and I must say that it might have been the most frustratingly difficult game I have played in a LONG time. I had to take a three month break from it since I got burnt out on constantly reloading after I died about a billion times. The funny thing is the end of the game was the easiest part. Once I got the paladin armor + the claw of beliar + the warrior rings and amulet the rest of the game was a total cakewalk including all of the bosses in chapter 5 and 6. I had more trouble killing shadow beasts and orcs in the beginning of the game than I ever did with any dragons.

Sorry had to vent. That said this game has one of the best stories with the most interaction with NCP's that have personality and I highly recommend this game to anyone who likes a good story but maybe don't be a paladin I don't know if the other two classes are any easier.

The difficulty level is so high because the expansion (Night of the Raven) is installed by default, which adds a lot of great new content but also raises the difficulty immensely to give seasoned players a real challenge. For newcomers it makes the game rather formidable as you have discovered the hard way. :(

You can install Gothic II without Night of the Raven by choosing Options in the installer, but since you've already made it through with it the base game might seem too easy and bereft of content (the entire Jharkendar area was new to the expansion).

The rest of Piranha Bytes' games aren't so unforgiving. The first Gothic (also on GOG) has a gradual difficulty curve, and their games after Gothic II (Gothic 3, Risen and the upcoming Risen 2: Dark Waters) feature an actual difficulty setting you can change at any time to get the level of challenge you want (unfortunately none of these are on GOG yet).

I must say I have to agree with you on that one. The game was stupidly hard for the first and second chapters, but once I started on chapter 4 and managed to fight my way through the pass of the Valley of Mines (rather than the usual path through the abandoned mine), the game was rather easy. The end boss too was the very definition of anticlimactic, though I guess heavy dragon hunter's armour, dragon hunter's bow and the dexterity-boosting rings and belt will do that.

I’m happy to see that I’m not the only one having a hard time in chapter 1.

It is normal.
Gothic 2 is a hard game, and the GoG version automatically installs Night of the Raven.
The thing is, though, that NotR was made after the fanbase asked for a greater challenge!

Ideally one should play Gothic and get used to the steep learning curve and terrible control scheme, then play Gothic 2 and suddenly find that the new control scheme and all the various tweaks and balances make the game actually less hard. And then play with NotR and get your ass handed to you.
That's how I played it, at least. :p

I will recommend, however, playing it again as another class, possibly as a Fire Mage, mainly for all the infomrations about the setting and the backstory that particular path unlocks.
It is as hard as the other careers early on, but later, well, it gets satisfying.

i have to disagree on that you can uncheck if you dont want to install the raven expansion.

Very very frustrating the chapter 1.

I just completed gothic 1 about 2 weeks ago and then just dove headfirst right into gothic 2 with NOR installed. I like the challenge. Nothing better then walking up to a scavenger thinking, Hey I just killed too wolfs these big bird like creatures should be easy. Two hits latter I’m dead loading a new game. Repeat scenario 100 more times and then I’m on my way. It took some time but I managed to become a mercenary.

Really? From the comments I've read since Gothic 2 became avaiable, I got the impression it was not possible.
Thanks for the clarification.

explanation: I don't actually own the GoG.com version since I already bought Gothic 1 and 2 when they came out and then bought the Gold version that had NotR included.

ah thats explains it if you install the game there are 2 boxex that are checked and that is install gothic 2 and a box with install raven and then you can uncheck that, well some people just click without reading what they are clicking i noticed cause i never install the default folder again i have made a sepirate game folders to install the games.

Partway through my first run through of vanilla Gothic 2, the realization dawned that there were two games in Gothic. The first part is the RPG and the second part is a "rythm" game, i.e. melee combat. Unfortunately, you have to get good at the rythm portion to progress through the RPG portion. Trying to judge the dodge distance for animal attack is the hardest for me as the attack range/hit box does not match up with the screen animation.

IMHO, it got tedious as the basic tactics is limited to 1) approach enemy group to attract attention 2) run away and hope the enemy group giving chase gets stuck on the terrain so finally only one ends up chasing you 3) kill the lone enemy 4) rinse and repeat.

you hit the nail right on the head.

Or spam holy arrow and then teleport away a bunch of times.

I got very frustraded when I realised that my character is too powerful for dragons.
While NotR might be hard at the beginning it's rather easy late in the game.

That's what made it so much fun for me. I too started with NotR and struggled early playing as a magician. But a few hints from people here and trying some what might seem oddball things (transformations could make one much more powerful or allow one to get by too strong enemies). There's still a spell scroll or two that I have no idea what they are supposed to be useful for (the dust devil comes to mind - couldn't even use it to clean the novice quarters :) ). I liked the idea of changing into a wolf to scout out the enemy or to launch a surprise attack or (at least in Gothic I) saving time by flying as a blood fly (and getting past all the beasties).