One of the problems with the previous games, at least according to the
JoWood representative who talked us through the game, was simply that
they weren't very accessible. To illustrate this, we were shown two
features of Arcania that are new for the series: a minimap in the
upper-right corner of the screen and a World of Warcraft-style quest
tracker. Hardly mind-blowing stuff, but they are steps in the right
direction for sure.
As we've reported previously, Arcania takes place some 10 years
after the events of its predecessor and casts you as an all-new
"Nameless Hero" who has been tasked with righting the wrongs of the
previous hero--now an evil king. The new hero isn't customizable at the
outset, but there are purportedly more than 100 different weapons and
pieces of armor in the game that will dramatically alter both his
appearance and his attributes.
Weapons in Arcania will include bows, as well as all of the usual melee
suspects--both two-handed and one-handed--that can be used in
conjunction with a shield. In addition, you'll have access to a number
of different magic spells that run the gamut from a simple fireball to
changing the time of day and the weather. Much like the control system
in Fable II, spells, ranged attacks, and melee attacks will each be
mapped to a different button on the controller, enabling you to switch
among them on the fly. You'll perform different attacks depending on
how you push those buttons as well. Tapping the button will perform a
light attack, holding it down will charge up a slower, more powerful
attack, and when using melee weapons, it'll be possible to perform
combos by timing multiple button presses with visual cues (your sword
glowing briefly, for example). It's an easy system to pick up, and we
can report that the puny fireball--once you've leveled it up and
charged it up--becomes a pretty spectacular explosion that causes
damage to all enemies in a large area. The game incorporates a lock-on
targeting system that makes combat even easier, but the flipside is
that when you're locked on, attacks do half as much damage as those
when you're not.
The island of Argaan--one of three on which the game is set--is
divided up into six regions that will become accessible for you to
explore as you progress through the game and unlock them. The coastal
region that we were walking around in had some interesting spots to
explore, including marshlands with a green mist hanging over them and
lots of huge trees, one of which was hollow and had been turned into a
neat-looking building of some kind. We also found our way down into a
maze of underground tunnels, but we backed out of them before we got
lost because they hadn't been textured yet and there really wasn't much
to see.
