ArcaniA: An Oblivion Tale
ArcaniA: An Oblivion Tale
Preview - posted by Monolith on Fri 5 June 2009, 13:51:02
Tags: Gothic 4: ArcaniaIt's E3 time and surprisingly ArcaniA: A Gothic Tale is getting some coverage. Both Gaming Excellence and RPGamer put up a short preview based on what they saw of ArcaniA on the E3.
Gaming Excellence is mighty impressed by the intellectual capabilities of fans of the first two Gothics because the gaming excellence apparently didn't get the games' control schemes.
Ya know, I really have to wonder about the mental state of people who are big fans of the Gothic series? Not that it’s a bad series, not by any stretch, but the mental fortitude that’s required to play through one of these games to completion is staggering. Only having clocked around seven hours of gameplay between the second and third game the sheer beating you receive from even the first enemies can be a life altering experience. These are truly games for the hardcore gamer and if you don’t have the stones for it then too bad for you."Staggering, I tell ya.", my little sister, who was 10 the first time she played it.
Luckily Spellbound felt bad for those who are intellectually inapt and didn't just change controls, but also added a quest compass.
Luckily for the rest of us humans the developers are going for a slightly different approach with Arcania. Rather than focusing exclusively on the hardcore crowd they’ve expanded their approach to make the game more accessible to the rest of humanity. A good example of the starting point of this is the fact that you can now turn on a quest tracker. This will give you a quick way of traveling to the waypoints that will help you actually find your goal.
According to the RPGamer chick, who also praises the accessibility of ArcaniA, guilds are isolated quest providers, all joinable, without that unfunny choices & consequences part.
Factions and guilds have been completely re-thought for Arcania; in prior Gothic games they were tied together. Now, the five guilds are factionless and a player may interact with all, some, or none of these establishments. Quests associated with their respective guilds follow the logical path: the Fighter's Guild will send the hero out to kill specific monsters for trophies, while the Mage Guild is more interested in gathering reagents (spell components) and errand-running quests.The one thing that makes guilds interesting ditched.
To be fair, it doesn't sound bad the way combat works and the "weather affecting NPC behaviour"-part sounds like it could add a little bit to gameplay, if used wisely. But that's a big if.
There are also some new screenshots over at IGN.
Spotted at: RPG Watch
Gaming Excellence is mighty impressed by the intellectual capabilities of fans of the first two Gothics because the gaming excellence apparently didn't get the games' control schemes.
Ya know, I really have to wonder about the mental state of people who are big fans of the Gothic series? Not that it’s a bad series, not by any stretch, but the mental fortitude that’s required to play through one of these games to completion is staggering. Only having clocked around seven hours of gameplay between the second and third game the sheer beating you receive from even the first enemies can be a life altering experience. These are truly games for the hardcore gamer and if you don’t have the stones for it then too bad for you.
Luckily Spellbound felt bad for those who are intellectually inapt and didn't just change controls, but also added a quest compass.
Luckily for the rest of us humans the developers are going for a slightly different approach with Arcania. Rather than focusing exclusively on the hardcore crowd they’ve expanded their approach to make the game more accessible to the rest of humanity. A good example of the starting point of this is the fact that you can now turn on a quest tracker. This will give you a quick way of traveling to the waypoints that will help you actually find your goal.
According to the RPGamer chick, who also praises the accessibility of ArcaniA, guilds are isolated quest providers, all joinable, without that unfunny choices & consequences part.
Factions and guilds have been completely re-thought for Arcania; in prior Gothic games they were tied together. Now, the five guilds are factionless and a player may interact with all, some, or none of these establishments. Quests associated with their respective guilds follow the logical path: the Fighter's Guild will send the hero out to kill specific monsters for trophies, while the Mage Guild is more interested in gathering reagents (spell components) and errand-running quests.
To be fair, it doesn't sound bad the way combat works and the "weather affecting NPC behaviour"-part sounds like it could add a little bit to gameplay, if used wisely. But that's a big if.
There are also some new screenshots over at IGN.
Spotted at: RPG Watch
