I love Gothic 2, so I thought I would like NOTR. But it's just really poorly thought out. They nerfed the leveling system! The devs thought the ways to master the game were bad, for some reason, so they made it a tedious slog.

The monster buffs are awful. I'm level 13, pure strength and one-handed melee, and I cannot take out one warg. The increased cost for stats is waaaay too much. You cannot rush a good weapon in the temple because of the increased stat requirements on weapons (130 strength for the orc slayer). You have to start doubling LP to gain stats starting at 30 stat points.

I like that there are new quests... but it is just not fun with that they did to it. I wish I could find a mod to revert to the old system. And leaving the game world at Chapter 2, before things even get started, to go to a completely new area? That is crazy clunky and smashes the flow.

Do yourself a favor and do not install NOTR. It ruins Gothic 2.

I was in the same boat as you for a long time. Always playing G2 vanilla. After getting past the new learning curve and getting used to NOTR, however, I would never be able to play G2 without it anymore.

Yes, it's best to consider NOTR a separate game. It's a very different experience but has its own strengths.