Gothic

To come back to this in the present day may take some getting used to. the game is played entirely with the keyboard. Yet, i still have not played any open world RPG as masterfully engaging and well composed as this. this is even farther ahead than Morrowind which was released a year later! you even have NPCs that follow a daily schedule, play guitar and eat and smoke, walk around and hunt and fight. it foreshadows games like STALKER and feels far more alive than even Witcher 3! you have to cook your food over fires, physically take metal to forges and cool it off in a bucket to craft items. touches like this really add immersion rather than just picking though a menu like most modern games. this is a dark fantasy world with a great setup where everyone wants to fuck you over and trust has to be earned, there's a real sense of danger everywhere, and the world has memorable locations and decisions and is rewarding to explore. There is also no level scaling, this is genuine Dark Souls esque combat where you have to learn combat and stay away from tougher enemies at first or you will be slaughtered. But your character visibly gets better at swinging a sword as you level up/learn skills, there's a lot more feedback than just stat increases, and eventually it becomes quite easy by end game. There are 3 major factions in the game to take questlines from and this adds to replay value. One of the camps is a religious cult that literally makes you sell weed to the others! how many RPGs have that lmao Overall i highly recommend giving this a chance, i got completely sucked in despite the learning curve and it became my favorite western/PC RPG of all time.

I came back to this game after many years. You can call it my childhood so perhaps there's some kind of sentiment. However - even after many years game is great. I like the story, how the game is harsh at the begining, kind of being free to explore the world - just some monster are too strong at certain points in the game ;) but theoretically you can. Mechanic of fights/interaction is kind of old and not well designed but after you get used to it - it's just fine. There are minor bugs sometimes but are not show stoppers. It is very exciting to choose the guild you would like to join. The plot is going to surprise you later on. I'm not just sure whether GOG version is optimal enough. I have series of attempts to run the game unfortunately - some even 15-20 times despite using compatibility mode. Maybe some kind of patch or fix would help. I'm on WIN10. Anyway game is still enjoyable. Summary: *Great story *Kind of ancient mechanic/interaction system but still enjoyable *3 guilds you can join *Many monsters/open world *3 styles of fight: "Warrior"/"Mage"/"Bowman" *Many items including fancy armors you that you have to deserve to wear them *Not many bugs/game almost doesn't crush *Discussable GOG version but still worth to play

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 is my first real PC RPG, and I'm glad this was the one. Never played before until it came to GOG, and I can't recommend it enough to others. Two things first: the graphics looks much better than the screenshots you see here, particularly if you use the resolution hack found in the forums. Ages pretty well! The other thing is the controls: a lot of people complain about them. I couldn't get into the game after FIVE TIMES of trying the demo because of the controls, then I had them explained to me. Once I figured them out (in a matter of minutes for the basics), it was smooth sailing. Basically you use the left mouse button and the WASD keys for a lot of stuff (to attack, hold left mouse button and use the keys to swing your weapon in a given direction or cast magic, for example). It feels really "interactive" and I grew to love it. That stuff aside, Gothic is a really classic RPG in every sense of the word, in terms of that old gritty feel, all the staple elements (quests, open world, magic, weapons, etc), and is just an overall great package...there's a lot of things that can't be explained, only experienced. On top of that, it does a lot of things very uniquely (again, can't really be explained) which will make this a game you reference often when talking about RPGs. The dialogue is very funny at times, and personally I found the story pretty innovative. Some of the voice acting is really good, some really bad...the bad doesn't hurt the game much, but I did find myself wincing a bit at some of it. Combat is very fun -- I played as a mage, a very satisfying experience. Be sure to tweak the config and crank the blood to 3. ;) There's also great music (don't forget the In Extremo patch!), lots of quests, routes to take, etc. Just try the demo and you'll likely be hooked. It gets a whole lot worse after that. ;)

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.