First of all, we must admit that this game has many positive aspects: the graphics are very refined, the setting is captivating and the plot is deep and interesting. The main character is probably one of the funniest and most charismatic ever seen in a game. Problem is...all these things are overwhelmed by the insane level of frustration of the gameplay. Until the first boss the situation is difficult, but all considered acceptable: after that, the game quickly turns itself into a nightmare. You must deal with enormous levels which are literally full of enemies, guards, monsters, gigantic trolls, traps and frustrating platforming sections and you are almost unarmed, without a real armor and with a little equipment: so you must constantly proceed with trial and error, and this doesn't make much sense, honestly. Beside those problems many aspects are punitive beyond imagination: for example, you never have a map of the levels (even when you play in the native village of Styx, does it make sense? No, it doesn't); shops don't exist, you must always find the equipment by yourself and in some levels this is impossible; many enemies are totally invulnerable, and the ability system is quite useless. The only useful path is the alchemy, but if you can't buy the necessary ingredients when you need them alchemy is a scam. I arrived at the 7th level, then i gave up, it was too much for me. Spending more time watching at a reloading screen than playing it's not my idea of having fun, sorry. A pity, because this game has charisma, but the devs must consider that this is a game, not a f***ing job.
As many have said before me, this is almost a masterpiece, probably better than Skyrim itself. And this is astonishing if you consider that it's a free game The plot, the characters, the setting, everything is excellent. The world in particular is better than Skyrim because it has many kind of different environments, not only snow and ice. And the dungeons are much more realistic. The graphics are still ok and the soundtrack is really epic. I am not a native english speaker, so it's not simple for me to judge the dialogues, but they seem very good, even if you compare them to many AAA-products But the perfect game doesn't exist, and also Enderal has some problems. The worst are in my opinion the progression system and the final. For the progression system the devs have made a really strange choice: you don't have the traditional ability point system (such as Fallout3, Risen, Kotor etc.) and you dont' have the TES system of learning-by-doing. Instead of those, they gave you a strange system based on specific ability books, and if you want to improve your character you must buy and use them. But they are not always available in the markets (especially the magic ones) and they usually cost an outrageus amount of money. So the progression of the character results slow and unnatural, and this is really annoying, especially at the high levels. I have finished the game with a character who didn't have any ability beyond 75,and this doesn't make much sense,honestly And for the final...sadly, it's a final who doesn't finish anything. I don't want to make spoiler, but both the finals are pretty useless, and this gives you the impression to be a simple witness, not the true leader of the story. Nonetheless, my advice is to play this game without esitation: it's really great if you love RPG. It gave me over 100 hours of fun and i will surely replay it in the future with a different build. And in addition, it's free
I don't want to be rude,only fair in my review.I know this is a free game,but as a token of my respect to the Devs I have to judge it like normal games.Probably many gamers have been misled by nostalgia.And I am a huge fan of the Gothic games. This game has many strong points:the world is really beautiful,the exploration is deep,the town of Archolos is fascinating, and the plot is generally good. Some charactes are really charismatic(Big Ben, Lorenzo, Garos etc).The graphics are old, but it's not a problem,works fine for me.The combat system is the same as the old Gothics and this is positive.On the contrary,the game has many problems,and I am astonished because no one has underlined them. For example: 1)The amount of fetch quests especially in the first 2 chapters is unbearable.''Bring 5 pieces of meat to X''''Kill 6 boars and retrieve the pelts''etc. Literally DOZENS of them.And the amount of gold and XP you gain from them is abysmal.A total waste of time,and yet you MUST go because you desperately need gold and experience. 2)The looting(which was one of the pillars of the first Gothic)is a joke. Almost the 90% of the loot is junk:sell it to the merchants and you gain nothing.1 gold coin for a wolf pelt?It's less than the cost of the arrows you need to take him down, this is ridicolous. To rack up the gold for the abilities you are forced to do EVERY single quest,so we return to the point 1 3)The backtracking is atrocious.Especially in the quests in the town:''Speak with A in the old town then with B in the prison,come back to the centre to update the quest giver,then go to the harbour to find C who knows something but he doesn't,so you come back to the center blah blah''.I was exhausted, in many moments it's more a job than a game. These are the worst aspects,but i could enumerate other problems,including some freezing bugs.I respect this game,but don't consider it as a masterpiece because it's only a good game.I had some fun in playing it,but that's all.
This one is definitely an old school FPS. It's quite tough, totally linear and based only on gunfight and simple environmental puzzles. No sidequests, no factions, no perks, almost no exploration. You literally walk through a tunnel for 12/14 hours, depending on your ability. Sometimes you can take different passages to find ammo, gas mask recharges or stimpack, but the main path is always one, even in the levels on the surface, a pity. I played and finished it, because it has a unique atmosphere and a great setting: the NPC’s are well written and the graphics are still excellent. Dialogues and voice acting are ok, for a FPS. But the general gameplay is too old for today. We have no replayability here. For this reason my advice is to buy it only on discount, because once you have finished it it's very unlikely to play it again
Like some other users say before me, this is a big step back compared to the first game of the serie. The graphics are more beautiful and more refined of course, but it's still a fake-3d world (and frankly this is embarrassing, if you consider that was released in 2011!): Geralt cannot jump, climb, fall etc. Tedious and unrealistic. The plot is very good, but it's shorter than the first Witcher: it's true that you have two main storylines and this guarantees replayability, but each storyline is more or less 20/22 hours, it's not an acceptable lenghth for an AAA-game But the tragic problem is the combat system: man, it's really frustrating. You cannot use potions during combat (and this doesn't make any sense), you cannot save (and some boss fights are marathons, if you die at the end you have lost a lot of time) and Geralt is very vulnerable, even at medium level two or three blows and you are dead. Beside those facts, the presence of QTE is an insult to the concept of RPG. Don't even try to play that without a controller, you will become mad, unless you want to play at the lowest difficulty level. Honestly i can't understand all the 5 stars reviews, it's a mystery for me. I gave 2 stars only because the plot is interesting and the graphics are good, the rest of the game is a disaster.
Really mediocre.I think we don't need other words to describe this game.I bought it for 50 bucks in 2001 and still i consider that one of the worst trade in my entire life. It starts with some good ideas (the mixture between history and sci-fi, the graphics of the units are quite nice), but the final realization doesn't make sense at all. You will not find realism at all (the troops are bigger than the buildings-are you f*****g kiddin' us?), the economical aspect has a terrible taste of fake (oh my god,the ''chains'' between the building...),the map is probably the worst ever seen in a RTS (empty,flat,horrible) and the battles are repetitive and based only on the brutal numbers. There's really little to save, you'll find a whole world of better RTS games here on GOG,avoid this.
