RPGWatch Feature: Arcania Review

Hmm, I'll probably get it eventually, I seem to buy everything at some point. I still have to pick up Risen cheap though, so it may be awhile before ArcaniA sees my moolah. My current budget is for Two Worlds II and FNV.

After reading this review ArcaniA seems to be an un-RPG

un-demanding
un-challenging
un-ambitious
un-satisfying
un-Gothic

kroto said:

So, here you are:
ArcaniA Gothic 4 Demo review from a casual RPGs gamer point of view

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Great video. Full of mistakes, but the guy is so enthusiastic, I really like it.

Good review - I'm looking forward to my lightweight experience

Gorath, I agree… except Risen 2 will be Gothic 5

Honestly, anyone disappointed by ArcaniA get Risen NOW.
Risen has all the goodness of classic Gothics and it actually
is pretty bug free, even on X-Box(no, I'm serious).

Risen is probably my fav game in the last couple years.

Lastly, Deus Ex 3 and Witcher 2, while not the old timey turn
based fare, are looking VERY GOOD and everyone here should
check them out. If those two deliver HALF of the stuff they promise
they'll be classics. Deus Ex esp. surprises me because it looks
as slick as any FPS nowadays yet the developers seem to have
this masochistic desire to stay true to Deus Ex 1 despite not needing
to… honesty, the ten of us that played the first one wouldn't be surprised
if they just pimped the name….

Gorath said:

Great video. Full of mistakes, but the guy is so enthusiastic, I really like it.

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What mistakes? I think Oblivion did a really good job on Dragon Effect: The Reckoning...

From what I have experienced so far playing this game it isn't a game like previous Gothic games but it is better then Mass Effect and Fable though. One of the main part that makes this better then the aforementioned games is the npc interaction. In Mass Effect you have the dialog wheel which is more like a roulette wheel since you don't know what you are going to say. With Fable npc interaction is utterly ridiculous to the point that I'm not going to mention more. With Arcania you can communicate in a non-ridiculous way and know what you are going to say.

PS. The combat system is far better then what Mass Effect and Fable has.

I played the demo as well and was underwhelmed. The little extras that aren't important, but sure help to immerse the player, are lacking. I realize a guy shouldn't swim the open sea but not being able to walk through a pond, or a river? Your character's jump is like he is on the Moon. He can jump up a rock face taller than him but he cannot jump a 3 foot fence. The attack sound is a poor thud and doesn't change with the weapon. Clicking on the anvil the character works on a hunk of smoldering metal and places into his front pocket. I filled my Father In Law's Face with Arrows after I completed the start of probably many fetch quests but he didn't seem to mind. You can't collect the arrows you do shoot and are on the ground. Most games when you hit a building you get a thunk with little chunks of wood or stone flying (or a mark). Here you can bash the scenery and nothing happens. I'm sure there are more I am forgetting but they distracted me from what looked like the start of a pretty good story.

Well, it sounds more like a Fable tale than a Gothic tale, but this will probably be worth the price in another six months.

Very nice review!

Good review. I liked the way you looked on it. Nowadays i belong to the casual rpgers crowd. I do not have the time to play as much as i want. (An 8 hour long game might take 2 weeks to complete). A light version of Gothic is what i want.

I loved G1.

Gorath said:

Get some new glasses. There is no such point in the article.

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I guess i read it wrong. Still, no need to be a jerk with the glasses comment...

Also for arcania players, AVOID THE FIRE SKILL TREE, it is useless end game.

Very nice review, thanks, Vox. I guess I'll pass. How sad, considering this is supposed to be part 4 of one of my all time favorite RPG series.

Hmmm, I do have the time problem, so I can appreciate the comment. I play some quick time filler RPGs, but mostly on the iPhone, not when I sit down at my computer. There, I still rather play a complex game, even in short sessions. However it really made me appreciate well done quest journals, in-game help/manuals/tooltips, even little things like Dragon ages "mini summaries" on the loading screens, and dialog options like "what did you want me to do again?". Such things can really help get back into a game that I left for a while. Toggleable quest pointers are fine, as long as the game is designed to be played without them. I do not need simplified gameplay, fetchquests, and click-and-forget combat, however.

SO far I have only played the demo. But a friend of mine has bought Gothic 4, and is thoroughly enjoying it. I told him about the really bad reviews of gamona and 4players, and he was really flabberghasted. Some things were entirely different. Where both gamona and 4players wrote the tavern is empty and lifeless, he said the tavern was alife at the right time, at the evening. But if you go there in daylight, of course nothing is going on. He continued to say how you can find hints and details with being curious and exploring details. It was a VERY different experience than the harsh two reviews.

I can't judge it myself, but I thought I forward this impression here. Maybe too many people expect the game to be like Gothic, because of the title and measure it way too much by old Gothic habits. It sure seems to be a lite-RPG. But from what my friend tells me, I don't think it deserved thos 40% hate-reviews of gamona and 4players.

I just want to point out that the "casual RPG/RPG lite" crowd certainly does exist, just look at Fable. Fable sold a lot of copies, so the market is obviously fairly big. In fact, it sold a lot more than most RPGs.

Anyway, nice review. I'll pick up Arcania soonish.

Gorath said:

Great video. Full of mistakes, but the guy is so enthusiastic, I really like it.

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He has a good camera presence IMO. More speaker of the casual RPG gamers, but kinda charismatic.

Gothic 2 is my all time favorite but i don't have the time anymore to get into games to that extent. i have Risen installed and no time to play it.
I tried the demo a bit and I liked it. Yeah it's maybe stupid but so what, perfect to waste an hour or 2 a day. Once I finish Risen I'll definitely buy it.

I may be one of those 'casual RPG gamers' now as I find all those western RPGs (especially German ones like Gothic and Divinity) a chore with all that bloated inventories, looking for unmarked quest NPCs and having to run around to special spots for crafting and other needs. I also tried to replay BG(my favorite when in college) a couple of years ago and found it to be too hard to complete.

But I'm really offended by the idea that linear story with no choices or removal of stealth/thieving elements can attract me. As well as less variety in character progression. As for the later one, I understand that the idea is to make such a system that would prevent players from making weak "wasted" characters. That is a good point, but over-simplification is not a good way to do that as it strips players of joy of having a fully-customized character with some impressiv skills. Just add "auto-level as fighter/mage/ranger" buttons and that would be enough. Never heard of people using some of those, but there must be someone out there.

I am a bit disheartened that this review tries to justify bad design with appeal to casual players. I'm a casual gamer but what I have seen so far of Arcania is like the proverbial slap in the face.

There is no incentive for exploration, nor anything worth exploring. The world is empty, if pretty. NPCs are lifeless quest dispensers, the dialogue stupid and hollow, accompanied by amateurish voice acting. The story is boring and lacks any suspense whatsoever.

If you can read German (or can cope with a google translation) and want a honest review try this instead:
http://www.gamona.de/games/arcania-gothic-4,test-pc:article,1838043.html

This game is bad. It is bad not because it's not a hardcore RPG, nor because it's not a proper Gothic. It is bad because it's simply not fun.

kroto said:

So, here you are:
ArcaniA Gothic 4 Demo review from a casual RPGs gamer point of view

Click to expand...

I see this as a good thing.

The guy loves the game. Absolutely loves it. Some might see this as a bad thing, but doesn't anyone remember when they first started rpgs or crpgs? Every little thing was amazing. I remember playing Intellivisions D&D games and enjoying every minute. Now I would consider them too basic and I couldln't bring myself to play them again, but at the time it was magic. I slowly progressed up the 'rpg hardcore' ladder with later games like Pool of Radiance.

I try to remember that a lot of these rpgs are very new to these gamers and with time, hopefully, the casual gamer will want more than just cool and shiny stuff to play around with. At least this is my hope and can only draw upon my own experience in this with crpgs and even Warhammer. I didn't start out a Warhammer nut. My obsession slowly progressed from boardgames like Dungeon to Hero Quest to finally Warhammer because I was bored with the easier titles.

Here is exactly what I'm talking about. The same guy Thecasualgamer1 researched the Fallout Universe because he wanted to know more about it for the upcoming title Fallout: New Vegas. He Looked at old Fallout titles and went to the forums of the developers. He wanted to know about the story. Not gameplay, not new and shiny stuff, but the story and depth of the game. I love the fact that he liked Fallout 1's story. Just watch the video and you'll actually see the progression from a casual gamer to not exactly hardcore, but someone who is looking for more in their rpgs.

BTW, he does say something that a lot of people could make fun of "He doesn't think that anyone could make Fallout 3 better", but if remember that this is his first introduction into the fallout universe then of course he is going to feel this way. The same way I feel about Pools of Radiance (my first truly hardcore rpg).

In any event, it gives me a good feeling seeing new blood being introduced to rpgs and seeing this kind of enthusiasm over a genre that I've made my home in. That kind of enthusiasm always leads to wanting more depth in the games they play.

Edit: I just read a few more posts and I guess a lot of you already beat me to the punch with commenting on how good that video was. It was either charisma or the fact that I could tangibly feel his enthusiasm for this game. It actually almost made me want to go out and buy it, but I don't have "new eyes" to this genre anymore