The game graphic is outdated, controls are rigid and voice acting is not the best but the game does so many things better then modern games.
NPCs are jerks, they are convicts, the old camp structure is one of strength, the weakest are the miners, the thieves are low in the hierarchy and the most powerful are on the top having most of the ore and women. This makes sense to me, is immersive.
The environment is a sand box but area limits are mostly dictated by monster difficulty. Hints are given by people rather then pop-ups. The map is an actual map. Menus are minimalistic, I do not like the full window modern menus we have now. The weather, light and sounds makes it feel gloomy as opposed to modern day games that have this very colorful theme/ filter.
Dialogue felt cold, this is a great thing, I do not expect a random guy that I've just met have a personal/ emotional reaction to me.
No pop-up to let me know what I should loot or where I should go.
No random drops, I do not like the way a lot of looting works in modern games. I think Witcher 2 and Gothic did it better by having weapons and armor tied to specific quests or fights rather then random drop like they did in Witcher 3.
Progression is more authentic, you get a new armor, put points in to weapons and then you get to explore different areas. You feel incredibly weak at the start but then you feel growing stronger in meaningful steps.
There is a static nature of the sand box, things are somewhat calm until you show up and this allows the player to explore this interesting setting and understand how the society works before you mess everything up. Things would have blown up regardless of your presence but I enjoyed the societal aspect of the game and the fact that the game allows you to explore that. There is no pressure on the player to act other then adapt to the new situation. Only later in the game it starts to become critical to act.
Overall I liked this game a lot, it was one of my favorite games when I was in school. Maybe is just nostalgia glasses but I wanted to rant a bit on things that old games did better.
Maybe we could use a game club for older games where we could discuss classic old games like Gothic, KOTOR, Jedi Outcast, Baldurs Gate, Witcher.
I assume you have also played Risen 1 since it is basically Gothic 1 and 2 with better graphics.
Yes I did. I've not played Risen 2 or 3 and I did not play The Chronicles Of Myrtana Archolos
If you've played them I would love to hear your thoughts.
I've played the Risens as well as Elex I and II.
They're ok to good games and carry a lot of the strengths Gothic 1 and two did. They were, however, not able to fully recreate the magic. One of the reasons for this is, at least in my opinion, that the world is too large. One cannot get accustomed to a world this big the same way you could with the relatively small extent of the older worlds.
Funnily enough you still could spent hours upon hours in Gothic 1 and still see new things.
There is an Elex 2? I need to get around to play Risen 2 and 3. Thing is I tried Risen 2 but if I remember correctly it was with pirates and guns, the change was way to big from gothic so I never got past the start of it. How was Risen 3?
Have you tried "The Chronicles Of Myrtana: Archolos" is a free mod for Gothic 2: Gold edition.
Was released in December 2021, is set in the same world as Gothic, it looks great and has an overwhelmingly positive score. - 60 hours of gameplay.
And gothic 2 is like 3$ right now if you do not have it.
Being in the same world as gothic I decided to play the first and second game before playing this basically new game.
While replaying gothic I realized that the game holds up. The controls, mechanics and graphic are outdated but the game feels more authentic then most modern games. Hence the post I made.
It was released recently. It's a step up from Elex but again, the world is too damn big. There's some real FOMO-Vibes playing through (I ended up using an interactive map from Gamestar) because there's so much space to explore and while the world desing is beautiful (imo) it's just too much to keep track of.
And Jax has a son now (no worries, that isn't a spoiler), that boy has to be the ugliest motherfucker in all of gaming. Don't know what PB were smoking when they designed that bastard.
Also: The UI is blergh. At least playing with keyboard and mouse.
I'll check it out
If I haven't played Gothic 1, should I skip right to Risen?
You should play Gothic 1 and 2 and Risen 1, in that order.
You can find some graphic mods on nexus to improve Gothic visuals if those bother you.
Gothic 1 is not that long of a game and ties in to the story of the second game. Gothic 2 is better, it has better controls and the world is bigger and complex. Gothic 1 is a sandbox but Gothic 2 is very close to being an open world. Risen is closer to Gothic 1 then it is to Gothic 2, so while Risen and Gothic 1 are on par in terms of content, Gothic 2 is superior to Risen. However, Risen does have better graphics and does not suffer from the bad controls that Gothic 1 had.
Just find some graphic mods and play all of them. If you like RPGs you are going to like this games.
There is a Gothic 3 and while I did play it to the end there is a reason no one ever mentions Gothic 3.
Thanks!