Posted May 05, 2009
Since I was one of those who bought the original Gothic, after finding it advertised as a coming game inside some other game from JoWood, which didn't release Gothic, I suppose they were going to but never did. (I'd guess it was inside either Chaser or Arx fatalis)
I played the game and loved the gritty atmosphere and as soon as I saw that Gothic 2 was on the way I was eagerly awaiting it and bought it upon release.
The atmosphere isn't as harsh as the initial but the world is so much bigger that I think they're equally good, both in their own respect.
I've played through it more than once and I've always wanted to play the extension, was close to getting it and the homemade english translation that was available, but I never found it available here in Sweden so I never got it. (now I'll finally be able to play it too)
What's there to say about the game, it's a big world you can freely roam, like the first one the story is pretty good as well, it's however not really an RPG in my opinion, more an action/adventure since the storyline, as soon as you've chosen your path, is the same for every "class". (which I honestly don't mind, wouldn't give it a five star rating if I did, would I? :))
Apart from bugs - which I've luckily enough never did encounter many of in this or the original, I had fully functional mouse in the original, unusually enough - the most common complaint is the interface, I suppose it's a love/hate thing, I love it, I like being able to time the left-right blows. (Gothic 3's more "normal" clickfest did however turn me away from that game, it also felt too big, you lost focus)
The aiming on multiple enemies isn't perfect, even if it was worse in the original, but few games are perfect and I can live with that.
Scenery is very nice, animals have their own life, NPC's also seem more living than in other games, the pathfinding of enemies is brilliant, just because an enemy runs out of your viewfield won't mean that he'll just come strolling back without remembering being shot, he may find an alternate route and attack you from behind when you focus on those you can see.
All in all it's a very good game, with a lot of gaming time if you go out exploring and IMHO it doesn't get boring or tedious to do that, it is fighting for the third spot in my personal top ten list, the first and second spot are way ahead of everything else though and it'll take a small miracle to replace those two, but maybe one day a game will, so far it hasn't happened and I'm glad that there are games like Gothic /2 to be there fighting for the places behind.
I played the game and loved the gritty atmosphere and as soon as I saw that Gothic 2 was on the way I was eagerly awaiting it and bought it upon release.
The atmosphere isn't as harsh as the initial but the world is so much bigger that I think they're equally good, both in their own respect.
I've played through it more than once and I've always wanted to play the extension, was close to getting it and the homemade english translation that was available, but I never found it available here in Sweden so I never got it. (now I'll finally be able to play it too)
What's there to say about the game, it's a big world you can freely roam, like the first one the story is pretty good as well, it's however not really an RPG in my opinion, more an action/adventure since the storyline, as soon as you've chosen your path, is the same for every "class". (which I honestly don't mind, wouldn't give it a five star rating if I did, would I? :))
Apart from bugs - which I've luckily enough never did encounter many of in this or the original, I had fully functional mouse in the original, unusually enough - the most common complaint is the interface, I suppose it's a love/hate thing, I love it, I like being able to time the left-right blows. (Gothic 3's more "normal" clickfest did however turn me away from that game, it also felt too big, you lost focus)
The aiming on multiple enemies isn't perfect, even if it was worse in the original, but few games are perfect and I can live with that.
Scenery is very nice, animals have their own life, NPC's also seem more living than in other games, the pathfinding of enemies is brilliant, just because an enemy runs out of your viewfield won't mean that he'll just come strolling back without remembering being shot, he may find an alternate route and attack you from behind when you focus on those you can see.
All in all it's a very good game, with a lot of gaming time if you go out exploring and IMHO it doesn't get boring or tedious to do that, it is fighting for the third spot in my personal top ten list, the first and second spot are way ahead of everything else though and it'll take a small miracle to replace those two, but maybe one day a game will, so far it hasn't happened and I'm glad that there are games like Gothic /2 to be there fighting for the places behind.