Interview Arcania: Gothic 4 Interview

[VentilatorOfDoom]

Tags: Gothic 4: Arcania

<p>Hooked Gamers had a <a href="http://www.hookedgamers.com/features/2010/05/15/kamaal_anwar_on_arcania_gothic_4.html" target="_blank">chat with Gothic 4 producer</a> Kamaal Anwar.</p>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>HookedGamers:</strong> <em>Gothic 3</em>'s melee combat also proved to be clunky and frustrating for gamers. How have you changed it in <em>Gothic 4</em>?<br /> <br /> <strong>Kamaal Anwar:</strong> Because this is an entirely new codebase, we're not working with any problems that existed from the previous games. The combat design has been entirely reworked from the ground up and has been of constant internal scrutiny. Without going into detail into how it works, it's very much focused on an active experience.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The experience will be active.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Spotted at: <a href="http://www.gamebanshee.com/news/97899-arcania-gothic-4-interview.html">GB</a></p>

 

[Jaedar]

But will you get to make your own experience?

 

[Konjad]

read it as:
"its similar to g3 but idk what to say"

 

[gromit]

But will you get to make your own experience?

And will it improve any of my skills?

 

[Martin]

Gothic 3 bugs aside was the best of the gothic series.

 

[Morkar Left]

<p>Hooked Gamers had a <a href="http://www.hookedgamers.com/features/2010/05/15/kamaal_anwar_on_arcania_gothic_4.html" target="_blank">chat with Gothic 4 producer</a> Kamaal Anwar.</p>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>HookedGamers:</strong> <em>Gothic 3</em>'s melee combat also proved to be clunky and frustrating for gamers. How have you changed it in <em>Gothic 4</em>?<br /> <br /> <strong>Kamaal Anwar:</strong> Because this is an entirely new codebase, we're not working with any problems that existed from the previous games. The combat design has been entirely reworked from the ground up and has been of constant internal scrutiny. Without going into detail into how it works, it's very much focused on an active experience.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The experience will be active.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Spotted at: <a href="http://www.gamebanshee.com/news/97899-arcania-gothic-4-interview.html">GB</a></p>

"active" usually means click as fast as possible. And judging from vids this is true. I expect a combat-system similar to Two Worlds plus active blocking.

 

[dragonfk]

Gothic 3 bugs aside was the best of the gothic series.

+1

 

[MasPingon]

Gothic 3 bugs aside was the worst of the gothic series.

fixed

 

[dragonfk]

It has other qualities than it's predecedors, qualities that are more valuable to me. Gothic 3 is free roaming goodness and an example to future developers. It's free roaming atmosphere is unmatched.

 

[Martin]

It has other qualities than it's predecedors, qualities that are more valuable to me. Gothic 3 is free roaming goodness and an example to future developers. It's free roaming atmosphere is unmatched.

What this gentleman said.

 

[Morkar Left]

Gothic 3 was the first gothic with a fully developed rpg char-system with interesting combat mechanics (broken but mostly fixed with the community patches). The first gothic for me that fully deserved the word rpg for me instead of actionadventure. I wouldn´t say it was the best gothic. Thats hard to say, especially if you consider the lack of interaction and talk with the friends of the nameless.
They are all equal to me. Gothic 1 had the best atmosphere and the most believable worldarea, gothic 2 the most interesting quests with the addon and an enhanced rpg-part. Gothic 3 had the best freeroaming world, the best char development and the story comes to an end but boring quests and lots of designflaws in the unpatched version.

 

[Konjad]

Fucking mainstream Codex, I start to hate this place

 

[Country_Gravy]

Fucking mainstream Codex, I start to hate this place

Yeah. All the angry cunts have been replaced with faggots and trannies.

 

[Bahamut]

Fucking mainstream Codex, I start to hate this place

Yeah. All the angry cunts have been replaced with faggots and trannies.

Indeed

 

[Morkar Left]

Only a complete asshole would enjoy Gothic 3. The game was a mound of boring garbage and combat was the absolute worst. It wasn't fit to suck the sweat off the balls of Gothic 1 or 2.

Some people often call me an asshole so I think it could be fitting. Which version do you mean? I never played without the community patches.

 

[Angthoron]

What is this Gamefaq nonsense I don't even.

 

[Martin]

Only a complete asshole would enjoy Gothic 3. The game was a mound of boring garbage and combat was the absolute worst. It wasn't fit to suck the sweat off the balls of Gothic 1 or 2.

I guess you prefer the more directed and linear experience of the two first Gothics. Nothing wrong with that. I liked them both as well just not as much as Gothic 3. Some people prefer a less linear and directed experience in terms of exploration and discovery in a massive and detailed gameworld over more episodic and consistent RPG's or non linear rpg's which have more boundaries by design.

I for example prefer fallout 2 to fallout 1 due to somewhat similar reasons.

In terms of free roaming gameplay in a massive world gothic 3 is the best available that I know of, period. And it integrates meaningful choices and consequences reasonably well besides having a detailed and well designed faction system.

I liked Daggerfall for what it tried ( and in my opinion failed) to be in these respects, but in the case of gothic 3 I like it for what it actually managed to be.
Although to be honest I was only able to really get into the game after a few community patches. I was also very rarely bored in my playtime with Gothic 3, I was not bored with Gothic 1 and Gothic 2 vanilla for the most part either, but when I went back to replay Gothic 2 with the NoTR expansion I found the additional content was mostly mediocre and many of the new quests and tasks felt like chores.

But again, bugs aside I cant see how you can honestly consider Gothic 3 a "mound of garbage" compared to the first two. In what regards? Combat system? Character development? Choices and Consequences? Quality of content? Quality of writing and gamestory? Atmosphere?

By the way people who disliked their first experience with Gothic 3 should really consider trying out the enhanced edition, google "Gothic 3 enhanced edition". Its the final result of the efforts of the community in fixing the bugs, combat quirks, and addressing balance issues. It even provides game balance options. I never tried this particular version but from what I heard it is definitely worth it.

 

[Overweight Manatee]

Gothic 3 is what Oblivion should have been, but it was an aberration in the Gothic series. It wasn't horrible, but it was a distinctly different tone even though the genre appeared to be superficially the same. It would be like making an xcom successor with JA2 gameplay. Yes, its still a turnbased tactical combat game, but its a huge change for a game you expected to be in the same vein.

Also, buggy as fuck.

 

[Turok]

Only a complete asshole would enjoy Gothic 3. The game was a mound of boring garbage and combat was the absolute worst. It wasn't fit to suck the sweat off the balls of Gothic 1 or 2.

I agree with this, i try to finish the game like 7 times and never finish it, it get bored.

 

[Martin]

"Where as in previous Gothic games, you actually felt like you learned combat from the ground up. You wouldn't dream of taking on anything other than a small animal before learning to handle yourself."


Nor would you really dream of doing so in Gothic 3, after you went through that tutorial sequence that wasnt very inspired I admit. Tutorial aside the challenge level was high.
The difficulty wasnt as brutal as Gothic II NoTR but it was on par with previous gothics, until you became an uber godling that is, but becoming an uber godling is also part of the previous gothics.

As for the combat I liked it. Certainly more interesting and involved than the previous gothics. It took at least the same amount of player skill as well. The excessive stunlocking was a shame though.

 

[Talby]

I guess you could kinda justify the tutorial orcs because the hero is such a badass by that stage, but it's still lame.

The community patch fixed a bunch of stuff I guess, but the combat still blows and I still had issues with the game stuttering a lot when moving around.

 

[Azrael the cat]

I guess you could kinda justify the tutorial orcs because the hero is such a badass by that stage, but it's still lame.

The community patch fixed a bunch of stuff I guess, but the combat still blows and I still had issues with the game stuttering a lot when moving around.

Yeah, I had no problem with Orc grunts being demoted down the monster heirarchy. Unlike G2 there's no into explanation saying that the hero has lost all his skills due to some huge accident/sleep/deus ex machina/orgy - he and his allies are coming straight off the ship after killing the end dragons of G2. Theoretically he should be slightly stronger than he was at the end of G2. Now obviously that just fucks up the crpg character mechanics, so I'm glad they didn't take it literally. But it made sense that he could get off the boat and waste a bunch of orc nobodies. The difference should have been that now the kingdom is 'deep in orc territory', he's facing senior orc shamans, great orc warriors and so on - he should have been hunted by elite orc commando troops as soon as he turns on them, that sort of thing.

I just took the intro as a deliberate reminder that unlike G2 the hero is starting off as badass, rather than starting as a badly wounded weakling.

What I found far more lulzy about the intro was the voice-acting of the hero's friends and the complete character break between them in G2 and in G3. The fire mage, who is supposed to have a 'dead-man-walking' look in his eyes, sounds like gay Al (from Southpark) with the campness turned way up. Some of the others sounded badass, but there was a complete loss of any characterisation work from G2 - it's like the guys who designed the characters had a one paragraph description of their role in G1 and G2 to go from, and then some other guy was in charge of organising the voice-overs, with a strict rule in place that neither team could meet and discuss the characters.

 

[someone else]

G3 is an okay game with the unofficial patch. The world is too big and I got tired of the combat and loot and just ran from quest to quest.

 

[thesheeep]

I didn't like Gothic 3 that much. The addon makes it worthwhile, though.

 

[FeelTheRads]

I didn't like Gothic 3 that much. The addon makes it worthwhile, though.

???

The one which is probably the buggiest game in history?

 

[yaster]

The game was popamole shit, okay?

No.

It was decent, through the amount of locations means they had less time per meter. Overall G3 is watered down with less attention to details, less tight caves and quests, poorer balance. But in its weakness it also had strengths, big number of cities allow for different social dynamics with is interesting. Also it allows for better nature simulation, I sure in hell won't forget soon awesomity that huge number of bisons constantly moving over large plains was. And wolves.

 

[Raapys]

Well, though the game itself could have been alot better, I think Gothic 3's game world is a work of art. Don't think I've actually seen a more beautiful game world in any game. The other Gothics and Morrowind are probably the nearest candidates.