Arcania at E3 2009: Bright, Fun, Bug-free

If you were looking for Gothic 4 at E3 this year what you were actually looking for was Arcania: a Gothic Tale. While effectively Gothic pt. IV, Arcania is aiming to bring the fantasy RPG beloved by hardcore Deustch D&Ders to the North American gamer comfortable with the likes of Fable and Oblivion. After seeing a gameplay demo and talking with team members at Dream Catcher Interactive at E3 last week, I've got to say, it looks like they're going to pull it off.

Gamers familiar with the Gothic franchise have been dealing with bugs since its inception, both giant killer insects and browser freezing fatal errors. That's why the first question I put to Bryan Cook, the North American Arcania producer on hand at E3, concerned Gothic 3's horrible reception due to insane system requirements, constant crashes and bugs. The fact that Arcania was up and running at 1300 x 768 on a plain ol' 8800 GTX strikes me as a cause for optimism--that's an $80 video card pumping out playable frame rates. Gothic 3 definitely can't make the same claim. Arcania's bugs will kill your character, not your GPU:



Get it? Bugs!!!

I attribute the smoother playability largely to the fact that Arcania, in addition to hitting PCs, is in development for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Happily, the UI of Arcania is being developed discretely for the console and PC version. It is safe to say that Gothic 4 is not going to be a mere PC to console port or vice versa--PC users will use the scroll wheel and hot keys while console players will utilize triggers and the D-pad for item and ability navigation. This will keep PC fans of the series happy while bringing new players to the Gothic universe.

Targeting the console audience along with PC vets is just one of the ways Arcania is jockeying for a mainstream audience. In Gothic 1, 2 and 3 in-game dialogue, to say nothing of the voice acting, was often times abrupt or nonsensical, intimating a clear translation problem from the original German. Arcania's team includes a North American department to aid in bridging the linguistic and cultural gap that hindered the Gothic franchise's past performance in the States. The game even includes a cheerier color palate for we weak willed 'mericans that get depressed at the site of medieval greys. I mean, have you ever seen a more colorful rock troll?





Eastern European gloom, if you prefer:



The Crayola color scheme isn't the only cue Arcania is taking from Fable--combat is moving away from the stultified stab, thrust, slash, block, repeat algorithm of earlier Gothic games and moving to a multi-directional combat style with an emphasis on combos. The sword based combos look promising at this early stage in the game, but we'll have to wait for the final product to see if they end up being repetitive, carpal tunnel inducing like all the rest, or if they're actually fun in reality.

The ranged attacks in the game look quite familiar: your standard notch, hold and release. The interesting part: you can manually aim ranged attacks or opt for auto aimed attacks. Manually aimed spells and projectiles do considerably more damage than their auto aimed counterparts. The idea being that the n00bs will be able to execute ranged attacks and the old timers will dish out bonus damage.

The influence of Albion is evident in Arcania's spell style as well. The E3 demo featured the classic fireball spell cast at two different intensities. Like in the Fables, the caster can charge a spell and release it for different degrees of effect. An instantaneous cast yielded what could be termed a "fire dart," whereas a fully charged emission had an effect typical of a BFG--complete with splash damage and a massive shock wave.

While Arcania is replete with classic projectile spells, a huge part of in-game magic revolves around manipulating the weather. NPCs, monsters and environments interact with the weather. It's not hard to imagine flooding a stream to wash away enemies or extinguishing torches to aid in a sneak attack.

The game won't be released to the public until near E3 2010, but even at this early stage it has the requisites of a satisfying RPG intact. As a longtime fan of the series, Arcania: A Gothic Tale will be monopolizing my free time next summer. Based on the E3 demo, I'm confident newcomers won't be put off by Euro-greys or complicated gameplay either.

Be sure to check out the rest of our E3 2009 coverage on our blog too:

PS3 Price Cut Coming in August?
PSP Go! Not Compatible with PSP Accessories, Cords
First Look at Tales of Monkey Island with Complimentary Rant
The E3 2009 Top 10 List
Left 4 Dead 2 Hands On Video, Review