Does the Gothic series still hold up?

[endtherapture]

I've often been told to check out the Gothic series of games if I'm a fan of hardcore RPGs. However I really have no idea how the game feels, or plays, or if it holds up today?

Is it like Baldur's Gate? Or like Dungeon Siege? Or like Oblivion?

Is the combat twitch based or tactical with a pause? Is there character creation or do you play as a set character?

 

[Zannah]

It's kind of a proto-predecessor for the witcher series, in a lot of regards. The story was written completely by the numbers, the combat is mash lA to win, you're stuck with a set character and hot contender for the blandest creature in the universe. But everyone swears a lot and there's like 0,5 female characters in it, so it's all ok.

 

[endtherapture]

It's kind of a proto-predecessor for the witcher series, in a lot of regards. The story was written completely by the numbers, the combat is mash lA to win, you're stuck with a set character and hot contender for the blandest creature in the universe. But everyone swears a lot and there's like 0,5 female characters in it, so it's all ok.

As a massive fan of The Witcher series I do not appreciate your sentiment.

 

[Zannah]

It's kind of a proto-predecessor for the witcher series, in a lot of regards. The story was written completely by the numbers, the combat is mash lA to win, you're stuck with a set character and hot contender for the blandest creature in the universe. But everyone swears a lot and there's like 0,5 female characters in it, so it's all ok.

As a massive fan of The Witcher series I do not appreciate your sentiment.

As someone with ovaries and an appreciation for decent storytelling, I didn't appreciate the Witcher-games very much. That being said - the Gothic series is as close as you'll get to what the witcher series felt like to me, if a bit more sandboxy. If that's also true for somone that actually likes either of the games I couldn't tell you.

Either way, if you want to check gothic out, the first two games in the series are vastly superior to anything that came afterwards, accoding to the series apologi... fans, I mean fans

 

[endtherapture]

It's kind of a proto-predecessor for the witcher series, in a lot of regards. The story was written completely by the numbers, the combat is mash lA to win, you're stuck with a set character and hot contender for the blandest creature in the universe. But everyone swears a lot and there's like 0,5 female characters in it, so it's all ok.

As a massive fan of The Witcher series I do not appreciate your sentiment.

As someone with ovaries and an appreciation for decent storytelling, I didn't appreciate the Witcher-games very much. That being said - the Gothic series is as close as you'll get to what the witcher series felt like to me, if a bit more sandboxy. If that's also true for somone that actually likes either of the games I couldn't tell you.

Either way, if you want to check gothic out, the first two games in the series are vastly superior to anything that came afterwards, accoding to the series apologi... fans, I mean fans

I know you're trying to be all funny and cultured but I don't think I'd like to listen to your opinion if you've got such a condescending attitude about what other people enjoy.

Opinions from anyone else?

 

[Fat Hippo]

I enjoy them greatly, but then, I played them not long after they came out, way back when. The combat system is...interesting. I really don't know how to describe it. It's action-based and controlled entirely with the keyboard, more or less. Really, I would just recommend watching a video on Youtube, there's really nothing else like it, though I'm not sure I would actually call it good.

The writing is interesting, 90% of all characters are massive dicks who don't care about you in the least, which was actually quite novel back when it came out. My favorite aspect of it is really the way the world is designed. It's almost completely open, yet there's no level-scaling, you just kind of figure out which areas are safe for you, and which aren't, and being able to go places that were too dangerous for you before can be immensely rewarding.

 

[mekloz]

It's been a really, really long time since I played any of them, but i remember it being pretty fun at the time. Then again, I kinda just took whatever was available back then. The sequel was the best one, I think, much more polished and even had a nice expansion pack. Gameplay-wise, TES is probably the closest popular comparison.

Anyway, a quick google search revealed that there is a demo version, so I recommend you just take a look at that.

 

[BathorysGraveland2]

Gothic 2 still holds up as one of the elite RPGs of all time. The first Gothic is much rougher around the edges though. It has a lot more bugs and the controls aren't quite as refined as they are in the sequel. Still, to any RPG fan, both games are a must-play. Truly fantastic stuff, especially the second (with or without the Night of the Raven expansion - vanilla holds up very well).

As for Gothic 3, it's a diamond in the rough. On release it was atrocious, however now there is a small plethora of patches/mods available that make it worthwhile. The community patch, quest pack and content mod, when all combined together, make for a very fun truly open-world action RPG experience. The only problem that wasn't fixed is the frame rate, but that's because of a poorly optimised engine. It'll never run crystal clear, but on a modern machine, it shouldn't cause too many hiccups.

Also, I'd recommend playing Risen 1 (on PC, naturally). It's a Gothic game in all but name. While Risen 2 and 3 were vastly different, the first game is completely on-par with Gothic 2 in almost every positive aspect. It even has a better combat system! Gothic 2 already has one of the finest melee combat systems in any RPG, so that's certainly saying something.

So yeah, Gothic 1, 2 and Risen 1 are all definite must-plays. Gothic 3, with patches/mods, is worth a look if you can stomach the occasional lag spike. Gothic 3 has quite possibly the best-designed game world of all time.

EDIT: Also, never pay any attention to anyone who says the combat is mashing buttons. They clearly have no idea what the fuck they're talking about. Gothic 1, 2 and Risen 1 all have timing-based combat systems that require you to dodge/parry and attack at opportune moments when your enemy is vulnerable. In Gothic 3, with the patches, it's more about watching your enemy and exploiting them when they make a mistake and leave their defenses open. Anyone who button mashes in any Gothic game will just get killed over and over and then have the audacity to blame the game for their own failings.

 

[Danbo Jambo]

I played these for the first time last year. Gothic 1 was just to dated that I couldn't bare with it 3/10 IMO. Gothic 2 however had a certain quality which kept me playing for some time. In the end it became to much of a grind, and baring with the overall clunkyness became too much, but I'd say it's worth a look at least. I'd rate it 7/10.

Unfortunately I've not been able to get Gothic 3 to work.

What I would say though is that I'm just playing Risen 2 and, whilst it's rough around the edges with often very annoying combat, as an overall game and RPG experience I'm loving it. Not perfect but a 8.5/10 for me. Some of the dialogue is superbly funny, and the music is great.

 

[The Madman]

Gothic 2 still holds up pretty well, I replayed it around a year ago and found myself having fun with it though I haven't touched any of the other games in the series in ages so I can't vouch for them.

Combat takes a lot of getting used to and it's not exactly a newbie friendly game so it definitely takes some time to get into, but once you're a few hours in it's as investing an experience now as it was when it was released. Visuals have aged pretty well and the story is interesting enough, nothing special but still entertaining.

Sure, I'd say it's worth a go, especially if you're a fan of the whole 'pseudo open world third person rpg' genre. It does choice and consequence pretty well and the world feels nicely alive with lots of NPC wandering around and doing their things all day, plus though the combat is tricky to learn it can be pretty satisfying once you've gotten a grip on it. The feeling of exploration as well is great since there's tons of little things to find and there always seems to be something going on.

As a note though if you buy the game from gog it comes bundled with the expansion, which is great value for fans of the game but can be difficult for newcomers since the expansion increases the games difficulty dramatically. Whether you'll want to install the expansion (It's an option when you install the game) or not is up to you. It's good, but it just makes things a lot more difficult which is great if you're looking for a challenge, but if you're hoping for something more leisurely it might be wise to not install it for your first playthrough.

 

[raeior]

Pretty much what the others already said.
I played Gothic 1 shortly after it was released and I really liked it pretty much because there was nothing like it (at least for me). Huge open world, lots of choices, combat was pretty intense, you could go everywhere but if you weren't prepared for some areas you got your ass handed to you. The game is buggy as hell though and the interface is horrible. No idea how anyone ever thought that inventory system was a good idea.

Gothic 2, yeah I guess it holds up pretty well to this day. Interface was improved a lot, a lot less buggy, combat is still interesting, you are still able to run into areas you're not yet prepared for, story is good even though the writing consists mainly of swear words.

As for Risen 1, yeah it's pretty much a modernized version of Gothic (not really surprising as it was made by Piranha Bytes). Although I must say, just stop playing the game after the second act because it's gets really bad after that. Extreme recycling of dungeons and the ending is just awful...I really have no idea what they thought when they finished that game.
The world is gorgeous though, a lot of secrets to explore, story is pretty interesting before it goes downhill too.

 

[LetalisK]

Opinions from anyone else?

Contrary to some others in the thread, I found Gothic 1 to be unplayable and didn't further pursue the series. Not because of outdated graphics or anything, but because of an outdated control scheme. It was too much of a pain in the ass, so I dumped the game a few hours in.