Arcania - Patch Removes DRM

This was discussed on our forums a few days back and Alrik sent in the news in German that an Arcania patch has removed the DRM. For those of us stuck with English, Blue's provides some links:

A fourth ArcaniA: Gothic 4 patch is available to update the role-playing sequel with texture and animation fixes and remove the game's online activation requirement. The download is available automatically from within the game, and there's a manual patch on German site World of Gothic and mirrored on Gamer's Hell, GamePron, and WorthPlaying.

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More information.

still haven't played this,
does anyone know if it has any soul , or the patches are just for visual stuff.

Does anyone know if this patch (Patch #4) includes all the fixes of the previous patches?

Does anyone know if this works with the Steam version of Arcania?

Xian said:

Does anyone know if this works with the Steam version of Arcania?

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Steam should eventually patch it in themselves if that version does not use the auto-patcher. Not sure why you would want the standalone patch for a Steam version.

Glad to see they patched out the DRM, especially since the company is going down. Good that it was released as a standalone, since now I can back it up and have DRM free Arcania forever (if that's a good thing).

I played like 10 hours of the game. It seemed like a decent hack n' slash game, but not an RPG.

DoctorNarrative said:

Steam should eventually patch it in themselves if that version does not use the auto-patcher. Not sure why you would want the standalone patch for a Steam version.

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The Steam version did have third party DRM and activation. The patch has several fixes as well. With Jowood going out of business this might be the final patch - they might not make a Steam specific one. The Steam version of Arcania does not have the auto-patcher.

There are quite a few Unpatched Games on Steam or ones that you have to use the standalone patch.

borcanu said:

does anyone know if it has any soul

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No this game has no soul, and never will. I sure hope as others have suggested before; now that Piranha Bytes has their Gothic series back in their clutches that they disown Gothic IV as ever being a part of the series.

If you want a mindless go here and collect this or kill x# of these mobs and return over and over and over with no substance, then you may like this. Everything that was great about Gothic was pretty much scrapped from this title...

I just downloaded and installed the patch… but then realized that I will probably never play it again anyway.

It has a solid game engine, is functional and relatively bug free. But, as others have said, it just lacks in too many departments. It COULD have been a very good game, but sadly, it would take a complete soul overhaul to lure me to play it again.

As I have said before its just an average game that all the old timers seem to hate. I happen to be one but still found some enjoyment out of it. Calling the game crap depends as I have played worse.

Xian said:

The Steam version did have third party DRM and activation. The patch has several fixes as well. With Jowood going out of business this might be the final patch - they might not make a Steam specific one. The Steam version of Arcania does not have the auto-patcher.

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Ah, I didn't realize the Steam version has the other DRM as well. That's a bummer. I can't imagine choosing to double-up on DRM like that as a customer, but I guess some people really want everything on Steam.

The Steam patch has been delivered a couple of days ago.

i was actually surprised i enjoyed it as much as i did when i finally played it a few weeks back. its obvious not the same at all as a pirahna bytes game but the game does indeed have a soul. the demo is a horrible indication of it as well. i'm one of the few gothic fans that loved gothic 3 from the beginning despite its flaws especially the main story and lack of love towards the 4 friends. if Arcania did one thing right is it nailed the companionship with the 4 friends and actually gave them "more love" than gothic 3. sure the gameplay is different and many aspects more shallow and linear but the attention to world detail is just as good as the other gothic games just a little skewed. the dungeon crawling is great and although the magic system is pretty lame the combat does take some skill on the hard difficulty and the ranged is pretty close to gothic 3. the crafting system is great with far more to do than prior gothics despite the huge mistake they made in not having it optional to actually craft them at smiths, stoves/campfires/pots, and alchemy benches. that really broke the immersion. the graphics and level design are great and probably some of my favourite along with a decent day night cycle and wonderful weather system despite the a bit two fast pacedness of it all. i honestly don't think we could have seen a better gothic 4 than this without the pirahnas involved.

Let me ask this. I have not played Arcania(or any of the Gothic games, with the exception of the first very briefly.) Would some people who hate it like this game if the "Gothic" name wasnt attached to it??

Yes, I think as a standalone RPG it might be not too bad ... I heard, however, that the game is made rather towards action ?

Most hate, as I understand it, grows out of the fact that it was labelled as a "Gothic" game - and that it wasn't made to be true to the series - that's the argument I read/hear most often.

Arcania is basically what I would call an action/adventure game with some RPG elements. Or basically a RPG-lite while other Gothic were more hardcore RPG games. But taken for what it is, it's actually a good game IMO and very enjoyable.

As a Gothic game it's rather underwhelming if you're hoping for something akin to Gothic I/II or Gothic 3, but as a separate game: it's good as far as I'm concerned. I think they really should just have kept the original title which was "A Gothic Tale" and probably would have been more honest about the content - basically a game taking place in the Gothic universe, but not a Gothic per se. And I thought it made a good use of the Gothic setting as well.

Hell this is probably gonna earn me some flaming and eyerolling, but I actually got a lot more enjoyment out of Arcania than I did from Gothic 3. To be fair Gothic 3 was such a dissapointment to me, there is no way in hell Arcania could have been more underwhelming that its predecessor. But my view would be that while Gothic 3 tried (and IMO rather failed) this huge freeform open world approach, Arcania did succeed in what it was aiming to do - that is basically a fun and accessible action RPG game with a nice story to follow (which is more that I can say about Gothic 3's plot... or lack thereof). While I doubt the game would have won any award either way, I am utterly convinced it would have been met with generally positive reviews and reactions if it had been presented as a different IP and world.

My main beef with Arcania trully really was how they cut most of the interaction and world simulation aspect - which is puzzling since it appears to have been implement to some degree (you can use everything but it does nothing and there are some NPCs who do have some form of schedules: but not all)... but I would suspect this was cut at the last minutes. I've always wondered if this could somehow be modded in or something, but considered how hated this game is by the Gothic community I don't expect anything of the kind really.

And for the record I'm dissapointed that Fall of Setarrif will in all likelyhood never come out.

-Sergorn

Oh you can have fun with Arcania. Just don't expect a Gothic game.

And the Graphics are gorgeous.

True. Arcania is definitly gorgeous to look at - I think at this point this is the most impressive looking RPG released this gen.

And the engine itself is very impressive as well - even is the game is mostly linear it's still a seamless engine with insides of houses which are well... NOT behind a loading screen.

Spellbound is actually working on another game with this engine called Ravensdale, I'm curious to see what they will come up with.

-Sergorn

Just a quick question: Isn't Jowood the owner of Dreamcatcher and The Adventure Company and thus also the owner of The Adventure Shop, The Adventure Company's website for selling games? If it is, what will happen to this site and to all the adventure games on it? Some (indie) adventure games can only be bought from TAC - and if the website's gone, what happens then?

The Adventure Company is bancrupt since some time - and as far as I know, JoWood never owned them.

Roi Danton said:

Oh you can have fun with Arcania. Just don't expect a Gothic game.

And the Graphics are gorgeous.

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Yes, I agree. Well... the lack of AA is a bummer.