Arcania: Gothic 4 Reviews
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Fetch and kill quests are, of course, the meat and potatoes of RPGs, and they populate Arcania in abundance. Unfortunately, in this straight-path-the-end game, those sometimes tedious missions can't be avoided and what's worse, they're introduced by some of the most gratingly awful, tin-eared actors you'll ever have the misfortune to hear. Coming off the top-notch voice acting of Enslaved or Castlevania, the sub-par voice work gives Arcania a low-rent feel that undermines the positive impression left by the visuals. The musical score is, however, a strong element and worth listening to.
Gothic games have been bemoaned for their graphical bugs and sloppy code but things are a lot cleaner and tighter this time around. Gone is the open-world of previous titles, replaced by mundane, rote, disappointingly shallow RPG that lives and breathes in an engaging, beautiful, and invitingly realized world. But for an RPG as in life just being pretty isn't enough.
And then The Examiner clocks in with a verdict of "Good":
My problem with the game's progression is that quest-finding can be troublesome. Way points for missions feel randomly generated and rarely show up on the map until you're right on top of them. Even then since many of these missions are completed by going inside a cavern somewhere you'll easily find yourself at where you think you're supposed to be, only to realize that the objective is right underneath you in a cave. Then you have to backtrack all the way around to the entrance: this happened to me more times than I liked. Since damn near everybody has a mission or two they want you to complete you'll feel bogged down all too easily with these problems coalescing together. Did it stop me from completing the game? No, but it didn't make running around any easier or less tedious. Also, the ending is far from serviceable and ended much too suddenly.
There are a whole lot of flaws in this game that I wish weren't present but there's still fun to be had. The world is vast and beautiful enough to be worth exploring despite issues with quest markers. The combat system works well and finding increasingly stronger pieces of equipment to crack some skulls is always a blast.
