By Jim Rossignol on February 15th, 2011 at 2:37 pm.
JoWood have announced that ArcaniA is to received a standalone expansion, called Fall of Setarrif, on March 25th. In it you can play a new character, or you can import your character from the original game. The new campaign is reportedly ten hours long, so it’s significantly smaller than the main game – and so we can perhaps expect a budget price tag on this? TBC!
And what happens in this brief new sojourn? This: “A mysterious demon, consumed by hatred, terrifies the population and pools his force against the coastal city of Setarrif. The dramatic situation exacerbates after a volcanic eruption in the mountains nearby. Thereupon the nameless hero joins forces with his strongest allies and courageously faces the new menace.” I wish I was nameless and/or able to courageously face anything. You can read our impressions of ArcaniA here.
15/02/2011 at 15:01 RyuRanX says:
Fail of Setariff? JoWood is asking to go bankrupt.
15/02/2011 at 15:16 Malawi Frontier Guard says:
JoWood already is bankrupt in every possible way.
15/02/2011 at 17:30 Subject 706 says:
Morally AND financially so.
15/02/2011 at 17:57 omicron1 says:
“JoWood already is bankrupt in every possible way.”
Win. So much win.
Financially, morally, intellectually, creatively… I love it!
15/02/2011 at 15:01 cpeninja says:
I actually played the hell out of Arcania and really enjoyed it, despite it not being a thing like its predecessors – meaning it didn’t crash every 8 minutes. I look forward to this expandalone.
15/02/2011 at 20:00 Riaktion says:
Same here
16/02/2011 at 13:52 TheGameSquid says:
I don’t think I have ever had a single crash with either Gothic or Gothic II Gold (which is actually supposed to be somewhat incompatible with Vista). The game’s engine is quite buggy, especially the animation system (It was not uncommon for me to make a sword drawing animation while using a torch for example), and the games had their fair share of quest-and-trigger-related bugs, but I really don’t think it’s very prone to crashing.
That being said, I did also sort of enjoyed what I played from Arcania (NO, NEVER WILL I WRITE THAT SECOND CAPPED ‘A’), as long as I approached it knowing that it wasn’t a Gothic game, and not much of an RPG either. It’s just a decent casual Role-playing title.
If you’re going to approach it as a Gothic title (for which you can hardly be blamed, since it DOES carry the Gothic name in its title), you’re going to end up being terrible disappointed. It simply doesn’t live up to that legendary series’ legacy. And I believe that it was foolish of JoWood to believe that Spellbound would have been able to pull off such a thing. For all we know, BP is the only developer that has managed to pull of anything like those games.
15/02/2011 at 15:05 D says:
This site has recently gotten quite crazy about importanceness. I wonder if it’s intentional.
15/02/2011 at 15:08 Acorino says:
Can’t be worse than the Forsaken Gods expansion…OR CAN IT?
16/02/2011 at 00:13 Javier-de-Ass says:
no, it can’t. but that doesn’t tell you anything. hehe.
15/02/2011 at 15:58 Ovno says:
In it you can play a new character, or important your character from the original game.
Import*
15/02/2011 at 16:10 simonh says:
You mean a character of import?
15/02/2011 at 16:31 Brumisator says:
Seems like a very import feature.
15/02/2011 at 16:43 WJonathan says:
What’s truly amazing is the game’s ability to exist in both the past and present.
15/02/2011 at 18:54 brulleks says:
Tsk. He obviously meant impotent, you pedants.
15/02/2011 at 16:31 KingMudkip says:
Why is Jim’s grammar so bad in this article? I can see at least three typos without even trying. Is it sleep deprivation or an in-joke?
15/02/2011 at 16:40 Voidy says:
Jim just gave us a wonderful recipe for expressing heavy contempt towards any game:
1. Carefully place several really obvious typos
2. in a really short text snippet.
I’d run it through a proofreader or something but it’s about Arcania expandalone, for God’s sake! No one would read it anyway!
Thank you, Jim. I totally approve.
15/02/2011 at 16:46 Jim Rossignol says:
Apologies, I *actually* fell asleep while writing that. I wish I was joking.
Must try harder.
I’ll be dead soon. Then I can rest.
15/02/2011 at 19:25 bob_d says:
Given the high standard of RPS writing, I actually assumed it was a joke rather than typos. I spent a minute feeling dumb for not getting it.
15/02/2011 at 18:03 oceanclub says:
Superficial, “Risen” and “Arcania” seemed similar, and yet I was gripped by “Risen” from the beginning (am about half-way through and keep meaning to return it), and loathed the trite awful characters at the beginning of Arcana. I just couldn’t play more than 10 minutes of it. Does it get any better?
P.
16/02/2011 at 10:24 Malawi Frontier Guard says:
It would have been awesome if your pregnant girlfriend from the beginning came with you on adventure and were turned into a hero of her own right, overshadowing her incompetent husband instead of being a cheap set-up for revenge.
15/02/2011 at 18:51 Mac says:
Still haven’t finished ArcaniA – Gothic 4 … I got bored after about 7 hours … just no will to go back and waste more time with it.
16/02/2011 at 00:23 CTRL-ALT-DESTROY says:
With regards to the expandalone, /snore. Also, does anyone know if Arcania sold well? I hate to sound dickish, but I hope not.
16/02/2011 at 13:17 JonasKyratzes says:
Gothic I and II remain some of the very best games I have *ever* played. I thought Gothic III was rather bad, but then came Forsaken Gods and ArcaniA to redefine my understanding of bad… and now there will be even more such abominations? How can JoWood be so deeply, profoundly evil?