This package contains part one and two of the so called 'Northlands trilogy', which bases on Germany's leading pen and paper system 'Das Schwarze Auge'. The rules have been slightly altered, trimmed and adjusted for the different environment of a computer game as opposed to an actual human game master. The first part plays in the north-western coast region of Arcania named 'Thorwall', which is the home of a seafaring, Viking like people, currently troubled by a massive orc invasion. The game offers a novice and an advanced mode, but the novice mode (much like the option of automated combat) is too much of a drawback to be really 'beginner' friendly, due to the increased difficulty of surviving with a sub standard designed party. A similar issue applies to the optionally available pre-generated characters, that simply can not compete well enough with the adventures that lie ahead of them. While that is not much of a hassle normally, because you would want a unique party to meet your play style anyway in most every role playing game, the process of character generation in Arcania is extremely luck based and thus has a high order of repetition. The amount of detail and choice that the advanced Arcania user can dwell in is a double edged sword, since it is going to require some knowledge of the game mechanics (and thus a bit of time spent with the handbook, or even the clue-book, which is fortunately included with the package), but grants a special sort of dedication and customisation to your alter egos. To ease the somewhat troublesome experience a bit, the second (and third) part of the trilogy allow you to import your previously used party with most of their gear, skills and attributes, which means you only have to go through this time consuming process once. Characters come with several positive and negative attributes (of which the negative have generally less impact and some non at all) and certain skills (and spells for the magical ones). Attributes and skills are capped and progression is handled by point distribution, but with a chance of failure increasing with the growing figures. Even though no single class, race or skill is specifically required to successfully finish the game, some choices certainly increase the resilence of your party (e.g. Warrior, Dwarf, Magician, Elfs) whereas others aren't as useful (especially warlock and Druid). A good amount of people is going to appreciate the impact that even the slightest choice is going to have on the game, like your attributes, skills and even your race and gender influencing dialoges, or the leading party member's skills triggering certain events in the city, dungeons and wilderness. For others the heavy micro management is going to be too bothersome, where even a tent or a bed roll can effect your game (illness, regeneration), where your party is getting hungry and thirsty, requires plenty of (non automated) resting on the somewhat tedious and long journeys between locations and can be split up into independently acting groups. The astonishing general factor of realism somehow outlines the few errors even more (Grimring, a two-handed sword, which is required for the final battle can be used even by a mage, to ensure that one doesn't need a warrior in the party). Aquiring money kind of shows this realism and detail very well, as you could show some acrobatics, dance, or play an instrument in a local tavern, risking nothing and gaining very little, or you could gather valuable materials with herb lore and maybe even mix your own potions due to your knowledge of alchemy. If you're really into gambling, you could try to cheat to increase your luck with a game of cards, or even pick some pockets, but might end up in prison. Another point that displays the freedom of choice in this world is the rather open storyline progression, which allows different attempts and even a different timeline. All in all, the game is very nice for people that want a high level of detail and realism, at the cost of extra effort and dedication, sometimes even resulting in heavy repetition, but easily scares off a lot of others.
