Arcania 4 is set in one of the most graphical beautiful worlds that I have seen lately. I spent several of my first few hours of play time searching for high up vantage points to look out over the region. This however, is where the enjoyment stopped for me. A few sentences into your first NPC dialogue, you may say to yourself, "that's ok, I can enjoy a good RPG regardless of a horrendous script and stiff voice acting." After killing a few Generic creatures you may say to yourself "I can still enjoy this game despite the inconsistent and glitchy combat system. If you manage to complete the magic tutorial quest without having a nervous breakdown, your spirit may finally be broken.

Now that you've experienced the severe flaws in all of the major aspects of the game play, the smaller things that you were trying to ignore become less and less forgivable. The shadows skip across the screen in small increments as the sun shifts its position every second or two (and there are a lot of shadows.) Your character cannot interact with objects when his weapon is drawn. I know that seems like a small issue, but it becomes very frustrating. At one point I had fought my way to the top of a small mountain littered with hostile creatures. The feeling of pride and accomplishment that followed quickly faded as I realized that my weapon had been drawn the entire time, which was why I had not been able to interact with all of the strange and sparkly objects on the way up. Oops, but I'll only take partial responsibility for that one.

If a rating of 5 is average, i have to give this a 4.5. I would hate for it to be considered anything but below average. This game is BEAUTIFUL and BROKEN. That's the way I like my women, not my video games.