Gothic

I can't help it: I simply adore eurojank, and Gothic is a prime reason why. I love this game because it's unpredictable. Most modern games lead you around by the nose, telling you exactly what to do, where to go, and how to get there. And after a while, those modern games all start to put me to sleep. Not Gothic. What happens in this game doesn't always make sense, but it holds my interest and keeps me playing long past my bedtime. Gothic, along with Gothic 2, are among my favorite RPGs. Combat and controls really try my patience, but with dedication, these things can be mastered. The graphics, given their age, really hold up quite well and are sharp and clear. I love these graphics. Difficulty can be high, but again, with perseverance, you can push through! However, if what you want is a smooth triple-A experience, this game is not for you. For me however, playing this game again takes me back to my early days of gaming, when you never really knew what to expect from PC games, and when a new game came out, half the fun was installing it and figuring out what kind of game you just bought by actually experimenting with it and getting drawn into its world. My most enjoyable gaming years were between 1993 and 2004. Those were exciting and unpredictable times. After that, games began to really become a lot more standardized and less interesting to me, in part because bigger companies began to get involved, making profit the top priority rather than interesting worlds and interesting gameplay. Gothic 1 and 2 represented for me the end of an era. I recommend these games.

This was one of the first truly great Action RPGs I recall playing on the PC back when it came out. I had played Elder Scrolls games and while those were fun, to me the Gothic series was a superior game and series. The first and second in particular. The first game had such an interesting setting and, at the time, a pretty unique "hero" situation and a very fun world to run freely around with interesting spells to play with (turning into a maggot to sneak through things, hah) with fun monsters to fight and other great things to do. There was no real "right and wrong" just sides you could choose and the freedom to do virtually anything in the game. A lot of your choices effected how people felt about you and even going so far as to helping someone in a fight or not could go a long way. The combat system was also very interesting in that it wasn't a simple click to swing weapon like others where you'd just kinda run up and melee and try to move around to avoid being hit. No, you could actually control in which way your sword swung. While it was awkward to get used to, once you do, you'll find it enjoyable too I believe. While Gothic 2 is the best of the bunch, I'd recommend picking up Gothic 1 because it still holds up to being a really fun RPG with quite a bit of replayability to see what to do for different factions or try a different type of build for your character.

I always fancied sci-fi above fantasy, however, Gothic gave me tens of hours of fun and made me to replay the game multiple times just to enjoy the story in different castes. First, I cursed the XP and fighting system - at level 5 and in the possession of a sword the first wolf tore me apart... what the heck? Then I gave it a second chance, and learned to appreciate the viewpoint of the game. You are not a superhero, or a noble adventurer. You are the 621st no-one in the colony, not skilled in any form of martial arts, so you have to learn, and adapt to survive. If your face is too big, you'll easily get mauled by the first guard, before you even had the chance to comply your mission. Later on, you'll learn to appreciate the power you wield, and in the final stages you truly become a hero among mortals. I aslo like the ethics of the world you are in. As you are mainly among convicted criminals, you have to know, when and how to talk and act with NPCs. Sometimes, downtight cheating and stealing will lead you success - sometimes, it gets you beaten up, and even getting stabbed to the back in a dark alleyway. If I had to mention negative things, there would be two: thief skills are mainly useless, and the fire magic is way superior to the other classes. All in all, you won't be dissapointed with this one.

No other game has a world, that is created as well as the world of Gothic. Add on top of that a very well balanced and paced gameplay, and you get this masterpiece. Gothic 1 for me still is the Gold-Standard of open world games, that no other game ever reached. There is no other World where exploring ever felt as rewarding as in this one, without holdind the players hand to much. The game strikes a perfect balance in that regard. The Characters are very believable, and a lot more lifelike than in traditional fantasy games as well. Gothic 1 does not try to stuff its pretty good story down your throat, it let's you experience it. Can not recomend this game more, everybody should have played it, it's a absolute masterpiece.

I've played lots of RPGs, including Gothic 3 and the much maligned Arcania (Gothic 4), both of which I enjoyed enormously. I was however wary of playing Gothic 1 because of screenshots of its dated graphics due to its age (released 2001). I nevertheless gave it a go in August 2019 and am very glad I did. What a gem! Firstly, the graphics for the dungeons are still pretty good, detailed and atmospheric, including different lighting effects for torch or Light spells. True, the exteriors were a bit crude compared to, say, The Witcher 3, as you'd expect, but you get used to this pretty soon once you are immersed in the game. The game has the core RPG elements - big world to explore, lots of quests, lots of weapons and spells with which to kill lots of baddies/monsters. It has different factions, offering replayability and also has a day/night cycle which personally I find annoying but some enjoy for immersion. It took some patching to get the game working reliably (still not exactly sure what I did) but it was certainly worth it. I can be sceptical of the nostalgia crowd banging on about old games but if you are a RPG fan who hasn't played this game, you will almost certainly enjoy it despite its age. I'm now, very much looking forward to playing Gothic 2.