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Preview Gamebanshee: Arcania Gothic 4 Preview

VentilatorOfDoom

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Tags: Gothic 4: Arcania

<p>Gamebanshee chief BuckGB <a href="http://www.gamebanshee.com/previews/98422-e3-2010-arcania-gothic-4.html" target="_blank">had some hands-on time</a> with Gothic 4 during his E3 adventure.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Character creation is pretty simplistic, as there are no races or classes to pick from. In fact, you're not even allowed to play as a female protagonist. Beyond that, there are eight skill trees to allocate points to, including Mettle (melee attacks, melee power, stamina regeneration), Discipline (melee combos, health, melee power), Vigour (shield attacks, health, stamina), Precision (ranged attacks, mana, ranged power), Stealth (flanking/backstab attacks, health, ranged power), Zeal (fire-based spells, magic power, mana regeneration), Serenity (cold-based spells, mana, mana regeneration), and Dominance (electricity-based spells, magic power, mana). Three skill points are gained with each character level increase, and a total of sixteen points can be spent within each skill tree. Each skill point increase requires an equal number of levels, however, so you won't max out any of your skill trees until at least level 16.</p>
<p>...</p>
<p>Combat has been "streamlined" (an RPG enthusiast's favorite buzzword), with the game's combos being pulled off with various combinations of three buttons and abilities being triggered with up to eight player-selected quickslots. More powerful attacks can be performed by holding down the necessary button and watching as a number of red dots begin to glow in succession. When all of the dots are lit up, your charged melee/ranged/spell attack is at maximum power. Bow/crossbow and spell attacks have to be aimed at an opponent with a thumbstick or mouselook, though you can lock onto an enemy with the press of another button (a trigger on the Xbox 360, for example) to make precise aiming much easier. Each attack drains a certain amount of your character's stamina, though stamina regenerates by default, and you can increase its regeneration rate by allocating points to certain skill trees or by wearing certain equipment. Health does not regenerate by default, though I'm told that some items are imbued with health regeneration properties. Eating food, using bandages, or quaffing a healing potion will also restore lost health.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Spotted at: <a href="http://www.gamebanshee.com/news/98423-gb-feature-e3-2010-arcania-gothic-4-preview.html">Gamebanshee</a></p>
 

dragonfk

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However, despite being labeled as an "open world" RPG, I'd actually call it a "gated world". Not far into the game, you'll discover that higher level areas are inaccessible until you've unlocked them via the main quest or side quests.

That is so sad and so un-gothic that I may yet cry.
 
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dragonfk said:
However, despite being labeled as an "open world" RPG, I'd actually call it a "gated world". Not far into the game, you'll discover that higher level areas are inaccessible until you've unlocked them via the main quest or side quests.

That is so sad and so un-gothic that I may yet cry.

Really? I remember much of Gothic 2: NotR operating that way. You couldn't get into the upper town until you'd completed the 'join a faction' chapter. You couldn't get through to the other side of the mines (to the Gothic 1 area) until a certain chapter. You couldn't go off to fight the dragons until a certain chapter.

It actually sounds like a deliberate step back towards Gothic 1/2, and away from the open world of Gothic 3. I thought Gothic 3, once thoroughly fanpatched, was the best open-world fantasy game ever made, but there's no doubting that the openworld design was a big step away from the chapter-design of the earlier gothics.

Large explorable maps =/= open-world sandbox.
 

dragonfk

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Azrael the cat said:
dragonfk said:
However, despite being labeled as an "open world" RPG, I'd actually call it a "gated world". Not far into the game, you'll discover that higher level areas are inaccessible until you've unlocked them via the main quest or side quests.

That is so sad and so un-gothic that I may yet cry.

Really? I remember much of Gothic 2: NotR operating that way. You couldn't get into the upper town until you'd completed the 'join a faction' chapter. You couldn't get through to the other side of the mines (to the Gothic 1 area) until a certain chapter. You couldn't go off to fight the dragons until a certain chapter.

It actually sounds like a deliberate step back towards Gothic 1/2, and away from the open world of Gothic 3. I thought Gothic 3, once thoroughly fanpatched, was the best open-world fantasy game ever made, but there's no doubting that the openworld design was a big step away from the chapter-design of the earlier gothics.

Large explorable maps =/= open-world sandbox.

Can't really discuss this matter since neither of us had a chance to play the game. But, when the previewer said that higher level areas are progressively open through completing the main quest then it wasn't so for the previous Gothics. G1, G2 and NOTR restricted you from going to some places, but you had free hand in exploring and meeting new high level friends as Shadow Beast, Troll and so on. All depends on his definition of "higher level areas".
 

nomask7

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Apr 30, 2008
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Azrael the cat said:
I remember much of Gothic 2: NotR operating that way. You couldn't get into the upper town until you'd completed the 'join a faction' chapter.
It wasn't a "high-level" area, and it wasn't much of an area. It didn't matter what the level of your character was, and not much went on in that small place except stuff related to the main-story. Kind of silly to think of it as some artificially restricted high-level area.

Azrael the cat said:
You couldn't get to the Valley of Mines (to the Gothic 1 area) until a certain chapter.
I'm pretty sure you can get there, just not through the gate.
Azrael the cat said:
You couldn't go off to fight the dragons until a certain chapter.
That's probably true.

P.S. The main Khorinis area goes through a couple of transformations, like the Valley area, which, although determined by the story rather than the free actions of the player, was pretty neat.
 

Shannow

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"Waiter! I have console turds in my gothic soup!"
"Ah sir. You noticed. The previous chef was fired by management in favour of a more turd-loving one. He is a true master of turds and his specialty are console-turds, you might call him an Alphaturd. Since we at JoTurd want to feed shit toplease all our customers I'll have him put some special DLC-turds into your dessert."
 

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