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

One of the most beautiful action rpg (nicer than the xbox version). The combat system is dynamic, environment, vegetation and characters are beautiful.bad points : too linear, too much aliasing, crap cinematics.

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.

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 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

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

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

very good action rpg. Visuals are great (except too much npc clones). The combat system is very dynamic. Only bad points, too much linear and too much invisible walls everywhere, french voice recording is horrible.

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.

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

Gothic 4 is a good solid game and if released say 3-4 years ago would make headlines, but unfortunately it has been released now, and with an outdated engine and fightings system it just fails in comparison to the elite's. although there is a good solid story here so i give Arcania a 7

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

So, is this Skyrim? No. is this Dragon Age, ehh not really? Is it bad, Nope! So what is it? Well its not as bad as Two Worlds! Its a decent RPG. if you like RPG's, or should I say, If you are a avid RPG gamer, then try out Arcania. It doesn't make waves, but it's fun. The graphics are easy on the eye, it runs at a good frame rate. and the fight system is a cross between Demons Souls and Assassins Creed. The stroy is forgettable, but so is pretty much every Elder Scrolls game.The voice acting is meh. But what it does right is that it's fun. So if you can pick it up for $20, go for it.… Expand

Well, I don't really see where some of these bad reviews come from. I'll admit I'm only 16 hours into this game, However, I've been thoroughly enjoying this game. Visually, It's quite fun to look at it, Extremely beautiful. However there's a lot of reused sprites, and voices which can be a flaw to some (It is slightly annoying, but not a minus for me) I actually enjoy the story so far, I think the combat is alright with really three main ways of playing, Mage, Melee weapon or Bows/Crossbows. There's a lot of crafting you can do(Like making weapons) and a bit of alchemy to do(Like making your own potions, These potions vary from adding to your health regen to increasing your overall stats temporarily)

I will say this though, This game is a bit buggy. You can get stuck in poorly rendered areas or just jumping where you aren't suppose to go, The cut-scenes will make you crash from time to time as well, However you can easily watch the cut scenes from within the Arcania folder if you do crash and just skip them in game. Does this make the game unplayable? For me, No it doesn't. It can be annoying to crash during a cutscene and have to rewatch it again, But it's no big deal for the most part.

I'll also say this, I had a lot more problems running this game off an FX-8150 CPU than I do with my current i7 3770k(Graphics card is a 7970 for those wondering), Whether this game doesn't like AMD or something along those lines I can't say for sure, But my system isn't a slouch by any means. I feel like this game might run better on older systems then newer systems, For instance my laptop running an old first gen i7 at 1.73GHz and a 1GB ATI card(I think 5850) seems to run it without any cut scene errors or crashes.

But in the end, I really do enjoy this game, The main story keeps me interested, I feel the combat is alright for the style of game that it is, and despite some minor things here and there, I would recommend this game when it's on sale. I personally feel it's worth it's $20 price tag that it wears now. If you see it on sale and you read the reviews and thought "Well, Now I'm not too sure..." I would take the chance to try it out. I can't vouch for the other games in the series as I've never played them, But please, Give this one a chance!

Edit: I've now completed the game with 26 hours played, I'm definitely going to be playing through it one more time, And possibly might buy the DLC as well. I took my time for the most part playing through this and had all but one quest finished(finding 30 belier artifacts), So I'll assume you can get around 25 30 hours on average for this game's full completion. The ending was a tad disappointing in terms of the fight, However I feel the story was still enjoyable despite this. Combined with the great visuals, and a decent combat system, I think this game was well worth picking up if you enjoy RPGs. There is quite a bit of walking, Like most RPGs but it never once bothered me.

There is a huge amount of potions you can create, A handful of decent weapons, and a couple decent armors. The best items you can craft obviously don't come till later on in the game. The weapons you can make don't come until you're about half way 3/4ths of the way done with the game, When you're able to create Steel Ingots. Some boss fights are underwhelming, Especially when you play the game at normal difficulty or lower, Some bosses will drop some decent weapons however. I strongly recommend following the "Kill everything you see" tactic, Unless you run into mobs that you have difficulty taking down, As each mob will drop a certain item that is special to it. That's it for what I have to say, Enjoy!… Expand

I think this game is a good game on its own. But when you call it "Gothic", you can't call it good anymore. It used to continue the gothic-series but it was a disappointing game for Gothic fans. When you don't call it Gothic it was very fun. The Figthing-System was'nt bad at all. The story neither. The graphics were awesome! But as a Gothic Fan I just can't tell you, that this is a good game.

"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

Arcania. The newest installment in the Gothic series produced by JoWood exclusively, deviates quite far from the classic adventures that are apparent in the first three games. It seems that without Piranha-Bytes at their side, JoWood is not performing well and is slowly killing off the Gothic series with a plethora of bad sequels (Forsaken Gods and now Arcania). While the game has many a new features that fully complement it, there are still many things lacking or otherwise cut from the final production. First, THE PRO'S: You'll find that a wonderful new musical score, that complements the environments and certainly provides a good setting is present. Dialogue is somewhat well-performed for some of the NPC's. The Graphics are a shave close to that of some of the next gen style that is apparent these days. JoWood has included a WoW-Like quest-tracking feature as well as detailed direction in the quest lines. The inventory system is suppurb! The story is somewhat well fasioned. THE CON'S: Repetitive model use. Some dialogue is very shrill and annoying. There are numerous graphical glitches that are still apparent everywhere (Alpha Masking & Displacement), the quest lines and story are too linear and the story still cuts quite a huge deviation through previous canon throwing out a great deal of Gothic's history. The character development is too undercut and linear not opening up a lot of options or balance. OTHER NOTES: *Retail version does not load through Steam, which prevents the use of the Steam Overlay. X-Fire works fine however. *It handles being Alt + Tabbed. Final thoughts: Worth the time, but I would wait until the price tag goes down.… Expand

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

This game is really Gothic in name only. It is nowhere near as hard as the previous games nor does it use the level up system of previous games. Overall I found it a really, really easy game especially compared to previous versions. Honestly it wasn't challenging at all. I died once the entire game. This is certainly not the Gothic we love.

The story is pretty good but the combat is so simplistic it doesn't even deserve to be called an RPG. It is more like an action RPG. If you just pound on the mouse button you're going to win every battle with little loss of health. Every time you hit somebody it stuns them so I went through most battles, including the final boss, without them so much as taking a swipe. This is really sad because early on you learn about blocking and breaking blocks but they are useless skills.

The skill system is pretty simplistic too compared to previous games. At level up you just add a couple of points to a handful of skills and you're done. No real room for creating unique characters. You become overpowered early on such that most of the game is a complete yawn fest.

The monsters are interesting until you realize they all do the same thing: hit you with a weapon, cast a spell or shoot you with something. Even the boss battles are nothing more than them hitting the ground to knock you over. There was so much potential here...

The biggest gripe I have with the game is its poor travel system. You have access to teleporters but they are really just to get you back to where a quest is due. You have no control over where they go nor can you use them to speed your way through the world. Expect to do a lot of running, which is dog slow. Even worse is that in the main city you'll find that there are wooden walls set up to prevent you from reaching your destination without having to run all the way around the city. This is invisible walls at their worst. Often you can see the very goal you are trying to get through but a wooden wall blocks the way. Evidently a sword swing hero can't climb over a wall or just break it down. This means you'll be doing a lot of backtracking.

Overall this is not a real Gothic game. They simplified everything to the point of being too easy and boring. Eveything that made Gothic a good series, such as the unforgiving combat, is gone. In its place is an action RPG that is mediocre on its own but a real letdown for the Gothic series.… Expand

This game it not as bad as they say but its still not among good RPG like mass effect and dragon age. When i first started this game i really loved it, the graphic was great and it ran okay on high settings for my laptop. The story was just not there and i simply played the game for the graphic and game play alone. The game is always very linear which is something i enjoy compared to open world RPG's. However the games has some performance issues for many people and the leveling and skill system is boring and it is way to easy. I only died once thorough the whole game which took me 17 hours to beat… Expand

Far into the game as I write this. Eventually the desire to continue wanes when immersion is broken due to the callousness to which this RPG as been constructed. Speaking directly to Spellbound Entertainment, I really couldn't care less what your budget is and I don't care about the perilous finances of your now bankrupt publisher. When you undertake a project like this and dress it with the same repeating carbon copy npc's then you have no right to undertake such a project. It's a crime against the art of game development and shows no respect for your audience. I really want to continue. I like what's here despite the meaningless "RPG elements" and the damn crafting icon staring at me the entire play through. Go watch a movie with the same character playing 20 different roles each dubbed with a different voice. At this point in the game's narrative I should be fully immersed in the world of Arcania but you Spellbound Entertainment have completely retarded my immersion. I'm walking out of the theater now. There weren't that many here to start. Something about the title and the game not living up to it's legacy. The naysayers were right and I a fool for not listening.… Expand

What can i say? Arcania is the worst game from Gothic saga. This game would be in my assessment of the 8, if it were not one of the games of the Gothic saga. Because it's a good game, just do not feel the climate, which so influenced the player in previous versions.

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

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.

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

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 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

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

Not one of the best Gothic series episode, i was expecting an awesome game like the previous but it turned out to be a "Linear mediocre" you can't even re-visit past locations just because the way get locked most of time, this game is not worth full price but if you are a fan, and have a bit of time free is nice to to be played.

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

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

I've played the original Gothic back in...when It came out, it was about 10 years ago. so I can hardly remember anything except I loved the game. So I won't be comparing this part with the original. I've got this game on a steam sale in "Gothic Complete Pack" for some very cheap price. I've walked through the whole game. So this is my impression:
Pros: 1) Decent graphics 2) Decent soundtrack Cons: 1) Weak storyline 2) Stupid and repetitive quests (all of them are fedEx or "kill them all" type) 3) Bad voice acting, bad lip sync and bad dialogues 4) Inconvenient inventory (you can't compare the item in your inventory with the one you are wearing) 5) Stupid fast travel system 6) poor combat system (all the battles are like this: you are running backwards shooting arrows/magic, because meele combat with more than one enemy is knowingly a failure) 7) Stupid AI, especially the NPCs, they will be making their ordinary deals even if their house is crowded by monsters, the guardians won't help you kill the mobs if they are in the city etc. 8) Poor roleplay/skill system. So, overall the game is playable, but I can't call it enjoyable and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone, it's a waste of your time.… Expand

As a fan of Gothic 1, 2 and (somewhat) 3, I didn't enjoy the game. From the start, it was failing one by one all expectations I had for a game promoted under "Gothic" brand. Among the major disappointments:

1) The hero is a wuss. Gothic games are traditionally built around rugged, self-reliant, morally ambiguous character. In Arcania, the character is a pathetic simpleton, whose life ambition is (you gotta be kidding me) is to get married. Also featuring charming looks of a stereotypical junior office manager. 2) The dialogs are a rip-off. RPG computer game is not supposed to be exactly a work of high art, but *dialogs are supposed to make sense*. Characters in Arcania drivel. Dialogs in the game are built from trivial statements, repetitions and linearity.

3) Limited freedom. For example, in Gothic it was possible to attack any NPC in the game, usually with dire consequences (e.g. the whole town population became hostile). Psychologically, it makes the player feel responsible for his actions, which is an important part of game atmosphere. In Arcania, you are unable to harm NPC, unless he or she was specifically designated as hostile by the game. 4) Character development is a sham. It could be a minor point, if the game was good otherwise. For example, recent Mass Effect 2 also has a greatly simplified character development, but it is still a great RPG. For Arcania, however, it is yet another nail into the coffin.

5) Poor performance on Windows XP. The saying is that the game was optimized for DX 11. On WinXP, with minimal configurations, it looks much worse than, say, Risen and runs slower. This problem is *not* fixed by the first performance patch (distributed shortly after the release). Probably, it will get better with subsequent patches. However, until then I strongly recommend against using the game under Windows XP.

Don't get me wrong, though. The game is not all bad, it is just a huge disappointment for most of the old Gothic fans. If you are new to the series, you may like it. The graphics is awesome and the combat system is not bad at all. If you are a fan of Gothic series, try something else. Risen is real good unless you have played it already.

In general, Arcania seems like a step towards casual gaming, of which I strongly disapprove. It's certainly a bad idea to make a casual game from an epic, atmospheric RPG such as Gothic. Good casual games are many, good RPGs are scarce. Now it's one less.… Expand

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

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.

Hack and slash RPG. There is no depth, poor storyline and terrible plot development. Game not even a challenge. This game is literally carried by the weight of the Gothic title.

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.

the story is cliche the gameplay is terrible you have the walk to much in this game. graphics and music are nice tough. in summary this game is an insult to the gothic franchise and RPGs all together

As a fan of Gothic 3 I was very dissapointed with this game, it`s just not good. I do not have much more than that to say about it. Do not buy this game unless you get it almost for free. I`m not the one who likes to say I`ve wasted my money, but I surely did when I bought this game for 50 euros. I gave it a 5 out of 10 because I did somewhat enjoy it, but at a minimal. It is also short and nothing like gothic at all!… 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

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.… Expand

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.

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.

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. you dim witted shyt gothic 4, as reviews or whatever you promise before that there will be no bugs in the game, but the darn problem is the map have bugs withs is annoying as its location are between reaching leagendary forge entrance and the vocano area when you jump down from it and will speak with a monk and now i am trap there and the teleportal i tried only teleport me among that 2 teleporting place that is the colonies(outside a castle gate) and the outter jungle with is just after the vocano zone......suck game....promise that there will be no more bug and its a dumb ars map bug!!!!!!!
so in conclusion i forever stuck there as i just want to unlock the so called innos power and stuff and thats how i ended up trap in that...place which makes me feel the main character is stupid as he just can't climb, or swim or whatever you call it as even his jumping is not high enough to get me out that that trap area..........so this game is a nooob noob game with empty promises.....as a map bug accour?....awwww that sucks… 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...