Arcania: Gothic 4 Impressions

Hey all!

So I jumped in on Arcania yesterday; I must say I am impressed! If you have played any of the Gothic series before, you will find that things have taken a step in the right direction (this is infact not made by the same company who made the first 3).

Gameplay might feel similar to games such as Oblivion or Dragon Age. It is a fairly standard 3rd person hot button game with a points based leveling system. The story line is convincing although sometimes a bit brief (the early scene that causes you to "leave home" was powerful but you get dumped back into the game too soon, I felt, for it to have the emotional impact it should).

The skill system is open allowing you to play effectivly as a Ranger, Knight, or Mage. Those terms are deemed by me, not the game. You can basicly put points into melee combat, ranged combat, or magic abilities; and any mix thereof. I have about 16 hours in on a Knight character. The change between sword and shield and two-handed weapon fighting makes a real diffrence against some enemies (but even I need to use a lightning bolt from time to time!)

The graphics are very elegant and shine on a higher end display. The land is layed out in a realistic fashion (something less and less common in fantasy settings nowadays) and the names and general feel for people and places are very distinct and progress well with the accomplishments of the character (I'm now Master as opposed to "lad" all the time!)

There is the occasional graphics glitch but I find it resolves itself very quickly (I saw a boar run up a tree, to be teleported back down to me a second later) but I cannot speak for any platform other than the Xbox 360. I do really enjoy the level of voice overs in that nearly every spoken line in the game has a cut scene and a real voice attached to it.

For someone not overly invested in his Xbox, Arcania has been a blast these first bunch of hours. If you are going to pick it up (or even thinking about it) I would fully reccomend this one as a class spell and slash adventure that is worth the buy.

P.S. There are very helpful player made maps that will guide you to the many "collect 30 hidden items across the game world" quests. If you don't want to spend 2 hours running all the way back to the beginning to grab on you missed, it might atleast be worth looking at before you move on to the next area as you progress!