ArcaniA is the fourth major entry in the Gothic franchise, originally a PC RPG from Piranha Bytes. ArcaniA was the first instalment under new developer Spellbound, and this shift in developer saw a change in style to a more accessible action-focused RPG experience. Though the fourth Gothic game is inevitably more accessible than its predecessors, a great deal of the magic was lost in this transition, a complaint that was held up in the game’s lukewarm critical reception. The Complete Tale marks the series’ debut on PS3, but is also coming to Xbox 360 and PC.

The original tale of Gothic 4 is high fantasy all over, revelling in as many clichés as possible. There’s a mad king on a rampage dominating other kingdoms by force and your character, a farmer who finds his village raided by this evil king, sets out an a well worn revenge quest. Though it won’t win any marks for originality, the story is presented pleasantly enough. The problem comes in the form of its pacing, something the writers evidently had little regard from. The humble beginnings are rushed through, with an engagement, pregnancy and murder of a childhood sweetheart being rushed through in the first twenty minutes of gameplay. This early story soon gives way to a heavier combat focus, one that is seldom welcome.

The fights are reasonably simple, revolving around a single attack and a block/dodge command. The emphasis is on real time action, something that makes the gameplay accessible and shallow in equal measure. New melee attacks unlock as you level up your hero, but these fail to add much depth to the hack and slash affair that is ArcaniA’s combat. You can also pick off enemies from afar using magic or a bow and arrow/crossbow, if you prefer a hands off approach. Whilst this adds some variety to the proceedings, aiming ranged attacks can be a finicky affair, one that is further complicated by ArcaniA’s mostly broken lock on feature. Holding L2 shifts the camera to lock on to your target. Whilst cinematic and visually pleasing, auto-aiming tends to force your arrows to miss more often than not, a frustration exacerbated by the two second delay that occurs between you holding the trigger and the camera actually locking on.

The engine is fast enough to keep combat reasonably exciting, but repetitive enemy designs and a limp levelling system soon turn ArcaniA into a chore. Progression is a classless affair, a design decision that inevitably removes the usual frustration associated with irreversible progression choices. It winds up being a double-edged sword though, stripping the game of a great deal of replay value and customisation. With all skill trees heading in roughly the same direction, even a snappy pace of progression is not enough to keep things particularly interesting. 

These combat flaws become even more pronounced in the Fall of Setariff expansion. Without much story to hold it together, the game inevitably falls apart. Though there is some semblance of scenario to the Fall of Setariff, it lacks the build up of the vanilla ArcaniA story, instead just dumping your protagonist into a mess of combat. The first hour of gameplay consists of about five seconds of dialogue hiding amongst endless fight sequences. The fact that you start off with a huge amount of the game’s skills already unlocked further reduces the sense of satisfaction. The lack of dialogue options also makes the minimal scripting even more obvious. It’s a problem that is further highlighted by the presentation of dialogue. It appears in a text box that gives the illusion of dialogue choices and response selection, but the only options you get are continuing a conversation or ending it. Even basic conversation choices would have been more welcome than this hollow excuse for action RPG mediocrity.

The story, levelling and combat are all fairly flat in ArcaniA: The Complete Tale, but the presentation is a more up and down affair. Animations are fairly competent, offering a decent sense of momentum to combat, though jumping looks oddly “floaty.” Weather is a surprisingly impressive visual effect, shifting quickly to rain showers and glorious sunlight randomly. Countering this though are some dastardly draw distances and character models that are, in truth, terrifying. Uncanny barely begins to describe them. Especially the glowing teeth and eyes. Ouch. 

For the price, ArcaniA offers a great deal of content, especially with the inclusion of the Fall of Setariff add on. It’s quantity over quality though; by a long way. There are plenty of other action RPGs out there that are more accessible, better presented and offer deeper gameplay than ArcaniA. I’ve been pretty brutal in my appraisal of ArcaniA: The Complete Tale and, whilst it certainly isn’t the worst game out there, it’s a flat and uninspired title that keeps feeling dated and out of sync with modern gaming; a sensation that remains regardless of how many hours you choose to invest.

 This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 3.

DreamCatcher Games, JoWooD Entertainment and Spellbound Entertainment have announced that and add-on for ArcaniA: Gothic 4 will be launched on March 25th 2011. Called Fall of Setarrif, it brings an all new adventure to the ArcaniA universe. For the very first time players can experience the storyline from a different character’s point of view.

Here are the features, as listed by the devs themselves:

·         10+ hours of new compelling game play

·         Experience and fight as each of your famous allies, utilising their unique skillset

·         Battle all new enemies & monsters and hone your combat skills with new items & weapons

·         Discover new environments such as jungles, the volcanic mountains, Setarrif & the coastal regions

·         Import your character from ArcaniA – Gothic 4 or choose a predefined archetype

·         Standalone Add-On

“We will be releasing some exclusive assets earlier on our Facebook page over the next few weeks“, says Manuel Karl, Community Manager JoWooD. “Fans on our page will get a sneak preview and can provide me with direct feedback or ask me any questions they have. Experiencing the story from the point of view of up to four of your allies makes it an exciting experience and has already caused many fans to get intrigued by the Add-On.”

Here’s some info on the game released by the devs:

“A new threat casts its shadow over the Southern Isles. A mysterious demon, consumed by hatred, terrifies the population and pools his force against the coastal city of Setarrif. The dramatic situation exacerbates after a volcanic eruption in the mountains nearby. The nameless hero joins forces with his strongest allies and courageously faces the new menace.”

DreamCatcher Games, Spellbound Entertainment and JoWood Group have announced a new add-on for their game ArcaniA- Gothic 4, and it’s called ArcaniA – Fall of Setarrif. The developers describe the add-on as an “action filled add-on” in which “our nameless hero will continue his journey and encounter fierce new enemies, all new items and more exotic areas to explore. For the first time in the history of the franchise, gamers will be able to experience the story from a different perspective and play as different characters.”

“This add-on gives us the opportunity to tell the story of the city Setarrif. Besides the story, which is an extension of the story of ArcaniA – Gothic 4, players will be provided with diversified regions, quests and dungeons,” says André Beccu, Lead Designer Spellbound Entertainment.  “Players will be able to import their Gothic 4 character and they will meet the old fellows again. But this time, we came up with something very new!”

Here are some of the features of the upcoming add-on:

·         10 hours of gameplay with a multitude of new quests and missions

·         Experience the story from another characters’ point of view – for the very first time in the franchise

·         Import your character from ArcaniA – Gothic 4 or choose one from a set of archetypes

·         A broad variety of new items for a even more character variations

·         New enemies! Prove your fighting techniques against countless hordes of monsters

·         New environments like cities, coastal regions, jungle and mountains with volcanic activity!

We will have more updates and details in 2011.

DreamCatcher Games, Spellbound Entertainment, BVT Group and JoWooD have together released a patch for the recently released ArcaniA: Gothica 4. This patch will “slightly alter specific gameplay dynamics, increase the overall performance and get rid of rare crashes.”

Here are the things the patch will be fixing:

FIXED: Interruption of interactions with sword strikes

FIXED: Acknowledgements playback after loading a save game

FIXED: Jump interrupted by FMV character freeze

FIXED: Cool down in the inventory screen

FIXED: Reduced ocean clipping problem for Stereoscopic 3D

FIXED: Arrows stick on already disintegrated Demon

FIXED: Stamina consumption while sprinting with equipped spells added

FIXED: SLI issues & optimizations

FIXED: Crash on vista machines when starting the game on the second adapter while the first adapter was disabled

FIXED: Stereoscopic 3D can be deactivated from the NVIDIA control panel before launching game

FIXED: Pickable item restoration

FIXED: Multiple CPU profiles in process manager

FIXED: Clouds use dynamic vertex buffer for frequent locking

FIXED: Performance problem with terrain tile generation

FIXED: Performance bug in trails

FIXED: Rare crash when arrows stuck in players vanished

FIXED: Additional unnecessary loading screen when using a teleport stone-need

Standard controls are X to attack and Y to evade unless otherwise tweaked (Xbox 360 Controls).  You can use melee weapons, ranged weapons or magic.  A good technique is to use a certain type of magic on an enemy and then use either a melee attack (Sword/Axe) or ranged attack (Bow/Crossbow).  You can also lock on to enemies whether using melee, ranged or magic attacks. The D-pad is basically your hot-key, giving you two layers of four items to have weapons and spells at your ready and the right bumper is used to view your active spell selection, which after chosen can then be cast by hitting the right bumper again.

Water Magic Attack

As you level up you will be able to charge all attacks to do more damage or do area of effect destruction also learning useful combos on the way.  All the combat is in real time which is how I like my RPG’s, with the small exception of being able to press start while in battle and use potions to heal yourself as well as switch up a few things to make a battle easier.  Upon killing an enemy you get exactly what that enemy had whether it’s a weapon or an animals meat that you can cook and eat later on. Loot drops seemed to be very rewarding at most times but the actual reward items themselves from doing certain quests seemed to be not as useful. The skill trees are broken up into archery, magic, and combat(melee) sub-categories which you can put points into anyone of these at any time with out having to commit to one. When it comes to spell-crafting, alchemy and potion-making it’s not hard to find raw materials strewn across the land and you will unlock spell-crafting abilities regardless of which path you decide to take your character down.

Nothing like slaying on the beach.

The game has an open world free roam system, meaning anywhere you can see, you can go provided you have unlocked the right quests to visit these areas.  Arcania: Gothic 4 will take around 35 hours to beat unless you plan on collecting everything as well as obtaining all the Achievements/Trophies, you could be spending up to 80 hours with the game.  There are over 100 weapons in the game such as axes, swords, bows and such.  When it comes to magic, there are three main spells that you will level up as you play the game.  Your hands eventually begin to glow with the “awesome power of magic”.

When Goblins attack.

Where the game fails to give you a sense of a realistic RPG is that there are no repercussions for stealing or looting stores at all.  This takes away a moral sense that really adds to other similar RPG’s such as Oblivion and Fable.  The music in the game however is great while adding wonderful transitions as you enter and exit battle.  Graphics in the game are really beautiful at times when it comes to the scenery but some AI characters don’t exactly fit to par with the rest of the games graphics.  One down side is the voice acting at times seems to be not taken seriously as there are points in the game where the voice acting is just simply bad and takes away from the story telling.

Die Molrate.. Die.

The list goes on when it comes to level of things you can do in this RPG.  You can mine with a pick axe for materials.  You can notice AI side conversations that have nothing to do with you or your quests that adds that realism to an RPG.  Fast travel is a must in the huge world of Arcania: Gothic 4 with three islands with seven different areas that are unlocked as the story progresses.  The game is almost a cross between Oblivion and Fable with its own dark element added to make this game stand out from other RPG’s.

This game was reviewed on the Xbox 360.

Dreamcatcher Interactive and JoWooD Entertainment have announced the release of ArcaniA-Gothic 4 today in North America.

The latest installment in the renowned Gothic series is set about 12 years after the events shown in “Gothic 3”, and again invites the player to a fantastic journey through a war-torn world. The former nameless hero, who by now has been crowned King Robar the Third, commands a rigorous regiment over Myrtana and the Southern Islands. Luckily, not all subordinates live in fear and submission to the King and a new hero emerges, with the intention to settle an old score: A seemingly unimposing shepherd from the Isle of Feshyr sets out on the long and perilous journey to the King’s Palace.

We will have the review of game pretty soon, stay tuned.

DreamCatcher Interactive, JoWooD Entertainment & the BVT Group and announce the brief North American release delay of Arcania: Gothic 4. The game was scheduled for an Oct 12^th release and has been pushed back one week to October 19^th.

The game will still be released on October 12^th worldwide, and on October 19^th in North America.

Stay tuned with GamingBolt for a full review of the game soon.