Gothic 2 Gold Edition

This game... is the best... It has so many things done well. I played it more than 20 times... I know, I know that number... is too low, I need to play as mage next time, thanks for reminding me. Now let me tell you couple of things about this wonderful piece of software... First: don't read too much reviews, just trust me: do you like open world RPGs? Yes? Then buy this game. If you don't have "lots" of money buy it on sale. For couple of bucks you can get Gothic 1 and 2 - which is incredible. Today this game comes in "Gold" edition which means it has expansion and base game. This edition game is much much harder than original Gothic 2. It's not really for the new players. Because there's no "classic" version anymore on the net (or maybe there is but I cannot find it) I recommend Gothic 1 for first timers. You will not be disappointed. But if you find classic version of Gothic 2 - play it over Gothic 1. Apart from that, I should mention at least one bad thing about this game... It pains me to say/admit this but... Controls in this game are not really good. They are not bad, they are just... ahhh just play the game, after 10th time you'll be so used to them that you'll think that they are perfect. For the end: there are 3 very very important patches for this and Gothic 1 game that you really need to install if you want to play them on modern systems. Just search the web for patches.

Gothic 2 is a big, open-world RPG in the best sense. Other people have lives, different responses based on which faction you join, and _everything_ is scripted and voiced. This is a marked step up from other RPGs. The world itself is varied and interesting, with dangerous monsters lurking just off the beaten path and tons of things to do. Be as good (or as bad) as you want! Will you shake down farmers for their money? Will you be a virtuous paladin? Will you join the mages? The game lets you play your character, your way, for the most part. Vurt's Gothic II Graphics Overhaul makes this look great, especially for its age. Unfortunately, someone convinced the developers that a game must be punishingly hard to be fun. Not even cheating can save it. Load up your character up with weapons, armor, health, and abilities. Try to kill the off-path monsters in the first world. Some of them will be one-shot kills that get oddly strong hits in before they go. Others will stomp your fully-cheat-loaded butt into the ground. Unfortunately, this includes people/things you have to beat up for quests. To be blunt: if I put 20 hours into a game, I expect to gain enough power to beat stuff up. On that score, Gothic 2 doesn't deliver. And it's a pity, because the world looks amazing.

Truly and RPG gem even after all those 20 years after its release. What made this game perfect was the dark eerie graphics, raw dubbing and audio, very interesting storyline. Also this game made you feel like you deserved any progress given the difficulty of combat (no level scaling here, most areas can be deadly at beginning). For all those looking how to run this game on Win 10 here is the guide: support.gog.com/hc/en-us/articles/360018195577-Gothic-2-Gold-game-doesn-t-launch?product=gog

This game is VERY BUGGED, even with the latest official patch (v2.7). I've only finished chapter 1 so far but I've encountered so many bugs it's mind boggling. For example one character was starting conversation whenever I got close enough to him and I had difficulties to escape the loop. Some enemies would just disappear (a lizard on a small island to be exact), sometimes I or enemies would jump super high when attacking, at one of the bridges there is an invisible wall and there are invisible walls in general. Bugs are just everywhere and some of them prevented me from finishing a quest (sometimes reloading to an earlier moment would help but that's still super annoying). There are also invincible NPCs and there is a very, very annoying bug with Greg. What's more the game is not balanced well, you need to meta-game in order to progress. That's just crappy design. After over 20 hours I realized that I shouldn't have invested LP to more than 29 STR or that I shouldn't have used Innos statues or that stone tablets shouldn't be given to Vatras or that you should invest in dexterity first because you can get a much. much better weapon that way (either Master sword from Martin that requires 60 Dex or a sword near trolls which requires only 50 Dex but deals 100 damage). On the other hand strength based weapons require isnane amounts of LPs invested and at the start at least are sh_it. Which makes the game a slogfest. I haven't played Gothic 2 before playing G:NoR so I didn't have the meta knowledge and by the time I realized my mistakes I was too far ahead to restart. I assumed that min-maxing won't be necessary in order to progress but in reality it is. I still can defeat most opponents but only by using some cheap tactics and awful AI of my adversaries. Anyone praising this game must have either played through much easier Gothic 2 before or just used a walkthrough.

Wish I was 12 again, and could start all over. Khorinis for the first time... Hope younger generations get to experience something as special as the Gothic series.