Her voice was making me want to shoot myself in the head.
On the bright side, I've still got two and a half weeks to learn german so I could play this game without wanting to murder someone =\

And there's also the main character's girlfriend. I thought she was his retarded sister at first.

Risen is my favorite compared to all of the Gothics. Is that a bad thing? Probably. :P

Risen is the pinnacle of the whole series. I feel strongly about this. :) The game is releasing in a few weeks, so it's probably accurate.

I loathe it. I truly, utterly despise it, from the Two Worlds-quality dialogue to the Fable deceit of making an ostensibly open world walled off into cramped, linear paths; to make manners worse there are invisible walls everywhere (which can't be just to limit the demo area since they occur all over the place, even around the edges of rocks and so forth). At one point there is a small pond with a waterfall; every RPG ever has taught players to look behind waterfalls for hidden caves or goodies, but this game doesn't even allow you to try. The supposedly dark and scary forest the hero is afraid to go through is tiny and well-lit, a total joke compared to the forests from any Piranha Bytes game.

You can't sleep in beds (in fact, hardly any NPCs do either), people don't care if you steal their stuff right in front of them, and you can't attack people who aren't hostile towards you; even Fable let you do all of those things. The inability to sleep means you can't change night to day or vice versa, and people not caring when you steal your stuff makes night-time thievery unnecessary and the sneaking skill worthless. Alchemy tables and other crafting stations can be interacted with, complete with great animations, but they don't actually do anything--instead your character crafts things from a menu at any time with prowess that would make MacGuyver cry. There is even a setting in the options to make such stations unusable.

About the only thing I can say in its favour is that it is very pretty, but this is just lipstick on a pig. Overall it reminds me very much of a mixture of the worst ideas of Two Worlds and Fable. Those games didn't compare well to Gothic either, but they were still more enjoyable than this demo. Arcania isn't just a poor Gothic game, it's a poor RPG.

An Xbox 360 demo is also available for the dirty console playing peasants among us, although from what I've read you'll need Gold to get it.

As others have stated, if you're looking for the real Gothic 4, Risen is it both in story and gameplay. Risen picks up where Gothic 3's Xardas ending left off (seriously!) and it has all the elements fans of the series know and love combined with a well-optimised engine and stunningly beautiful world. While the the last two chapters are noticeably weaker the first two are top-notch, making the game as a whole a must-have for any Gothic fan. Piranha Bytes is already hard at work on a sequel, and if Gothic II's development period is anything to go by we will be playing Risen II by late 2011.

When do you consider the later part?

When you start your descent into the volcano with the inquisitor. From that point on.

I meant early game as in maybe at the start of the game the dialogue is more simple, but later in the game there is more choice and consequence. Maybe not, probably not, but you never know. It's certainly not a traditional Gothic game, just as Fallout 3 is not a traditional Fallout game. That doesn't mean it isn't a good game though, which is key.

And I really doubt the whole game is as linear as the opening stuff... every game has a more limited opening segment really, from Oblivion's prison escape to Fallout 2's temple of trials.

Brutal. I trust your opinion on the series more than anyone's though. Hopefully this teaches JoWood a lesson (if it does indeed turn out to be a crap game).

well it looks like jowood is choosing to play in the gothic world in the demo you run into diego which I thought may have been a coincidence but not to put out any more spoilers there is some stuff that confirms it's set in the gothic world besides the end of the demo screens saying it is. Well from the sounds of the conversations you have in game it seems like you go someplace else that the island you start on is sort of a tutorial location. I'm willing to check it out even though there are some things that bother me. (Combat camera zooming so far out.)

That lesson may be a fatal one; according to Jowood's latest press release (made just a few days ago) they are in serious financial trouble ("[Q2] losses ... will probably equal or exceed half the share capital") and specifically name Arcania as the project that can help get them out of this hole.

Its potential for failure is not solely due to its own failings either; its release date coincides with Two Worlds II and Fallout: New Vegas as well as the Dragon Age: Origins "Ultimate Edition" GOTY-style re-release, all of which are part of better-known IPs and are much more eagerly anticipated among this game's intended target audience.

Harsh but can't say they don't deserve it. I'm sure Deep Silver is living it up..that's what happens when you respect your developers. It's really great they're already supporting a sequel. I hope we see lots more from PB as a result of their relationship, maybe even something outside the Gothic universe. Looking forward to Sacred 3 as well. :)

Hands up, people surprised that JoWood is nearly broke.

Didn't think so. :)

Thats where I stopped playing. Ha.