Gothic 2 Gold Edition

I first played Gothic back in 2001 when I was a teenager, and it absolutely blew my mind. Gothic II builds on everything that made the first game special—its atmosphere, world-building, and brutal, immersive RPG mechanics—and turns it into something legendary. Even decades later, few games offer a world that feels this alive. Every NPC has a daily routine. The factions are meaningful. Your decisions matter. And the difficulty? Oh, it's no hand-holding here—you earn every inch of progress, and that's what makes it so satisfying. The Night of the Raven expansion adds an entirely new dimension, with an expanded story and one of the most memorable zones in the game: Jharkendar. The challenge is steeper, but the rewards—both gameplay and emotional—are worth it. Yes, the controls are clunky. Yes, the combat takes getting used to. But if you're a fan of RPGs that respect your intelligence, give you freedom, and reward exploration and patience—there is nothing quite like Gothic II. This game is part of my gaming soul. If you’ve never played it, now’s the time. If you have? You already know: there's no place like Khorinis.

Controls are clunky an quite annoying but the world and RPG systems are unsurpassed to this day.

The game is an old classic, a bit rough around the edges but it has so much heart and you feel like you acomplished something when you advance through the game unlike with all the newer RPGs where there is always a marker showing you where to go and what exactly to do. It is pretty hard however and coupled with the jank it can get slightly frustrating at times, but it is worth it like no other game if you like RPGs where you actually have to think and try a bit harder.

Old school? Yes. A bit clunky? Yes. BEST RPG experience you will ever find? Bloody yes

This review reflects the current technical state the game is in, not the quality of the original Gothic 2 Gold released in 2005. I bought the GOG-version of the game 6 years ago and played it without any technical problems from start to finish. I have recently downloaded the game once again and it refuses to launch properly. It took me about 4 hours, some computer knowledge and a lot of community patches to get the game to a serviceable state. GOG-technical support forums were also of little help, so without german/polish language fluency I imagine a lot of people are going to struggle to find the community patches and apply them properly. As GOG charges money for this release, it is their JOB to make sure that the game can be run using modern hardware without issues. So far, a customer has to spend at least 4 hours to apply a plethora of community patches to make the game playable. You have been warned.