Review ArcaniA? More like Obviouso amirite

[DarkUnderlord]

Tags: Gothic 4: Arcania

<p>If you want another review of how sucky Arcania is, <a href="http://www.thefinaldungeon.com/2010/10/31/arcania-gothic-4-%E2%80%93-review/">The Final Dungeon has one for you</a>:</p>
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<p style="padding-left: 30px;">ArcaniA?&nbsp; More like <em>Obviouso</em>. [...] Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines arcane as &ldquo;known or knowable only to the initiate<strong>:</strong> secret.&rdquo;&nbsp; Synonyms include &ldquo;mysterious&rdquo; and &ldquo;obscure.&rdquo;&nbsp; The title ArcaniA is therefore ironic, considering that Spellbound clearly intended everything about ArcaniA&rsquo;s gameplay to be as obvious as possible.&nbsp; Any object that you can pick up glows and has glowing butterflies fluttering around it.&nbsp; Any corpse that you can loot glows and has glowing flies buzzing over it.</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">[...]</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">The simplicity of the interface and gameplay mechanics extends to the game world as well.&nbsp; There is no character creation &ndash; you are provided a character to play as, without even the option to name him.&nbsp; This constraint can work &ndash; Geralt, in <strong>The Witcher</strong>, comes to mind &ndash; but only if the character the developers impose on you is interesting.</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">[...]</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">The reward for completing any given fetch quest is to receive five more fetch quests. [...] Around the middle of the game, you need to access some archives to get information about the location of a hidden object.&nbsp; There is only one NPC with the authority to grant such access, and he&rsquo;s been kidnapped.&nbsp; So you need to fetch him from an orc hideout.&nbsp; Before you can enter the orc hideout, you need to bribe the orc guard with beer.&nbsp; Not just any beer.&nbsp; Special orc beer that you need to fetch from the one orc shaman on the island who makes beer.&nbsp; The shaman won&rsquo;t give you the beer until you fetch his friend, who&rsquo;s hiding in the woods (hint: to find him, just follow the bull&rsquo;s-eye on your minimap).&nbsp; The shaman&rsquo;s friend won&rsquo;t come with you until you fetch his necklace.&nbsp; Another orc stole it.&nbsp; So you need to find him (see previous hint) and fetch it.&nbsp; The fetching goes on and on, until the point at which you barely remember the archives you are supposedly doing all of this fetching to access &ndash; and certainly beyond the point that you care.</p>
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<p>Spellbound cannot into questing.</p>
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<p>Thanks <strong>Larry</strong>!</p>

 

[1eyedking]

The quest compass is so last-gen.

Except when it's in a Bethesda game.

 

[Data4]

Replay Morrowind and get called a Fetcher, or play Arcania and become a Fetcher. Hmmm....

 

[Darth Roxor]

The Final Dungeon Score: 6 out of 10

I don't get it. He keeps saying that it's bad and dumb and has no redeeming qualities, but scores 6/10 anyway. 6/10 is a note to be given to something mildly enjoyable that you probably won't be coming back to. Not bottom of the barrel garbage.

Why the fuck do all these sites give a 1-10 rating scale, when their 1-10 begins at 6?

 

[SimpleComplexity]

I checked the system requirements, it doesn't list a human brain.

 

[DalekFlay]

When I'm done with Fallout New Vegas I plan to play this, if only to amuse myself at how bad it is.

 

[Angthoron]

The simplicity of the interface and gameplay mechanics extends to the game world as well. There is no character creation – you are provided a character to play as, without even the option to name him. This constraint can work – Geralt, in The Witcher, comes to mind – but only if the character the developers impose on you is interesting.

Nameless Hero from Gothic 1, 2 and 3 also comes to mind. What a shock. Not that this game has anything to do with the Gothic series, but you know, if it's in context of Gothic somehow, why not mention this? Instead we get Geralt! Why not TNO while we're at it?

Also, the character has to be interesting? Was Nameless Hero from G series an interesting character? Was Avatar? I thought that these characters are meant to be player avatars and could be essentially animated ponies with personalities of a crayoned-up cardboard box. It shouldn't matter!

Did they complain about protagonist in the Fable series being as exciting as a boulder? Oblivion "protagonist"?

I know this is nitpicking but fuck, if you're beating up a shitty game, do it right.

 

[Stakhanov]

Almost tempted to play this for the amusement that can be derived from a bad game, but it's probably not worth the brian damage.

Also, the score seems totally arbitrary and counter to the written text, what a copout. Maybe they wanted to lessen the sting for the developer?

 

[Angthoron]

Reviewers cannot into numbers. Numbers aren't for creative people, duh. They fight the system - "I am not a number! I'm a free man!"

 

[Malakal]

So apparently not only Codex has this special kind of 'wit' in reviews. And even 'humour' too.

 

[Roguey]

I don't get it. He keeps saying that it's bad and dumb and has no redeeming qualities, but scores 6/10 anyway. 6/10 is a note to be given to something mildly enjoyable that you probably won't be coming back to. Not bottom of the barrel garbage.

Why the fuck do all these sites give a 1-10 rating scale, when their 1-10 begins at 6?

Somewhere along the line they decided to grade them like papers, so a 6/10 would be a failing grade. This wouldn't be a problem if everyone used the superior 1-5 scale (which is basically the same thing) but thanks to Metacritic a well deserved 3/5 average experience would look like a 60/100 and that would be perceived as bad.

 

[SimpleComplexity]

So apparently not only Codex has this special kind of 'wit' in reviews. And even 'humour' too.

Another theory is that the reviewer frequently visits the Codex.

 

[Brotherman Bill]

These headlines are approaching VoD-like levels of wit.

 

[deuxhero]

The simplicity of the interface and gameplay mechanics extends to the game world as well. There is no character creation – you are provided a character to play as, without even the option to name him. This constraint can work – Geralt, in The Witcher, comes to mind – but only if the character the developers impose on you is interesting.

Nameless Hero from Gothic 1, 2 and 3 also comes to mind. What a shock. Not that this game has anything to do with the Gothic series, but you know, if it's in context of Gothic somehow, why not mention this? Instead we get Geralt! Why not TNO while we're at it?

Also, the character has to be interesting? Was Nameless Hero from G series an interesting character? Was Avatar? I thought that these characters are meant to be player avatars and could be essentially animated ponies with personalities of a crayoned-up cardboard box. It shouldn't matter!

Did they complain about protagonist in the Fable series being as exciting as a boulder? Oblivion "protagonist"?

I know this is nitpicking but fuck, if you're beating up a shitty game, do it right.

The Nameless Hero had some degree of character by nature of being a massive smartass (This is evident as early as Gothic 1's opening) and was in a situation where no one would care about his backstory. I doubt the same is true for "Gothic" 4's.

The Avatar wasn't a predefined character except in the shitty EA made games.

 

[Angthoron]

Well, it depends on how much of a pre-definition we're talking about here. In later games you play the Avatar as a somewhat established character and while you have a fair amount of freedom to modify the game world, you're still The Avatar. But good point.

Still, if we think of the Gothic series, the Nameless Hero being a smartass doesn't really make him that much of a personality anyway - he's mostly an extension of the player. And it's not a problem! It's anything but a problem, I loved Gothic 2 despite not having "emotional engagement" with the protagonist - it was a solid, good game, and it had an unintrusive enough a hero to be able to be "immersed" into the game world.

In fact, what I would say is the problem of ArcaniA's protagonist is that they tried too hard to make him a personality and failed horribly. They tried to make the player "emotionally engaged" and "immersed" through all the wrong ways, and instead of simply ignoring the protagonist and playing the game, what the player ends up doing is stumbling across the stupid protagonist persona over and over until they can't take it.