So I installed the game after a slow download and turned up all the visuals to max that weren't maxed out already such as particle effects and shadows and ran the game.
I was greeted by a homely looking tomboy that seems to be the player character's love interest. Most WRPG devs still haven't worked out fluid animation or lip synching yet so the camera shows the conversation taking place with the usual face to face dialogue with shoulder jerks and hand waving. Not much dialogue options either. One annoying little gripe is when you run out of things to say you have to hit END dialogue optionto end the dialogue.
Graphics wise, the game looks pretty. Looks like an old colony in the mediterranean and the sound effects are great. The music is soft and the sound of waves crashing on the shore, gulls crying in the background can be heard. There are rocky cliffs all around, a beautiful sky and a vast ocean with a large ship sailing off in the distance.
The village is pleasing to look at to with a smith's shop, various farms and a meeting hall. Pretty good detail went into everything as people go about their business, there are steps carved into slopes...everything a little village should have.
The voice acting is hit and miss...mostly misshowever as some characters have terrible dialogue and voice acting. The witch takes the cake as the most horrid voice actor in this demo.Once again a common feature in these games.
Quests so far have been kill this, gather that, talk to this person. It's a tutorial but it plays it too safe. These kind of quests aren't the reason people like the Gothic games, they like quests that can be done numerous ways or that have short cuts if you talk to different people. these are terrible quests to showcase in a demo because they are so mundane that it's off putting.
People don't seem to care if you borrow stuff from them which is different from previous Gothic games. I've walked into every home and acquired items out of chests and off shelves while the homeowner watches.
Combat is more fluid and a lot more easy. No getting my ass kicked by a tusked mammal right away. Infact I was able to kill about 5-6 goblins only getting hit once. This is totally different from the previous Gothics and even Risen. I once again picked a bow as my main weapon and head shots are pretty good now, doing far more damage than a shot to the arm. Later on in the demo I ran into minecrawlers and a golem and was able to kick their asses WAAAAAY too easily. It's kind ofa let down running into creatures that in Gothic 1-3 you'd have to be weary of and try your best and now you can just walk up to them, hang out with a group of them and kill them when you want.
The game gives some nice items in the end and i hope it's just demo crap. If they seriously give you magic weapons and plate armor right off the bat then i'm revoking this game's right to call itself a Gothic game.
Leveling up and assinging skills seems to be easier and it went kind of like the Divinity 2/Mass Effect/ 30% of WRPG's way of leveling a character. There's only a few skills and you just keep increasing the levels netting you bonuses perksafter a while
Lows:
-Voice Acting. The smith and the Witch are painful to listen to.
-Easyness. The poster that said its as easy as Fable is spot on. There were about 50 potions given in the demo and you seriously would have to run up to 3-4 goblins and then leave the game unpaused while you make yourself lunch, to die.
- Tutorial Quests - The most basic of quests were offered here and the tutorial was so linear. I find it funny to release a demo that doesn't showcase what the best parts of the series are.
Highs:
-Sound Effects: especially the waterfall on the cave. It sounded really impressive.
- Graphics: The game is smooth and it looks pretty.
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