Gothic

I've played lots of RPGs, including Gothic 3 and the much maligned Arcania (Gothic 4), both of which I enjoyed enormously. I was however wary of playing Gothic 1 because of screenshots of its dated graphics due to its age (released 2001). I nevertheless gave it a go in August 2019 and am very glad I did. What a gem! Firstly, the graphics for the dungeons are still pretty good, detailed and atmospheric, including different lighting effects for torch or Light spells. True, the exteriors were a bit crude compared to, say, The Witcher 3, as you'd expect, but you get used to this pretty soon once you are immersed in the game. The game has the core RPG elements - big world to explore, lots of quests, lots of weapons and spells with which to kill lots of baddies/monsters. It has different factions, offering replayability and also has a day/night cycle which personally I find annoying but some enjoy for immersion. It took some patching to get the game working reliably (still not exactly sure what I did) but it was certainly worth it. I can be sceptical of the nostalgia crowd banging on about old games but if you are a RPG fan who hasn't played this game, you will almost certainly enjoy it despite its age. I'm now, very much looking forward to playing Gothic 2.

Gothic 1&2 are not about visuals or top notch gameplay. Character progression, atmosphere, music, dialogue writing, world, level design and such... now those are irreplaceable. Both first and second game (Gothic 3 is a very different critter) created distinct world which feels like living, breathing place which is so enchanting. Gothic 1 though had way more "unique" idea. Cut off from supervision, fantastical gulag has quite an atmosphere supported by great cast. Gothic unlike Elder Scrolls and similar titles of it's time focuses on smaller, yet more active number of characters. It makes them much more memorable. Most of all, they act and talk in somewhat authentic manner (at least in Polish version). The whole experience feels far more grounded in reality. Even dry humor for some reason never feels out of place. The semi-open world feels organic. It's never huge for the sake of being huge. It's actually fairly small if you go through it in the straight line. Gothic goes for quality instead of quantity, making the areas incredibly dense. Some areas within the world are separated by the plot progression, but what you encounter more often is clever monster placement to halt (yet not block) your entrance. And if you are good enough or just smart enough to find a way... designers never fail to reward you. Now combat is an acquired taste. Once you get a hold of it it can be pretty fun but first impressions can be really bad. I imagine it will put off many people willing to try the game, and I can't hold it against them. UI is really the point where it gets bad... it's oddly similar to consol-like equipment selections which is funny since Gothic was PC exclusive xD If you want to play it with mods now and still want to keep it in somewhat authentic, original feel: Resource Manager/Union is must have add-on/plugin framework for the game. you can look for it on Myrtana.net Whichever plugin you install you can always turn them on and off by editing gothic.ini (some but not all inject themselves nicely into gothic in-game menu). From there for Gothic 1 I would recommend especially "Headin's Advanced Inventory". Dude has many cool plugins on his google drive if you are willing to look for it. Oh, and on modern systems GD3D11 (basically DirectX 11 for the game) will help everything look way better and often run better.

Just installed it today and it works fine !

Ever looked for an equivalent to Elder Scrolls: Daggerfall? Your search has ended. This is one amazing game full of life and so much rich detail it will blow your mind. There are 3 sides to choose from in this prison wasteland, The Old Camp, The New Camp, and the Brotherhood. Choices are tough and living is even harder because in this terrible place you face the greatest villian of all...........man.

Personally I enjoyed the Gothic-series more than the Elder Scrolls. I know, the latter are bigger and more polished (ahem!), but Gothic feels better (even though the controls are clumsy and unusual at the least). Okay, so don't compare Gothic 1 with Oblivion, but still I feel the Gothic series deserve more credit than they're given. In the Elder Scrolls it's easy to get side tracked so much you forget about the main quest. In Gothic there are many side-quests, it isn't linear and doesn't feel like it is, and yet, you're always inside the main story. The characters are more human en recognizable than the ones in the Elder Scrolls. So yeah, I loved the Elder Scrolls, but I sleep with Gothic... ;-)