only reason I played it through was to justify me buying it & it was a chore bore for sure.

Only good thing I have to say about Arcania is at least it was fully playable at launch unlike gothic 3 .
The entire game feels like it's lacking sooo much, way too easy like said in review, not once in the game did I need to use a potion or eat.
I hated the map & pointer system thanks to invisible barriers all over the place & no key to the map, the marker you put on the map just points you in the direction of where you want to go so points through unpassable obstacles & mountains etc.

Risen kicks Arcania's bum so the only action/adventure rpg's I'm looking forward to now are risen 2 & fable 3 & possibly two worlds 2.

I'd have been better off buying gothic 3 at the much lower cost & getting the community patch.

Shame the devs who made risen didn't have a big budget to make it more fancy but even so Risen is one of my favourite acion/adventure RPG's.

 

Since there is no youtube videos showing just how horrible Lycra the Witch's voice acting is... I think you should make one to go along with this review. But, as an aside, who the heck names a character "Lycra"? Much less a witch?

 

She's stretchy.

I have this game installed and have tried to play it but it's not even slightly grabbed me. I got through the dream sequence intro and the combat felt so poor, followed by an introductory conversation that was horribly tepid, left me feeling like the game would offer nothing. I can suffer bad combat for a good RPG, as in The Witcher, and I can suffer a wonky RPG if the combat makes me happy, as in Mount and Blade, but this was just weak. Anybody developing a game of this type needs to sit down and play Oblivion start to finish and then look at how to improve on that. If they can't even match Oblivion, at the very least, then they are wasting everybody's time.

 

Well said.

Two Worlds 2 will get things right. Besides that, the only other RPG's I want are next year. Dragon Age 2, and Witcher 2. I'll be waiting for reviews on them both tho.

 

Remember Polly Esther Fabrique from Carmen San Diego?