This game is perfect on the surface. It boots up without any "fluff" (goes straight into the the game after a loading screen and no t&c, hallelujah) plays fun both in single player and co-op. There are two distinct ways to play this game encourages for different parts of the game. The first is a "crazy opossum rampage" that is incredibly addicting for the first 2/3 of the game. The last 1/3 is nearly a stealth game, which is untelegraphed and therefore can be annoying, but overall, with the stealth mechanics, and simple mechanic exploits, it's not bad overall. The reason I say the game "may cause issues" stems from the game's desire to be resource intensive on my computer. When I play this game on Windows 10, the fans blast and I lose battery power insanely quickly (40% in 15 minutes if not plugged in). This doesn't appear to be a common problem, and I recall that issues like this stem from new developers, but it is an issue to keep in mind, especially if you're like me with these conditions; wants to play offline co-op with friends and family on the go (potentially), on an above-decent gaming laptop (3.30 GHz processor, 16GB RAM, Windows 10 64 bit).
I purchased this game through a two-game bundle, the other being from the same company. As such, both games are likely under the same t&c and privacy policies, which makes this comment necessary though I didn't play this one. The other game upon downloading smacks you with a EULA/t&c and a Privacy Policy, which is interesting, but things get spicy when you read them. The t&c has the usual things, arbitration (that does indeed say one can opt out of within 30 days by sending an email), one legal copy, something about a game account (that frankly I did not see), and "whatever you submit to them can be used by them legally" if the game had an online option (which I don't know if that's true or not) But the alarm bells start ringing with the Privacy Policy. In it, it mentions multiple times that the privacy servers are based in China, which, if you know anything about China, is not a good look, as the CCP has historically encouraged dishonest businessmen and will likely take data about you playing the game, and raises questions as to whether this sends other, more sensitive data to the CCP, which is a shame because both games were games I was really looking forward to play. You don't have to take my word for it, but please be cautious.
This game upon downloading smacks you with a EULA/t&c and a Privacy Policy, which is interesting, but things get spicy when you read them. The t&c has the usual things, arbitration (that does indeed say one can opt out of within 30 days by sending an email), one legal copy, something about a game account (that frankly I did not see), and "whatever you submit to them can be used by them legally" if the game had an online option (which I don't know if that's true or not) But the alarm bells start ringing with the Privacy Policy. In it, it mentions multiple times that the privacy servers are based in China, which, if you know anything about China, is not a good look, as the CCP has historically encouraged dishonest businessmen and will likely take data about you playing the game, and raises questions as to whether this sends other, more sensitive data to the CCP, which is a shame because both games were games I was really looking forward to play. You don't have to take my word for it, but please be cautious.
How good this game is depends upon how much of the Gothic series you've played. On its own, it stands at about a 4.2 out of 10. The story is nearly non-existent, and simply serves as a way to get you stuck in the next zone. The enemy spawning can occasionally make it so that you can be having a good time one moment and be surrounded by 7+ enemies the next. The voice acting is rough, the face models can be awful, and the combat is fairly boring. However, the environments hold up incredibly well, and if you happen to run back to the starting areas after going a couple of areas ahead you really won't have problems with these issues. In context of the full Gothic experience, it is well-deserving of its bad review ratings. If you've played the first Gothic game and want to play the full series, this is your last chance to maybe enjoy playing Arcania! I cannot stress that enough. If you are a series completionist and have played Gothic 1, but not 2, 3, or Arcania, but want to play them all, play Arcania first. For context, I enjoyed the first hour of Gothic 2 far more than I enjoyed my 12 hours of Arcania thus far, despite me believing I somewhat enjoyed my playing through Arcania.
