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ArcaniA: Gothic 4 not at all proved that success in which JoWooD Entertainment trusted to recover from its financial situation to say the least critical. Not that roam the lands of Arcania fantasy has been painful (indeed, anything), but the abandonment of the winning model of the first two chapters of the series, longevity below expectations and the oversimplification of the structure have made ruolistica an action-RPG very exciting and too derivative. Despite the release even on Xbox 360, the game has collected little in terms of sales and the Austrian publisher has been absorbed by the Swedish Nordic Games, with a delay of several months compared to the initial announcement has still managed to publish ArcaniA: Fall of Setarrif, the first expansion (and imagine the last) of ArcaniA: Gothic 4 available on Steam for a few days.

Compared to the initial plans had to play the Swedish publisher downwards, giving the conversion initially announced for Xbox 360 and opt for physical distribution of the game in Germany, where in fact Gothic continues to have a certain appeal in spite of the inevitable drop in popularity aftermath of the third (and problematic) episode. Productive squabbles aside, ArcaniA: Fall of Setarrif is a stand-alone expansion that does not require the installation by the main game and the team at Spellbound Software promises a long life of about eight hours, plus the ability to import your own alter ego of ArcaniA: Gothic 4. Unfortunately we did not have the old saves and then we had to choose a new player choosing between three typical classes of each RPG as a Warrior, Mage and Archer. From the earliest moments of the game, and after one of the most dull and hasty introductions seen for many years now, we can throw in the expansion and we see immediately the enormous resemblance to the main game.

The dialogues and PNG have maintained the same structure as weak and broken, the location (apart from the fallen city of Setarrif) seem recycled from those of ArcaniA: Gothic and even bestiario we noticed very little news. The initial feeling, then, is a simple copy-paste, but compared to the game last year we noticed more extreme simplicity in the fighting. It will be our alter egos already begins with several levels of experience with weapons and armor excellent, but being killed in ArcaniA: Fall of Setarrif is a challenge unless you choose the fourth and highest level of difficulty. The large amount of potions (which we can create for ourselves alone with a decent crafting system), the weakness of the enemies and the mix between melee and ranged attacks help a much lower level of challenge. Suffering from what is the longevity at normal expansion we finished in about four hours, lasted less than promised by developers and does not justify the full cost 15 euros required.

For the rest ArcaniA: Fall of Setarrif offers a very classic, but in the worst sense of the term. As mentioned above, the dummy NPCs seem thick and no dialogue, especially when they want to be ironic, are out of place and helps the modest little English dubbing. Quests are the same old and we were struggling not just to find satisfaction in completing one, also because at least four or five missions are identical to parse as many quests ArcaniA: Gothic 4. Even for its add-on nature of the game does not quite get to the feeling of an open world and free, outdoor locations are in fact in a minority and are less extensive than the main title, but the dungeons to disappoint the their repetitiveness and similarity and the obvious limits on this side of the main game remain the same.

In the midst of everything you save a few things we liked such as the ability to control (but only for short breakers) using other characters flashbacks of the past, but also the growth of our system of alter ego is sufficiently articulated and for those approaches to the genre for the first time the ease of the game can represent a considerable value. After all, the formula of "kill and loot" is always able to entertain and some landscapes (forest, the bucolic countryside) hit the mark, but it certainly appeared that ArcaniA: Fall of Setarrif now has nothing more to do with the saga of the main (not Gothic does not appear in the title) and how I can offer very little to fans of the genre. The same graphic industry resumes its strengths and weaknesses of the main game, our alter ego and the monsters are quite detailed and have a credible animation, but the texture quality is very fluctuating and trust as soon as possible in a corrective patch to fix the bug of shadows "snappy". If nothing else, all it seemed lighter than last year (the hardware configuration is the same used for ArcaniA: Gothic 4) and the graphics settings are numerous, but in this case (as for the entire expansion) do not expect none of that.