Arcania: Gothic 4 Preview
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The process of actually getting around the world has been made more painless than in Gothic games past. There are still teleportation stones, but they're conveniently located right outside of notable areas, such as the game's major cities and townships. Once activated, they can be used to quickly zoom from place to place. If you've just run through a deep mountain cave and need to swap out items or pick up some new quests, this should make things a little easier, and you don't have to go blindly rooting around towns to find stones tucked away in random locations like before. Also, in terms of user friendliness, things like map icons and quest indicators will make world navigation more convenient, pinpointing where you're supposed to go. If that kind of hand-holding doesn't sit well with you, it's also possible to shut off UI assists to the point where the game is nearly HUD-less.
Tangling with creatures in real-time, third-person view combat can be accomplished in a few different ways, all of which are tied to a skill tree. As you level, character points can be distributed along several different branches of the tree, boosting things like melee power and stamina recovery and unlocking new abilities like a zoom-in for your bow and additional attack properties for ice, lightning, and fire magic types. I'm told there's a huge number of weapon and armor models in the game, each of which is designed with a different cultural motif in mind. That means if you're getting gear from around Feshyr, it'll likely have some kind of fish or other aquatic element engraved into it to reflect the industry of the area.
