Gothic

A lot has been said about Gothic, so I'll try to keep this relatively short. It's an RPG with lots of issues. The entire control scheme is wonky, and if you can't get past that, you can't enjoy the game. Combat is wildly unbalanced: the most overpowered move is dodging backward, as it grants you invulnerability for several frames; if you start using summons you can overwhelm anything; at the start you are weak as a newborn and so on and so forth. The game gets severely linear after chapter 1-2. Often, you can find glitches and assorted issues, ranging from annoying to hilarious. Despite all these problems, the game shines with an interesting story and setting, a rewarding progression (from very weak to force of nature) and an open world full of things to explore. There is an atmosphere to the prison micro-cosm you are thrown in which makes it all seem more alive than it actually is. The plot twists are nice and the game accomodates several playstyles for you to enjoy. The music could use more variety, but it's also good. It's clunky, and you can kind of tell they ran out of money and had to really rush to wrap things up, but it's the kind of game that truly resonates with a certain crowd, and I really enjoyed its clever ideas and designs, despite the all-present flaws. The jank is real, but so is the charm.

I rarely get into games enough to play for hours at a time, but I did with Gothic when it first came out. It's good to re-live it. There's a few glitches on modern hardware, but nothing that actually gets in the way of the gameplay.

Never in my experience with RPG games was there a jewel like this. The graphics even at the time of release were old, but somehow the apperance of the world, big block, dark, gloomy make the game world and the game experience even better for me. This is the only game I was afraid to go to the woods after dark, it was genuinely scary ^^ I like that you have to work hard in order to improve your character, even later on, you are not invincible. The story may seem simple, but its very engaging, I love pushing the story forward, I was interested all the time. Combat system may seem akward, but after a while you learn to appreciate it. The choices, the skill, the loot...seeing how you get to use better, more dark looking gear - awsome. Not everybody will like this game, you are either gonna love it or hate it, nothing in between...I personally love it, play it regularly every 6 months :)

The Gothic series will always have a special place in my heart.

7/10 In my opinion. Generally Gothic II is one of two my kid life games. This is one of best RPG's ever made and a legendary game in Poland.