I completed, and enjoyed (despite how arduous of an experience it was) Gothic 3. Review coming soon.

As you can imagine, I aim to end my time with this series once and for all. I obtained Arcania: Gothic 4 in 2012, and decided to install and play it tonight. And let me tell you, it's uh... interesting.

-Piranha Bytes parted ways with publisher JoWood Studios before this one came out, and Spellbound stepped in to develop it. It's obvious from the get-go that it has a different developer. I understood before going into this one that it would pretty much function like it's own game, and I'm okay with that.

-The rebel ending from Gothic 3 is treated as the canon ending. The nameless protagonist from the previous games also has a name now: King Rhobar III.

-You don't play Rhobar III in this one, but some punk who looks like the love child of AJ Styles and David Spade.

No they don't want none

-Combat is more fluid and snappier, but thus far not very deep. It's pretty much the old Diablo "mash the right mouse button," with the occasional evasive maneuver thrown in.

-Environmental visuals are great, character models are not. Everyone looks and sounds like a sad robot. The worst is the protagonist's fiancee, who has a permanent creepy smile on her face.

-Lying in bed serves no function. It neither restores your hit points, nor advances time.

-Gothic 1-3 were cheesy, but they were the "lovable B-movie" kind of cheesy. They were charming and silly, but still managed to pack a punch where it mattered. So far, Gothic 4 is the other kind of cheesy; the kind that makes you constantly cringe and question why you're actually devoting time to it.

-You bump into a classic character, Diego, early on. He sounds like Antonio Banderas, if the dude never acted in his life.

-The skill screen is vague and weird. They did away with learning points and all that, and instead settled on a traditional skill tree with peculiar names for each category.

I'm getting a Sudeki vibe from this game. That's not a good thing. At least we don't have an obnoxious party member saying, "Prizes and surprises!"