Game News Arcania: Gothic 4 Demo Released

[Monocause]

I am happy you enjoy it, i envy you. Myyself i could make a big list of things i find wrong just with the demo, but no point.I guess i am getting too old for games.

Well, nice as in "a good way to kill some time". I could draw up a list of faults too, but - like you said - there's not really a point now. I'll be up for a reasonable discussion once the full game's released and once I pick up on that sweet TPB deal that's sure to arrive.

 

[Phelot]

I played it for awhile. Here are my impressions:

Well, I've got a 8800 GTX which was supposedly the minimum reqs. so that seems to be bunk since the game runs just fine with max settings, though I couldn't play it that well at my preferred 1400x1050 very smoothly.

It looks really good for us graphic whores. I mean, I like most of the prefabs and little details. Looks really good though some things are a bit nonsensical, I mean having pigs right next to a cliff and sheep that just stand around. I know that might sound like nitpicking, but I'd love a game that REALLY pays attention to details. But that aside, I'd say the game looks better then the screenshots led me to believe.

The game is seriously linear. I mean like bad. Like others have said, maybe it's just the demo, but still I can't even jump up certain small walls or rocks and I'm straight up prevented from moving to certain areas like rock faces and water. Apparently there's no swimming animation or something. What's worse is that the entire area seems incredibly cordoned off and walled up. Like, there's some watchtower I wanted to see, but I can't since the walls won't let me even though I could clearly climb them easily in real life. Not very Gothic like in that respect.

More on the "walls" the dialogue simply doesn't allow for meaningful talks. I mean, some asshole is blocking a bridge because "molerats" are invading his garden so he won't let anyone pass until they're gone... OK... so why can't I just kill this fuck? Because the game doesn't want me to, just like the game doesn't want me to open certain doors or gates until it says I can... Can't say I like that.

The village itself looks nice, but it's obviously built around the PC. The entire village is nameless save for those that have something to say about the PC and his illicit affair with the only available female in the entire village. Seriously, if I lived there I'd probably go berserk and kill everyone... Not to mention all the random items laying around. I mean there's apples just laying in a path like that would ever happen and as if someone would ever want to eat such a nasty thing!

Speaking of the PC, so far he's not as bad as he looks. I mean, he's some emo bitch, but whatever I guess.

As for this game being an RPG? Nah. Not really. It appears pretty dumbed down, so it's pretty RPG lite. Which is OK for what it's trying to do I guess. I wasn't expecting thousands of stats and skills so whatever.

Combat is... kind of blah. I find I end up dodging by accident a lot and it seems easy to just turn the wrong way a lot, but on normal it's very easy which is a shame... Hopefully there won't be too much, but I suspect there will be.

Music. Haven't heard much so far. As for sound, its OK, but it seems kind of funny, like you don't hear a waterfall until you're right on top of it.

All in all, it's not terrible. I know I kind of bashed it, but then I didn't have high expectations... Still, did we really need another game of this style? With Risen, Two Worlds 2, and not doubt others I'm forgetting, it'd be nice to have a non-actiony RPG come out.

 

[Mastermind]

The game is seriously linear. I mean like bad. Like others have said, maybe it's just the demo, but still I can't even jump up certain small walls or rocks and I'm straight up prevented from moving to certain areas like rock faces and water.

You're not. The game prevents you from walking off cliffs and stuff but if you're hellbent on it, you can jump off them (and die, I personally confirmed there is no swim animation ). It's useful after the first cave you go to because you can just jump off instead of walking back all the way.

Someone said earlier that therre's autoaim. There isn't, I checked that too. The monster name/health shows up if it's in the reticule but you wont' actually hit if the dot isn't on them.

 

[Saxon1974]

I played it for awhile. Here are my impressions:

Well, I've got a 8800 GTX which was supposedly the minimum reqs. so that seems to be bunk since the game runs just fine with max settings, though I couldn't play it that well at my preferred 1400x1050 very smoothly.

It looks really good for us graphic whores. I mean, I like most of the prefabs and little details. Looks really good though some things are a bit nonsensical, I mean having pigs right next to a cliff and sheep that just stand around. I know that might sound like nitpicking, but I'd love a game that REALLY pays attention to details. But that aside, I'd say the game looks better then the screenshots led me to believe.

The game is seriously linear. I mean like bad. Like others have said, maybe it's just the demo, but still I can't even jump up certain small walls or rocks and I'm straight up prevented from moving to certain areas like rock faces and water. Apparently there's no swimming animation or something. What's worse is that the entire area seems incredibly cordoned off and walled up. Like, there's some watchtower I wanted to see, but I can't since the walls won't let me even though I could clearly climb them easily in real life. Not very Gothic like in that respect.

More on the "walls" the dialogue simply doesn't allow for meaningful talks. I mean, some asshole is blocking a bridge because "molerats" are invading his garden so he won't let anyone pass until they're gone... OK... so why can't I just kill this fuck? Because the game doesn't want me to, just like the game doesn't want me to open certain doors or gates until it says I can... Can't say I like that.

The village itself looks nice, but it's obviously built around the PC. The entire village is nameless save for those that have something to say about the PC and his illicit affair with the only available female in the entire village. Seriously, if I lived there I'd probably go berserk and kill everyone... Not to mention all the random items laying around. I mean there's apples just laying in a path like that would ever happen and as if someone would ever want to eat such a nasty thing!

Speaking of the PC, so far he's not as bad as he looks. I mean, he's some emo bitch, but whatever I guess.

As for this game being an RPG? Nah. Not really. It appears pretty dumbed down, so it's pretty RPG lite. Which is OK for what it's trying to do I guess. I wasn't expecting thousands of stats and skills so whatever.

Combat is... kind of blah. I find I end up dodging by accident a lot and it seems easy to just turn the wrong way a lot, but on normal it's very easy which is a shame... Hopefully there won't be too much, but I suspect there will be.

Music. Haven't heard much so far. As for sound, its OK, but it seems kind of funny, like you don't hear a waterfall until you're right on top of it.

All in all, it's not terrible. I know I kind of bashed it, but then I didn't have high expectations... Still, did we really need another game of this style? With Risen, Two Worlds 2, and not doubt others I'm forgetting, it'd be nice to have a non-actiony RPG come out.

thanks, I hate linear games so passing on this one for sure.

 

[Monocause]

thanks, I hate linear games so passing on this one for sure.

Hey. Remember that Phelot described a demo which obviously needs to have exploration severely limited. It felt kinda obvious to me that the full version will be different in that aspect. I might be wrong, of course, but you should still reserve judgement until the final release.

 

[Elhoim]

Can you link to the demo torrent? I can't seem to find it from a trusted source. Thanks!

 

[Phelot]

The game is seriously linear. I mean like bad. Like others have said, maybe it's just the demo, but still I can't even jump up certain small walls or rocks and I'm straight up prevented from moving to certain areas like rock faces and water.

You're not. The game prevents you from walking off cliffs and stuff but if you're hellbent on it, you can jump off them (and die, I personally confirmed there is no swim animation ). It's useful after the first cave you go to because you can just jump off instead of walking back all the way.

Someone said earlier that therre's autoaim. There isn't, I checked that too. The monster name/health shows up if it's in the reticule but you wont' actually hit if the dot isn't on them.

Like I said, there's cliffs and walls that prevent you from reaching areas the game doesn't want you to see yet. I don't like that. I don't like that they're not creative or are simply too lazy to design a game around what a player that doesn't need straight lines might do.

@ Saxon1974 and Monocause

Yeah, Monocause is right. It is just a demo and I really hope that it doesn't railroad me THIS much, but I really have no idea. I would say it's worth downloading. I mean, it's a free demo which is sadly rare these days so I would check it out. If you're a fan of Gothic games, which I believe you said you were Saxon? then I would say try it out, you might find it's to your liking.

 

[Jaesun]

jesus chris... phelot

Does it also have The Ancient Evil™ as well?

 

[Twinfalls]

Holy scheisse this is an abomination in the name of Gothic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lj0r7e1mnU

That dialogue and voice acting... well it's nice to see software developed for victims of automobile accidents with serious, incapacitating brain damage, but did it have to be a Gothic game?

Gothic was defined by its grit; a serious, adult atmosphere of rough, dangerous men and fearsome beasts.

Here we get a nameless hero who speaks with the accent of an poncey english toff, albeit one who's suffered the car accident that everyone else has had too. And a trite, generic Fable-meets-Zelda world of twee.

Fuck me gently, well done Spellbound: you've earned your paypackets! It's gotta be hard being this shameless.

 

[Excidium]

Holy scheisse this is an abomination in the name of Gothic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lj0r7e1mnU

That dialogue and voice acting... well it's nice to see software developed for victims of automobile accidents with serious, incapacitating brain damage, but did it have to be a Gothic game?

Gothic was defined by its grit; a serious, adult atmosphere of rough, dangerous men and fearsome beasts.

Here we get a nameless hero who speaks with the accent of an poncey english toff, albeit one who's suffered the car accident that everyone else has had too. And a trite, generic Fable-meets-Zelda world of twee.

Fuck me gently, well done Spellbound: you've earned your paypackets! It's gotta be hard being this shameless.

Did that orc say "Hi, Shepard"?

 

[Crispy]

Disappointed so far. Here are my impressions.

Technical

- The game doesn't look bad, but doesn't do anything ground-breaking in the graphics department, either. Liberal use of depth of field. The brighter "American" pallette actually looks better to me.

- As has been mentioned, it seems to scale pretty well to most hardware. I ran at 1920x1200 with everything cranked and was pulling mostly 40-50+ fps all the time.

- Will take advantage of more graphical horsepower though; testing with SLI off definitely drops performance.

- Never crashed, seems to run smoothly. Looks like some decent QA took place.

- No option whatsoever for antialiasing, so unless it's just missing in the demo, get used to jaggies.

- Pretty noticeable popup for foliage and other objects at times. It's not horrible, but distracting to me.

Gameplay

- Clearly written for 12-year olds. Completely unplug your brain before starting. Ugh.

- You can't walk. Some people don't give a shit about this but to me it's always a clear sign of targetting a retardo audience.

- Quests are the most basic you can imagine. Laughable.

- Combat could be a lot worse, and I actually enjoyed using the bow.

- Steal from anyone, anywhere. No repurcussions whatsoever. Hurr.

- Skills are completely dumbed down, and few. Similar system to ME2, actually.

Overall

It's shit. Surprisingly I enjoyed playing this more than ME2 but that's only because of its somewhat open design (compared to ME) and fantasy setting, but I now mourn the loss of several hundred dead brain cells.

The kiddieland feeling is the strongest impression I get from the demo. There's no classic deadly Gothic feel to the game at all. I could easily play this thing completely through with a 360 controller in one hand and a joint in the other. That's probably exactly what the developers intended, though. God, please someone tell me that Two Worlds 2 will be better...

 

[Dragon]

Can you link to the demo torrent? I can't seem to find it from a trusted source. Thanks!

The gamershell link has a torrent link.

 

[Genma:TheDestroyer]

Ran like shit for me, that said I did like that your mother notices if you give into temptation and start swinging away at the sheep near your starting area. Talk to her and she'll freak out about blood on your clothes. Then start scolding you for doing it *again*. Apparently our character is a bit of a douche even when we're not controlling him.

 

[SharkClub]

Gothic 3 - Dumb down game, keep in PC exclusive - it doesn't sell very well and the reviews are quite negative.

Gothic 4 - Instead of fixing the problems with Gothic 3; dumb down the game even more, make it multiplat so it will sell on consoles and be praised as the most hardcore RPG ever made. Review scores are through the roof.

 

[Ogg]

Gothic was defined by its grit; a serious, adult atmosphere of rough, dangerous men and fearsome beasts.

"How about a kiss?"

I also the love the 'diling' when you receive a new quest.

 

[Saxon1974]

My god the writing at the very beginning of the demo is just painfull.

Don't you want to show some of your best writing in a demo to give a good impression?

I also dont like the 3rd person view and I didn't see an option to go first person.

It looks decent in some places but I kept getting grass floating up in the air.

Sure dont think im getting this game....

 

[Saxon1974]

thanks, I hate linear games so passing on this one for sure.

Hey. Remember that Phelot described a demo which obviously needs to have exploration severely limited. It felt kinda obvious to me that the full version will be different in that aspect. I might be wrong, of course, but you should still reserve judgement until the final release.

I didn't play it very long tonight but I didnt really enjoy it much at all in the hour or so I messed with it. If its less linear for the real game I guess I might give it a second look.

AFter all I did like Two Turds....

It also seems to run a bit twitchy for me but that might be because it was on high setting and my pc is getting long in the tooth.

I do appreciate the dev's providing a demo though so for that reason alone I may reserve judgement till final game is released.

 

[StrangeCase]

GothicCodex was defined by its grit; a serious, adult atmosphere of rough, dangerous men and fearsome beasts.

Fixed.

 

[lordfrikk]

20 mins of demo gameplay.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJvjGCtT6Lc

 

[Darth Roxor]

Here are my impressions of the demo:

- Dialogue font is MOTHERFUCKING HUGE because redding is teh hard
- Dialogues are retarded as shit. Here's an example: Your character just learns his gurlfriend is pregnant and confronts her about it.

"You are pregnant?!"
"Who told you that?!"
"Halwen!"
"The idiot! But I always wanted a baby... isn't that what you always wanted too?"
"Yes, but it's all so sudden!"
"Fair enough. Is there anything else you wanted from me?"

Only thing missing is "I saw a mudcrab".

- You can enter houses at your leisure and take everything you find there. Diego didn't seem to be bothered that I was looting his smuggler's cave, neither was the smith when I was plundering his house.
- Passing time/healing in a bed is OUT.
- Some guy materialised right before my very eyes when I was standing in a house
- Fall damage doesn't mean shit
- The character cannot into stairs - run too fast from them and you'll fall.
- Stuff in the inventory is sorted by category, but there's no 'VIEW ALL' function.
- EVERYTHING has HUGE EXCLAMATION MARKS over its head. INCLUDING six mushrooms that you have to find in a linear corridor cave (!) for one orc.
- You find a small lake with a waterfall. What do you think? 'Hey, let's go there and check if there's stuff hidden behind'? THINK AGAIN! Gothic 4 character can't enter water.
- Fights are retarded to the point of... I don't know, but 'retarded' doesn't begin to describe it. You pretty much click stuff to death gothic 3 style. Enemy attacks don't do SHIT, BUT! they can use 'power attacks'. And this means, their weapons suddenly start flashing and they're frozen in this 'epic pose' for 2 seconds, giving you enough time to roll behind their backs and hack away. But even IF you're hit by these (which requires complete reflex impairment), they take like... 10 of your hp. Which is barely anything. The demo also has a couple of skeleton mages that throw fireballs at you. They charge them for FOUR SECONDS (yes, I counted it), and shoot them at your INITIAL LOCATION. P A T H E T I C. In the whole demo, I didn't find a SINGLE challenging fight, even though I faced four skeleton knights at once, three skeleton mages or two minecrawlers. Everything is TRASH. GARBAGE. PATHETIC. You also regen health outside combat.
- When leveling up, you instantly assign skill points to stupid mmofified abilities (+1% melee damage/hp etc per point assigned).
- Accessing inventory = pause, and you can use whatever you want, including 498756498756498756 healing potions.
- Jumping is even more gravity defying than in Risen. Also, climbing is out, which I suspect will make for a lot of artificial barriers made of chest high walls.
- You can't attack random people. Your sword goes through them like they are not there.
- The demo has absolutely no non-linearity. The areas are closed and small. Caves are just sets of corridors. Quests are FedEx quests that can't even be resolved with the stupidest alternative path you could think of - beating the shit out of the guy to get his stuff.

This is not a Gothic game. This is not even an RPG. This is a retardedly bad hack'n'slash with a hipster faggot main character. I can't find a single good thing about this game (okay, maybe the optimization is good because I didn't get a single slowdown at high graphics settings). And you know what? This game is worse than Oblivion. Yes, I fucking said that. At least in Oblivion you couldn't just snatch stuff right in front of people's noses. This is shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit and the epitome of all my worries about this game + some more.

If you end up playing this all the way, a review from you would be very welcome, especially one that includes comparisons with Risen and what each game does better.

I considered this before playing the demo. I really didn't expect it to be THIS bad. I secretly hoped that maybe, just MAYBE it will be sorta amusing the way Two Worlds was. But it isn't. IT ISN'T. This has left me scarred for life, like the powers of dumbing down have all infested this game only to corrupt my unsuspecting self. I would probably kill myself before I would finish the full deal. Quite possibly the worst game I've played in the last 5-10 years. I'm not exaggerating here.

 

[Suchy]

That dialogue and voice acting... well it's nice to see software developed for victims of automobile accidents with serious, incapacitating brain damage, but did it have to be a Gothic game?

Gothic was defined by its grit; a serious, adult atmosphere of rough, dangerous men and fearsome beasts.

Here we get a nameless hero who speaks with the accent of an poncey english toff, albeit one who's suffered the car accident that everyone else has had too. And a trite, generic Fable-meets-Zelda world of twee.

Fuck me gently, well done Spellbound: you've earned your paypackets! It's gotta be hard being this shameless.

- Clearly written for 12-year olds. Completely unplug your brain before starting. Ugh.

- You can't walk. Some people don't give a shit about this but to me it's always a clear sign of targetting a retardo audience.

- Quests are the most basic you can imagine. Laughable.

- Combat could be a lot worse, and I actually enjoyed using the bow.

- Steal from anyone, anywhere. No repurcussions whatsoever. Hurr.

- Skills are completely dumbed down, and few. Similar system to ME2, actually.

Eh, looks like I won't even be not removing it physically from an inventory...

 

[lordfrikk]

Yeah, this is by far the most dumbed down "RPG" I've seen. When you compare it to this generation's ARPGs like ME or Fallout 3, this sucks even if you don't compare them as RPGs. This pretty much fails as a game.

 

[Elwro]

AVG says there's a virus in the torrent from Gamer Shell. It's supposedly in dfa.dll after the installation. Hm.

...I'll just disable AVG, I'm that edgy.


edit: On my machine the demo simply crashes on startup, without any error messages. Way to go, JoWood.

 

[bat_boro]

Why, Jowood, why did you do it? Why did you have to ruin the one good thing that reminded me just how much I love playing video games?

 

[Darth Roxor]

AVG says there's a virus in the torrent from Gamer Shell. It's supposedly in dfa.dll after the installation. Hm.

...I'll just disable AVG, I'm that edgy.

Word of advice: Don't use AVG. I used to have it on my computor, but eventually kicked it out due to all the false positives it was finding.