Arcania - Gothic 4

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Arcania
Studio GermanyGermany Spellbound Entertainment
Publisher AustriaAustria JoWooD (Western Europe) CD Projekt (Eastern Europe) Dreamcatcher (North America)
PolandPoland
United StatesUnited States
Erstveröffent-
lichung		 Windows
October 12, 2010
Xbox 360
October 15, 2010
PS3
May 28, 2013
PS4
May 12, 2015
platform Windows , Xbox 360 , PlayStation 3 , PlayStation 4
Game engine Trinigy vision engine , PhysX engine
genre Action RPG , hack and slay
Subject Fantasy
Game mode Single player
control Keyboard & mouse , gamepad
system advantages
preconditions
medium DVD-ROM , download
language German, English, Russian
Current version v1.02
copy protection SecuROM
Age rating
USK released from 12
PEGI recommended for ages 16+

Arcania (also called ArcaniA ) is the fourth part of the Gothic computer game series . The game was developed by Spellbound Entertainment and distributed by the Austrian publisher JoWooD, making it the first in the series that was not developed by Piranha Bytes . The publication took place on October 12, 2010 for the PC. For the Xbox 360 , the game was released on October 15, 2010. A version for PlayStation 3 was planned for the first half of 2011, but was only released on May 28, 2013 after several postponements. The game takes place eight years after the Gothic 3 add-on Götterdämmerung . In 2011, Arcania received Fall of Setarrif, a standalone add-on that continues the story.

action

King Rhobar III, the protagonist from the previous parts, has united the mainland under himself. He now wants to include the rest of the kingdom, the island of Argaan, in his kingdom. He and his fleet of warships and soldiers travel to Argaan and take possession of the capital, Thorniara. However, the king seems to be afflicted by something evil and is no longer himself.

The new nameless hero is a shepherd and lives on the island of Feshyr near Argaan. He wants to marry his pregnant girlfriend Ivy and has to endure several tests. After this is done, his village is burned down and the residents including Ivy are killed. The hero sees another ship with the banner of King Rhobars III. sail away. His goal now is to find the king. He finally reaches the mainland, where Diego (an old character from the previous Gothic parts) sets him on looking for a lost temple with a divine anvil. Also the paladins of King Rhobar III. be looking for this temple to make their army unstoppable. As the game progresses, the protagonist realizes that the location of the temple is becoming increasingly important.

After finding the anvil after a long search, you learn that King Rhobar III. from a archdemon , more specifically the "sleeper" Krushak, the boss of Gothic is obsessed, and this consumes the soul of the king. In Thorniara appear undead and rolling over almost the entire city. Only the royal palace, a bastion and the market square can be held. They are commanded by the apostate ally of King Drurhang. One helps the king and the city and one learns that Drurhang had attacked Feshyr without the king's orders. His master Xesha, the servant of an unknown female deity, had instructed him to do this. After a few obstacles, you kill Drurhang and free the city from the undead. Now one looks for the amulet of the sleeper; you have to take it to a nearby monastery. Xesha attacks this, however. Xesha is then killed in the catacombs of the monastery.

The end sequence of the game starts. You can see how the amulet is fastened in the catacombs and the enemies of King Rhobar III, Thorus, a magician, and the Nordland orcs , then pull Krushak out of the king's body and conjure him up in front of them. The king is now himself again.

Game world

Feshyr is west of Argaan. In contrast to Argaan, Feshyr is very small and densely forested.

Argaan is the easternmost island of the Kingdom of Myrtana. The island consists of several large areas that are only connected by very narrow bridges, gorges or tunnels.

Stewarker Land is to the west of Argaan. It is divided into North and South Stewark. There are no cities in the south, just a tavern, the Split Virgin, and two fishermen's huts. There is no agriculture in South Stewark, although it is very fertile land. In contrast, there is a lot of arable farming in North Stewark. In North Stewark, the heavily fortified town of Stewark is perched on a large rock. The Baron Stewarks resides in it. Stewark is very winding and easy to defend. The Stewarker Land is criss-crossed by abandoned mines and has no maritime units.

The Blood Valley borders on Stewarker Land, Thorniara and the Silbersee region. It is very sparsely populated and densely forested. In the Blood Valley, conflicts are often carried out in a bloody way - hence the name.

The Silbersee region borders the Blood Valley in the north and Tooshoo in the south. The Silver Lake, which gives the region its name, lies in the middle of the region and thus in the middle of Argaan. The region is economically important due to its rich hunting grounds. The people own a small but heavily fortified castle in the region. In the north of the region there is a ruined Ranger camp. Orcs live in caves in the south of the region. They have lived in peace with the people for years and they fish and hunt. Recently, however, they have a new chief ordering attacks on people.

Tooshoo borders the Silver Sea region in the north. There is a larger monastery to the east. Tooshoo itself is a large tree in which all three mage guilds live and research peacefully. The village of Schwarzwasser is wrapped around the tree. It arose from the magicians' need for food and other goods. The magicians, however, do not care much about the village themselves. The Tooshoo region is heavily crossed by swamps. In the south there is an old temple on which there is a weather control device.

Thorniara is one of the two capital cities of Argaan. It is located in the far north and borders the Blood Valley in the south. King Rhobar III resides in the heavily fortified city of Thorniara. and declares Thorniara to be the capital of Argaan. Thorniara is divided into different quarters. There are small villages around the city.

Setarrif is the other of the two capitals of Argaan. It is located in the east of Argaan. King Ethorn VI resides here. Setarrif is from the troops of Rhobars III. besieged. Ethorn VI has expelled all "useless eaters" from the city, so that they camp outside the city. You cannot enter Setarrif.

Game mechanics

The skill system has been simplified compared to its predecessors. There are a total of three spells that can be expanded into a wildfire, for example. There are also five fighting skills. In contrast to their predecessors, combat and magical skills cannot be learned or improved from teachers, but can be increased immediately via a menu. Character attributes, such as life energy, are automatically increased with every level up. Further increases are only possible via the skills system.

The ability pickpocketing has been removed and the clearing out of foreign boxes is not noticed by NPCs. Replaced lockpicking with a mini game. Smithing and alchemy exist in a simplified form. In order to produce an alchemy item, the player needs the recipe and the ingredients and can then produce them using the menu button. An alchemy laboratory is no longer needed. In contrast to its predecessors, swimming is no longer possible either. If you try to run or jump into a larger area of ​​water, the character will be blocked or killed. If you have completed all quests in an area, unlike the previous ones, no further quests appear in this area.

The island of Argaan is not completely accessible at the beginning. The individual areas are connected by small land bridges. At each of these bridges there is an obstacle that the player can only pass after completing certain quests. Some enemies / creatures are also repeated, but in a stronger form depending on the area. For example, there are normal "scavengers" at the beginning, while in the course of the game you also encounter "primeval scavengers", who in turn can withstand more blows and cause more damage to the player.

There is no fixed class division with regard to equipment. After a certain section, the player can always choose three armors (fighter, archer, magician), whereby he can choose any armor regardless of its attributes. So as a close combat fighter you could wear magician armor. There are also no requirements for wearing weapons, armor and jewelry. Furthermore, dealers will later also offer the same armor.

There are 14 permanently installed teleporters with which you can enter areas you have already visited more quickly, whereby only two teleporters are available in one area and you can only teleport between these two. Teleporting to another area is only possible between a total of two teleports, Thorniara and Xarda's tower.

development

In the run-up to the release, "Stories from the Split Virgin" were published. These tell the background story of the game. In the run-up, fans could still determine the name of a camp in the swamp. It was eventually baptized Schwarzwasser.

Publisher JoWooD deliberately did not invite fans of the Gothic series for the focus group tests . You want to think outside the box and ask other target groups, says Reinhard “Megalomaniac” Pollice, who was community manager at JoWooD at the time.

The development costs on the part of JoWooD were provisionally (as of June 28, 2010) around six million euros. JoWooD planned several add-ons for Arcania before the bankruptcy for 2011 , only the first of which, called Arcania - Fall of Setarrif, appeared after a long delay. It offers 4-8 additional hours of play and was released on October 25, 2011.

A version for PlayStation 3 was planned for the first half of 2011, but was only released in May 2013 under the title Arcania - The Complete Tale and contains the add-on Arcania - Fall of Setarrif in addition to the main game .

In 2012 the rights to the Gothic series went back to the series creators of Piranha Bytes. In the same year, Piranha Bytes managing director Michael Rüve stated that the studio did not include the narrative content of Arcania , the Gothic 3 add-on Götterdämmerung and the mobile game version Gothic 3: The Beginning in the official canon of the series.

reception

reviews
publication Rating
Windows Xbox 360
4players 40% 30%
Buffed 80%
Computer picture games 2.49
GameStar 69%
Games world 55% 60%
Gamona 46% 46%
GBase 6/10
IGN 7.5 / 10
Looki 49%
PC Games 79%
Spieletipps.de 57%
Video Games Zone 73%
AreaGames 4/10 4/10

Reviews

The trade magazine GameStar criticized that it was “not a Gothic and not a good game” and that it had a “bad” plot. The beautifully designed, but very empty and lifeless game world was also criticized. At PC Games, the critics criticized z. B. the simplified character development, the poorly thought out inventory, the small size and the monotonous quests. Bad AI and balancing issues were also criticized. According to areagames.de, there is indeed a “beautiful, atmospheric role-playing world”, but it only runs “smoothly on PC hardware from 2020”. The plot was described as "irrelevant". The “dynamic combat system” was praised.

Criticisms of the gamona.de website are the “unadorned dialogue work from the retort” and the “kilometers of boredom, the greatest highlight of which is the graphic quality of their landscapes”. Above all, the "handsome setting" was praised. The testers of the Computer Bild Spiele were particularly impressed by the graphics and the "beginner-friendliness". Negative points of criticism are the “old-fashioned story” and the “boring quests”.

The Videogameszone website criticized the Xbox 360 version, in addition to the previously mentioned points of criticism, also the graphics, which on the console could not keep up with those on the PC. While the Looki website praised the visual presentation and the largely absence of bugs on the PC, the site particularly complained about the supposedly bad graphics of the Xbox 360 version and the empty game world. A simplified gameplay, a lack of variety and "boring" fights were also criticized. The website Spieletipps praised the “brisk combat system” and the “beautiful game world”, but criticized the “illogical dialogues”, “boring quests” and the “greatly reduced role-play components”.

In its online presence , the Austrian daily Der Standard describes the game in 2013 in a review of the Gothic series as a visually magnificent new start. However, the storytelling is criticized , which turns out to be a narrative total loss, especially in the introduction to the game.

Awards and sales

Arcania won the category “Audience Award: Best Console Game” at the German Developer Award 2010 .

On the day of publication, Arcania was activated around 28,000 times. JoWooD CEO Franz Rossler describes this as a success. In the first week, the game is said to have sold 27,000 times for PC and 3,600 times in the Xbox 360 version. Reinhold Schor, Managing Director of JoWooD Distribution GmbH, called this a great sale of their triple A product , which strengthens the company's strategy. The German online magazine 4Players assessed these sales figures as less positive. The success of its predecessor Gothic 3 , which was only released for PC and sold 150,000 times in the first week, cannot be built on .

Other online portals also reported in January 2011 after the announcement of JoWooD's bankruptcy that Arcania's sales figures were rather poor.

Name changes and controversy

Due to the developer change to the predecessor Gothic 3 and a controversial review in the fan base, the game's title was changed several times during and after the release. Announced as Gothic 4: Genesis , the name was first changed to Gothic 4: Arcania . Later the name change to Arcania - A Gothic Tale was announced, which led to the association among fans that it was not a full-fledged successor that could do justice to the predecessors. Only seven months before the game was released, employees of the publisher JoWooD confirmed the last name change to Arcania - Gothic 4 until the release . After JoWooD went bankrupt and was taken over by Nordic Games , an employee finally announced in the form of a forum entry that they no longer wanted to sell the game with the suffix “Gothic 4” in the future.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ ArcaniA: Gothic 4 (2010) Xbox 360 release dates - MobyGames. In: mobygames.com. Retrieved June 3, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Arcania: The Complete Tale (2015) PlayStation 4 release dates - MobyGames. In: mobygames.com. Retrieved June 3, 2019 .
  3. ↑ a b Technik Interview In: pcgameshardware.de , February 3, 2010. Accessed October 12, 2010.
  4. ↑ Manual Patch In: worldofgothic.de , November 23, 2010. Accessed November 24, 2010.
  5. ↑ a b Work completed - Xbox 360 version with a slight delay ( memento from October 8, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) at onlinewelten.de , accessed on October 12, 2010
  6. ↑ David Martin: Arcania: The Complete Tale for PS3 in the video - Technically as weak as the two-year-old Xbox 360 version. In: PC Games . April 23, 2013, accessed September 28, 2019 .
  7. ↑ Gothic 4 - Short Stories - The Split Virgin. In: World of Gothic. Retrieved September 28, 2019 .
  8. ↑ naming contest In: worldofgothic.de Accessed on October 12 of 2010.
  9. ↑ Michael Sosinka: Arcania: A Gothic Tale: No focus groups with Gothic fans. In: GameZone. November 9, 2009, accessed August 20, 2019 .
  10. ↑ Arcania: Focus group test without Gothic Community * Update *. In: Gamers Global. November 10, 2009, accessed August 20, 2019 .
  11. ↑ Interview with CEO Franz Rossler, JoWooD valuation In: boerse-express.com June 28, 2010. Retrieved October 16, 2010.
  12. ↑ Interview with CEO Franz Rossler, JoWood Wertung In: boerse-express.com October 13, 2010. Accessed October 16, 2010.
  13. ↑ Arcania: Fall of Setarrif - Appears without "Gothic" on October 25th. . gamersglobal.de. September 22, 2011. Retrieved November 6, 2011.
  14. ↑ Gothic rights go back to Piranha Bytes. In: Buffed . April 6, 2011, accessed September 28, 2019 .
  15. ↑ Michael Rüve: Concentrated answers from the piranhas from question thread # 4. In: World of Players. Retrieved September 28, 2019 .
  16. ↑ a b Arcania: Gothic 4 Rating by 4players In: 4players.de October 12, 2010. Retrieved October 12, 2010.
  17. ↑ Oliver Haake: Arcania: Gothic 4 in the test - conclusion and evaluation. In: Buffed . Retrieved September 28, 2019 .
  18. ↑ a b Conclusion: Arcania: Gothic 4 (PC). In: Computer Bild . Retrieved September 28, 2019 .
  19. ↑ Arcania Gothic 4 Rating In: gamestar.de Retrieved on October 12, 2010.
  20. ↑ a b Andreas Philipp: ArcaniA: Gothic 4 - Valium is cheaper. In: Gameswelt . October 16, 2010, accessed September 28, 2019 .
  21. ↑ a b Arcania: Gothic 4 Rating In: gamona.de October 12, 2010. Accessed October 12, 2010.
  22. ^ Daniel Boll: ArcaniA - Gothic 4: Review. In: GBase. April 3, 2011, accessed September 7, 2019 .
  23. ↑ Patrick Kolan: Arcania: Gothic IV Review. In: IGN . May 5, 2012, accessed September 7, 2019 .
  24. ↑ a b Riad Oelschlägel: Arcania - Gothic 4 - Test. In: Looki. Archived from the original ; accessed on September 28, 2019 .
  25. ↑ a b Sebastian Weber: Arcania: Gothic 4-Test: The negative aspects and the evaluation. In: PC Games . October 11, 2010, accessed September 28, 2019 .
  26. ↑ a b Hauke ​​Schweer: Test Arcania - Gothic 4: The burst dream of the RPG hit. In: Spieletipps.de . November 1, 2010, accessed September 28, 2019 .
  27. ↑ a b Matti Sandqvist: Arcania Gothic 4 for Xbox 360 in the test - available in stores from today. In: Video Games Zone. October 15, 2010, accessed September 28, 2019 .
  28. ↑ a b c test report - Arcania - Gothic 4. In: AreaGames.de. October 12, 2010, archived from the original on August 16, 2013 ; accessed on August 28, 2018 .
  29. ↑ Arcania Gothic 4 Test In: gamestar.de Retrieved on October 12, 2010.
  30. ↑ Arcania: Gothic 4 Test In: gamona October 12, 2010. Accessed October 12, 2010.
  31. ↑ Georg Pichler: "Gothic": On the rise and fall of a classic role-playing game. In: derStandard.at . January 15, 2013, accessed August 20, 2019 .
  32. ↑ German Developer Award 2010 In: pcgames.de Retrieved on December 4, 2010.
  33. ↑ Interview with CEO Franz Rossler, JoWooD valuation In: boerse-express.com October 13, 2010. Accessed October 17, 2010.
  34. ↑ Michael Sosinka: Arcania: Gothic 4: JoWooD names first sales figures. In: GameZone. October 20, 2010, accessed August 20, 2019 .
  35. ↑ Tino Hahn: Arcania: Gothic 4 storms the sales charts. In: IGN . October 20, 2010, accessed August 20, 2019 .
  36. ↑ Marc Kleffmann: Arcania: Gothic 4: First (meager) sales figures. In: 4Players . October 20, 2010, accessed August 20, 2019 .
  37. ↑ Peter Steinlechner: Jowood is broke. In: Golem.de . January 7, 2011, accessed August 20, 2019 .
  38. ↑ JoWooD files for bankruptcy. In: RauteMusik .fm. Retrieved August 20, 2019 .
  39. ↑ Simon Fistrich: Gothic publisher Jowood has filed for bankruptcy. In: buffed . January 7, 2011, accessed August 20, 2019 .
  40. ↑ Arcania - Gothic 4: Final name, release date. In: Gamers Global March 31, 2010. Retrieved June 2, 2019 .
  41. ↑ (Official) Arcania: Fall of Setarrif for the first time for the XBox 360 and name change of the main game. In: WorldOfGothic.de. August 30, 2013, accessed June 2, 2019 .