After trying out the demo on Steam several days ago, I have finally decided to induct
ArcaniA: Gothic 4 by
Spellbound for the Personal Computer into my
Game Library. My current love for
Two Worlds II probably had a lot to do with my interest in
ArcaniA - I am in a wild thirst for more role playing adventure games. I have only played just about an hour of the game but I have heard that a lot of
Gothic fans really hated this latest entry into the series because of its linearity. It's hard to tell that where I am currently at in the game but linearity has its positives and negatives. I don't have too much of a preference between the two types of design philosophy as long as the adventure ends up being a great one and so far, I do like what I am playing.
Can you be trusted to tend to your flock of sheep?
After the game's weird, trippy prologue involving a possessed king, you found yourself taking the role of a shepherd who is trying to win the hand of his lover. There is no option to customize your hero's appearance but at least he looks cool enough. The battle system is action oriented where you have to press the input repeatedly to chain attack combos. It's simple but it's pretty solid. The graphics are nice - I love how the shepherd's entire village becomes shrouded in darkness when the sun is blocked by the surrounding mountains - but they are clearly not quite optimized since the frame rate can become rather erratic. There is a great amount of vegetation that covers the ground and the texture works on both the characters as well as the world they inhabit are complex and sharp. I am able to run the game well at 1920 x 1080 on
my PC setup with all the graphical options maxed out but without post processing and the "Ultra" level shadows. There are weird frame hiccups that happen quite often but seeing how badly the game looks at lower native resolutions, I have to just settle with that.
"Going my way?"
Between this game and the recently made
Two Worlds II, there is no doubt in my mind that the latter is infinitely better. There are a couple of really odd gameplay quirks that I have found thus far in the game, like the roleplay activities option being unchecked by default - enabling it will allow you to interact with more objects in the game - and the camera being too close to your character whenever you have your weapons sheathed.
ArcaniA does have its own allure however thanks to its fun combat and beautiful vistas.
Sunset battles are so epic.
FIRST IMPRESSION: 4 out of 5
