As a longtime fan of the Gothic series, I’ve been awaiting Gothic 4. Of course, by longtime fan, I mean I loved the first two, and the third one cocked half of everything up.
Unfortunately, the series may not be effectively dead. That’s a shame, because the game isn’t terrible. Just not nearly as good as it should be, especially given the development time. You can try the demo for yourself. And actually, it’s a fun one. Go for it. It’s on 360, ps3, and pc.
It’s beautiful. It really is. OK, the human models are a little erratic, but the game does not shy with the dramatic scenery or fun areas to explore. In fact, the graphic richness is almost too much. While I don’t really require awesome looks in a game, I have to admit these are impressive and really fun.
Even better, the controls are quick, responsive, and feel smooth. I can switch from melee to ranged to spells quickly, and to its credit, the game uses that well.
As always with Gothic games, the voice acting is… up and down. Sometimes its great and sometimes not. I think there’s no longer the problem with lacking any context (i.e., the voice actors being given a line but having no idea what’s going on or how to read it) which plagued earlier Gothic titles. It won’t really detract, it’s just not as good as it could be.
Sadly, it appears from everything i hear that the other parts of the game kinda suck. One big aspect of Gothic was the character development, but here it’s pretty shallow. You used to need trainers and teachers. But there things are pretty quick and loose. It’s fun, but a lot less challenging. I’ll more than grant that Gothic was a tough game to get into, but I think the took the gameplay from “Punishingly Brutal” a few steps to far into “None at all”.
Perhaps more troublesome, people who have played the full game say it seems unfinished, less interesting than it should be (no penalty for stealing, unlike earlier Gothics, and therefore no challenge to it), and having a shallow story. Gothic games had simple stories, yes, but not stupid ones.
Gothic games, even 3, had an excellent array of varied quests and goals: from simply reaching a certain area to getting some money. Much like the classic Ultima games, a lot of the quests were open to player control. You needed 500 gold, but the game didn’t tell you how to get it. You needed to get the item, but the game let you decide to kill the guard, put him to sleep with a spell, knock him out (and maybe make him forget with a spell), or sneak past. Plus, there was a lot of fun combat on top of all that. Gothic 4 is enjoyable… but kinda thin.
And did I mention it was supposed to come out yesterday? Well, apparently somebody had a massive cranial failure, as they delayed it… until the 19th.
So it can come out opposite Fallout: New Vegas.
In fact, they delayed it so late that some sites were already selling it for download and some people actually did buy it in stores.
Incredibly stupid.
And the idiots put SecureRom on it, for a final “F You!”