ArcaniA: Gothic 4 (2010) - MobyGames (original) (raw)

Tetris Forever

Tetris Forever

aka:ArcaniA,ArcaniA: A Gothic Tale,Gothic 4: Arcania,Gothic 4: Genesis

Moby ID: 48428

Moby Score

6.3

#20,685 of 25.6K

Critics

63%(58)

Players

(24)

Review Ranking

Collected By

142 players

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Special Edition

Description official descriptions

The hero of the Gothic saga has fulfilled his destiny and became King Robar III. Once he recklessly agreed to deliver a strange amulet for a blind lady, and from that moment on, his soul became corrupted. Now all the former hero can think about is power and conquest - but not for long, as a new hero has risen somewhere else...

ArcaniA: Gothic 4 is the successor to Gothic 3 and based upon the stories of the previous games, but does not continue it. It is a single-player, role-playing game with a "back-to-basics" approach, and features which have been slimmed down.

Taking place a decade later than the previous game, players take the role of a new hero whose motivation and goal is to destroy the forces who have massacred his loved ones.

Unlike other Gothic series games, the world map here is much smaller. Although each location can be explored fully, once at a new location there is no going back to a previous area. The plot is linear. Through the series of quests, the storyline progresses as each objective is reached, eliminating guesswork. There are no guilds or factions to align with, and no in-game morality code so the player doesn't need to worry about being thrown in jail for opening the wrong chest, stealing an item or killing someone. In addition, the amount of inventory items that can be carried has no cap.

There are three main classes (mage, ranger and warrior), skill trees and levelling up as experience increases. Battles are action-based. Choose to fight with ranged or melee weapons, or cast one of the three types of spells (fire, lightning or ice). Spells increase in strength in alignment with the player's levels. Gather plants and minerals to create potions and other items using a simplified crafting system. Upgrades to armour and weapons can be purchased with the gold amassed from fallen foes or quest rewards.

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Credits (Windows version)

520 People (484 developers, 36 thanks) · View all

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 63% (based on 58 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.0 out of 5(based on 24 ratings with 0 reviews)

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Discussion

Subject By Date
Good gawd, someone kill this series already. Indra was here (20747) Apr 16, 2013

Trivia

Development

Because of various undisclosed reasons, the negotiations between and JoWood were unsuccessful after the release of Gothic 3. To find a company to develop the next entry of the series, JoWood arranged some kind of developer casting: basically the candidates had to produce a demo on their own time before entering a contract with JoWood. The reasons were the technical disaster of the Gothic 3 release as well as JoWood's bad experiences with some development studios in the recent past, e.g. Trine Games.

After the (unannounced) release date had to be postponed a few times, an producer of an external investor took control and cut down the game. It became a linear experience instead of an open-world RPG. This is the reason for the big amount of working titles and why the Gothic name is much less prominently used than originally planned. To quote Johann Ertl, JoWood's community manager: "(...) da hat es zu viele Leute gegeben (bei JoWood), die sich eher die Pulsadern aufgeschnitten hätten, als da Gothic 4 draufzuschreiben." (Translation: "(...) there were too many people (at JoWood) who would have rather cut their own wrist than calling the game Gothic 4.")

Working titles

ArcaniA: Gothic 4 underwent quite some name changes during its development. Announced as anonymous sequel to Gothic 3 calling it Gothic 4 informally was a logical consequence. Though there have been four official announcements wreaking some confusion among the players. Here is a naming history:

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Additional contributors: Jeanne, Klaster_1, Patrick Bregger, garkham, Zerobrain, Plok, Zhuzha.

Game added October 29, 2010. Last modified November 9, 2024.