Gothic 2 Gold Edition

I've now tried several games from the people behind Gothic 2. Including Gothic, Risen, Elex, and of course this game. In every case, the controls are atrocious. Like Bethesda has always had a problem of creating terrible looking characters (though they've improved), this developer has never been able to create an intuitive control system that isn't clunky, making playing any of their games an exercise in frustration. Do they exist in a bubble? Do they not realize control schemes in games have been very well honed and refined over the years? Why do they insist on creating these otherwise great games, and then ruining them with awful controls? I don't get it.

This game is the witcher spiritual ancestor

Due to a variety of publishing issues this game was delayed outside Germany for close to a year and once released to the rest of the world it was hard to find a copy in most countries. A lack of advertisement undoubtedly hurt sales and a very steep learning curve coupled with very poor default settings/controls caused the game to recieve many unfair reviews. In short this forgotten gem did not recieve the praise it deserved. Featuring a living breathing fully voiced world and probably the best melee combat system since Severance this was way ahead of its peers in many areas and remain one of the best crpg's ever created.

The game has clunky controls, a severe lack of music and the worst combat system I've ever seen in a game.

Don't play with game with Night of the Raven. At least not the first time around. I was warned about this too, but I didn't listen. "What could be bad about more content, even if it does make the entire game slightly more difficult. Gothic 1 was pretty easy!" I thought. The problem here is 'slightly'. NotR doesn't make the game 'slightly' more difficult. It makes it extremely difficult. To the point where the only viable way to play is to metagame and min/max your character according to guides you find online and even then it doesn't seem to work all that well. Maybe NotR is great for experienced players, but for first timers? Even those coming right off the back of Gothic 1? Don't bother. I had to re-do the first ten hours of the game twice because I made an oopsie that prevented me from gaining health for several of those levels (Don't level up while using a transformation scroll or the health you get from leveling up won't apply). Now I'm on Chapter 2 and I can't beat this pair of Orcs guarding this certain area. I want to re-install the game without NotR, but I don't want to go through those first dozen or so hours from the very start again. The difficulty added by the expansion has ruined what should have been a very enjoyable and fairly balanced experience. There is a good game here, don't get me wrong, but it's not with the expansion.