Gothic

I still remember the first time i played this game. From the beginning, the game hooked me - the first 15 minutes simply wow-ed me - that is how a good game should be! One of the coolest things in it is that you can walk almost everywhere right from the beginning, but you must be careful, because without proper armor, basically everything can kill you at first. The first people you will meet are even telling you stuff like "...and DONT go into the woods" You can also rob people if you'd like, sneaking around at night and opening chests with left-right-combinations. The game area is not very big.... but it is dense. There are lots of NPCs with which you can talk, and it feels like half of them are unique (meaning they have their own). It goes on... EVERYONE is completely voiced in this game... if you just put out your weapon in a crowded place, people will get angry... Later in the game people who are against you but on the low side of the pecking order inside the game will just run away... you can transform into animals to get beyond guards... As you can see, the game has a lot of depth which is hard to explain in a simple review. Once you are finished, you can even play the second game from the series, which is much bigger and continues the story - you will see a lot of familiar faces in there. I give this game 5 stars. For me it is an absolute classic!

PROS: -Gothic has one of the best and more importantly non-cliche story lines in RPG history. It's not the good guy killing the bad guy or save the world kind of thing. Actually, the main aspect of the story is very simple. A king is trying to get ore to make weapons for fighting his enemies ( orcs ) and sends criminals to a magically protected penal colony with resourceful mines to prospect ore and the main hero of the game is one of them. People in PB used this simple background in the best way possible and made a story that completely affects everything in the game and always makes you want to know more about it. -A great world with a lot of immersion. I really couldn't think about anything else when I was playing Gothic. Just the game itself. -Great lore. I have seen magicians, orcs, gods, monsters , etc before. But I don't remember seeing them mix with each other in such a great harmony and coincidence. Nothing seems overdone or overflown in Gothic's universe. Everything ( from characters to inventory items ) plays its part perfectly in describing the world of Gothic without overstaying its welcome. Actually, the good thing is the universe is perfectly connected in Gothic games. One of the reasons I consider Gothic 2 my most favorite game ever was the fact that I played Gothic before it. Just seeing the perfection connection between two games was delightful and made me enjoy the game a lot more. -Great and innovative RPG System. when you level up, you gain 10 learning points , but unlike many RPGs , you can't spend what you gained from your level-up right away. you have to go to a tutor and then spend them anyway you want. You can increase your attributes like Mana, strength, dexterity or increase your skills like working with Crossbow, 1 handed weapon, 2 handed weapon, bow etc. So you choose your class not by simply choosing it at the start of the game, but by advancing and making choices during your play-time. In other words, you choose your class dynamically. -Awesome Graphics for its time. Playing the game on highest graphical settings in 2001 was a real treat I guess. -Wonderful believable Characters who are all gray. You can't judge their morality just like you can do in other RPGs . Good and bad in Gothic universe has only meaning for Innos and Beliar. Two gods in the game's universe. Even Xardas who is a necromancer and servant of Beliar sounds like a fair old man most of the time. -Great Dialogues followed by great voice acting (for a cult-classic European CRPG of course ) . Many people might think voice acting is cheap in this game, but I actually find it to be in greatly in harmony with the game's atmosphere and character's personality. -Highly addictive. I couldn't touch any other game while I was playing Gothic. -Artificial Intelligence is phenomenal both for enemies and NPC's. Their reaction to your actions is very well detailed. For example when you sneak, NPCs become suspicious and ask you why are you sneaking. When you draw your weapon, they will draw theirs too and will attack you if you don't sheath it soon. They talk with each other, they will go back to their home when the night comes, when you go to their house, they'll tell you to get out. Enemies spin around you, they won't attack you when you are blocking, they block your attacks, even humans and orcs have different fighting tactics, orcs are more aggressive and reckless due to their nature, but humans fight with more and care and focus on defense, Animals don't attack you if you just go away, wolfs mostly attack in packs, etc. I just could go on. But I think that proves how good AI is in Gothic. -Killing every single enemy is a big enjoyment because of the challenge they give. - A nice sense of humor which never gets absurd. Especially for the nameless hero's dialogues. -Game Gives you huge freedom to become whoever you like. A fire mage, water mage, paladin or mercenary. -Great armors and weapons and spells. ( of course some of them ARE useless...) -Memorable Music. Kai Rosenkranz is a genius. The main menu music is perhaps one of the best music tracks I have ever listened. Absolutely epic and iconic. CONS: Not much not to like about this game , but here are some few: -Gothic is a bit short. (According to the fact that it's an open world game.) Personally It last around 38 hours for me with all of the possible side quest done as a Fire Mage. -Very hard at first. You can hardly kill a scavenger (one of the weakest enemies in the game ) without constant savings and reloading at very first. Although this is not entirely a bad thing, because it just makes you really feel the power later in the game. But it's very annoying at first and probably the only reason many people couldn't get into the game. -Some minor bugs. Although really not a big deal with the latest patch. -Weird and Unusual controls. Although you get used to it. Verdict: Gothic is truly one of the biggest achievements in history of games. it was a very ambitious game for its time and didn't fail although it was its developer's first game. The good thing is that greatness of Gothic didn't just end with this game. Gothic 2 is better than Gothic in every possible way (except story and atmosphere), Night of the Raven made Gothic 2 even better. And Gothic 3 even with its bugs, made all of the RPGs around its time like Oblivion look like a student project to me. But just like all cult-classics, Gothic is not for everyone. If you want to enjoy Gothic, you have to be a patient gamer. You should not quit from the game in rage when you see you are getting squashed by your enemy before even having the chance of drawing your weapon. You should not get confused when you see there are lots of possibilities without any kind of guide ( except the ones in the Internet ) directing you which one to take and what's the consequence. In the other words, Gothic has a hard time holding the interest of gamers in general . But it will blow away the cult that follows it in the

Never played it before but the 22 hours it took me were just amazing comfy RPG goodness. Great prelude to an even better sequel.

It was year 2002 when little shithead (me) wanted something to play and be entertained for hours. Sadly it was the time my NES and to kind of a unpopularity in Czech Republic, nobody was able to repair it. SO my brother came to me sayin' "HEY YOU LIL' FUCKBOY! PLAY THIS" and I've played ... hour, two hours... ten months >.> I really get into every god damn space there is in world of Gothic. I was so into that even today I know location of every god damn item, names of all items, all secrets and damn! This game is total masterpiece! Atmosphere in this game is so dark and slowly revealing all the threads that colony is facing! GREAT voice acting (Not Fisk >.> I hate his fucking voice - Merchant in old camp) and much greater story which is like really awesome. As a kid I didn't understand single word but thankfully someone in Czech released Czech translate to this game and even after that... I completely ignored tons of conversations, letters, books etc. When I was about fourteen I came back to this game and from that point I play this game every year once. It may sound crazy but Gothic 1-2 and Might & Magic 6-8 are my the most favourite games from my childhood. It is like reading book you've read as a child or movie you've seen twenty time and still enjoying it. All though Controls and some mechanics are kinda bad... it really doesn't matter when you play this game because of Story, Atmosphere and not because of Graphics or some next gen controls with automatic healing bullshitery. THIS is art of perfection when it comes to RPG genre. Even from first time you are thrown into the lake with paper message in your pocket which is magically dry when you crawl out of the water (Yup, you may not think of that :3) to point when you stab last hearth of Sleeper, this game is just perfectly made and oh boy did I mention story & atmosphere? ;D Sadly nowdays everyone prefere Skyrim/Dark Souls etc. calling it THE BEST RPG's ever, but Gothic will be forever No.1 in my hearth BUY IT!

The following serves as both review and beginner's guide. Gothic is a rather unique game. It is not an open world game where you can just run around willy-nilly and stick your nose in ominous ruins unprepared. You will die in a hurry. Repeatedly. You have no choice but to git gud, especially as the mouse-free controls are unorthodox (yet surprisingly easy to get comfortable with). Take it slow. You are a convict in a prison colony and you must learn the ropes if you wish to survive. Without spoiling too much, you have a choice between three factions: Old Camp (AnCapistan), New Camp (reformed, less corrupt AnCapistan) and Swamp Camp/Cult (Hermetic Brotherhood of Weed). Choose what best fits your aesthetic. From there, the game offers you a fair amount of freedom as to whether you opt for a melee guy, a ranged guy or a hybrid, and whether you wish to become a dedicated caster with memorized spells or simply cast spells from single-use scrolls. You also have the option of learning thief skills, which can make you wealthy in a hurry if used wisely. The gradual evolution of the PC combined with the gradual power level of enemies you'll encounter make the game feel like a balancing act for survival, but ultimately feels quite rewarding. You quickly learn which enemies are above your paygrade and should only be challenged when stronger and better-equipped (quick tip: the Orcs hit like a Mack truck, NOT for rookie convicts). One of the game's more grueling features is blocking and parrying in melee combat (against weapon-wielding humanoid enemies like fellow convicts and Orcs, you cannot block attacks from hostile animals), it feels quite twitchy and unresponsive at first and may turn off a number of players from melee-only builds (as it pays to soften them up with arrows or spells from range first). Aside from that, I haven't encountered significant bugs that impaired gameplay. Overall, highly engrossing and challenging and things only get better in the sequel.