
	Platform PC, PS2, Xbox 360 Genre RPG Publisher Dreamcatcher Developer Spellbound ETA TBA
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Arcania: A Gothic Tale

The Gothic series has always had a lot of potential for being exceptional what with the sheer freedom of exploration, interesting combat, and well told stories. It’s just too bad the series has also been riddled with bugs as well. It would appear that Gothic’s publisher has noticed this, and, instead of simply deep sixing the series, has opted to place the next installment in the hands of a new developer, Spellbound.

Taking place 10 years after the events of the last Gothic game, the hero of that game has emerged victorious from his adventures, and risen to the throne. Unfortunately, it turns out that he isn’t a very nice king. As such, players will take control of a new hero to depose the last one, and undo all of the nasty things that he has done. Then again, this is a Gothic game, so it wouldn’t come as a surprise if there were plenty of other options available ranging from joining the king, to simply doing your own thing, and ignoring the sovereign. We’ll just have to wait and see how open-ended Spellbound decides to make Arcania.

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Exploring the world of Arcania, there will be three separate islands to wander, each with several sub-regions. All the while, there will be plenty of opportunities to thwart evil by bonking it on the head. This will be done through the usual assortment of medieval inspired weaponry, and magic. These attacks can then be mapped to game controller buttons. Depending how long a player holds

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down one of these buttons will also impact how powerful the attack is. A light tap of a button will result in a short, quick attack. Hold down the button, and a far more powerful attack will be unleashed.

With lots of lands to discover (three islands with several sub-regions), and enemies to destroy, this means players will have a number of quests to go on. At this point there are about 300 of them planned for the game, and they’re estimated to take about 80 hours to get through all of them, so players should be kept occupied for quite some time in Arcania. After three installments with Piranha, it will be interesting to see where the series goes with a new developer at the helm.

Mr. Nash
June 13, 2009