Addictive. Played it to death.
Great story line if you ever wanted to be a vampire.
Gothic 2 is probably my all time favorite game. I've played it to death over the years, but currently forget how to move on from Chapter One to access the key (and gateway) to Jharkendar. I've gone from Cavalorn to Lares to Vatras and back again for numerous hours now, trying to remember how to solve the Arms Dealer quest with sufficient proofs. And hence my complaint: RPGs are great for entertaining quests, but when the means to solving those challenges is obscured, and one is left to trial and error without a clear recourse if clarification is needed to resolve the quest, the game becomes too much like reality: hard work with empty results for thankless effort. Playing is no longer fun! It's like trying to pay mundane bills when you don't really owe anything yet, but your credit card is due and the payment must be processed or you get penalized and can't move on--or something like that. At least gamers have places to escape for answers on GOG and Steam.
I'm a seasoned RPG gamer that loves too many series to mention (like Fallout, Gothic, Witcher, Wasteland, etc.). Fun, all of them...except this one. Every fight is an exhausting slug-fest that literally wears you out. I wasn't able to get beyond the first chapter, though I put dozens of hours into it. Finally, I had to call it quits because the system is so oppressive, after you endlessly save scum on the easiest setting and run to the internet for solutions, brutal game play mercilessly crushes you. Honestly, life's too short! After endless, miserable defeats, I ended up deleting the game and won't be going back.
The controls didn't control. Gameplay was ludicrous. The plot was thin as the ashes of a corpse, and characterization? There was none! What's a worse word that still isn't foul in English for bad? Waste of time? Unbelievably undesirable? I recall reading someone praising the game a long time ago, how he was an invalid and enjoyed the easy game play. On this and the promising phony pictures proffered, I purchased the game on Amazon as a CD for my PC. I attempted to play, referring to the directions...then referring to emails I sent to the distributors complaining--and gave up. I sent the disk in and got another in exchange. It wasn't the disk! I buried it or gave the game away as soon as I could. I love classics and good old games has lots of them. This ain't one of them. This is my first review here written...to warn you. It's that bad.
