My take on Arcania Gothic 4 (Xbox 360 version)

First of all, I have never played Piranha's Gothic games, so I wasn't expecting a truly Gothic game, plus I had already read about the game not being considered a truly Gothic game.

Before playing, I read the game's manual, which is an old-school one, as in it's long and has a physical version of it. It even has a 2-page incomplete tale at the end. The manual led me to think that this game has enough complexity for me (I know hardcore Gothic fans wanted more).

Opening cinematic looks great and in English sounds good. This intro scene let's you know there's both an overall plot going on and a possibly antagonist character with his own personal and secret story.

Character movement felt a bit clunky from the get-go, not smooth (turning with right joystick works better than with left joystick). And so far, the protagonist can't swim. However, he can interact with different stuff (though some of these interactions are just for roleplaying purposes, not actually useful) and has brief animations for things like eating food, drinking a potion or inspecting/grabbing loot; these animations are missing in Skyrim Vanilla edition, for instance.

Once I finished the prologue and took first control of the protagonist, I moved the camera around to see where I was and right off the bat noticed some "horizontal lines" on the screen.

That issue aside, graphics are good (but far from impressive) and I'm digging the vibe (I'm playing with music off) with the sheep, sea, cozy little village with NPCs walking around and actually interacting with some stuff... It's even worth following them around, since sometimes they'll lead you to a loot chest.

The clunky character movement plus graphics limitations don't bother me too much, though I got a bit disappointed by them, since in Wikipedia there's a quote saying the game on 360 has "great graphics and production values", whereas what I actually see is a game that suffers a bit on both aspects.

Character models that you can talk to are distinct from one another both in aspect and in personality. Beyond compulsory conversations with them to advance the game, you can also optionally talk to them for bonus conversations that help flesh out the story/plot and know the characters better. The game's manual actually advises that you engage in these optional exchanges.

Interaction with said characters was indeed better than I was expecting; your character is not a silent protagonist, voice work is good and you get to see the exchange from different camera angles Deux Ex Human Revolution style. Plus, they have a wide range of gestures that are used not in a random way but rather to fit what's being said. I think the same can be said of camera angles.

After fighting some molerats and goblins in Hard Mode (that's difficulty level 3/4), and getting killed a few times on the process, I can say I'm enjoying melee combat because it's not too fast and you have the ability to block, not just attack. Blocking is not OP, since enemies can power through it with a heavy hit. You can also bash Skyrim style, but in Arcania you need to first unlock and invest in such a skill (you can get it towards the beginning of the game).

Something I disagree with is that, just like in Fable 2, you can roll all you want to avoid getting hit, but that's the kind of game feature that you can easily avoid if you don't like it, so not a big problem.

I'm not a fan of that infinite rolling capability because it is overpowered to avoid damage if you do constantly use it. In Arcania so far I've only used it to avoid heavy/charged hits, which goblins tend to use a lot.

A big difference from Fable 2's combat is that in Arcania there are both stamina and mana bars, which I dig, cause it obviously makes the game harder by limiting how much you can use skills and cast spells.

A combat similarity with Skyrim is that in Arcania you also have the same three types of offensive magic available: Fire, Frost and Shock. Another similarity is that bashing takes stamina out of you.

The game has loot to find, crafting, alchemy, food, potions (not just for healing, but also to prevent damage, for instance), elixirs (for instance to see in the dark), runes (for example to move faster for a while), scrolls (some of them are consumed to learn recipes), a level-up and skill-selection system (not too complex), attributes that can be improved with the items you wear, several maps to explore (there's a map, a minimap and quest markers, meaning maps are not just one road from point A to point B), plenty of quests to do, distinct characters to meet, an animated bestiary (like a Pokedex with animations) to complete (by killing members from different species), an expansion to the game (I've got The Complete Tale edition), roleplay animations (that seem like were going to serve a useful purpose but in the end didn't), among possibly other things.

With all that, I canNOT say it's just a simple game with not much to offer. I'm digging it, man. I'll sure be playing more of it. It's a pity that the game suffers in the graphics department, especially when you're in the open surrounded by vegetation.