Posted on: November 10, 2020

Bluehardt

Games: 496 Reviews: 1

Don't bother, cash grab and disgrace

To move it out of the way - I wanted to personally confirm if the game is really as bad as people tend to portray it and oh boy - were they not wrong. I've spent 25 hours with it (started to have my doubts around 5th...) and completed it so you do not have to. First Gothic is one of my favorite RPGs - finished it multiple times, loved how open the world was, memorable characters and sense of progress, character development. It may seem clunky today but if you get over the "rough" and give it a chance - you are in for a treat. ArcaniA on the other hand tries REALLY hard to be not only a poor Gothic title but a poor excuse of an aRPG in general. One-star reviews truly state what's wrong with ArcaniA as a game - simply put it's boring, uninspired and unfinished. Other than occasional music this game just doesn't have any redeeming qualities. Most of the mechanics just feel like prototypes or placeholders or were they purposefully dumbed down THAT much? Jumping barely works, virtually the same enemies throught the game, nobody cares about you opening every chest you see/stealing stuff, boring character development, no thought went into making ANY quest interesting and the list goes on... Ending is cut away from the game - there's no conclusion. You went through all of this borefest just to be greeted with a big disappointment and unneeded questions. Oh, maybe it's resolved in the standalone DLC which takes barely a few hours to finish and costs almost at the price point of the original game? No idea, didn't play it at the time of writing a review - not expecting miracles though. It's made by another studio (not Piranha Bytes) and it's clear as day as you play it. Wonder what's the true reason behind releasing at this state - lack of funds, publisher's pressure, lack of inspiration or experience? That's the perfect example of handling the license poorly.

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Posted on: May 3, 2025

jakub90adamec

Verified owner

Games: 48 Reviews: 3

Gothic franchise lives

I played Gothic I and II as a kid, never finished Gothic 3 but almost finished Arcania. The system and world is good enough for me as casual player. 2 years ago I almost finished the game but unfortunately it stopped loading my saves and crashed everytime. That was on my old laptop. I stopped playing because reinstallation didnt help. Now I installed it on my newer machine and encountered issues: First and Error: Could not switch to new screen mode, and can't restore previous one! My installation was missing VideoSettings.xml file. So I made one as per guidelines on internet forums. Then I encountered an issue with missing textures (showing pure black instead) and strange shadows. I saw in my VideoSettings.xml that the game set the video adapter to my integrated Intel GPU, so I had to go to NVIDIA Control Panel where Preffered graphic processor setting was at Auto-Select option. So after switching to my dedicated GPU the issue went away. I hope this helps if somebody encounters similar issues.

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Posted on: June 19, 2023

SkoomaDesu

Verified owner

Games: 936 Reviews: 24

THIS ISNT A PB GAME

Its if anything a spin off with the style and the narrative. the game feels more like its trying to be diablo linear story and i mean LINEAR, leveling system is watered down you can learn 3 spells but under all that there is an adventure game, its nowhere close to gothic 2 but at least it isnt forsaken gods

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Posted on: October 22, 2023

MatthiasHerzog

Verified owner

Games: 116 Reviews: 11

No true Gothic, but quite ok

If you want to enjoy this game you have to put off your Gothic glasses. The story, the world, the opponents, the fighting are quite ok. The graphics were probably good when the game was recent. The dialogs however are some kind of anoying. It's also no real open world. It's more like an action adventure with some RGP elements. It's no masterpiece, but it's playable.

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Posted on: December 12, 2020

Gogox16

Verified owner

Games: 224 Reviews: 3

Painfully boring.

This. Game. I can't believe they relased this as it is. It's so clearly unfinished. Out of the good things I can say about it : At the time the graphics were impressive. Weather effects looked good when it came out. That's about it. Even with this said, that is not the case everywhere. This is not an open world game. Older gothics used to be open. You could walk around, and get your ass kicked by strong monsters. In this you can't, as stronger mobs appear only in areas further in. In previous gothics, there was some decent, albeit clunky and buggy platforming. You could get used to it, and then it was like second nature. In this, you get the ability to jump, but more often than not it leads to your death. Invisible walls are everywhere. In this game, you are in enclosed spaces. One after the other. They got themes like marsh, jungle, frozen mountains etc. Basically no exploration, other than for filling your map. You might stumble upon a cave, but there is a big chance that cave is a part of a quest you need to do. You can clear it anyway, and complete the quest instantly. At worst, you'll find crafting reagents. Crafting is straight up boring. At best, you'll find some new equipment to use in combat. And the combat is boring as well. Not a good game. Not a good gothic game. Get if it's heavily discounted and you're bored. Slight spoilers below, avoid if you want to play this. The ending does not even make sense. You kill the gargoyle demon lady, and then some random orc, some other guy who is undistinguishable from any other npc in the game, and of course Thorus (because all of the main characters from the previous games are shoehorned into this) sucks a demon out of Rhobar III and it just cuts off. It's absolutely unfinished. Unless the DLC makes sense of this. I'm not willing to find out.

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