Well Gothic 4 is out and it is pretty bad, not forsaken gods bad but bad nonetheless.

Invisible walls
boring combat
so very easy
NO STEALING!!! (how dare they take that out, you may be able to loot everything but what is the point if you have no repurcussions)

yeah it is more of a wreck then I thought it was going to be. Even if it wasn't a gothic title it would still be bad.

I heard better things about Risen...

Risen is excellent. It feels like a true successor to the gothic lineage, think of gothic 3 but done quite a bit better.

If you going to choose between Risen and Gothic 4 then get Risen, it might have a much smaller map but you will get more hours and a lot more fun out of it. I just wish it had more towns to steal from, I really enjoyed thieving in that game.

From the demo which i played a couple of times i thought it was ok maybe they could of put a stealing penalty but they didnt , combat was good i thought, it shouldnt be easy in gothic mode,walls! who cares..... graphics great music ok sounds good it will do

Risen was ok took a while for me to fight well but i finised it after 60+ hours so i got my moneys worth plus its been out for a while so most bugs have been fixed
i would never buy a game on day 1

Risen was really good with bugs, possibly one of the best of pirahna bytes games yet (though that doesn't say much). Nothing really got in the way at launch.

From you comment about Risen it sounds like you haven't really played gothic. Part of Gothics appeal is how unfriendly the combat is, it takes skill rather than just stats. Gothic 4 removed this element completely and left you with just mash and you win.

Heck in all gothics the moment I see a blood fly I run away, those things frighten me to no end, somehow they would always manage to hit and poison me for massive damage. Yet no creature (even in gothic mode) poses much a threat due to the combat being nothing more than press a button.


Oh and I don't normally buy games on launch, usually wait a year or two so that I can buy it for an affordable price. I just love gothic so I couldn't wait.

fair dinkum mate
me 2

Quoted for truth. I run away screaming like a school girl.

I would say think of Gothic 1 but with better graphics

I tend to say gothic 3 due to the engine. Though I have never confirmed it, I am sure Risen uses an updated version of gothic 3's engine. Though it did give me an earlier gothic feeling.

I agree that Gothic 4 is awful, for all the reasons you've highlighted. However you've missed out one of the strangest points. They only have about 3 or 4 character models. At some point a half balding chap, a fully bald chap, and a guy with quite a pudgy face, each slept with a slightly pudgy woman with a ponytail. She then populated the entire world!

That strikes me as the most obvious sign that Gothic 4 is a failed development project that they have now decided to wrap up as a finished game, and cash in to recoup costs. I'll be adding JoWood to my list of software houses to avoid, very nasty behaviour.

wpegg> well, remember the first version of The Witcher. Welcome to the clone world! Happily, peoplle at CD Projekt improved that a lot with the enhanced edition.

I have had the occasion to test Gothic 4. Let's just say that I'll stay on all the precedent gothic and Risen. ^_^

I agree that gothic 4 was a let down.
Not only was the entire game extremely linear but they took out the joining camps technique which succeeded for so long with their previous games... On top of this you couldn't even travel to different camps, towns or cities of your choice before being forced by the game to go to specific ones in order. I did however think that combat was better than gothic 3 (but so far they seem to struggle to make any more games to a standard of gothic 1 and 2)
Risen was by far better than Arcania but don't forget that pyrannah bytes was kicked from the gothic series so even though its not of gothic origin it still has certain aspects of the game.
So... Gothic 1 and 2 were best, gothic 3 and Risen not as great but gothic 4 was appalling.
Quite upsetting that these days game developers try to focus on graphics more than the simple aspects that make great games... THE STORY!
I mean they seriously lacked innovation in Arcania... i think something was even called the 'valley of blood' (how imaginative) and how corny can the main plot get... your revenging your fiances death... woot

Risen is on sale on Steam, this weekend, so I was thinking of getting it. I already own Gothic 1 & 2 from GOG, but the other games probably won't arrive on GOG for a while. After taking a look at the reviews for the various Gothic-type games, it sounds as though I want to get Risen instead of Gothic 3, and I should just skip Gothic 4 altogether.

Is that about right?


-Khalaq

Sounds reasonable, although G3 with the latest community patch 1.74 is an excellent game with, to me, more replayability than Risen. I really enjoyed Risen but didn't like the way the last third of the game progressed and I haven't had much desire to play it again. G3 is the opposite with the last part being the best. It's also at least twice as long.

That would be my recommendation. I haven't played Gothic 4, and from what I've read of it I'm in no hurry to. Gothic 3, once fully patched up (including community patches) is a decent game, but it lacks the structure that Gothic 1&2 had, being more of a "here's an open world, do what you feel like" game (which is still enjoyable, just different from the first two Gothic games). Risen very closely mirrors the structure and feel of Gothic 1&2, so if you enjoyed the first two Gothics and are after a very similar experience then Risen would be the recommended game.