The game graphic is outdated, controls are rigid and voice acting is not the best but the game does so many things better then modern games.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.
Wow did that pathfinder achievement. I know people hated it, I was not all that happy either, but it did make you explore the world. In retrospect it was a good thing.
Fast travel is the default. What hate the most is how the same all the games feel. They have so much in common, is not just Ubisoft games, Dying Light 2 and Horizon Forbiden West also feel like a Ubisoft game. I'm willing to bet a lot of games feel like that. I do not plan to replay Witcher 3 because although I liked the game I think that game also feels like the same game but with better characters.
When did RPGs start being the same rather each game trying to be its own thing?
Speaking of fast travel, Gothic had magic teleportation. You get it a bit later on. I understand that it makes things easier but it does remove from the immersion factor.
Any world that has magic teleportation would be very much different then ours. Trade would be instant so the need for boats would be greatly reduce. There would be no caravans and even war would be designed around teleportation.
This can be put under minuses in Gothic. This was something I did not like even when I was a teenager. I used the teleportation but it always bugged me.
I very much get that comment. I was playing Horizon Zero Dawn and Assassin's Creed Origins at the same time. It was so similar I remember being irritated that something like the jump and crouch buttons were swapped between the two.
I've gotten where I mix up games a lot. I'm not a play one game at a time until I beat it person at all. So I'll be in the middle of an action RPG, turn based RPG, and FPS game at the same time for example. Depends on my mood really. Sometimes takes me a long time to get through games but I don't care. Like right now I picked up Persona 5 again, I think I started that in 2019 and I'm still not done with it, because I only really enjoy it in 10 hour chunks.