Gothic

Pros:many different quests, the story is pretty good to keep you interested. Cons: Horrible Game gameplay/mechanics, during a fight sometimes the buttons you press are not immediate, the camera angles will change on you disrupting your view, you cannot program the mouse buttons to fight you have to hold a button then press another one, and if you try to run away you'll just end up circling the enemy. The ending left out what happened to the Old Camp storyline.

"Gothic" is, along with "Two Worlds" and "Oblivion", one of my all-time favourite action role-playing games. What enthralls me most in the genre is a beautiful, detailed, large, and believable world. "Gothic" has one of the most interesting ones and has been designed with a lot of care. It tends a lot to relatively worn-out clichés, but it is all so well done that one can't really care. That you can watch your co-inhabitants get up yawning in the morning, going around their daily business, and enjoying a meal and some music around the campfire in the evening adds a lot to how realistic the world around you feels. To shallow players, things like that might seem unnecessary coating, but it is what, for instance, earned Origin the title of "world creators". Piranha Bytes achieved this as well with their Gothic series - a fantasy world that you always like to revisit, not just to complete the storyline and the game, but because it is nice to look at, there's always something to discover, and you got to know it so well over the course of the game to the point that it feels a little like a virtual home away from home. The beautiful soundtrack, the interesting characters and the fitting voice acting do their part to support the atmosphere and immersiveness. What keeps you playing is the raw standard action-RPG gameplay: a constantly evolving character that rises from zero to hero, a lot of loot to pick up and a lot of money to spend. It's nothing new or special, but it has everything that can make this kind of game so addictive. The downsides of the game don't really weigh much against all its strengths. The controls have been widely criticised, and rightly so. The weird key combinations and mouse movements you have to perform to interact with the world might feel a bit strange for the first couple of minutes. You get used to it of course, but it's an unnecessary barrier. I don't think there's many people like that on GOG, but if you lose your motivation with a game if you can't completely master it in the first 3 minutes, this might be a problem. Also, the storyline really loses all of its personality towards the end, and drowns in a sea of mediocrity. But by then you will most likely have fallen so much in love with this game that you'll instantly go on to play its sequel, which will make you quickly forget about the subpar finale of the first title. If you have any interest at all in action-oriented, real-time CRPGs, if you enjoyed the likes of Two Worlds or The Elder Scrolls series, this is a game that you will heartily enjoy and remember for a long time.

I bought Gothic just by chance when it was released around 10 years ago. Having been a RPG fan since I started playing computer games I had to try it. What a great surprise it was REALLY AWESOME. But it has its own ways. It is not a game for Neverwinter Night fans. Here you don't have a huge amount of personalization choices, nor races, nor professions, nor anything. Here you have just a nameless hero and a world that catches you and never lets you go. Here you really feel you are roleplaying. You can hunt, trade items you have made yourself (out of wolves skins, for example) you can use a wetstone to sharp your blade if you choose to, you can join any of the three camps and climb the ranks of fighters or mages, you have a beautifuly made valley to explore and a lot of thigs to discover in it. Some people say the fighting part is cumbersome at times. That's true. I wish they had made that better. But it works in the end. Don't let that make you miss the rest of the game. It really appeals to you. Just give it a try. Don't wait for too much and you'll see that what you get is not a very big thing but a very good one.

This is one of the few games which I have finished several times without getting bored. For me, Gothic is still the best RPG experience even after all these years. Sadly, it is still innovative because there is no game that developed the features of the first Gothic game such as NPC daily routines and an original plot. Personally, I think that this is the best Gothic game because of its unique mysterious and dark locations and characters that build up an actually Gothic atmosphere. Gothic offers an open-world setting in a prison valley surrounded by a magical barrier where every action and choice has consequences. You are at the beginning only a common nameless guy who wants to survive after being imprisoned. The protagonist is an excellent choice for an RPG game because every player can resemble this nameless character. You must fight your way to survive and gain the respect of your fellow convicts, but there are many quests which can be solved in different inventive ways and the game is fully voiced and the voice acting still holds up pretty well. The world is rather small, but it is hand-crafted and every location is well used and interesting . In this gritty world every person has a specific daily routine. The NPCs aren't only quest-givers and they move through the world along with the player. The ingenious story gives enough freedom to the players to explore the world and feeling that they are part of the game setting. However, one of the best characteristics of Gothic is the guild-based progression. The nameless protagonist must join one of the three camps in the colony in order to progress through the story. Every guild is unique and gives the player a sense of belonging. This aspect also offers a lot of replayability. Each one guild gives the player specific armors and helpful skills. Besides the combat is not just mindless clicking. In order to play Gothic on Windows 10 you should install Playerkit v1.08k and the System-Pack-1.7.

The game wouldn't work without the help of some mods. The open world in Gothic beats open worlds in many games today. It's not a huge world, but packed with cool places to explore and monsters to hunt. Early on, most things can kill you and most characters don't care for you until you prove your worth. But Gothic is not all serious and still knows when to crack a joke. All of that combined creates a unique atmosphere that still brings me back to this game. The first chapter, which consists of visitng the main three camps, is in my opinion the strongest part of the game that fully displays the aforementioned atmosphere. Every chapter after that is more focused on the main plot, which moves at a good pace and has some neat twists and turns along the way. The unique, and frankly pretty janky combat, cannot go unmentioned as it's the biggest turn-off for newcomers. While after many replays I've gotten used to the combat and don't mind it anymore, I do remember struggling with it on my very first playthrough. It's a significant weak point of the game, but I highly suggest people try to get used to how it works so they can experience what made Gothic so beloved. Lure enemies one by one, use ranged weapons, heal and save often. Good luck.