Arcania: The Complete Tale Review
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Arcania: Gothic 4 was released on Xbox 360 and PC back in 2010. It wasn’t very good. Now, three years later, it has magically reappeared on PS3, complete with previously PC exclusive DLC, Fall of Setarrif. Has it improved? Has the intervening three years given the development team time to polish this buggy, poorly written and rather ugly fantasy RPG? Well, no. In fact, despite the intervening years, the PS3 release is somehow glitchier and uglier than the already bug-filled 2010 release.
Arcania: Gothic 4 was a relatively poor game back in 2010, but since then, the industry has seen the release of the genre defining Skrim and Witcher 2, two games that make this previously poor game, look like a rather embarrassing one by current standards. I don’t like to shit on games, but with so many fantastic fantasy RPGs available, there really is no excuse to play this decidedly shoddy take on the genre.
Packed to the rafters with all the staples of the fantasy genre and a world that, on the surface at least, appears large enough to challenge the all-encompassing Skyrim, Arcania and its standalone add-on pack, Fall of Setarrif provide a vast, but ultimately shallow world filled with invisible walls and an array of glitches that will keep you from straying too far off the beaten track. What is here isn’t terrible, and it’s world is arguably its greatest strength, but in comparison to the big hitters of the genre, feels decidedly two dimensional and is once again let down by its technical deficiencies.
For those that can look past the glitches, the questionable audio and poor visuals, there is certainly plenty of content to be found between the main game and add-on, but even here, despite a collection of relatively interesting story missions, the whole experience is weighed down by a lack of imagination and an overt reliance on fetch quests. If you’re not fetching something, you’re killing something, and if you’re not doing either of those, well, you’re probably playing another game.
Yes, the usual array of equipment and collectibles does imbue the experience with a degree of addictiveness and the third person perspective does allow you to see the gains of your exploits (something I always appreciate), but sadly, any enjoyment gained from the collection of such goodies is usually offset by the rather terrible combat.
It works from a purely technical perspective (just about), but it’s never what you might call fun and certainly doesn’t come anywhere near matching the genre standard and is a million miles away from the quality of combat found in the totally underrated, Dragon’s Dogma (note: play Dragon’s Dogma instead – it’s fantastic).
For all of its content, the fact of the matter is, none of it is actually very good. You can do everything you would expect from a fantasy RPG and most of it works, but none of it is especially exciting and absolutely nothing found here hasn’t been done better (usually a lot better) somewhere else. The lack of polish, new ideas and raft of technical issues would be easier to forgive if the storytelling was any good, but here, Arcania: The Complete Tale is arguably at its worst. The bland tale of revenge is forgettable, but worst of all is the writing and performances which are of almost cringe-inducing levels of awfulness throughout. You never believe that any two characters are actually conversing naturally with intonation often all over the place and faces usually blank and decidedly lifeless.
The delivery is often poor, the facial animations laughable (something the whole genre is admittedly somewhat famous for) and the script itself, despite the occasionally solid chunk of dialogue, is rife with cliché and largely devoid of genuine emotion or humour.
Despite its poor visuals, shoddy voice work, forgettable combat and raft of technical issues, Arcania: The Complete Tale isn’t a complete write off when judged upon its own merits. The world is vast and the combat is usually competent. The array of collectibles also serve as the kind of dangling carrot that the story so completely fails to provide. The problem is, in light of its competition, Arcania: Gothic 4 and its expansion, Fall of Setarrif are rendered utterly pointless. There are simply too many other fantastic games in the genre, games that shine a bright light on Arcania’s extensive list of problems while leaving any of its few positives completely inconsequential by comparison. Arcania: Gothic 4 was hard to recommend in 2010.
In 2013, it’s a game that I would suggest gamers actively avoid.
After a long run of AAA shooters, all vying to be the biggest, best, and most badass, Medal of Honor: Warfighter may be the last hurrah of a genre where, it’s clear, some of the biggest names are simply running out of ideas and are content to churn out a few more moneyspinners before the next big thing arrives. Warfighter does a few things well but it just isn’t enough to satisfy audiences any more.
REVIEW CODE: A complimentary Sony Playstation 3 code was provided to Bonus Stage for this review. Please send all review code enquiries to [email protected].
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A Scrappy Underdog — Arcania: The Complete Tale Review
It’s hard for titles like Arcania to gain a real foothold in the RPG market these days. With big budget titles like Dragon Age and The Witcher dominating sale and headlines, mid-tier titles like Arcania tend to get lost in the shuffle. Sometimes it’s for good reason, as these smaller production games are often plagued with bugs, graphical hiccups, and game breaking glitches. With Arcania however, this is not the case. Coming to the Ps4 in the form of an enhanced edition, Arcania is a budget title with plenty of meat on the bone to entertain RPG enthusiasts who are not obsessed with only playing the biggest and the best.
After being released on the Xbox 360 and PC in 2010, and then the PS3 in 2013, Aracnia: The Complete Tale makes its way into current gen systems with slightly upgraded visuals, as well as with the DLC: Fall of Setarrif.
The visuals aren’t really the big draw here, and the upgrade is nowhere near on the level of other past upgrades like on The Last of Us: Remastered–but everything has been given a little bit of polish to make it shine in beautiful 1080p with draw distance being improved as well as textures both up close and far away. The biggest improvement from a graphical standpoint, though, is the framerate. One of the biggest complaints gamers had about the original release was the terrible drop in framerate, and while I never played the original release, I can say that Arcanina: The Complete Tale runs about as smooth as one could hope for. I cannot even remember one hiccup along the way; which is impressive, because this is a very long game.
Of course, things start off with a rat killing quest
To complement its already hefty length (between 30 and 50 hours depending on your play style), the DLC–Fall of Setarrif–has been included, which can add up to another 8 hours of additional gameplay.
The DLC is nothing ground breaking or spectacular in terms of storytelling or gameplay as it is essentially more of the same, but it is a great addition to an already lengthy experience for those of us that enjoyed our time with the main game, and the main game is really where this title earns its stripes.
While nothing that will make you reevaluate your outlook on RPGs, Arcania is a completely competent game that, while ensconced in all the traditional fantasy and RPG tropes, manages to pull everything off quite nicely–if not spectacularly. As is often the case, you play the role of a nameless hero fighting against evil to avenge the death of your friends. It’s something that we’ve seen played out many times over, but Arcania pulls it off admirably as it does so with a bit of a smirk and a wink towards the player. The main character is a bit self-aware of these tropes surrounding him and he will sometimes go out of his way to not give people his name, which I found rather comical.
He’ll also moan and gripe about being an errand boy on so many fetch quests which, while adding a little bit of humor to the proceedings, still doesn’t alleviate some of the frustration for the player that much of your time will inevitably be spent running around and collecting random items for NPCs. Gameplay is solid however, and dialogue is entertaining, so it never becomes too much of a chore.
While not the most graphically intense, the world is varied and detailed
The thing I think I enjoyed most about this game, though, is that there seems to be a real “B movie” aesthetic surrounding the whole thing and it really does add to its charm. It actually reminded me of a slightly less successful Deadly Premonition (my favorite game of all time). There is a serious lack of different character models on display here, and it can be unintentionally hilarious to walk into a village wherein the citizens all share the exact same facial model. No kidding; they are often 100% identical.
The voice acting also runs the gamut from fantastic to unbelievably awful. The main character, as well as many of the NPCs are voiced very well and to good effect, but many of the NPCs you run across are so laughably bad that I couldn’t help but wonder whether or not they were doing it on purpose. I do not find this as a detriment however, as it adds to the overall charm for me.
If you don’t mind mid-tier RPGs and do not feel the incessant need to only play games on the cutting edge of technology, then Arcania: The Complete Tale might just be for you. It is a meaty game, with solid control,s and both intentional and unintentional hilarity. With the packed in DLC and the budget price, you just might find it quite easy to look past its various flaws.
This review was written with the use of a review code provided by NordicGames
Arcania: The Complete Tale
$19.99/£17.99
Score
8.0/10
Pros
- Fun Gameplay
- Funny Writing
- Solid Framerate
- Lots of Game to Play
- PRICE!
Cons
- Suspect Production Values
- Numerous Fetch Quests
- Last-gen Graphics
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Amazon UK
Tags: GamesNordic GamesPlayStationSonyTop Stories
Demo ArcaniA: Gothic 4
JoWood and Spellbound have officially announced that the PC demo version of ArcaniA: Gothic 4 RPG is now available for download for everyone.
JoWood and Spellbound have officially announced that the PC demo version of ArcaniA: Gothic 4 role-playing game is already available for download for everyone.
You can download it, for example, on FileFront or GamersHell. The download file size is approximately 1.71 GB. The system requirements for the game have also been released.
Minimum configuration:
- OS: Microsoft Windows XP / Vista / Windows 7
- Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo 2.8 GHz / AMD Athlon II x2 2.8 GHz
- Memory: 2 GB RAM
- Graphics: GeForce 8800 GTX
- DirectX: DirectX 9.0 or higher
- Hard Drive: 9 GB HDD Space
- Sound: DirectX 8.1 compatible sound card
Recommended configuration:
- OS: Microsoft Windows XP / Vista / Windows 7 x4 3 GHz
- Memory: 4 GB RAM
- Graphics: GeForce GTX 295
- DirectX: DirectX 9.
0 or higher - Hard Drive: 9 GB HDD Space
- Sound: DirectX 8.1A compatible sound card
Arcani versions
4 for PC and Xbox 360 is scheduled to go on sale October 12, 2010, while the PS3 edition has been delayed to the first half of 2011.
2010-09-24 10:36:00
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Gothic 4: Arcania
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A Gothic Tale — reviews and ratings, description, DLC release dates, official game site
6.
7
Kanobu Rating Review
4.1
User Rating Rate Game
Arcania: A Gothic Tale is the first game in the acclaimed role-playing series whose title doesn’t start with the word «Gothic». It is also the first game not developed by Piranha Bytes. In the fourth part, the developers from Spellbound Entertainment promised to be more attentive to the preferences of the public. The plot of the game will also be turned upside down — the nameless hero of the first three parts will be almost the main villain, but the new hero will have no choice but to go through the plot and find out what kind of things are going on in the world of Gothic «. Mechanically, Arcania: Gothic 4 is a thoroughbred RPG with a touch of action, like the third part of the franchise, and the recent Risen. Your protege has a set of spells and things that will help him survive on the islands south of the continent of the third part — this is where the events of Arcania will unfold. In addition, attentive fans will be able to find far more than one reference to the famous role-playing series Realms of Arcnania 90-ies of the last century, as well as clouds of references to previous games of the «gothic» series — from the former protagonist, and ending with the scene.
Inside, the game will still be similar to the previous two parts — here is a set of skills, here are spells, but here’s a task for you — go and do it! Everything is so familiar that veterans will wash their faces with nostalgic tears, and newcomers will get comfortable here in five minutes. Fortunately, the game is absolutely not difficult, and is gentle on beginners. The graphics engine in the game is the engine of the third part modified beyond recognition, and produces an excellent picture with breathtaking — as before, however — landscapes. In addition, «as part of the series» the soundtrack of the game is active and up-to-date, it helps to tune in to the right situation at the right time. More information can be found on the fans site Arcania: A Gothic Tale 9Ol000 Spellbound Entertainment
Minimum Requirements
Operating SystemWindows XP/Windows 71/Windows Vista
Processor Intel Core 2 Duo 2 GHz
Video CardNVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX
RAM (GB)2.
