Gothic

I don't even know why I love this game so much. I recognize Baldur's Gate 2 as the best RPG ever. I think Morrowind is kinda superior to Gothic 1, yet still I feel charmed by this gem Piranha Bytes created. I fell in love with it.

Gothic is my alltime favorite from my the youth and once you've mastered the controls you're up for an adventure. In Germany atleast this game series is quite a legend (also this only accounts for Gothic 1+2 as the others deteriorated). You start up as an unlucky newcomer in a area that is basicly a prison (bound by magic walls that stops everyone from leaving but not from coming) to supply the king's war with the ork tribes. However, the prisoners rebelled and now there's 3 seperate factions, each unique in spirit and mind. All these 3 factions trade, but there's rising hostility and the player has to decide which to join. But until then it's a long way and the player will get bullied or killed by the many monsters that lurk in the landscape. I dunno why so many people have issues with the controls, but I can recommend just using the keyboard for all actions. Maybe read up a howto or sth. but once you get it the controls work pretty fine. Combat is also good, you can step back, block, use a combo attack etc, The difficulty is probably pretty hard for people used to soft rpgs like Oblivion/Skyrim where enemies adjust to your level as in Gothic there are no levelled lists at all. There're also no potion keys to drink in-fight but if you're a sissy you can add them in one of the config files. Because of the missing level adjust you greatly feel your character progressing.

Gothic might be a bit hard to get into at first. The fact it needs two fan made patches to work on modern PCs is definitely a big barrier of entry. The extremely unusual controls are a second big barrier of entry. It's common to find new Gothic players in forums asking "how do I pick up items" or "how do I attack". Those who endure these initial trials will be rewarded by one of the most engaging and enjoyable action RPGs you can find on PC, loaded with charm and surprisingly deep. With a plot inspired by John Carpenter's classic film Escape from New York, Gothic takes the typical medieval fantasy setting in a dark and refreshingly original direction. It's a highly immersive game where the player is allowed to choose their own path in the world, aligning with different factions and building the character in different ways. If you love games like The Witcher and The Elder Scrolls, you should give Gothic a try. A lot of what those games do that sets them apart, Gothic did first.

short story + dark and mean atmosphere + cool in game bands and jokes + many decisions can be made + you can play it through many times, you can each one join other fraction or skill magic instead of melee or marksmanship + the monsters and enemies are cool + the story is easy to understand and grabs you - some smalls bugs like npc who talks to you dont let you out of conversation - graphics even with mods still bad - you feel that gothic 2 and 1 should be same game but last moment , PB decided diffrent, like the thief skilltree is pretty useless or else

Arguably one of the best RPG game ever. Gameplay, atmosphere and story are still awesome, but the 3D graphic betrays the year of release. The controls are more unique than bad: you'll have to forget your WASD and learn them from scratch (and you'll realize how much the interface of today's game is standardized - which is a good thing!) If you can get past this, you'll get an awesome adventure in an incredibly well written world, with a challenging and engaging game system. Gaming simply does not get better than this.