Just yesterday I finished my twitch stream of my playthrough of this game for the first time.
My experience with previous Gothic games was only a tiny bit of the first game when it was brand new.
I stopped playing that game due to the awful controls.
Many years later I played this now and I have to say it was a fun ride.
I will start with the negatives.
The mini radar/map rotates and I hate it when it happens in games. I have to constantly open the large map to try to get some directions.
There were some graphical glitches, but they never affected the gameplay. Some faces appeared weird colors (green or red) and there were some see through textures in faces when in closeup for the dialogue. Annoying perhaps, but really did not change the game at all for me.
The game doesn't have a "GPS" showing you the quest you have activated, which while normal for older titles, it can be annoying a handful of times. One in particular near the end of the game I couldn't find a way into the area I needed to be and I spent like 20 min or more. If it was something that happened several times I would have taken a star out of the game, but as is...it's acceptable.
I wish the inventory had sorting and way to check your equipped items when trading.
Positives, music, sound effects are awesome. The graphics are above average to very good. The speech is from average to good. The combat mechanics are solid. Not difficult to learn and not too complicated where you feel like you are fighting with the controls. More complicated than say Diablo, but not by much. I liked that.
The story should make sense to anyway who knows the world of Gothic. It didn't do much to me. I still found it an easy ride story wise. Apart from the ending cutscene. Confused the heck out of me.
I played the game as a melee fighter who rarely used a bow/crossbow for some weak attacks. I enjoyed it. Other than the first hour or so, I never used magic. Nothing wrong with it.
I enjoyed it. 3.8/5