I don't remember the details of how things worked exactly in G2 but yeah, I remember that the progression was another thing I didn't like in G2. Back in the day all my friends were brutally min-maxing the game, optimizing at every step to achieve the maximum amount of STR or DEX, it's practically all they talked about in the context of G2 while with G1 all we really talked about was the world. And from what I recall feeling like I'm constantly making mistakes in the progression was another thing that kept me from fully enjoying it. It's something I never had with G1, even when I did waste points on useless stuff and did multiclassing.

Ironically that's exactly the area where I personally feel that G1 did a much better job than G2. The colony in G1 was a very coherent and believable place to me. It was not only an interesting and (seemingly) plausible thought-experiment, it also worked perfectly with the scale and concept of the game world. To this day the original Gothic may be the most perfect open RPG world for me in this regard. Going bigger inevitably made G2 more abstract - with their scale and architecture Khorinis and its surroundings felt more like an abstract representation of a medieval city and landscape than an actual place and thus they sacrificed something that was one G1's biggest strengths in my opinion.

I realize that those are sentiments that most players do not share but yeah, I think that's my single biggest problem with G2 compared to G1. Well, that and the fact that to me the true Gothic experience is a brutal dirty world where the sky is never blue - something that G2 also changed. But oh well, to each their own. And I suppose it is good that they did not make the exact same game twice.

Norco, Mar 20 (Xbox Game Pass)-This was an interesting adventure game set in a strange futuristic Louisiana. The quality and style reminded me a lot of Wadjet Eye games. I was following the plot pretty well up until the last hour or so. Its got a bunch of weird, memorable characters. The puzzles were pretty light. I'm not sure I understood why Kay had a mindmap, did she also have a minddrive?. The combat and boating minigames were bad but not so terrible to stop playing. Its got some good humor in it for at least one scene. And it just didn't quite come together at the end in an enjoyable, coherent way for me.

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Alien vs, Predator 2000
Finished both Marine and Predator campaign, just like in the AvP 2 (still baffled that best game in the series is not available).

Another one that stuck with me for years. Always scared by the insane game speed (or my perception was funky?) that felt like setting FoV above 90, past my comfort zone.
Wristblade worked randomly or was it me being bad?
Weapon accuracy in general was far from perfect despite me keeping crosshair on their heads. I feel like medium distance is perfect.

Last marine level was pure puzzle that can be done in minute, but gettint to that point might take a while...
also that's when I've discovered existence of bunny hopping, making the avoidance much, MUCH easier. It also helps that you finally get some free space for acrobatics.

Second to last level was pure insanity with random waves. Sometimes your headshots lands, sometimes even smartgun can miss... that's life I guess.

It might be possible to finish these campaign in the original (no saves) but no way I'm doing that.