Gothic

Getting past the oddball control scheme and laughable voice acting is a major challenge. Once you do, however, you will find an absolutely amazing game, with unparalleled interaction for its time, an impressive story line, and an immersive world. If you're one of the people that missed it like I did the first time around, it's worth your attention.

I somehow completely overlooked the Gothic franchise when it first arrived in the USA those many years ago, like so many others. I only discovered the game when I was looking online through forums and videos for a fantasy-based gaming experience with a fun magic system and plenty of depth. It has both of these and much more, with a world that feels much more fleshed out than many current games could claim to boast. Yes, there are quirks to the game system, and sometimes things won't function as intended, but all in all, it's worth the time to dive into this adventure.

This is one of those games, that your average, everyday gamer picks up because he/she likes RPGs, but after they start playing it, they immediately question their decision and shortly thereafter, they rage quit the game and never touch it again. Why? it's simple, Gothic is NOT an easy game. You, my dear reader, are probably asking yourself "I don't get the point, it's not like most RPGs are cakewalks...". Yes, you are absolutely correct, The Elder Scrolls games are challanging, so is Dragon Age and <insert favorite RPG's name here> but Gothic is a whole different story, in Gothic, you have to immediately learn how to survive, you can't simply up and enter a random NPC's home and loot it, you'll get your back side handed to you and your Ore (game currency) stolen, you can't pick a fight with whatever monster you encounter along the way until you some decent equipment and a few levels in your belt. If you can get past that and learn how the game works and how to best go about surviving and getting better at advancing your character, you'll find a highly enjoyable RPG that doesn't necessarily make your character feel "god-like" after only playing two or three hours. You'll find a living, breathing world full of interesting places to explore, individual characters and highly distinct enemies. Character development is one of my favorite aspects of the game, your character doesn't automatically become better at wielding a sword or bow just because he leveled up, he needs to go to a trainer to improve say...his One-Handed Weapon skill and it actually physically alters what you are able to do (i.e without any training whatsoever, your character will only execute a sluggish slash with a sword, with some training hell be able to execute combos and mastering the skill will let you execute a better, less interuption prone combo). The soundtrack didn't particularly impress me, but it did a nice enough job and the graphics are actually good. My only complaints are that the game isn't easy to get into, like i already mentioned, sometimes it's not easy to figure out what to do to advance a quest or you miss a quest item and get stuck unless you use the console command to generate the item, combat can be a little...wonky sometimes (i noticed many times that depending on my positioning and the enemy's, i could hit him/it as many times as i wanted and while the attack registered, i didn't actually damage him/it at all) and that it doesn't run 100% perfectly only Windows 7, don't get me wrong, it's playable from start to finish without much, if any trouble at all, but i ran into problems trying to view the ending FMV and sometimes my HUD simply up and banished leaving me, for some reason, unable to see my character's health bar or able to access the pause menu. If you can get passed those nitpicks, you'll find a great RPG, just be sure to bring a walkthrough or two along as you might need them and don't be afraid to use the game forums to ask for specific help.

I can't help it: I simply adore eurojank, and Gothic is a prime reason why. I love this game because it's unpredictable. Most modern games lead you around by the nose, telling you exactly what to do, where to go, and how to get there. And after a while, those modern games all start to put me to sleep. Not Gothic. What happens in this game doesn't always make sense, but it holds my interest and keeps me playing long past my bedtime. Gothic, along with Gothic 2, are among my favorite RPGs. Combat and controls really try my patience, but with dedication, these things can be mastered. The graphics, given their age, really hold up quite well and are sharp and clear. I love these graphics. Difficulty can be high, but again, with perseverance, you can push through! However, if what you want is a smooth triple-A experience, this game is not for you. For me however, playing this game again takes me back to my early days of gaming, when you never really knew what to expect from PC games, and when a new game came out, half the fun was installing it and figuring out what kind of game you just bought by actually experimenting with it and getting drawn into its world. My most enjoyable gaming years were between 1993 and 2004. Those were exciting and unpredictable times. After that, games began to really become a lot more standardized and less interesting to me, in part because bigger companies began to get involved, making profit the top priority rather than interesting worlds and interesting gameplay. Gothic 1 and 2 represented for me the end of an era. I recommend these games.

This was one of the first truly great Action RPGs I recall playing on the PC back when it came out. I had played Elder Scrolls games and while those were fun, to me the Gothic series was a superior game and series. The first and second in particular. The first game had such an interesting setting and, at the time, a pretty unique "hero" situation and a very fun world to run freely around with interesting spells to play with (turning into a maggot to sneak through things, hah) with fun monsters to fight and other great things to do. There was no real "right and wrong" just sides you could choose and the freedom to do virtually anything in the game. A lot of your choices effected how people felt about you and even going so far as to helping someone in a fight or not could go a long way. The combat system was also very interesting in that it wasn't a simple click to swing weapon like others where you'd just kinda run up and melee and try to move around to avoid being hit. No, you could actually control in which way your sword swung. While it was awkward to get used to, once you do, you'll find it enjoyable too I believe. While Gothic 2 is the best of the bunch, I'd recommend picking up Gothic 1 because it still holds up to being a really fun RPG with quite a bit of replayability to see what to do for different factions or try a different type of build for your character.