Game News Arcania: Gothic 4 Demo Released

[VentilatorOfDoom]

Tags: Gothic 4: Arcania; JoWood Productions

<p>With Spellbound's Gothic 4 about to be released, you can grab the <a href="http://worthplaying.com/article/2010/9/23/demo/77099/" target="_blank">demo</a> in the meantime, except australians of course because the file is 1,8GB large.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>ArcaniA: Gothic IV is set in a rich world that invites the player to explore all of its innumerable attractions and details. Different climate zones, abundant flora and fauna, subterranean vaults, and cities and castles with unique architecture await the adventurous player. Clouds darken the skies, weather effects such as wind and heavy rain influence the game world, keeping it endlessly fascinating with its amazing graphics, day and night cycles, and a stunning display of light and shadow. Wonderfully atmospheric music and top-of-the-line sound effects create a truly immersive playing environment. A multitude of entertaining and challenging quests, challenging combat, mysterious NPC characters and a sophisticated plot guarantee many hours of highly entertaining gameplay.</p>
<p>The Southern Islands await!</p>
<p>War covers over the Southern Islands like a blood-drenched shroud... and finally, War reaches the idyllic isle of Feshyr in the Southern Seas. The protagonist of ArcaniA - A Gothic Tale returns from an adventure to find his home town pillaged and looted. The aggressors&rsquo; ships - with an Eagle displayed on their billowing sails - escape over the horizon.</p>
<p>Seeking revenge, the hero leaves the destroyed city behind and soon realizes that this cowardly attack did not just happen on a reckless mercenary`s whim. An evil power lies waiting at the threshold of this world, and our hero will need to face this nameless evil. Yet the hero is not alone - his fate is linked to that of a beautiful, mysterious lady as well as a powerful artifact from the long-forgotten distant past, which plays a major role in the grandiose new RPG adventure.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Other sites hosting the demo:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.gamershell.com/news_103106.html" target="_blank">Gamershell</a></p>
<p><a href="http://download.pcgames.de/download.cfm?f=http://rrr.cdn.ip-exchange.de/?account=cia2&amp;file=Gothic%204%20Demo.zip&amp;t=mirror&amp;article_id=746003">PCGames</a></p>
<p>Spotted at: <a href="http://www.gamebanshee.com/news/99864-arcania-gothic-4-demo-released.html">GB</a></p>

 

[Phelot]

Any news on the system reqs? Are they as bad as was reported?

Impressions?

 

[Darth Roxor]

Downloading now. Time to engage some rage

 

[Mastermind]

Great. First and third mirror don't work, and I can't read NAZI so i have no idea what the second one says, but i suspect it's "it doesn't work".

 

[VentilatorOfDoom]

It works for me, my dimwitted friend, but I've added two more sites you can try nonetheless. You might want to take the PCGames link, all you have to do is clicking DOWNLOAD. Just ask if you encounter more problems.

 

[Mastermind]

I already got it downloading from gamershell but thanks for the effort.

 

[Jaesun]

Can't wait for the report.

 

[Abelon Blanchetourbe]

Some screenshots of the demo (not mine)

The sword shines to indicate combo timing :/

 

[Luzur]

looks like i need to get my graphics card up and running.

 

[Morgoth]

Technically it's a solid effort. It runs smooth maxed out on my Q6600/4970. Graphics are good, but not great. Animations could be better, but then again the game had a smaller budget.

Unfortuantely, I ran into a game-stopping bug. The witch said she gave me scrolls so I could defeat some critters but I find them nowhere in my inventory. Hmmm....

Writing is inane and bad, as is the voice acting. But that didn't stop us playing the predecessors either.

The worst thing tho is the new protagonist. He lacks any grittiness, but appears to be a sunny-boy instead. Maybe he mans up later in the game but still...

 

[Ancient]

The worst thing tho is the new protagonist. He lacks any grittiness, but appears to be a sunny-boy instead. Maybe he mans up later in the game but still...

Well he supposed to get better now he is just sheep shagging shepherd.

And what is ''4970'' ? u mean ati 4870?

 

[markec]

Some screenshots of the demo (not mine)
/

Nice emo haircut

 

[Ruprekt]

Some screenshots of the demo (not mine)
/

Nice emo haircut

Looks like Hawke TM

 

[Overweight Manatee]

Thar be a lot a bloom in this game. Every screenshot is either too dark to recognize anything or HOLY SHIT MY EYES BURN.

 

[Kron]

I don't see a reason to be investing time on this.
The skill system has been supposedly butchered, ranged attacks have a lock on feature, and the game was being marketed as having "life-like water physics". That's pretty much enough.

Besides, having Risen...
Which looks way better, and probably plays waay better.
(Yeah, it's ok to be a graphics whore with PB's games)

 

[Wulfstand]

Just finished the demo.
The game runs pretty smooth on a 2-3 year old gaming rig on medium settings, on 1920x1080.
The music is pretty good overall, but the voiceacting and dialogue isn't as good as I'd hoped it would be.
Combat is meh, but overall good, in my opinion. You no longer have the fixed camera on your enemy system, so if you try to dodge attacks and attack straight-afterwards, it gets sort of tricky.
What I really liked was the way the demo ended: SPOILER: so after you finish crawling through that dungeon that Lyrca sends you, you eventually find a portal that somehow takes you back in time, to King Rhobar III (your main character in the previous Gothic games), where he's sitting in a Conanesque fashion on his throne, with his old companions alongside him. I hope we'll see more of these in the game. A shame that the demo ends right as you come near them, I really wanted to see what they were talking about.

Overall the demo left a pretty good impresion on me, here's to hoping that the rest of the game will do the same!

 

[Mastermind]

Haven't finished the demo yet. The combat is pretty fun though. I'm particularly impressed with the fact that archery is not only playable but actually effective and fun. Though it's just a demo so there's plenty of game left to screw up the balance in.

The skill system seems a little... anemic though.

 

[Jaesun]

Sooo as an RPG what does it have going for it?

 

[Mastermind]

Sooo as an RPG what does it have going for it?

Fetch quests.

I doubt a lot of codexers will like it as a "real" rpg. It's pretty much an arpg so if you like hack and slash it's pretty good. If not, you probably won't.

 

[Ruprekt]

Just ran through the demo a bit.

To sumarise:

The game definitely is "cpu limited". With 3ghz dual core it drops to ~25 fps in the village area and playing with graphics options didn't affect this one way or the other.

Aside from the emo-hair it does 'look' like Gothic.

And it does play like it... to an extent (the basic mechanics are the same). It's definitely streamlined with '!' Above npcs and oblvionesque quest pointers.

The characterisation seems to be very limited... albeit this is just the demo and presumably the tutorial area. Even so conversation is even more limited than the previous Gothic titles which were rather terse to begin with.

The quest in the tutorial area is about as bland and generic as it could be (series of fetch tasks to secure marriage to your girlfriend from JRPG design school 101).

The player character is called "Shepherd" ... ok he he actually is a shepherd, but even so...

Combat was extremely easy (granted this is a tutorial area) and yes it consists of tumbling and rolling around to avoid attacks.

---

My overall impressions are: Not as good a Gothic as Risen (not even close).

And based on the tutorial area it doesn't measure up to Divinity 2 either in terms of voice acting, art, charm... anything really.

 

[Wulfstand]

Sooo as an RPG what does it have going for it?

It's exactly the same as the other Gothic games, only now you level up your skills without the need of a trainer. You gain 3 skill points each level and you upgrade/learn your skills via a panel. Other than that and the combat, I haven't noticed any real difference compared to the old Gothic games.
Edit: forgot about the ! quest marks and the mini-map with quest helpers.

 

[Jaesun]

Allrighty then, I can write this game off my list.

 

[Ancient]

Interface sucks , inventory,stats,dialog screens particulary looks like Windows Vista or smthn

 

[KalosKagathos]

Jesus Christ, what moron is responsible for combat? Enemy attacks have so much start-up time that you can roll, like, 5 times before they finally go into active frames. Slow actiony combat = bad actiony combat.

 

[Elwro]

I'm getting 18 kB/s from Gamershell, goddamn.