When I played it for the first time, I was more disappointed than I thought I will. Spellbound did really bad job on that one.. It is a merely a continuation of previous Gothics. Only two good things that I am able to come up with are the graphics and improved fighting style (Compared to Gothic 3). Improved doesn't mean good though.. Most of opponents we face during the game we won't have any problems with. Character faces not only repeat often, but people all seem the same even when talking to them. I must admit I didn't beat the game, but I've played it for plenty of hours and I must say it is really monotonous.. The quests we do are boring and nothing we never seen.. "Go there, collect this.. kill him/it/them.. bring me that.. find me some of these.. talk to him.." As far as I've seen the storyline, I completely didn't like it. Bringing up some characters from old Gothics is only as much as it relates to previous series. Oh, this, and creatures from Gothic series. The world isn't really interesting to explore at all. We often are forced to visit caves and all of them look a lie and have the same schematics. We enter the cave, do a circle and come out just where we entered, only that we need to jump down. They made exits high so players wouldn't be able to go this way after entering the cave. And in each damn cave it's the same story. The world isn't open anymore, we unlock locations. We don't have NPC as teachers to increase our stats, we just choose what we want to improve after leveling up. Bah! We don't even need a smithy to make a sword. We can forge one standing in the middle of swamp. Same for potions any anything else. Makes the game way too simple, and makes it seem like developers made this game for little kids, for which previous Gothics were too complicated. One thing I also don't understand is that we are able to choose "American" version of colours and textures which make game to seem.. More.. Friendly.. Less.. Dark and evil. This really is ridiculous.. Well.. I played the game for a bit.. I was forcing myself to play it, hoping that it will get more interesting later down, but it didn't. This game disappointed me greatly, and is nothing like previous Gothics. I didn't like Gothic 3 when it was out to begin with, but Arcania... Arcania made me appreciate Gothic 3 now. Arcania made me realise how great continuation of Gothic 2, Gothic 3 is. After I seen how bad can continuation of Gothic 3 be. Gothic 4 just isn't fun. I am giving it 3, since I enjoyed it a little slightly bit at the very beginning. But the more I've played my hate for this game started to grow and grew more and more. It's just a waste of time. Let me do a quick summary. Pros: -Umm.. Graphics? -Soundtrack isn't bad.. Cons: -Monotonous. -Too easy, even on hardest difficulty. -It just isn't the same anymore... I rather call it Arcania, than Gothic.â… Expand

Sword? Check. Shield? Check. Bow and arrows? Check! Stop drop and roll, to avoid the essence of mediocrity? Double check! Welcome to JoWood's second attempt at catching lightning in the bottle. It failed on Gothic 3, yet was able to capture that video game magic with Gothic 1 & 2. Sadly, JoWood dropped the ball once again, on game mechanic's, storyline and variety. The game is a technical gem to behold, I'll give the development team at Spellbound credit for that. Such an achievement should be the norm, in today's technology driven society. I'm a realist, JoWood is a entertainment, company they need to make money. Lowering your standards for game play for a broad spectrum of 'gamers' is today's 'money grab' for software publishers like JoWood.

The game mechanics are horrid, the flow of combat, becomes a simple roll one direction, swing weapon once, roll backwards and fire off your three different versions of the same spell. Oh, I forgot you can use a bow and arrow to shoot monsters, it's a kiting riot! The game has hardly any active skills, most are passive. The weapon charge system is a dated concept. Multi hit is dated concept, it's a hack n slash principle. There is no riposte system, there is no flank system, stealth is a joke, you can't sneak up and back stab. There is no back stepping, unless you're using a bow and arrow. Running backwards makes your nameless avatar run with his back to the monster. Overall the game mechanics are sub par. The saving grace of this game, is the stunning atmosphere, but beyond that avoid this title until it drops in price. The game does offer good frame rates, on most top end video cards. The load times are quick. Thanks for reading.… Expand

"Let me past!" demands my super-warrior, crackling with magical WMDs and carrying more sharp things than a porcupine. "Not until you've fetched six mushrooms from that goblin-infested cave in the south," replies the bald man with the goatee (who seems intent on barring my way wherever I go). "Oh, all right then," I say. (Five minutes of hacking goblins later...) "Here's your mushrooms. Now will you let me past?" "Not until you've found a hat I dropped in that orc-infested cave in the north." "Oh, all right then,"... And so on. This is ArcaniA - a beautiful-looking game with absolutely no intelligence. The world is populated with clones who completely ignore you (unless you're supposed to talk to them) and are even oblivious to battles raging around and through them! Enemies chase you to the edge of their range then return to their posts making battles a simple matter of picking them off one-by-one because if things get tough you can always move out of their area. To compensate for poor AI, enemies nearly always appear in groups - and you don't meet more challenging baddies as the game goes on, just bigger gangs! But that's okay, peppering enemies with an almost unlimited supply of arrows and hacking furiously is quite fun - at least it makes some kind of sense. But there are so many elements of the game that are just plain daft. Why does every goblin carry precisely 13 pieces of gold (or whatever)? Why does no one care if I loot their home right in front of them? Why can I carry dozens (or hundreds) of weapons? (Have you ever tried to lift just one warhammer?) Why can I eat 20 sour apples in the middle of a fight without getting stomach ache? But having said all that, I've enjoyed playing ArcaniA and I think it was 30 quid well spent. The graphics are excellent and the weather effects are amazing - and the frequent rain and storms help take your mind off the dire AI. I just find it frustrating that nearly five years after Oblivion showed how to make a fantasy RPG it's only the prettiness that's moved on.… Expand

Bad game. Too much linear game I've never seen. We are kids or what, that everywhere must be only one way to complete quest? Also there is very low story. Biggest fail is graphic. Shadows and movement of trees... sorry but I must laugh... Vsync and antialiasing is missing so my eyes are hurted from that chewed edges. Fight system is also fail... just poor Hack & Slash. Sorry 3/10

While there is much room for improvement, do not discount this title so quickly. The first part of the game (tutorial island) is a major letdown and falsely leads the player into expectations as to what the actual game is like. Get past this, and you will find an absorbing and enjoyable action RPG.

THE BAD:
Voice acting & lip sync is atrocious - almost embarrasing to listen to. NPC models and skins are very limited, the same facial skins roll very frequently. Quests are very unoriginal mostly involving talk-to-him and fetching etc. Crafting system is overly simple. Levelling system is also overly simple. Jumping animation is clunky and ugly. Invisible barriers.

THE GOOD:
Fantastic graphics, despite some pop in and shadow flickering the game world is an appealing place. The much touted weather effects are cool (particularly the lightning) but not that special. The combat system is rather smooth and enjoyable as a melee class. Ranged and magic combat is not so great.… Expand

At first I didn't think this was worth playing but kept at it for a few and this game has a lot to offer. Great fighting dynamics. Visuals are amazing and great detail where it matters most.

5/10 - Pretty sucky. Graphically, its very nice. But with all the work that was put into making it look nice, and feel like a solid RPG...why couldn't more time have been spent on creating good dialog? What point was there using the "choose your answer" dialog techinque when 90 percent of the time there was still just one way to go? The conversation was ridiculous in places, and mostly uninformative since there weren't many side-quests, and none related to the main story (which was a confused tale of revenge gone boring). Very unlike the "free roaming walk around" game it was supposedly going to be. I feel like they tried to have it both ways, and ended up creating a game that is basically linear but is wearing a "go anywhere" disguise. The disguise doesn't hold up though, because there are clear barriers to every new area you encounter. As you progress through the game you can see on the map how they are divided up. It's certainly not the Oblivion style experience it was billed as. Also...way to get lazy about terrain, guys. There are dozens of places in each zone that appear to be accessable to your character, but are not. For example, there are lots of low laying rocks along the edge of a 'zone', and beyond them is more grass or water (which if you even get so much as waist high in, you die like you've been sunk in a vat of acid - stupid!). These superficial barriers keep you in, while tantalizing you with the illusion of a bigger world. When you try to jump over the rocks that should be a simple 'hop up and off you go', you find yourself sliding sideways on nothing, keeping you safely in the current zone. It's super disenchanting and another reason why the game feels so linear. There are many other issues with terrain that I could point out, but you get the point. Shoddy work, on such a beautiful canvas. Another thing that marred this game are that so many of the little details are left unpolished - here I'm thinking of how many times I've missed whacking an enemy because you can just walk straight through them while attacking, ending up behind them, facing the wrong way. This happens to me often while playing. I hate it, a lot. Also, the "Sneak" skill... Wow. What a waste. You can already steal absolutely everything in the game with no consequences (NPCs are hardly interactive at all in this game), and the only other reason to use it would be to sneak up on enemies. However, that flies out the window since there is no benefit to doing that. No bonus damage for a sneak attack or anything of that sort. Total crap! So, if you don't mind having it rain on you while you're indoors, sliding across rocks like you're riding a hot butter knife surf board, or missing your enemy half the time if you choose melee fighting - this game might be for you. I give it a 5, because its totally not worth 50 bucks. It's a throwaway game in my opinion...good for a few minutes of distraction, since that's probably about how long it'll take you to finish it.… Expand

If you are a fan of the best RPG series ever (Gothic) then you will be disappointed. If you are a fan of RPG's in general you will be disappointed. With all the hype on their website for so many months we all had high expectations, and reasonably so.

The graphics are great, sound great, it's a pretty game. The melee fighting is improved a bit over the older Gothics. It's an OK hack and slash semi adventure game although very short. The skill/character development system is basic, a huge step backward. NPC and environment interaction is basic, a huge step backward. Monsters are way too easy to manage and kill, AI is basic, a huge step backward.

"Maybe" a couple big patches and more content added down the road and the game will be more like Gothic and might even be a decent game in general. It will still be lipstick on a pig though, the basics just aren't there, the developers mentality is all wrong.

Anyone who gives this game a good rating is either:
1) Sandbagging the ratings system
2) Knows nothing about the Gothic series
3) Knows almost nothing about RPG's
4) Is a twelve year old with their first really swell console and is soo excited.

Gothic fans, go to direct2drive or Steam and reinstall the good old Gothic2 with Night of the Raven all integrated in. That will be much more enjoyable. Then reinstall Gothic 3 with all the latest patches, still a good time. Maybe run through Risen one more time, keep that "Forsaken Gods" piece of garbage in the trash.

Very disappointed in this chapter of the Gothic series.… Expand

This game is a very mixed game. The combat is fun and easy to get used to, the storyline of the quests is interesting and has some depth, and the graphics are gorgeous. Also the game helps the player along subtly, instead of making the game linear by placing a massive arrow pointing to the objective, it gives you realistic written directions relative to the game But, there are very little ways to customize your character, who is absolutely one dimensional and predictable. The voice-overs aren't great as one character will often mix between north-american and British accents. Furthermore the lip sync is honestly the worst i have ever seen, its abyssal, it actually put me off the game for a while. Ultimately, this game is worth a full play through, as the story and combat are convincing and absorbing enough to allow you to ignore the negatives.… Expand

Terrible terrible game.

The dialogues are childish, the combat is just simple button mashing and the best words to describe the game world are limited, linear, restricted and boring. I am extremely disappointed with this title. It's far worse than even Gothic 3. The Gothic series is dead. Long live Gothic.

Been playing since Gothic: 2, never have I seen such a terrible release in RPG games, this is by far the worst, extremely buggy, all the elements that have made Gothic 2 a success have been taken out, graphics are incredible, although this requires high end machines, a 0/10 maybe JoWooD might pay attention in the future and listen to the hardcore fans that badly want the Gothic gameplay back.

As I am one to enjoy RPGs, i thoroughly enjoy the way Arcania is setup. The fighting is fun and fluid, it has the normal weapon types (one-hand weapons, two-hand weapons, bow & arrow, and magic) for you to play with; the problem with the fighting is you're usually being over-powered by a "boss" in the game, as in you'll most likely be running away and attacking from afar rather than up-close-and-personal against said "boss." I definitely like the idea of the game not hand-feeding you the quests and telling you exactly where they are (as in an arrow pointing you in the direction), but at the same time, the quest directions are often vague and at times confusing. They'll generally say it's a direction of the compass from a certain area (ex: North of ... Forest), without good landmarks to base decent judgement. The game has, as always in the series, a lot of alchemy-based potions and what not to create, which has a large quantity, from mushrooms, to plants, to creature's parts. They have a simplistic level-up skill tree, but it still largely plays into how you play your character-- so although it's simplistic, it works. The voice-acting isn't the best, but if you get over the fact that it's not going to meet today's best standards, you can still end up enjoying the voice-acting because the character does often show emotions, a lot of the time is comedic because he's dumbstruck by what another character said. The game has a lineage to follow of fun games, and I personally believe it does, even without Piranha Bytes making it. I RECOMMEND this game to those who love RPG games, and do not mind having to look into quests to find out where you go. I do NOT RECOMMEND this game if you like being held by the hand and lead to where you're suppose to go. The game definitely does not deserve the ratings it has.… Expand

Not great at first but REALLY improves. Excellent Game! Fighting is very fun compared to the last Gothic, and the graphics are super good. A bit short, but definitely worth a try!

A simple RPG wth no real complexity. Best enjoyed keeping in mind it's not going to break any new ground but pleases with it's light and frothy RPG elements. Enjoy the impressive visuals and immerse yourself in the scenery.

I DL the demo on Steam. This is one of those games I'll wait until it gets aroun $20 to pick up. Which would be probably about 2 or 3 months. Like it seems everybody else is saying, the voice acting is bad and the mouth movements to the words are worse. Plus the story line seems to be TOO linear for the tastes that circulate presently.

For me,the game is good,runnin so smmth good graphic,but these who said that is bad,and graphic is bad i wonder what graphic card they got in case,some trash i think...with good gaming pc theres no antialising edges and nothing so haters buy a good pc or card and write reviews...peace dogs

I had avoided the game for all the bad review he got so when i finally decided that i would give it a try anyway i was really surprised to find an action rpg that delivers.
Sure it's not gothic as we used to play, but graphics are awesome and fights are more dynamics, even if you have to crank up the difficulty.
I appreciated the loot system too, even if i wish we could equip some more, i dont really care for the realism when my backpack is full with weapons or plants or whatever :)
Sure the story is far from the best, many npcs looks like they came from an army of clones, but that didn't keep me to enjoy the game.
So i'd say, if you hare a die hard gothic fan and wont enjoy anything else who wear that name, the game is not for you. But if you are open mind and loolking for a fun action rpg, you should give it a try.… Expand

Ok, where to start... bought the game and well, disappointing is the first word that comes to mind. It feels unfinished, almost rushed. The ingredients of a great game are there, but it just doesn't deliver on any level as an RPG should. Combat is a basic hack n slash with some archery and spells thrown in, the story is weak and hardly immersing at best and the graphics and visuals are filled with jaggies and shadow stutters. This isn't the worst part. When playing an RPG, immersion can outweigh weak visuals and combat... but the story along with the terrible voice acting and horrid facial expressions while talking take immersion and throw it in the garbage. The only thing that i can give to Gothic 4 is the art direction, which is let down by the game itself. If you're looking for an RPG to relieve the cravings, Gothic 4 just doesn't cut it.… Expand

Arcania is not a bad game. It's quite solid. Nice graphics, solid RPG elements, nice animations, combat is ok although too easy. Overall it's... solid. Not disastrous but nothing spectacular either. The main problem with Arcania is that it's supposed to be Gothic but feels nothing like it. As a fan of the first two Gothic games, from the first steps in the game I realized this isn't Gothic. The fun dialogs are gone, the feeling is gone, the goofiness that was apparent in the Gothic series is gone. Basically all that made Gothic so great is gone. Summation: fans of the Gothic series.. .don't expect anything. I actually recommend avoiding it. First timers in the Gothic world, feel free to have a play, but if you want the REAL Gothic go for the first and second part.… Expand

This game would have received a 7 from me if they hadn't had 'Gothic' in the title. Gothic means a lot to RPG fans, and this game just stole the setting and slapped on a shallow, brown-yellow exterior that made me cringe while playing it. Gone is everything that made Gothic games great in this iteration, avoid at all costs.

Fairly enjoayable, solid RPG. Sure the hero is not as badass as in previous games. Lipsync and facial animations are a bit lacking, and you keep seeing the same faces over and over, but combat has really improved from previous Gothic games. I dont see why people hate it so much, sure it doesnt live up to the first two, but its not a bad title either. If you're a fan of the series, you should get it just to see the old characters and how the story evolves. Because lets be honest, Gothic universe is too great for just for 3 games, theres still alot of places we havent been at. We want to explore more of Myrtana, and here we get it.… Expand

The horror. Terrible ,terrible game,and its even worst as a Gothic sequel. You just go and smash things (things that don't fight back,just waiting to get killed), stupid fetch quests...

Stupid story, boring too easy combat,stupid characters... stupid game...

This game have really great graphics but only this is great.... Missions is lineal adn sometimes boring. All is too much simplifcation and this is big minus. Town and village and all game world is no live..... This is no bad game bad i no advice this game Gothic series fans........ 6/10

The only thing in this game that's not bad are the visuals, but that is hardly enough to save this stinking pile of cr**. Avoid at all cost! 1 point for the visuals. None for the rest.

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. After years of waiting after quite bad Gothic 3 we finally get our hands on Gothic 4: Arcania! But... is that really what we were waiting for? You are not free in deciding what you want to do, the whole game is a tunnel built for you. You move from one location to another in search for more quests and loot. NPCs look the same, you cannot feel of them as of real human beings, they don't inspire you for anything. Quests are really primitive as well as dialogs. Combat system is fine, battles are dynamic, but AI is I personally tried to play as warrior, my friend played as an archer, he said the final fight was hell. Very first version is not balanced in item qualities and prices. Crafting is really primitive compared to previous games in the series. After Gothic 3, which was a shame for company made it, I really expected for much more. This game fails on every front, please consider before you buy it.… Expand

Very disappointed in this game after playing the first 3 Gothic games. The fighting system was a lot of fun and the graphics were amazing but the story line was completely predictable, way too short and not anything like the previous games. Really regret buying this game. A lot like Risen if anyone has played that, but with even less ability to choose your own way you want to go. If you liked the previous Gothic games then you should expect about 1/3 as much fun and you won't be disappointed. If you are like me and expect a good game you will just get angry so save the money and don't buy it.… Collapse

This game is not terrible but not good as well. It has it flaws. I my experience as gamer I played alot of great RPG's. I can assure you, this is not one of them.
-First off all the graphics are OK not the best I have seen but just OK: 6/10 *
-The story is a bit flat: it's just one big revenge plot + the character is one big jerk. So I don't feel any sympathy for the main character. The people in this game all look the same. This is unacceptable and annoying sometimes.: 4/10*
-The combat system is fun and you have alot of weapons to choose from but only for the fighter class. The mage only got 3 spells and that's it. The ranger is even more boring to play with. It would have been more fun r to play with another class who has a wide variety of weapons. The armours are OK and easy to pick from: 6/10*
- I like the crafting system alot. It gives more freedom to the game and you really want to use it for the great bonuses it gives. Although it is nice, it also is forgettable once you crafted a very good weapon you will not use it again (unless for food): 6/10
- And the last point i want to discus is the open world. First off all let me get this straight: people who like games with fast travel (like oblivion) or teleport spells (like risen) that can get you everywhere will not like the transport system in this game. Most of the time you are walking around and sometimes you find a teleporter but it's only between 2 locations. It won't teleport you to everywhere so this fast travel service is very limited.
After a while it gets very tedious and boring because if u want to go back you have to go all the way back on foot (and sometimes you can use a teleporter but the loading screens, while teleporting, takes way to long to load so your are best of walking). This (for me) kills the game a bit.: 2/10*
- A positive thing: I didn't encounter any glitches or any major bugs while playing this game. +1 to score*
total score:
6/10
4/10
6/10
6/10
2/10
+1
= 25/50 = 5/10… Expand

I liked the game itself and had very few issues, beautiful graphics.. somehow the dlc didnt work wortha **** graphics were totally fubar missing ocean missing armor crazy.
If you can get it onsale its a decent buy