Arcania - Demo Released

well, played at home with my Core2duo 2.6 (below spec) + GTX480 (Very much above spec) - and it def stutters in places (everything max, 1600x1200), but still very playable.
While the world is pretty, the player interactions are kind of dull - I can loot people's stuff and they say nothing. No one seems to sleep (well not that I saw). beds cannot be slept in - I mean you can lie on them, but you can't pass time. In the demo you get given 60 scrolls (!) pow, pow…I hope to god that was just for demo purposes. It just feel very "actiony" - you can almost forget that until combat starts: then it's backward rolls, athletic cavorting here and then - and rather badly done I might add. Feels completely inadequate compared to Gothic or Risen. Example: I do a backward roll away from enemy, often I end up facing backwards, then roll forward, and I'm still facing backwards…which is not good if you're trying to smack someone in front of you. All I want is the ability to jump back, or backpeddle to avoid a blow. nah. And that bloody camera….! Why!? I want to be able to strafe and manoeuvre - the only option really seem to be block and arrow keys - which is a roll only. Not good. Combat in Gothic was initially hard, but very rewarding once you mastered it. I see combat as being the one aspect that won't work for me if the demo is an accurate reflection. The skill system looks uninteresting too. The quests seem pretty standard, although its early on of course.
The demo allayed my fear about performance, but sadly the gameplay itself is not quite what I'd hoped.

I just finished the demo... as expected, the only thing related with the old games is the title.

EVERYTHING is changed. Combat system, leveling system, armors etc. The demo was linear and boring. NPC's are dull and imo the voices are not as great as in the original game. The main hero looks like some emo kid. The game has limitations ( I can't swim?) and the overall action is mediocre at best.

This game will probably be a good RPG, but so far, it has nothing to do with Gothic series.

Yep, they managed to fuck up this one too.

Tested with my Q8300, 6 GB and GT220 (1400x900), I've had to put all settings to LOW or disabled (except textures, and depth of view about 30%) and even, it remains a little choppy to play.

Considered that I've played only on G1 & G2 (not G3 at this time), combat is more like a beat'm'all than a timed combat. I didn't understood how properly select next attack, and missing a lock option is very disturbing when trying to move around an ennemy.

French voices are ridiculous (and the voice of witch is very below anything)

I've digged on configuration file and have found this in data\configuration\ProcessManager.xml :
ThreadConfig platform="PC" cores="1"
ThreadConfig platform="X360" cores="6"


( posted also on http://www.rpgwatch.com/forums/showthread.php?t=11461 )

As expected, it was as smooth as it gets with all settings maxed. Good looking world, definetly one of the better we've seen in an RPG.

All in all I feel it has potential, though the demo seemed to progress very fast in terms of items and enemies (most likely to show some variety). A good demo to be honest, certainly served its purpose.

I'll be picking this up, looking forward to exploring the main area of the game. There is one thing that's bothering me though:

Random ramblings after finishing the demo:

Definitely a tweaked demo in terms of balance, unless the developers are operating on a single shared braincell.

Way too much cool loot in a few minutes, and I can't imagine combat being that easy in general.

However, if it's THAT bad in the real game - I'd have to say the whole thing won't work at all.

But, I'm such a sucker for these open world exploration games, that I'll buy it anyway. I actually hadn't planned to, but the flaws - though significant - really don't bother me all that much. I just wanted to play more of it, and that's so rare for me these days, that I can't possibly NOT play this.

That said, it really does seem to be exactly what most of us predicted. A severely watered down Gothic - with a ton of streamlining going on. The fact that I can "disable" a lot of the help stuff doesn't work for me, because it forces me into meta-gaming mode, making me decide what I think the game should be like. That's the job of the designer, not me.

Also, I find it INCREDIBLY odd that I can craft stuff out in the wilderness without tools - and yet they've added crafting stations and gone to the trouble of animating them and what not.

I'm guessing that's some kind of demo thing, because otherwise it just seems too stupid.

On the up-side, I found dungeon exploration pretty exciting. I think the lighting effects are very well done, and the monsters animate really, really well. I loved that you needed to "open up" the beetle like creatures to make them vulnerable. That kind of thing suggests that they did pour some thought into making it challenging, which is a factor in me believing the balance thing is demo related.

The world itself is also really pretty - and I'm thoroughly impressed with performance.

The NPCs, though, are rather stiff and "fake" looking. Especially the love interest, who looks more like a man than the protagonist himself. I also don't care much for the hairstyle of said protagonist, and it looks more emo than hero.

Dialogues were universally bland and lifeless, but at least they weren't Two Worlds-level embarrasing. I don't play these games for the story, and Gothic was never a literary masterpiece anyway.

I love Gothic for pretty much the same reasons as I might end up really liking this game. The world exploration and the sensation of freedom. I'm hoping the main game will be largely open - and it seems the engine can handle it just fine. The NPC behaviour is pretty weak and void of life - so far, and that IS a big minus. There isn't a shred of evidence that the NPCs will react to anything outside of dialogues or quests, and that's one vital area I WILL miss from the Gothics. It's also an area that anyone wanting to emulate the good parts of Gothic would definitely work on, so I'm cautiously hoping for better things in the release version.

Another good thing about performance: Quick saving is QUICK - and loading is a breeze. Such things really help in the long run - and I'm so jaded and bastard-like-hard-to-please that I put down games, these days, just for making me wait a few extra seconds upon reloading after death. So that's nice.

No AA in-game, and you can't force it. It makes a negative difference. Not good.

Water looks pretty good in lakes or rivers - but the sea doesn't look right. No swimming is forgivable - I suppose - but no walking in larger bodies of water isn't ok.

The invisible barriers thing is really weird, as I mentioned. You can very often overcome them by jumping - and scaling rocks in that same way. Why have them at all then? Just weird.

Not a single loading screen after the first one - except for a specific place that seemed to change the entire world state. So, that's another really positive aspect.

Combat is button mashy, true, but I have a feeling the actual game will reward practice and timing. Probably not needed, but is just going to make fights a bit easier. I can deal with that.

Magic looks interesting, and it looks GOOD - especially inside dungeons.

No dual-wielding - SUCKY SUCKY.

Block seems superfluous, since you can just roll away. Weird.

Archery "feel" about the best I've ever tried. No kidding. You hit what you aim at, and you hit harder targeting vital areas. You're not fighting the interface while shooting. Crossbows seem pleasant to fire as well. Still, seems way overpowered.

I want the ability to WALK - give me that, please.

Somewhat awkward that my character slows down inside buildings, but it kinda compensates for not being able to walk.

I don't want to be penalised for drawing my weapon to this extent. Make me walk SLIGHTLY slower - but don't force me into not being combat ready - just so I can explore without killing myself from a slow pace.

I want my rings/amulets visible on my character. Ok, no biggie - but it'd be nice.

Way too few skills, if the demo has them all. Why level 16 max skills? That seems really quite low.

What's the point of stealth, except to be nearer enemies to surprise them? Can I steal things or pick pockets.

No thievery of any kind evident, and there doesn't seem to be lockpicking or even traps in the game. Crappy crappy.

Cool weapon effects.

Nice to pick up stuff quickly, but don't make the animation look so fake.

I actually like the "pick-up" glow a lot better than the "highlight text" thing in the Gothics. This is much easier.

You can disable the "plants disappearing" thing in options, and it helps.

I liked getting a negative NPC response because I killed a few sheep.

About sheep, I really liked having one follow me around - as I'm supposedly a shepherd.

Down-to-earth beginning and character motivations. Me likey.

Unlimited inventory. Gothic staple. Good choice.

Ridiculously generous placement of health regain items. Hope it's a demo thing.

---

Well, that's it for now.

bloodlover said:

I just finished the demo… as expected, the only thing related with the old games is the title.

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I absolutely agree

bloodlover said:

The demo was linear and boring.
...
Yep, they managed to fuck up this one too.

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I disagree. There are tiny hidden bits I always adore in RPGs... For example:
1. If you kill a sheep, your mother will spot the blood and you'll see another lines of dialogue otherwise hidden.
2. Doing the mushrooms quest you'll find a lost sheep, it will follow you all way back to your starting point - possibly another quest that didn't managed to be inculded in the demo.

Demo is short, easy on normal setting, but it's just a demo and I kinda loved it.

Hmmm.... well strangely blocky trees welcomed me when first starting the game, then a walking towards the starting village causes the game to crash each and every time. Updated graphics drivers etc but no joy :-(

Glad I tried the demo and didn't buy the full game though!

Game seems to run fine with max settings on my ati 5870 C2D @3.6 4gig ddr2 800 rig, but (and it's a big but), anisotropic filtering doesn't seem to be working even when forced. This is probably giving a false sense of good performance. Anyone using nvidia notice a difference in image quality when forcing 16x aniso from the control panel? My ground textures are washed out and awful, no aniso being applied at all.

Melvil said:

Game seems to run fine with max settings on my ati 5870 C2D @3.6 4gig ddr2 800 rig, but (and it's a big but), anisotropic filtering doesn't seem to be working even when forced. This is probably giving a false sense of good performance. Anyone using nvidia notice a difference in image quality when forcing 16x aniso from the control panel? My ground textures are washed out and awful, no aniso being applied at all.

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I've got an Nvidia card, and it doesn't seem to do anything here either. It seems odd to have it disabled altogether when AF is normally a miniscule performance hit.

I haven't played much since it took so long to download, but it seems to run okayish on my system, 20-30 fps at 1680x1050 with most settings on medium/low and a few on high.
C2D E8400 3ghz
9800 GTX+ 512mb
2gb RAM
Vista 32-bit

It looks pretty good, though I don't think it's a huge leap up from Gothic 3 or Risen. I can't say I like the character models, they veer a bit too much into the uncanny valley. The grass seems to pop up quite a bit, though that may be related to not having much VRAM or system RAM.

I talked to a few NPCs and the dialogue seemed pretty bad, and the voices were ill-fitting too.

I wouldn't mind the invisible walls so much, but sometimes it automatically orientates your character in the opposite direction you were facing, which is somewhat annoying.

As for combat, I really liked the archery, DArtagnan summed it up well, it feels just right and quite satisfying. On the other hand, melee felt rather basic.

I finished the demo today. I played it at 1920x1200 with 965 x4 clocked at 4ghz, ati 5850, 8gb with all settings maxed and the game performed flawlessly. By comparison, Gothic 3 still stutters on my system when maxed.

Positive: The graphics are sharp, the world is pretty and detailed, the interface is clean and the action was fluid. I had no stutters at all, even when fighting several enemies at once. The fighting animations also look good.

Negatives: The demo feels like a mix between a hack-n-slash rpg and an mmo, which isn't bad in and of itself. It's just I don't really expect that from a Gothic game. The demo is also far too easy. Remember how the other Gothic games and Risen were challenging at the start? Not so with this game. It's ridiculously easy on "normal" setting…to the extent that it was boring to play. It's not fun if there's no challenge.

The conversation animations are also pretty bad. They're not worse than previous Gothic games, but there is certainly no improvement.

All told, I'm very skeptical about the game after playing the demo. I have really enjoyed the previous Gothic games (excluding Forsaken Gods) and Risen, but after completing the demo I'm not getting my hopes up for Gothic 4.

murlock said:

(and the voice of witch is very below anything)

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My god, the witch's voice was just horrible. It made me simultaneously cringe and chuckle.

Ya, witch scene ended my demo experience until I can see more of the game.

Regardless of how this played i had allready made up my mind to never give a cent to the company that forced the developers of gothic3 to release a half finished title then take them to court blaming them for all the games shortcomings inorder to steal the gothic ip.
That aside this seems to be prettymuch the generic tripe i was expecting from jowood/spellbound.
The only god thing i could find in this demo were the grafix. Other then that there was horribly mindless gameplay, invisible walls everywhere, generic fetch and carry quests, awful animations and some of the worst voice acting ive heard in quite some time.
Considering this is what they release inorder to get people to buy the game i shudder to think how the game itself is.

To my suprise it run well on my PC, is only GForce 8800 GTX, Duo E6750 2,66hz and 4G Ram. I played it at 1680/1050.

works really good on medium settings although i'm below min specs on all accounts.
only played a short time but it's somehow not right. bad voiceacting, uniteresting characters (including the main one)… maybe it'll change once i get some more time to play it.

The witch voice acting was really, really terrible. the others i didnt find better or worse than most other games.

You guys have become so forgiving.... I guess it is the lack of good RPGs

GothicGothicness said:

You guys have become so forgiving…. I guess it is the lack of good RPGs

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Even me?

*waiting for approval*

Runs well on my:
i5 750
ATI 4870 512mb
4 gb RAM
Intel SSD HDD
1920 x 1080

27 - 35 FPS depending upon where I am. Very "smooth" always.

Everything at high, none at Ultra.
European colour palette.

Few technical hitches:
Grass pop-up is horrible and needs fixing badly, could be my ATI but I am guessing its LoD settings?.
Lighting seems flickery on some surfaces.

Otherwise looks nice, but not massively better than risen (rocks are nice though).

Can I just point out that there are two higher levels: "Hard" and "Gothic".
One can only hope that "Gothic" adds a the traditional combat style as well - for certain the monsters will be more lethal. I wonder if they balanced this difficulty well or just ramped up monster damage etc. You can actually change it to Hard in-game by the look of it, not tested it. Also someone enterprising could probably find how to change it to "Gothic" in the demo.

Inventory etc. seems a little ..... strange. Cannot put my finger on it. Not polished?

Not finished the demo yet but will likely pick this up - it's going to be a while till the Witcher 2.

Inventory etc. seems a little ….. strange. Cannot put my finger on it. Not polished?

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It certainly needs a "show all" button!