Arcania: The Complete Tale

With an interesting main storyline, creative enemies, and fundamentally solid gameplay, it's too bad that that Arcania: The Complete Tale's technical flaws prevent it from being a must-play. There aren't enough decent action-RPG hybrids for console players as it is, and Arcania isn't going to do much to fix that.

ArcaniA has an expansive world to explore. Unfortunately there's almost nothing of interest to find there and you'll likely leave unsatisfied.

The already absurdly wooden voice acting is sometimes marred with bugs. [Aug 2013, p.94]

While killing stuff with swords and spells is always fun, there isn't enough in Arcania: The Complete Tale to keep you coming back for more, especially since you have to wade through a bog of glitches and rendering issues.

Two bad games do not equal one good game.

ArcaniA – The Complete Tale offers the original game experience alongside with its expansion pack to add to its game duration. Regretfully, this is just an unpolished port with many technical flaws. On the other hand, the wide variety of options and its long play time may redeem it in the eyes of the genre fans, given also its low price.

At the beginning of the game there is a gut wrenching choice to be made of whether you want to be a mage, a hunter or a fighter. We have played racing games with more original RPG-elements than this utterly dull game. [June 2013, p.86]

ArcaniA is just an altogether frustrating experience. Its few good points fail to shine through in any way thanks to the vast number of technical and design issues. Even a fun battle system can't do much for the game other than highlight even further the wasted potential.

A decade ago Arcania would be a pretty decent RPG. Time has not been friendly to this game and repackaging something that was never a classic to begin with is a misguided move.

A lacklustre RPG that lacks originality and playability, avoid at all costs.

If you really feel a need to play this, get it on Steam or some other PC forum. From what I have seen, the pictures featured here, or anywhere on the internet for that matter, point in that direction. I can’t speak for the quality of the title there, but I can, emphatically and until I am out of breath, say this: Do not, under any circumstances, play this version. Leave it on the shelf. Don’t even purchase it on sale. Don’t play it. Just… don’t.

Arcania: The Complete Tale tries hard to offer an enthralling adventure, but falls significantly short of the mark. The game is plagued by an array of graphical, sound, and gameplay glitches, serving up something of a technical mess. If you can see past the issues, there are some minor redeeming qualities here, but with better RPGs available, it's not really worth the effort.

If Arcania: The Complete Tale is a product, then it's a worthless one, the sort of game a hundred monkeys sitting at a hundred PCs might create if given enough time. I've rarely encountered a game with such disregard for the power of the human imagination, and I hope no one encourages this by playing Arcania: The Complete Tale.